Today, I met up with someone I met in Ireland. We actually grew up in the same town. Small world. She's now studying abroad as an undergrad, and we met up 'cause she had been planning to swing by Berlin anyway. So I offered to show her around a bit and also do a bit of recruiting for Fulbright as I often do.
After getting döners at Hackescher Markt, I randomly saw a couple walking down the street and quickly realized: "I know them!" They were fellow Fulbrighters from the language course I did in Marburg, and they don't even live in Berlin. So it was quite odd that I ran into them, since Berlin is huuuge (3.5 million people or as I told the Irish folks I met—"almost as big as Ireland"...roughly 4 million people). Crazy. I'll see them tomorrow though, so that'll be cool.
We finished our döners though, and we decided to head to Museum Island. I recommended the Neues Museum and Pergamon, since she hadn't seen either, although she had visited the Old National Gallery yesterday. Since I have an annual ticket now, I just flash my card and get in easily. Love it.
Since my last visit a few weeks ago to the Neues Museum, a few items had been relocated. So I took a picture, since the lighting was better in its new position.
Kimberly had already been to a ton of museums on her trip, so she wasn't keen on staying too long in any of the museums, which was perfect for me. We finished the Neues Museum and its four levels in 57 minutes! Yes, I kept track. I did take a picture of the ancient "sorting hat" too. It's actually something that has to do with astronomy.
After the Neues Museum, we headed over to the Pergamon, so she could see Berlin's most famous museum. Beautiful as always; but I counted, and I've now visited the Pergamon five times. I'm sure I will be back there before long, since we have the Fulbright Conference coming up in March. I did take another picture of Hammurabi's Code, but it's apparently only a copy of the real one, which is said to be in the Louvre.
We hit up a third museum today though, and it was one I had not visited before. At least, one that I had not paid to visit before—the German Historical Museum. There is a special exhibit called "Hitler and the People" right now. It's had such high attendance that the exhibit's been extended for an additional three weeks. It was pretty interesting.
Museumed-out, we headed to a cafe and had some warm drinks. It's been cold in Berlin recently, and the snow returned today but only briefly. Thankfully, it did not stick. At the cafe, which is right next to my university, we actually ran into two friends of mine. They were meeting up for an interview, so we ended up chatting and catching up for a good hour at least. By then, Kimberly had to leave, and the rest of us decided to all head home. Nice to see familiar faces again though.
At home, Ronny and I decided to make Auflauf with the remaining pasta. I had plenty of that in Marburg, so it was fun to just make one up. Of course, that's pretty much what Auflauf is anyway.
We threw in chopped up chicken, salami, corn, carrots, jalapenos, and gouda cheese. We added some oregano, salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Man, it was delicious.
Sadly, we were so hungry, I did not take a picture of it after we'd taken it out of the oven. Oh well. We also had the rest of our lentil soup and a huge bowl of salad. I'm liking the salad now, so I've been eating much more it, even the tomatoes. Can't say I like them much, but I'll at least eat some. Baby steps.
After watching the Colbert Report and the latest Modern Family episode (hilarious, by the way), we watched The Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis. I had never seen it before, but I had read the Great Illustrated Classics for Kids' version. Even with that background, I picked up on the changes from the book, which were fairly substantial. Other than those changes though, they stuck with the main story lines. Pretty good movie and really fantastic soundtrack.
Tomorrow will be yet another feast. We have some friends coming over for Ronny's famous curry, which I really have to learn to make. Ronny leaves for a month or so on Sunday, and I move to my new place next Saturday, so it's going to be our last dinner we'll cook together in the apartment. But we'll definitely be cooking and eating together again throughout the rest of the year when we visit each other. As such, we'll probably have some good pictures.
Until next time,
Sam
No comments:
Post a Comment