Sun! (...and Life Without a Microwave)

Today was a gorgeous day after more than a few with rain. Sunlight streaming through my curtains gently woke me, and motivated my trip to Treptower Park. The S-Bahn was full of people out and about on a Sunday afternoon. It was a special shopping day and the local shopping mall was open from 1pm-6pm and quite a few others throughout the city were as well. (Stores in Germany are rarely open on Sundays) The Sunday shoppers were, however, in the minority when compared to the legions out to catch some sun.

When the S-Bahn arrived at Treptower Park, over two thirds of the very full train exited, many on bikes, a gaggle of small children in strollers, and even a few dogs. Treptower Park is great because it is right on the Spree, Berlin's main river, and is quite a large park. The park was full- full of couples delighting in the sun, old wrinkly men sunbathing, and bicyclists on every possible path. I almost expected some kind of impromptu concert to begin, given the number of people there.


Birds were chirping, the sun warmed skin in lazy afternoon rays, and the water sparkled- it was perfect. I found a spot partly shaded, against a strong oak, and enjoyed my book. I could have spent all day there, but the sun grew cold, as it is wont, and I was obliged to travel back, away from my idyllic setting.

As a side note, I have been in a baking mood as of late, and yesterday I made a quite delicious pizza. This morning, I enjoyed one of my favorite things- leftovers! Leftover pizza in particular makes a delightful breakfast and I usually eat it cold- but this morning I realized that short of heating it in the oven or possibly in a skillet over the stove, that this is how I would be obliged to eat any leftover pizza. I don't have a microwave. At first, I thought, "Hey, I don't use a microwave that often! I'll be fine." But then I thought some more about leftovers, maybe I do. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Food Cravings!

I love breakfast. Mostly I have yogurt, a banana, and maybe a brötchen with tea. This morning, I woke up around 8.30 and started dreaming about a big American breakfast. Biscuits, an omelet, even bacon was sounding appetizing- my God, what is happening to me? For a few minutes I played around with the idea of French toast, but in the end I knew what I wanted.


Not one to deny Breakfast cravings, and with plenty of time on my hands, I set off around 10am to find the necessary ingredients. I thought to make Angel Biscuits (they require yeast- and I have a lot of yeast from when I made challah- so why not use it?) an omelet and bacon. I already had orange juice, so I was good to go! I did some research, and it seems that there is no difference (that I can find) between baking soda and baking powder in Germany. Anyone who has attempted to make cookies without one of the two, will immediately know this not to be true, but maybe I am not looking hard enough. It also seems that pastry blenders do not exist. Or at least in any of the three stores which I went to and that all sell a wide variety of kitchen items.

But back to breakfast preparations! I found the required ingredients and even managed to find bacon advertised as bacon, it was nice and very, very, very thinly sliced.

Armed with my purchases, I went home and began to make a real American breakfast. Melanie does not work on Fridays, so as I was setting the biscuits to rise, she appeared from her room. I told her I was making a big American Breakfast, so she had to share with me, as that meant a great deal of food! An hour or so later, we feasted on an onion, bell pepper, garlic, and cheese omelet, warm biscuits, and bacon. I had to explain to Melanie that biscuits are something very different in America than the rest of the English speaking world- and were not a sweet twice baked cookie, but rather a delicious bread item.



And the best part about a big American breakfast? It is 5.30pm and I am still full. Plus I have leftover biscuits.

Bring Your Own Missal, really??

On Sunday, I ventured into the local Catholic church for Sunday Mass. I went to the St. Mauritius Kirche, about a 10 minute walk.


I was a bit nervous- having never been to mass in Germany- but thought to myself, "Hey, they'll have a missal or something, then I can follow along with the responses and I'll gradually learn what to say."

I walked up to the brick fortress (as almost all churches in Berlin seem to be), the sound of bells drawing me in on the rainy morning. I entered the church- there appeared to be no bulletin, and the church had no website, but hey I'm just here for church, right? I walked up to a pew in the middle and realized there were no missals, or hymnals. Hmmm...maybe I missed them walking in?? I went back to the foyer, looked around for books and the like, but none were to be found. Hmmm...Then I noticed people already walking in with books. It seems, at least at this church, that we operate under a policy of bring your own missal/hymnal to church!

The mass was very nice, began with the sound of a bell, whereupon everyone stood up and the organ began to play. Then the priest and about 10 Seminarians and 3 alter servers filed in, from the side and rather not down the center aisle. At the end of mass, they once more filed down the side aisle, and after the priest did not guard the door to shake everyone's hands- kind of a disappointment, not going to lie. There was a lot of singing, which was great- but I hadn't brought my own missal/hymnal- so I was out of luck! I was sitting next to two old women, both who didn't have the missal/hymnal, but clearly knew every song already. The general population of the church consists of old woman, a few older couples, a smattering of families, and the rare young and seemingly single person such as me.


As I left, I noticed there was a message board, but it was raining. Provided it does not rain next Sunday, I will have to see what goes on at this church! Wikipedia has told me of the existence of an elementary school connected to the church, and of a Seminary. Clearly the Seminary is to be believed, given the large number of Seminarians.

Today, in search of the mysterious missal/hymnal,I traveled to the one Catholic Book Store I was able to find online in Berlin. It was a charming shop I shall be frequenting again. I was able to find the book- called a Gotteslob, meaning more or less "God's Praise" in English, and had a marvelous conversation with the shopkeeper. In addition to being very helpful, she complimented my German and told me she would have taken me for a true resident of Berlin, had I not told her I was from California! Later, when I got home, I started to go through the book...it has all the songs and a nice collection of prayers for nearly every time of day and event or stage of life- but I have yet to find a complete order of the Mass! I am not even sure what that would be called in German. I have a feeling I will be going back to the shop sooner than anticipated!

Open Container Laws??

In Germany, I have learned, there is no such thing as an open container law. You want to buy a beer, walk down the street drinking it, take it on the S-Bahn or U-Bahn? Feel free! I had observed some of this behavior, and thought it a bit odd, but hey- I'm in Germany, right? I didn't think I'd actually participate- but I did.


The other night, Melanie and I went to Treptower Park, a very nice park directly on the Spree- only two S-Bahn stops away! The image above is from Treptower Park- the view of the Spree. Before we went, she suggested getting something to drink. "Alright," I thought, "Some mineral water (disgustingly carbonated) or juice- sounds good to me!" We went into the corner market and directly to the refrigerated single beer section. Melanie prefers Alcohol-free beer, and I tried the same as her- not bad. We went walking through the park, drinking our Bavarian beers, enjoying the ambiance and weather. It was a great night for a walk. Melanie has discovered that I like to walk. Or rather that I am from Berkeley and obscene distances seem perfectly walkable. Only an hour away? That's nothing!

On the S-Bahn back, or beers empty and waiting to be returned for bottle deposit, I commented on how one would never be able to walk the streets with an open beer in America, especially not ride on Public Transit with one! Imagine drinking a beer on the BART, coffee is hard enough! Melanie said she had heard of such a thing before, she had a friend from Canada who was equally amazed by this German allowance. But it had always been so in Germany. Not that bad I guess.

As an update to my continued struggles with the metric system, I'm in the process of making challah today. It's a good thing I never measure ingredients anyway! After all, they're just suggestions.

Units of Measurements

There are many differences between America and Germany. At the most basic- they speak German in Germany, na klar! But there are smaller ones too. For example, I constantly have to remember to begin counting with my thumb. Perplexed shopkeepers, I have had enough of you- I will remember!

However, the other day, Melanie and I were sharing stories of our families. She was describing a cousin to me, one she said was very tall- over two meters. Then I had to tell her, that sorry- I really have no clue what that means. A meter is a small yard, right? And a centimeter is a really small inch, no? The conversation expanded to our crazy world of Fahrenheit. That's right, Melanie- Fahrenheit. According to some cursory research only a few nations retain Fahrenheit. The US, Liberia, Myanmar, and Belize, together going strong with Fahrenheit! It does seem, interestingly enough, that the Fahrenheit system was developed by a German.

I have almost no perception of Celsius. Hmmm...I know (from Cordelia) that over 30°C is surely a sign of the apocalypse, but beyond that- not so much. And even then, how much can I trust that? According to the handy conversion website I found, 30°C is only about 86°F. Really, Apocalypse??

Sun- Catch It While You Can!

Everyday, I set out to widen my radius of adventures in Berlin. I started with my neighborhood's friendly streets and nearby shops and am in the process of moving outward. Today I went to the park for which my neighborhood is named- Volkspark Friedrichshain. It is about a 45 minute walk by the most direct route, but I tend to take less direct routes, and spent about an hour and an half getting there! I took the direct route back. It was quite a nice walk, Berlin was full of sun and light this morning/early afternoon. The streets aren't quite straight, and often lead to exciting places- or I end up getting lost, but hey, what else should I be doing other than exploring Berlin right now?

But back to Volkspark Friedrichshain. Quite something.
The park is most famous for the Märchenbrunnen- or Fairy Tale Fountain. It is a quite imposing fountain surrounded by statues of characters from fairy tales. The park seems to be a hot spot for young mothers and their children, couples eating lunch, and old men reading their newspapers on benches. Not to mention the many scantily clad sunbathers out today! I spent the early afternoon there, basking in the sun and the falling yellow leaves. It seems Summer already wishes to come to an end. The sun is already gone for today- it should rain later, but no matter, the sun in the park was enough to lighten the day! Below is quite an interesting, well post card, I guess, that I found of the Märchenbrunnen.

Kaffe und Kuchen

This evening, or rather late afternoon, I was able to partake of the traditional German Kaffe und Kuchen- or in English, Coffee and Cake/Pie. My very sweet new roommate, Melanie, invited her boyfriend and his visiting sister over. Partly to see me and partly as his sister (from Wiesbaden) was in Berlin. They came around 4pm , the traditional time for such a ritual, and stayed till about 9.45pm. It was great! Good conversations all around, all in German- and all of them quite complimentary of my German- what more could I want? Well maybe not the rainy Berlin day, but even then it didn't rain too hard...

It seems Claus (her boyfriend) is very interested in Utopian societies- we talked at length about Quakers (as some of you may know, a favorite topic of mine), those crazy Shakers and back to Quakers: the difference between Programmed and Un-programmed meetings, Quakers and tolerance, and even touched on William Penn.

His sister (Claudia) is an animal scientist of some sort- especially interested in reptiles. As Melanie's sister lives in Australia, and she will soon visit her there, we discussed the numerous poisonous snakes in Australia and animals there in general. When thinking of Australia, I go almost immediately to marsupials. I then felt obligated to mention the lone marsupial of the Northern Hemisphere- The deadly and terrible opossum. I hate opossums. They were under the impression that opossums were sweet little rodents- not the case I explained- they are deadly, disgusting, terrible animals. Should they ever encounter one, now they know- watch out!

After they left, I sang Melanie some Yiddish folk songs and mentioned a few films I had seen in Yiddish. One, Yidl mitn Fidl, she recognized. Not because she had seen the film, but rather a Polish singer had sang a Polish version of the title song, her name is Justyna Steczkowska- very interesting!

Always something new, and truly a great beginning.

I'm in Germany, now where can I buy tape...

I am safely arrived in Berlin, after 14 hours in a plane, an half hour trying to find my new roommate Melanie, and about 15 hours of sleep- I truly am here. It feels great to be here. My neighborhood is oh so cute, lots of young families, and some hipsters- all quite in the midst of gentrification. Next door to my building is a Kindergarten, and Melanie has already warned me about leaving things outside- it seems the kids in our building are quite sneaky and will take anything if you leave it outside for too long. I have yet to see these mentioned roves of children (beyond those at Kindergarten and the neighborhood park), but I am keeping my eyes open. I'd like to make friends with them!

I spent the late morning/early afternoon walking around my little neighborhood, buying essentials like shampoo, yogurt, tea, and bananas. I even bought a book- I thought to buy a good German novel of popular fiction- alas I ended up (quite unknowingly) purchasing a book "Aus dem Amerikanischen" (From the American). I can only hope the translator has done a good job!
Beyond trying to remember to use those pesky 1 and 2€ coins (they fill up your wallet so quickly!), I am in the midst of trying to watch the Olympics. It is a bit more complicated than it seems- the king of Olympic programming, NBC, has deemed me, as someone outside of the US, unworthy for their online programming. Well, NBC, fine by me- I always was an ABC News fan anyway. I've found a website promising programming for those in Europe, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. I have to use Internet Explorer, annoying, and there seems to be a catch beyond that- it thus eludes me. For those of you who are familiar with the EuroVision song contest- it is EuroVision which offers the elusive programming, what don't they do? It seems they also have a Dance Contest going on currently...

I am in Berlin, using my German, and feeling rather charmed. The only question I currently have is where to buy tape? I was about to hang pictures/posters/Scotty drawings, etc. on my walls, when it occured to me that I might need tape or some adhesive to make this mild decoration possible. It is something I was unable to find in my wanderings. I'll have to ask Melanie where one purchases tape. With that, I am in Berlin and in search of tape.