Softball, Food, and Blogs

I'm still sore from softball practice yesterday, but despite having to wake up early on Sunday to take an hour-long tram, U-Bahn, and bus ride, I am glad I went to practice.

At first, I was worried it had been canceled at the last minute, as was the case a few weeks ago. I showed up 10 minutes early, and there was not a single German in sight. Truly strange, since they're always early! Even stranger was the fact that the next two folks to arrive were a fellow American and a Cuban.

As I waited, I took a few pictures of the field and the surrounding scenery. The field, as I've mentioned before, is on the site of the old Tempelhof Airport. There were lots of folks walking around, flying kites, or flying remote-controlled airplanes. Pretty neat.

Nevertheless, the others arrived soon after, and practice commenced with stretching and a jog around the field. Then we tossed the ball around a bit and finally took the field as players took turns batting.

I have to say I did much better than I did at my first practice. I did not miss as many groundballs this time. Sadly, I couldn't catch up to the few pop ups that fell just out of my reach (I was playing mostly shortstop and second base). The few times I did play in the outfield, I misjudged my lone catchable fly ball and ended up just jogging back to play in the infield.

One hot shot did go just under my glove though and managed to hit me right on my ankle bone. That was not very pleasant. Nor was fouling a ball off my foot. All in all though, I had another fun time, and it's nice to have an outdoor free-time activity.

After practice, I made it home around 3:30 PM and made lunch. The boneless chicken breasts I'd bought last week needed to be cooked, so I chopped 'em, tossed 'em in the wok with some fish sauce, white wine, and sesame oil, and then mixed it all with a mushroom-based sauce I'd bought at the grocery store. I ate that all with rice. 'Twas delicious. So much so, I did not even take a picture of it.

I did, however, take a picture of my dinner today. Pizza. I added green peppers and mushrooms. Have I written about how cheap groceries are here? I bought three frozen pizzas with salami on top for 2,49€. That's ridiculous.

Oh, I also made pasta with sausages, carrots, garlic, and onion in a tomato sauce last night around 9 PM. Late lunch, late dinner.

Anyway, today, I posted a blog article on ScholarshipJunkies.com that highlights the benefits of studying abroad as well as a number of ways to fund such programs. You can read it in original form here or on Facebook here. A shortened version of the article will also be posted on another website later this week. I will share where exactly once the details of that have been finalized.

On Wednesday, I'll be attending an event hosted by the British Council in Berlin. The topic is "Engaging the Future." Attendees will be discussing in groups topics like the future of wealth, cities, work, and the environment. It's part of an initiative to generate transatlantic dialogue on global foresight. Thanks to the German Fulbright Commission, I along with at least one other Fulbrighter will get to attend and participate. Looking forward to it!

I'm still working on projects, and I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day to do them all. Oh well, I suppose that's what makes life exciting. :)

Sam

Weekends in Berlin

I had a pleasant day today. I was so tired last night I didn't even stay up to watch my Blazers beat the new-look Nuggets. Highlights were nice though.

My friend, Michelle, is sadly moving to Essen very soon, since she proposed a Fulbright project that includes some comparison work. So today we decided to go check out the Gemäldegalerie, which houses works by the likes of Vermeer, van Eyck, Hals, Rubens, etc. 

On my way there, I passed a protest at Potsdamer Platz. Apparently, it was about the situation in Libya. They had a major intersection completely blocked off because of the protestors. 

As I strolled toward the museum though, the weather was just too pleasant (although chilly) to not take a picture or two of Potsdamer Platz. After all, I don't think I really have any pictures of the area aside from the Sony Center.

The museum is covered under the annual card that I bought a few months ago. Perfect, since I really don't like paying to get into museums anymore. I saved myself 4€ today by having the card, which I had bought for 20€. Considering all the Berlin museums I've visited since, I've already gotten my money back and then some.

Inside, Michelle and I wandered through room after room that all looked quite similar to each other. I felt kind of lost. But we saw some art by some very famous artists. I don't remember all the names, so I'll just tell you the names for the ones I did know. Here's one by Pieter Bruegel.

For this one I don't know remember the artist. But the scene is of Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark. Sound familiar, literature fans? Made famous by Shakespeare, it's Hamlet's castle.

This one's by Frans Hals.

Here's a Vermeer. Certainly not one of his most famous ones (like Girl with a Pearl Earring), but still, it's a Vermeer. 

This piece is by Thomas Gainsborough. I tried to look for The Blue Boy, but apparently it's now in California.

These two were painted by an artist, whose name I cannot recall. Started with an "A" though.

Besides all the works by Dutch Renaissance painters (my favorite art history time period for paintings), there were some paintings by Italian masters. I don't know who painted this one, but I just like it 'cause I was there only a week ago.

This one's by Caravaggio. 

And this one's by Titian.

One by Raphael too.

We got pretty museum-ed out, so we left at that point. My friend, Carissa, had just arrived in Berlin from Marburg (Sarina's roommate), so I invited her and Michelle over to dinner. We went to pick her up at her hostel in Mitte and rode the tram back to my place while Michelle took an S-Bahn and biked. I learned today that you can't bring bikes onto buses or trams, but you can onto U-Bahns and S-Bahns.

For dinner, I planned to make some sweet chili turkey (not chicken, because my roommate, Lenz, doesn't like chicken) and some napa cabbage with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and carrots. We had plenty of leftover rice from last night's curry too, so we had lots of food.

Michelle and Carissa helped out. That was nice because cutting that meat off the turkey leg was hard work. No wonder it took Lenz so long last night...we're never buying meat like that again. Only boneless meat from now on.

It took us an hour and a half to prep and cook everything, but it ended up being pretty good. We had some cake and ice cream for dessert too, though I passed on it in favor of a banana. I don't know what's gotten into me, but I'm eating healthier. Maybe it's seeing how badly I did at softball two weeks ago...

Speaking of which, we have practice again tomorrow and sadly Michelle and Brandon will not be able to join me. I suppose I will wake up early and go though. Gotta get some exercise in. Then I'll head home and work on the various papers, articles, and projects I need to catch up on. 

Hope this weather keeps staying sunny and the temperatures start rising! Spring cannot arrive soon enough.

Sam

Feeling at Home in Berlin

For the past two days, my friend, Sarina, and a friend of hers have been staying over with me and Lenz. When I go to Marburg for my medical trips, I often stay at her place with her roommate and my friend, Carissa. So it's nice to host her for a change, since I go to Marburg every month.

After another long night of working last night (I'm working on a new article for Scholarship Junkies that could pretty much be an op-ed piece as well...it'll be featured on another site as well), I woke up today and worked more on my article along with other logistical work for my Fulbright project.

In the evening, Lenz and I joined Sarina and Veronica in Kreuzberg for dinner. Funny, the place we went to was basically around the corner from my old apartment. Now, it takes nearly an hour to get there from the current apartment. It was really nice to have Mexican food though.

After dinner, we decided to head out to a few bars, since when one is in Berlin, the night life is an experience worth checking out. As Lenz said, it was "my part of town" so I had to be the guide. Funny, the only American in the group, and I was in charge of where we headed.

Our first stop was a popular spot in Kreuzberg by Kottbusser Tor, which I had gone to in the fall with Ronny. I think they liked it too. From there, we headed to another place I had hit up with Ronny called the Trinkteufel (which is basically translated to "drink devil"). The inside was decorated with skeletons and stuff. Pretty neat.

We ended up playing three games of foosball: Lenz and I won the first game, Sarina and Veronica won the second, and finally Lenz and I finished it all off with a win in the third game. Pretty great. Each game was won on the final goal since we were all tied up at 5-5 before the final ball.

Right before we were about to head out, two Italian guys challenged us to a game, so Lenz and I played one more game. We ended up beating them by one goal as well. They were quite excited when I told them I had just come back from a week in Italy. Turns out they're from Bologna, but they were familiar with where I had gone in Rome. I have to say the experiences I had in Rome this past week and the Italians I've met in recent months have really changed my prior perceptions of Italy as a country.

Anyway, we decided to head home and continue our festivities in our living room, but the ride would end up being really long. Since I lived for five months pretty much right around that area, I knew all the public transportation options we would need. Just when we thought we were in the clear though, the subway conductor announced over the intercom that we had a detour just a few stops into our journey.

No matter. It turns out I knew the transportation options in that area as well since I had had to go there earlier in the fall. So we hopped on a tram and got ready to head home, needing at least two more transfers from tram to another tram to a bus. When we realized at our first transfer spot that we would have to wait at least 12 minutes in the freezing cold, we decided to head to the popular absinthe bar just across the street.

Now, when I first came to Berlin in 2007, absinthe was still illegal in the U.S. But it's since been allowed, so it doesn't have as much of a mythical status around as it used to, I suppose. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean I would drink much of it.

Veronica and Sarina had never tried it before, so it worked out for them to have their first absinthe on their first real trip to Berlin (Sarina had been here once before when she was rather young). It was pretty fun.

We ended up missing the next tram though, so we ended up taking the U-Bahn, then transferring to a tram, and finally onto a bus. By the time we got home, it was already 1:15 AM. Perfect time for Lenz and me to have a midnight snack. :) He had some leftover pasta, while I had a roll with salami and cheese. Then we finished it off with a banana each.

Overall, I felt very comfortable with my day for two reasons: one, I spoke exclusively in German with Sarina, Veronica, and Lenz (though they speak impeccable English anyway...and Lenz likes to practice his English with me, so I have to force myself to speak German with him more), and two, I realized I actually know quite a bit about Berlin now (even more than I used to!).

Anyway, tomorrow, the girls head back home, and I head to a school visit. I have more work to do on the article and also on a paper on my research in Greece. Then of course, I've got my Fulbright project. Lots of exciting things, but very time-consuming. Glad I'll be waking up early tomorrow.

Till next time,

Sam

P.S. I fly back to Seattle in exactly five months! Yikes!

Albatrosses and Night Owls

I've been back in Berlin from Rome for a few days now, and I am really missing the warm weather. I woke up shivering this morning and didn't feel remotely warm until three hours later in the classroom where I volunteer. The temperatures in Berlin have been hovering around 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Yuck.

I've been working hard to catch up on all my emails and projects, but I'm still behind. Hence, the latter part of my blog title. I'm definitely a night owl—I work best late at night. Since I have no school visits tomorrow, I should have a pretty productive night ahead of me.

As for the first part of my blog title, I did not see real albatrosses. Rather, I went to another ALBA Berlin basketball game. Like the first time I attended a game, they lost and only scored 74 points again. Funny though, their opponent was from Italy. 

Only one recognizable former NBA player this time—Brian Skinner, who's the player wearing green in the middle of the picture above. He had just missed a shot badly...that's the ball flying way over the hoop after he shot it. He used to play for the Blazers too...

My friend and I again enjoyed making fun of the silly dance team. Even the Germans sitting behind us were making fun of them. I'm sure the dancers are all nice people, but they didn't always dance together...

Hard to believe it, but time flies. I'll be back in Seattle in another five months. I used to always dread the last two or three weeks of my study abroad programs to some degree (okay, dread is maybe too strong a word). But I just did not look forward to going back to the US 'cause I wanted to stay longer. I've got nearly half a year left here, but for some reason, I'm having that feeling already. 

Anyway, back to work!

Sam

Italian Adventures

Well, sadly, my week of warmer weather is now over as I'm back in freezing Berlin. At least it's not snowing...

Since our accommodations in Rome had little or no internet, I decided to just wait till I returned to Berlin to blog about the Italian adventures my buddy, James, and I had over the past few days. Warning: this will be a long update with lots of pictures. I'll start off with Wednesday, our first full day in Rome.

The weather in Rome was dreadfully rainy that day, but we decided to head over to the Vatican City to visit St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. In between, we'd be meeting up with some of James' contacts at the Pontifical North American College. 

In contrast to my previous trip to Rome in August 2008, the cooler weather also seems to bring out fewer tourists, although there were still plenty around. We made our way through the church and sadly I could not share much history with James since I did not have my handy Rick Steves book this time.

Inside St. Peter's, there was this one wall covered in colorful artwork. At first, I thought it was a painting, but upon reading the caption, I discovered it's a freaking mosaic! I don't know if you can see all the little tiny tiles that make up this masterpiece, but that just blows my mind.

Because of the rain and because of the absurd prices, we decided to skip climbing the dome and instead went down into the tombs of the popes (which was free). I couldn't take pictures, but I saw many tombs of former popes, from older and more recent times alike. In fact, Pope John Paul II is entombed below there as well.

Afterwards, we headed over to the seminary, which is on the hill just next to St. Peter's. It's pretty neat. There we met up with James' contact, James, who gave us a tour of the college and invited us to lunch with the seminarians. These were all students from mostly the United States but also Canada and Australia, each studying to become a priest. They have some pretty prime real estate, and boy, that lunch was a real feast.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to the Vatican Museum, which is one of my favorite museums in the world. Plenty of good art history there. One thing I noticed this time though was the centerpiece in the courtyard that is pretty much the exact same thing that's in a courtyard at Trinity College in Dublin.

As we strolled through the museum, I remembered that the last time I was here my camera battery had been low. So I only took a few pictures that day. This time I was able to snap a few pictures of other cool parts of the museum as well.

One of my favorites of all time: Raphael's School of Athens, which I can never seem to get enough of. Amazing.

From there, we entered the Sistine Chapel, which is just gorgeous. I didn't appreciate it as much last time, I think, so this time I really took it in. On the far end, there was Michelangelo's The Last Judgment, and on the ceiling, his frescoes from the Book of Genesis. 

On one of the walls was a fresco by Perugino of Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter. Another AP Art History highlight.

As we were leaving the Vatican Museum, the skies were starting to clear up, and we could see St. Peter's Basilica over the courtyard, so we snapped a few pictures.

Then as we walked back toward the UW Rome Center, we passed Castel Sant'Angelo, which looked really cool with the moon above the angel with a sword, which is supposed to be the Archangel Michael, I guess.

For dinner, we met up with my friend from UW, Kelsey, and some of her classmates from the UW Honors Winter in Rome program. We cooked pasta!

On Thursday, I spent the morning walking around the Colosseum with James. Unfortunately, even though we're both technically EU students, we couldn't get the reduced fair because it's reserved for EU citizens. Lame. Sadly, I again could not tell James much about the Colosseum without some help from Rick Steves. 

After the Colosseum, we headed over to the Palatine Hill, since it's also included in the 12€ ticket. Thankfully, it had been fairly sunny all morning. We strolled around and then headed down to the Roman Forum, which is the last third of the Colosseum ticket.

By the time, we reached the Forum, the rain had returned, so we walked fairly quickly through. Since the ticket lasts for two days, James decided he'd download the free Rick Steves' podcast tours and walk through again the next day.

We headed from there to the Capitoline Hill museum, which is also one of my favorites in the world. I've blogged about this museum before, but apparently I didn't post many pictures, so here you go.

Later that night, after eating leftover pasta at Kelsey's, we took a stroll to some Roman highlights at night. We saw the Pantheon.

Then headed to the Trevi Fountain.

And finally to the Spanish Steps.

Before checking out the Spanish Steps though, James and I stopped by McDonald's there, which is supposed to be one of the largest ones in the world. Something like that. Rick Steves recommended that in my book, but I never checked it out until this year.

On Friday, James decided to hit up the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and St. Peter's again, armed with free Rick Steves' podcasts. Kelsey and I decided to check out something I had not gotten to visit last time around—Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. 

The trek out to Tivoli, which is located about 20 miles out of Rome, required a number of buses, the metro, and some luck. The bus driver in Tivoli did not speak English, so in very broken Italian, we managed to ask where Villa Adriana was, and he was able to point it out—if only after having to drive us there on a return ride as he had forgotten to tell us to get off the first time around.

Honestly, I thought it was a bit underwhelming, and I was again disappointed that I could not get the reduced price since it's just for EU citizens. Nevertheless, Kelsey and I saw some pretty neat old ruins, and I saw where some of the pictures from my old AP Art History book came from.

That night, Kelsey and some of her classmates made some amazing food. I also spent some time speaking with my old Honors mentor, Julie, and a graduate student in education about her own interests in education. We talked about my Fulbright project and potential Fulbright ideas for her as well. Always inspiring to talk about education with other passionate people.

Later that evening we walked around and got some gelato, which we ate in front of the Pantheon. I had an opportunity to chat with Brenda, one of the students in the program. I am always happy to hear when people are enjoying their study abroad experiences and want to do more. They also showed us Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, which had been under renovation when I was last here. It's awesome!

On Saturday, James and I tried to head to the Catacombs, but we didn't make it early enough. Plus I was trying to get back to the Rome Center in time to meet Ed Taylor, the Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at UW. He had arrived earlier that morning, and we had made plans for lunch. Since James wanted to see more of the Appian Way, we split up with him heading into aqueduct country and me heading back to the Rome Center.

I ended up meeting Ed in the Campo, where we then started to just take a stroll around the city. It was really great to see him again, and he asked me to show him around a bit since he'd never been to Rome before. I can't say I'm a very good tour guide, and I'm even worse without all the bits of history from Rick Steves' guide book. We walked through Piazza Navona and saw the Fountain in the daylight. Gorgeous.

Nevertheless, we had a good stroll and chatted in depth about my Fulbright project, plans for the next few years and beyond, and also some updates from UW. I can't tell you how helpful it is to pick the brain of someone as insightful and brilliant as Ed when you're struggling to make sense of your own research.

We walked over to the Pantheon, where I made Ed pose for a photo. He didn't really want many photos, but I figured he'd need at least a few to show he was actually in Rome.

On our way to the Trevi Fountain, we stopped by a pizzeria for a few slices of pizza. Delicious. Of course, we chatted about education and other related topics the whole time. He also told me a bit about the lecture he has coming up this week at the Rome Center. It's interesting because we talked about how an American audience might understand his lecture topic differently from Europeans (talking about race, ethnicity, identity, etc.). Regardless, I think it will be a great discussion.

After lunch, we walked briefly over to the Trevi, which was looking quite lovely as always.

Soon after, we headed back and bought some groceries as I invited Ed to join me, Kelsey, and James for dinner. Kelsey's classmate, Souvonnah, joined us as well and made a great bruschetta. Ed had a pretty nice place in the Rome Center, and the view was spectacular. 

The kitchen may have also been the nicest one I've cooked in during all my times in Europe.

Dinner was fabulous, and Julie and her friend, Mirjam, joined us for a short bit later as well. We ended up heading out for gelato again, and then we watched Angels and Demons back at the Rome Center afterwards. It was a pretty late night.

This morning, we spent our last day in Rome heading back to St. Peter's with Ed, Julie, Mirjam, and Kelsey. We figured we might as well try and see the Pope. As we waited, we took pictures.

Amidst the crowd, we spied Richard Quest from CNN. We tried getting a picture of him sneakily, but eventually James just went up to him and said, "Hi, I'm James, and I'm a big fan of your show." Hilarious, considering we only saw his show for about 2 minutes during one of our first nights in Rome.

Luckily, the Pope happened to be in his papal apartment today, so we were able to see him when he greeted everyone at noon for 10 minutes. He spoke in so many languages I lost count, but they included Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish. Crazy.

After the Pope's address, we walked toward Trastevere for lunch. It's a nice neighborhood, which I never actually visited during my first time in Rome, even though some of our students stayed in apartments there. We saw some nice buildings on the way over, and we took a walk along the Tiber River as well.

I realized that I had never gone to any restaurants in Rome before, except for the ones we visited as a group in 2008. So today was sort of a first in going to a nice restaurant. I had homemade lasagna, which was delicious. Sadly, James and I had to leave a bit early to go to the airport for our flight back to Germany, so we said our goodbyes to Ed, Julie, and Mirjam there.

It seemed like ages ago when James and I visited Pisa last week and hiked along the Cinque Terre, but overall, I think we had a great time in Rome. Not only was I able to get some fresh thoughts on my Fulbright research, but it was a fantastic opportunity to get away from it shortly as well. Now I've got plenty of work in the coming weeks as I expect my interviews to really pick up in the next few weeks.

We've got our Fulbright Conference in Berlin in late-March, and then James, our fellow Fulbrighter Nick, and I will be heading to Turkey for a few days. Hard to believe it, but I've only got about five months left before I have to head back to Seattle. 

Until the next adventure,

Sam