I was wandering about...

reading Neil Gaiman's blog and while watching his first embedded video fell into this one. I think Christopher Walken is just amazingly funny!

Weather, dad-blast it!

How can it be 37F here and 63F there? Life is so unfair.

Waiting for Godot

I was just realizing that I haven't written a letter to a friend that is now overdue three weeks. I keep waiting for something interesting to happen in my life. Compared to so many blogers out there, in Italy, Israel, Singapore and other exciting spots (for vacation, I mean) my life seems boring. But if I keep waiting, I might as well just stop blogging, so here goes with what happened over the weekend:

• 4 loads of laundry, washing, drying, folding

Some other bloggers have noted that they use a drying rack, but I can't quite figure that out. Either they have far more clothes than we do, or they must have a magic wand: it rains just about every day here and it would take days for jeans to dry on a rack. A load takes hours, with the slowness of the front load washer and then about another 90 minutes to dry. Then folding and putting away, which I generally try to do when the children aren't around:

• 3 loads of dishes, putting away each time
  
• Made a one pot ground turkey/rice/zucchini meal
  
• Went grocery shopping (I need to go at least every other day just to get milk. Then I add whatever else I can manage to put in my trolley).

Saturday morning the German and Thing1 (with 'help' from Thing2) put together the playhouse that we had gotten from Ikea (with help from our very kind landlord: we saw the house last week but it wouldn't fit in our rented car, so he picked it up for us this week). The Things love it and it's a help to be able to let them go out and play in it when it rains (again!) and they are begging to go out.

Sunday I sent the German and the Things out to play in the (wonderful) playground at the Zoo after breakfast: I needed to clean up, put clothes away, get dinner/lunch ready and in general reclaim the apartment. It amazes me how rapidly the apartment degrades after a few hours of the children playing.

They came back just after it started to rain (again) and Thing 2 was sleeping so we just put her down for her nap. Then I fed the others and set off for the first meeting of a potential women's book swap/club. It was in a section of Berlin that's quite close but which I hadn't seen: Charlottenberg proper. I quite liked it (and its architecture) and I found myself walking by the Broken English store that Dr. J had mentioned.

The group was nice (although no times were set for another meeting- let's see how it goes) and it was so relaxing to my eyes to see an apartment that was painted and had colors- I am so tired of being in a sterile white environment! But while we never know how long we will be here, we really can't paint. This is the longest (6 months) I have ever lived anywhere without painting the walls.

My favorite Tibetanische-Nepalische (& Thailaendische)

Mount Everest
Zossener Strasse 25
10961 Berlin (Ecke Bergmannstr.)
691 94 34
taeglich von 12-24
U-Bhf Gneisenaustr.-Bus, 140,341

I love this place. I love it so much that we pay a babysitter more an hour than the cost of one of the extremely reasonably priced entrees. What you see above is a mixed plate of Momo balls. These things are great. the sauce is a slightly sweet chili sauce and the three colors topping the steamed dumplings indicate the fillings: in this case, vegetable, lamb, and spinach mit kase (I think frischkase). The salad is a type of kohlsalat, very light and refreshing (and crunchy). I like these so much that the last two times we have gone to the restaurant I had them as a main dish rather than an appetizer. I started with a Tom Yam Gai (a chicken base soup). I asked for it to be a little spicey (and I'm a person who eats habanero stuffed olives) and it was wicked spicey, so much so that the German could not share it with me, so be cautious if asking for extra spice. Although I'm never certain whether when one asks for extra spice, whether the staff take it personally and really ramp the spiciness up.

I wasn't able to get a picture of this charo tareko, a chicken dish, before the German had dug his chopsticks in. It was very tasty, although he still felt hungry afterward and ordered himself a dal-lindensuppe which he also enjoyed.

We like this place so much that last night the German called an order in and diverted his way home from work to pick up a take out order: we had some guests and I had enthused about my Momo balls, so I wanted them to try them.

What I learned from the experience was: 1. Don't order soup unless you bring your own containers. I should have remembered from our last take-out experience (an Indian restaurant) that Berlin restaurants don't have appropriate containers and that the soup always leaks. 2. Although they gave us lots of extra chili sauce, as I had requested, it was straight chili sauce, rather than the sweet/hot variety that I usually get with the momo balls. (They also come with peanut sauce, but I don't like that so requested to have none). Fortunately, I also like straight chili sauce (not oil-based, yeah!) but I really like the other as well and will request that in the future.

And I missed the Cobra bier I drank at the restaurant. I'm not a big beer drinker at all (would usually prefer cider, apfel schorle or even water) there's just something about a pale ale/Indian style beer (I guess that's a really hoppy beer?) that I think goes really well with spicy foods.

Driver's License...finally!

So, only 4 months after we set the wheels in motion (ie, jumping through all the required hoops) my new Fuehrerschein is here.

It started with having an American driver's license from a state that has reciprocity with Germany. Then having that translated and 'notarized' and taking that to the ADAC with my passport (and all the other official documents that they said they would not need but did). Then we (the German and I, because they were only in German) filled out forms, paid our fees, and went off, expecting to be notified of the license arrival in 11 weeks. We were told it could not be mailed, which was itself problematic, of course, because we were expecting to leave Berlin before it would arrive. I would then, apparently, need to fly back to Berlin to pick it up.That was mid-November.

In mid-January we received notification that the license would be held up because my motorcycle certification could not be transferred unless I took a written and practical test, so I said that I would take the license without the certification.

We received the letter stating that the license was in March 19th. What with all of our illnesses and the holidays, I went to the correct Landsamt, off Friedrichstrasse, to pick it up Monday. It's located just down the street from Checkpoint Charlie (so now I know the U-Bahn stop for that museum).

After going in the wrong entrance and being sent around, providing my letter, my passport, and my driver's license in one waiting room, I was sent to another. In that room a gentleman asked who I was, handed me my Fuehrerschein and bade me a cheery fare-well, while retaining my US license.

In my oh so pitiful German, I tried to explain to him that I actually needed to keep my US license. After my second sentence, he sent me along to another room. In that room, a woman explained to me, in extremely rapid German, that Germany would allow me to have only 1 license and that I should use my German license when visiting the US.

Once again, in my so slow German, I explained that I needed the license, that the German one did not have my motorcycle certification, that US citizens are not allowed to drive on German license, that although my husband, with a visa, could use a foreign license, I a US citizen was specifically not allowed to.

She offered me the option of paying 100Euros every time I needed my USA license and that they could keep it somewhere that would require my asking for it a week or two in advance, which I said was both exorbitant (zu tueur fur mich) and unbelievable (unglaublich). I asked her what she suggested I do, in a city where the average apartment costs 300Euro a month, and she just shrugged. So I said thank you and left.

I assume that the answer is to get another US license when I am in the States and I assume that is what her shrug was suggesting that I do and I think that's just great: to need to break the law in order to be legal.

Another typical German experience where the letter of the law absolutely is more important than the meaning behind it. Sometime soon I will blog about our experience with German banks and with German American Express.

What's on my shelf...and what's on yours?

Slouching Mom posted a new meme (originally from Niobe) showing what is on her shelves.

SM felt that was harder than exposing her morning face. Well, I'm not going to expose my face because the German wants to remain anonymous, but SM- I don't wear any make-up either. (In fact, we might be related, looking at our snub noses and uncontrollable hair. Do you have cowlicks too?)

Moving on, here's one shelf. I might add another later, but I am a bit atypical: since we have such limited storage space here, I tend to remove the books I have finished and don't want to refer to later, which is why this shelf is a bit heavy on cookbooks. The Lilydale is awaiting the sequel before it's put away. And the Chinese self-study (unopened, I must add, is the German's). The books are pretty typical of my interests though, and you can look at what I have been reading this year in the Goodreads icon on the left of my blog.

I'm going to tag people for this meme (my first time!), but feel free to pass if you don't want to or don't have the time:

Diana at Martinis for Two
Lynda at Lulu's Bay
Snooker at Snooker in Berlin
Cathy at Planet Germany (your book is on my shelf;-))
Dani at Earth to Dani (looking forward to your book being out)
Dr J at Alien Ted

and Ree at Pioneer Woman, who I expect has too many comments to have time for this (but whose blog is fabulous and you should all check it out).

And anyone else who care to join in: please drop me a line if you post and maybe I can try a mosaic like Lynda did with her window meme and set up a list of links for those who participate.

It's a small City...

Today I took the Things to a local playground after school. The goal is to exhaust them so that the light in the evenings doesn't keep them up.

After we had been playing for a while, a woman showed up with two small boys, each perhaps a year older than my Things. I thought she was speaking Hebrew, and Thing1 said she knew the boys. But when I asked her what they were called, she couldn't say, so I thought she was wrong. However, when I started talking to Thing1 about her school day, the woman asked if my girls were in the same school (she recognized the teacher's names). Now, that's a small world, because this school is actually out of our area and the girls are bussed to it. And, in an even more comical turn, when we were talking it turned out that R. is the organizer of some classes for children that I had been interested in and I will be taking advantage of them, trying the Judo this Thursday and the Dance on Monday. Both for Thing1 but R. assures me that there are plenty of younger siblings there to keep Thing2 amused while Thing1 has class.

I'm really looking forward both to getting Thing1 into these activities and also to perhaps meeting some moms and kids in the area. It rains too much not to know any other children to play with! (And it is pouring tonight, after an atypically gorgeous day.)

The Horror! The Horror!

I pulled out my hoarded Fluff, spread it on a slice of sandwich bread. On the other slice I spread "Barney's Best" peanut butter, purchased at great expense at the KaDeWe. I placed the slices together, closed my eyes, took a bite and chewed.

Then I ran to the garbage and spat it out. Germans put sugar in their peanut butter! My gosh, that's even worse than putting it in their mayonnaise (because I just eat French mustard instead).

And now I am running out of my last box of Lucky Charms.

So, if anyone wants to send me a care package, remember that Lucky Charms and extra-chunky Jif or Skippy are welcome additions to my pantry (and Louisiana Hot Sauce, of course).

Another day, still more laundry...

• 2 loads of laundry


• 1 load dishes


• 3 loads laundry folded and out away

And it rained.

Some family time, some "me" time...

Today we used the car that we rented yesterday to visit the Biosphere in Potsdam. The German took the scenic route to get there and it took 45 minutes and a very pretty drive past bike trails and pretty buildings (I only realized that when the return trip was on the Autobahn and took 15 minutes).

This is only of import because we totally didn't realize that last night was Daylight Savings Time and when we woke up today we were already an hour behind our departure time.

After (a late)breakfast (and putting the carseats in), we scooted out. It's another chilly day here in Berlin and we were looking forward to the tropical atmosphere of the conservatory. They were having a focus on orchids and I am really enthralled by orchids: I had a co-worker that raised them in our office window, but until the German gave me a Phalenopsis recently, every orchid I ever had died. This one has lived beautifully for over 6 weeks and is still gorgeously in bloom. That leads me to believe that my orchid black thumb is not personal but locational and that our current apartment, with its radiators (and therefore not central air) is more conducive to orchid health.

Thing2, above right, is enjoying running around before we enter the dome.

To the right is one of many gorgeous orchids that we saw.

There was a section of seascapes and this was a particularly nice one, with anemones and clownfish. This really made Things 1 and 2 happy (Nemo is one of 2's words). They were lovely and made me wish that I either had the knowledge or the money to have a salt aquarium set up, complete with anemones and anemone dwellers (they all seem to be beautifully colored). I also have a real fondness for sea horses, but I believe that they are difficult to keep in captivity.

Because this was the last day of Easter vacation, there was still an indoor playground set up, with excitingly large and interesting bouncy castles. The girls had a lot of fun with everything (1 helped 2 out a goodly amount of time.) Thing1 also got to to try out the "climbing wall" That didn't work out too well because sheis too small to reach between the holds, but she went from being afraid to try to doing it, so I think that was a victory.

I visted the shop on the way out but wasn't interested in buying the very exotic orchids ( because, of course, I can't take them back to the States with me) so I picked up a Vanilla plant and a Kaffee plant (the former is an orchid, of course) and will see how they do.

Then a bit of a rush home because I needed to go to a book club tonight (first meeting for me of an ongoing club) but the German needed to unload the car seats and return the car first.

I got lost on the way to the meeting place, which was a bit silly: the street I needed started with a different name and changes after a block and so I kept heading the wrong way and being given bad directions by shop kepers and passers-by. When I finally found the building (asked a woman on a bike if she knew where it was- she pointed at the building across the street!) the correct name was not on the door/buzzers and the two I tried without names did not answer.

Then, my handy didn't work (another story which left me with a handy whose pin I did not have on me) and Berlin is not a city of public phones and the three folks I accosted to ask if I might make a local call (like to that building there) from their handy for a Euro said "no". Finally, a restaurant owner directed me to a pay phone, I reached the flat holder, and discovered that there was a second door, which did have her name. Phew!

The club meeting was interesting. The book, The Girl who Played Go, was set in the late 30's Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the protagonists are a Japanese soldier and a Manchurian school girl. The last question was whether we would recommend this book to others and my answer is "Yes, but I don't know to whom." There are scenes of graphic violence that make it unsuilable for some but the writing is lucid, the book is easy to read, and I found both the setting and the characters interesting. There is, however, a tragic ending. The nextbook is one by Amado and I look forward to reading it.