Shout out to the lovely DIONDRA!

I just want to give a shout out to one of my favorite ladies in DC, Diondra!

Kick some ass!  Wishing you the future title of Miss. Adam's Morgan 2010!

High Heel Races - There in spirit!

So I am obviously devastated that I am missing the high holidays in DC this year (Heel races, Halloween and MAM), and I was looking for coverage of the 2010 High Heel races and found a little remnant of years past.  Check out the second video in the link below (second 28).

Washington Post Blog - High Heel Race

xoxo,
Missed Pennsylvania

I fought the carbs and the carbs won

So for those of you who know me well.  I have an appetite...I LOVE to eat.  It's actually my second favorite thing to do behind sleeping.  Well Germany was set out to destroy me.  Honestly the food here is amazing.  I've been trying to cook as much as possible at home, but they have no products or any interest in developing products that are low fat or otherwise, which for me isn't a problem, usually.  However, I'd challenge you to find a street corner in Berlin where you could do a 360 and not see a bakery of some sort.  I mean in all of the district, I don't think we even have a bakery that specializes in just breads.  They are all over the place here and all quite delicious. 

So bottom line is I'm giving up my reservations and I'm going to eat the hell out of some carbs.  Paired with the beer...well it may not bode well for me, but it can't be any worse than 4 slices of Nicola's at 3am, right?  Right!

Anyway, so my housing saga continues.  I don't know if I blogged about it last week or not, but there was one place in particular that I toured in Kreuzberg (Old West, very bohemian/artsy/and cool) and I TOTALLY hit it off with the two housemates that live there now.  I was their first interview and I spent over an hour chatting with them...the conversation was so good that they had to kick me out basically because the next person had shown up for a tour.  Anyway, I was sure I got it and was really mentally prepared to begin my move there...well they told me they would give me a call Tuesday and I was very confident.  Well last night (Tuesday) I called Sebastian (one of the housemates) and asked him if they had reached a verdict...Well first off he was obviously at a party/bar (on a tuesday, literally this guy was so cool) but he broke into this apologetic thing about how it was such a tough decision and it was down to me and one other guy, and honestly, I said "dude, you don't need to justify it, I just needed a yes or a no."  But really, I was totally defeated.  It was like getting dumped and not picked for the dodgeball team rolled into one.  Why does this feeling still happen when you are an adult?  Anyway, I woke up this morning still very upset about it....but I have to just pull my shit together and get back to looking.  SO frustrating. 

Tonight I think I'm going to go out.  I've been sort of a lame-o since I've gotten here.  I haven't made a great deal of friends yet, one because I'm afraid to talk (I know shocking) and two because I never go out.  Now I have 5 days before I start school which will greatly infringe on my social life and I have all the sudden developed a strong desire to meet people.  Germans think we are crazy though.  They think 4 or 5 friends is totally sufficient.  Unfortunately, that just won't cut it for me.  I need constant entertainment and attention :)

Well I hope you are all enjoying your HUMP day. 

Cheers!

A weekend with the Hamburgers

This past weekend I took my first domestic trip in Germany to the lovely city of Hamburg.  Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and about 300km from Berlin.  Basically it was a really pretty, clean port town.  It reminded me of Seattle in a lot of ways.  Apparently the weather is very similar as well. 

Also, I took a sort of unorthodox way to get to Hamburg.  I used what is quite popular in Germany and quite foreign to Americans, but the legalized internet version of hitchhiking.  It worked out fine in the end.  The lady that drove was very nice and there were two other strangers in the car with us.  They were both unfriendly and in no way interested in talking to me despite the one reading a book in English.  So I basically sat quietly in the back seat for 3 hours.  The only real commotion was when I tried to ask the driver where we were being dropped off and that led to a complete communication meltdown because I had NO idea what she was trying to say to me.

Otherwise in Hamburg, there isn't a great deal to report on.  It's beautiful at night, since so much of it is on or near the water.  Saturday night my friend who lives there coordinated for a group of us to go to some club at the Rathaus.  The Rathouse is basically their city hall and there is a HUGE club inside this beautiful building on Saturday nights.  I can't remember what it was called though.  As usual, I forgot to take my camera with me most of the time I went out, so the trip was not well documented.

The top picture is where the club was Saturday night.

p.s. because I'm very curious about everything and think being called a hamburger is funny, I looked it up on wikipedia.  There is no good story about why we call hamburgers hamburgers, just some blah blah about how a primitive form of it originated int he hamburg region.

The Chocolate AXE commerical I mentioned in the blog - So odd

Listen up my German friends....AXE body spray is not the solution

So in the US you always see those commercials for AXE body spray, but do you know anyone that actually uses it as it's depicted in the commercials.  That is by dousing yourself in a fine mist after a hard workout?  Well come to Europe because here that's exactly how they use it.  Can you believe they actually have a chocolate flavored one?  Anyway, let's discuss the real issue here.  AXE body spray...even when used for 30 second aerosol showers, does not get rid of BO.  In fact, it just masks.  It is like when someone takes a big dump in a bathroom and then uses floral bathroom freshener.  It just makes the bathroom smell like flowery shit.  Well the same idea applies here...(Tim Isgitt)

NOTE:  To all my real German friends, I'm not speaking about you...these are just examples of peculiar (wow, it's really hard to spell that word!  Try sounding it out aloud...you'll sound ridiculous) things that I notice at McFit.

Okay, in addition to the body spray I also have noticed several other things that are funny at the gym here.

• They call going to the gym "doing sport" which is constantly throwing me off
• Apparently going to the gym means dressing like you're going to the beach.  It is not uncommon to see someone working out with flip flops and board shorts on.
• The stretching out your ear lopes thing just went one step further.  Today, the guys ear ring holes were stretched with what I think was a rubber ring and it was so large you could fit a ping pong ball through it.  Apparently he likes the fashion in national geographic.
• The mute thing is working, I haven't said a word to anyone at the gym yet
• And the kicker:  The female employees are CONSTANTLY in the men's locker room picking up towels, sweeping the floors...I'm sorry, but I was completely thrown off guard by this.  Doesn't that defeat the purpose of single sex locker rooms?

Okay, now for the update on my upcoming adventure.  Tomorrow I will go to Hamburg and my mode of transportation is basically a computer based version of hitch-hiking.  (Don't worry mom, it's completely safe, this is Germany).  But basically I posted an ad saying I wanted to go to Hamburg tomorrow around a specific time and I found Claudia, who barely speaks English, drives a white VW, and is picking me up at a petrol station near the Spree (the main river that runs through Berlin).  Wish me luck, or pray for me, whichever your convention.

In other news I gotta get to studying.  I have been slacking and my classes start next Monday and I don't want to be the "slow kid."  From what I've heard everyone that goes to these Sprachenshules (Language Schools) already speaks like 4 languages.  I don't want to be the ignorant American.  Although, it's in all likelihood inevitable.

Tschus!

Apartment #2

Tomorrow I will tour my second WG and cross your fingers for me because this is the one I really want.  It's small, but in a really great part of town with lots of good cafe's and restaurants and not too far from my school.

I don't want to make a habit of blogging about my diet, but it's totally different here.  I think I mentioned before, I have no idea how everyone doesn't weigh 500 pounds because carbs alone today:  4 pieces of toast, 2 breakfast rolls, roasted potatoes, tortellini, and some delicious cake from a cafe.  In addition i probably had a pound of cheese, a pint of milk, yogurt, 5 breakfast sausage links, scrambled eggs, potato chips, cookies, and leftover turkey breast.  What a weird combination of foods.

Okay, very busy day tomorrow, but this weekend I'm going to Hamburg for a little excursion/adventure before school starts and my method of getting there is...well...not conventional. 

That's right...a blog cliffhanger!!!

The apartment hunt continues

Good news,  I went to view my first apartment today.  It's a little deeper into old east Berlin and much less accessible by public transit but it would suffice.  At this point, I really am not going to be picky.  It is on the 13th floor (fortunately, I'm not superstitious) and I would have two other roommates.  One is from Peru and the other is half Columbian and half German.  Why am I always running into all these latins in my life?

Thursday I have another place to visit and I'm actually hoping that one works out, but like I said, I'm getting desperate, so I'm not going to be picky.  To give you an idea of how desperate, today I just kept hitting refresh on my browser until new listings popped up and one with a number came up, called the guy right away and caught him off guard because he had just posted it.

On another note, I am generally really good at public transportation, but for some reason, in Berlin I take the wrong train or the trams  are especially bad because they keeping going on altered routes.  It's quite frustrating, because by the time I realize where the hell I am, I'm REALLY far away from where I need to be. 

Rainy Day means Studying and Reading

http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/

Just thought I'd give you all a heads up so you can start saving now, but I'd like it to be known that I would like to go to space for my 30th birthday.  You might want to start a fund for me now...you have a full four years :)

Another awesome Sunday in Berlin

I am in a fantastic mood right now.  Yesterday was pretty low key and it rained all day, but then last night we went out to this club that is an old bomb shelter from the war.  I can't remember the last time I had that much fun out.  The club wasn't terribly big but had 3 or so rooms and played great music.  Think APEX video room but with all attractive people (really, it's ridiculous how attractive people are here).  Anyway, I wasn't paying any attention to the time and the first time I checked it was already 530am.  I can't wait to start getting visitors :)  The weird thing is, I've only had liquor one time since I've been here.  Imagine a gay bar where 90% of the drinks served are bottles of beer.  It's sort of awesome (and much more controlled).

I woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine and blue skies.  I walked over to the Mauerpark, which used to run right up to the edge of where the wall stood.  There were thousands of people out.  Germans are just so active.  There were drum circles, gross granola people doing weird stick spinning and then an ampitheatre with KAREOKE!  It was so great.  Tonight I'm going to go get dinner with a friend that I met last night at the club.  I sort of want to go out dancing again!  We'll see.

My first outing at the German cinema (kino)

Tonight I went to see the social network at the Sony center.  It's the only place in the city that plays original versions of movies without being awkwardly dubbed over in German.  The being dubbed over thing is actually wildly annoying.  A suppose it makes sense when you have a population of 82M to dub everything so it can be mass distributed, but it's weird to see jennifer anniston's mouth moving and some german voice quacking in a completely different tone...


So the movie theatre experience.  I must say, Germans have a pretty great movie theatre thing going on.  The seats are big and plush and the screen is HUGE.  oddly, you have assigned seats though, and as germans do...90% of the people bring in .5l beers to the show with them.

Also peculiar, they have a big red curtain that covers the screen and if the movie says it starts at 8 that just means that's when the curtain opens and they played 35 minutes of commercials and previews!  This was one of the commercials i found particularly entertaining.  (I don't think you need to understand German to get the gist)  Click here

Anyway, the movie, i thought was excellent.  I'm not sure how much of it is based on fact but it is weird to think that i joined in march of 2004 which was 2 months after it was launched and unknowingly signed up for what it's become.  Do you remember when in the left column it listed all the other schools you had friends at and in parentheses how many friends you had was written?  To be honest, it was a lot more manageable back then.

My friend bought me a little notepad to write down all the little things i think about over the course of the day to blog about and i really wish i had it today because i know i'm missing a  lot of things i wanted to say.  I also need to write about London.

Tomorrow, i will celebrate my friend Henrik's birthday and then Saturday the intense housing search truly begins!  I MUST HAVE DRAWERS...I hate living out of a suitcase.

German Gyms (TJ, you can skip this post)

So as I said yesterday, I finally joined the gym here.  It's called McFit.  Before I go further I have to describe the atmosphere of where I am currently writing.  Someone in an apartment below me is practicing the piano and it's this sad macabre music and I'm looking out skylights windows at a bleak gray sky and it's eerily similar to some Nazi/WW2 movie I've seen in the past.

Okay, so the gym is actually very well organized, as I suppose one would expect of Germans.  Things are color coded and fortunately it doesn't smell too bad.  The weird thing is, that McFit is one of those no frills gyms where everything is extra (exception being weights and cardio equipment).  A shower costs 50 cents.  You pay for water and juice but lockers are included and there's a nifty card that has a chip in it that locks the locker for you.  Oh and the picture of me on that card is officially the worst picture I've ever seen.  I have both eyes closed and look like I just got beat up.

Anyway, they have like 8 of every machine and it's set up on two floors.  Sadly, i was spoiled with VIDA.  They don't have near the variety and without my workout buddy (that's you, weazel), I'm going to get bored real fast.  Also, I'm terrified to make eye contact with anyone.  Apparently lots of tattoos and gauging your ears is a pre-req to being a "cool kid" at the gym.  My biggest fear is someone asking to "work in" or asking if I'm done and I'll just stare at them.  Oh maybe I'll pretend I'm a mute.  I will have to youtube videos of mutes so I can practice their mannerisms.

Okay, I have to go get ready for the cinema.  I'm going to see the social network.  My first movie in Germany!

One more thing!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!  As you know this year was 10.10.10 and my favorite number is 10, so it was sort of a big deal for me.  And I do have a story about going out that evening coming soon...

I'm Back... in Berlin

Just like veryMaryKate, I am back and ready to start blogging again.  Unfortunately I am short on time right now, so this will have to be a very brief recount of my adventures over the course of the last week.  I'll post pictures later. 

So my London trip was great.  It was off to a rough start.  Initially, I thought I would be in language school already so I booked a very late flight on Thursday and then a very early flight to return on Monday morning with the intention of only having to miss one day of class.  Well, that reasoning was good, but then I pushed my class start date back to Nov 1 which made it really just a hassle.  Marcos and I arrived at Heathrow at 11PM because our flight was delayed twice and we had only until 11:35 to get through customs and to catch the last express train into the city...  well because I have the worst luck with airports...I was held up at customs!  Basically you have to fill out a declaration card when entering the UK even if it's from another EU country.  Anyway for occupation I wrote "student" which lead to the customs officer nearly rejecting my petition for entry into the country because I could not prove that I was
1) financially able to support myself while in London,
2) because I didn't have proof of a return flight to Berlin, and
3) obviously I look like a raging lunatic terrorist. 
I got through, after he gave me a lecture about how unprepared I was and that he was doing me SUCH a favor.  Had I just written that I worked for Deloitte, and explained that I was just touring Europe for my birthday, I'd have gotten through no problem. Oh, AND we were literally the LAST people in Terminal 1.  It was a ghost town. 

Aside from that London was great.  We had AMAZING weather.  You will be able to tell from the pictures.  Rather than go into all the details, I'll just post pictures later, but basically we were just very ambitious pedestrian tourists for 3 days.

One thing that I feel I must comment on is that I've heard people frequently comment on how the tube is so great.  Well to all those people, here is a cyber slap across the face because it is dreadful.  Granted, I hate crowds, but those stations were miserable.  Thousands of people, narrow platforms, many delays and construction.  I think this is why we spent most of our time above ground walking or taking the bus.  Oh an it closes at midnight.  WTF?  You are at the top of the list for world class cities and you don't have public transit that runs from midnight - 530am?

On Friday night, we went to WICKED.  Many of you know I've been dying to see it for years, literally since the day it came out back in 2003.  Well it's fantastic!  It was actually great to see it with a cast that all had British accents.  I think it added to the effect that they were in a far away land.  We had great seats even though the theatre was HUGE. 

Okay, that's all I have for now. 

NEXT TIME:  I joined the gym yesterday...finally.  I'll be posting about that experience later today.  And yes, it is an experience.

German Girls and Ghettoblasters

So last night I got to meet two awesome new native German girls at my friend Marcos' house.  They brought over pizza and we just talked and carried on.  We were discussing languages, about learning them, and all the peculiar things about German and then got on to talking about going out and dancing.  Anika (one of Marcos' friends) who I adore, mentioned that after a few drinks, when someone puts Lady Gaga on the "ghettoblaster" she just can't help but dance.  One, the fact that she called a stereo a ghettoblaster was in itself enough to make my night, but the fact that she likes to drink and then dance a fool.  I mean...that's basically the way to my heart.  Needless to say, I'm very excited to go out dancing with Anika and Caro.  Cue Buddy

SIDEBAR:  True, Germans love beer.  However, I think they equally love sparkling wine/champagne.  I don't think I have been here a night yet where I have not seen someone drinking champagne. 

As many of you know, October is my favorite month and Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Being in Germany has not dissuaded me from planning standard American holiday festivities.  Even if I have to host a party myself, I will do it.  I'd like to make a special shout out to Bob Bell (designer of my 2009 couture Halloween, umm, well costume) who has been diligently sending me inspiration for a 2010 costume with a Berlin twist. 

I am happy to report that apparently Halloween really is catching on here.  They have these HUGE department stores here, and they are really marketing the season.  See pictures below.

Okay, well I have to pack now, because I'm going to Londontown tonight.  It's my burfday weekend!

Cheers, y'all!

GLEE and Chesus

Okay, not a German related topic, but I was sort of shaken up by GLEE this week.  Anyone else?   I also am sort of happy to see GLEE discussing such relevant and important topics.  I'm certainly not expecting GLEE to become a moral gauge for anyone.  But being in Berlin -- literally people don't blink an eye at anything -- really puts into perspective how backwards the US is on so many things. 

Anyway, stellar performance Jane Lynch and the gay kid!  Kudos you.

p.s.  Benji informed me that VERY Mary KATE is making a come back....just saying...I'm very excited. If you are not familiar, I recommend you start at the beginning and get caught up.

One week, down.

So it's been a week already since I arrived.  It's crazy.  Time goes by so quickly.  All of you back in the states that are missing me terribly, crying to sleep and all that...I'll be home in you know, about 140 more weeks.

Anyway, so today I went back to the first cafe that I ate at here (on my first day, last week).  It's fantastic.  I'll probably take everyone who visits me there.  Today I ordered the traditional German breakfast, Frühstück  (this was at like 130pm) and I was so full I only grazed for the rest of the day.  Those of you who know me, know how much I eat, so that was pretty amazing.  I also walked 10km+ today. 

Henrik and I schlept ALL over this town and I did my first bit of shopping.  I didn't buy anything.  But, two important observations:

1. Retail is basically the only thing you can use VISA to purchase
2. Denim (which lord knows I need no more of) is significantly cheaper here

What does this mean?  In a word:  trouble.  But to elaborate:   I need to have hard cash reserves in my bank account or in wallet to purchase food, shelter, and transit; however, if I run out of money, I'll die fabulously dressed and skinny as hell.  Think Kate Moss.

Tomorrow I will go back and make my first purchase at KaDeWe -- the ginormous, amazing department store here -- to buy some new trousers for my birthday festivities.  I didn't buy a new outfit for my going away party, so a new one for my birthday is perfectly justified.

In other news, Berlin is so fascinating.  I don't really know how to describe it.  It's this major city with an identity crisis or something.  It's new v. old with stunning modern and beautiful classic architecture juxtaposed with total crap.  All in all, I think it's fantastic. 

Also, Germans love beer, but they also love coffee and tea.  You can literally eat at a different cafe every day of your life here and never go back to the same one.  There are thousands of them.  We stopped at 3 today.

Fact of the day:  Berlin is HUGE:  Berlin - 344 sq miles;  New York City - 304 sq miles (inc. all 5 boroughs)

This is in no way trying to compare the two, they are nothing alike.  But i hope it providea some context when I talk about schlepping all over and how big Berlin is.

In closing, the German president's residence:

PLEASE NOTE:  The German president does NOTHING!  He basically gets to live in this house and have everything paid for.  Meanwhile the Chancellor, Angela Merkel lives in an apartment!  WTF is that about?

20th Anniversary - German Reunification

Yesterday I got a late start.  The weather was very nice, but despite staying in on Saturday night, I wasn't highly motivated to get up Sunday.  Apparently, the same is true for today, although I had trouble falling asleep last night. 

Anyway...yesterday was the festival for the 20th anniversary of the German reunification (10 months after the wall fell 9 Nov 89).  It was a such a beautiful day so Marcos and I just walked around the Tiergarten and through the festival ending up on the lawn in front of the Bundestag (the German capital building). It was a nice, low key day. 

Some photos:

Bundestag

Some cool government building on the Spree river

A section of the ministries' buildings

The Spree running through the tiergarten

The start of the festival at Brandenburg Tor

German's have interesting ways of entertaining their children

Today, I am going to try to meet up with some American's who I've been introduced to through facebook by people back in the U.S.  Otherwise I'll just be reading and practicing German I guess.  I want to explore my new neighborhood and meet with my soon to be landlord/roommate.

3 days til my London Birthday excursion!

Tag 4, Freitag - Heute, Ich bin Berliner

Wow,  so I have been wildly productive this week, which is reassuring and satisfying.  First off I want to say that I am so grateful for my two friends Henrik and Marcos who have been so important in helping me set my life up here in Berlin.

Secondly, hello sunshine.  Today is beautiful.  Granted, it was 37 degrees when I woke up, but the sun is out and bright and it's the first time I've seen the sun in Berlin.  Seeing how I'm primarily solar powered, I have a lot of energy today...

To catch you up...

Today, I became an official Berliner :)  I registered at the Burgeramt which is sort of like the city municipal office that registers residents.  The lady was NOT very friendly and almost made me come back (it's sort of like the DMV in the US. You wait forever and then they love to find something that you are missing so your wait was basically for nothing), fortunately, I just changed my move in date and she registered me.  Marcos did most of the talking because she spoke no English.

 My fist picture as a real Berliner (on Karl-Marx Allee) in front of the TV tower and Park Inn Hotel

After registering I went to Humboldt University to speak with an admissions counselor about taking courses in the Spring and Summer semesters.  Although I don't plan to attend HU for my Master's I'm interested in their variety of liberal arts and internationally focused offerings.  After visiting HU I went to the public library and signed up for a library card.  (Marcos got me my first German book).

It's a children's book that is printed on that thick, thick cardboard.  I love it. 

Yesterday was also very productive.  I opened a bank account, got health insurance, and went to a german variety show with German celebrities.  I understood about 3 sentences in the 4 hour long production.  (I dozed off a few times during some of the lengthier speaking parts).  Fortunately, a few of the songs were in English, including "I got you babe" and two songs from Dreamgirls.  It was definitely an experience.  Hopefully, if I go again next year, I'll understand a lot more.

It's my first Friday and I'm still on the fence about going out tonight.  I think I finally beat the jet lag thing because I only slept 6 hours last night and have a great deal of energy.  Again this may be due to the bright sunshine and excitement, but we'll see how it plays out.  I'm sure a couple shots of Jagermeister can sway me.

Things I am loving:

• Berlin at night
• The food (yes I realize I've listed this two times, it's that good and cheap)
• When the sun comes out
• The architecture
• The metro

Frustrations:

• They accept VISA just about NOWHERE  (wildly frustrating)
• The exchange rate is kicking my ass.  Two weeks ago 1 Euro = $1.27, today... $1.37  :(
• German pronunciation

Now I'm going to be a nerd and study.  I bought index cards to make flash cards this afternoon.  I really want to conquer this language thing.

A couple more photos:

Berliner Dome on Museuminsel (Museum Island)

The Eiffel Tower, I think

Potsdamer Platz