It is still way too hot in my apartment. It's like a sauna in here. I'm all sticky, and the temperature outside is only 18 degrees Celsius right now (roughly 64 degrees Fahrenheit). However, while it is feeling much cooler now, we hit a high of 30 degrees Celsius today (roughly 86 degrees Fahrenheit). So it's no surprise that my apartment heated up like an oven again. At least the view outside was nice.
I even went grocery shopping earlier in the day to avoid the heat, and even at 11 AM, it was already plenty warm. I went out in cargo shorts and a white t-shirt—my typical summer outfit (switch cargo shorts for basketball shorts if I'm just at home though). I've been thinking about that more lately as I've gotten a few questions from university friends who are studying abroad later this summer. The questions/comments are typically something like:
We were told that it's a bad idea to wear shorts in Berlin because people will give you dirty looks. Or...
People who studied abroad in Greece last year made it sound like a bad thing to wear shorts or sleeveless shirts.
The funny part is, I heard something similar before my first trip to Berlin in 2007. In fact, I was so worried about it, I pretty much only packed khakis and jeans for my trip in August. While the nice clothes came in handy for excursions to government buildings, etc., I felt kind of duped into thinking that nobody in Berlin would be wearing shorts.
I was wrong.
At dinner tonight, I even told Lenz (my roommate) about it, and his initial reaction was a quizzical look. Exactly. As I responded to my friends, I thought about all the people—Germans or to be even more precise, locals in Berlin—I see wearing shorts on a daily basis. There's the tons of young students I interview at the schools, there's my roommate and his university friends, and then there's just all the random people I see on the bus, tram, S-Bahn, or U-Bahn every day.
Sure, you don't want to wear short shorts. You know what I mean by that. Keep it modest, but do be comfortable too. I just wouldn't do what I did only once in Rome in 2008—my buddy Brukab and I had to walk some friends to the bus stop and then went to a friend's place a few blocks away, so I walked out in my white t-shirt and basketball shorts (too lazy to change). The guy at the corner kiosk stared at me all the way down the street and back.
But if you're going out to play basketball or something, it's perfectly okay to walk out in your basketball shorts. Heck, that's what I did on Sunday when James and I went up the street to play basketball. Since we had a ball in our hands as we walked, no one stared at my North Carolina blue basketball shorts. Totally normal.
So, to wrap up this mini rant, I think it's perfectly fine to dress comfortably when abroad, as long as it's done with well thought through modesty and awareness.
It was quite difficult to work today, and frankly, I got nothing done. It was way too hot in my apartment, and I found other things to work on instead (like marinate chicken for grilling :P). Around dinner time, Lenz and I chopped up some carrots, bell peppers, turkey, and green onions to fry with our eggs and rice. We washed the vegetables really well (don't want to get sick now), and then we fried it all together. Turned out pretty splendidly. We both put way too much Sriracha sauce though...and beer does not make your burning tongue feel any better.
After a whole day of sunshine, the evening finally gave way to this tremendous rain shower. I had to close all the windows quickly as the water just came down hard. But thankfully, it cooled off the air outside, so that I now have a bit of a breeze coming in (rain has stopped). It actually looks quite nice, and you can see one of the airplanes arriving at Tegel in the distance (second picture; see it?).
Tomorrow, I am headed over to Brandon's so he can give me a haircut. I don't care what people keep telling me; I think my hair is getting too long, and frankly, when I can feel the hair on my ears, it's definitely time for a haircut in my book. Plus with all this heat, I'd rather just have really short hair. We'll throw some chicken thighs on the grill at his place and have a quick lunch before we both head back to our respective work.
I have to prep for my second English lessons tomorrow. Thankfully, I have a book to follow, but it still takes some creative thinking and time management to know how to translate the two units per session into a productive 90-minute session for two people with different agendas. It's a fun challenge. Plus that's why I'm getting paid for it, right?
I'm looking forward to the rest of the week as I'll get to meet up with some of my fellow Fulbrighters in Berlin for a mini grill party in Mauerpark on Thursday and then the HIA opening dinner on Friday, where I'll get to meet this year's new fellows. In fact, I'm picking one of them up from Tegel airport on Thursday morning. Then on Saturday, it'll be my first Berlin Adler American football game with James and Dan (another Fulbright English Teacher I know, but from Cottbus). We'll be grilling it up in the afternoon before the game too. Can't wait!
But I also have much more work to do on my research, so I need to really get cracking on finishing up my report. I finished writing my report for the German Fulbright Commission this afternoon, so that's good. But I still need to update it with some information after I finish my full report for the actual research project. Reports galore!
Last note: it sounds like UW's spring quarter is coming to a close this week, so best of luck to all my friends who are heading off in different directions. Hard to believe this past year has flown by. In less than four hours, it'll be June here in Germany, and that means that I only have another month and a half (plus) left here. Shoot. I need to stop with this countdown thing. It's depressing.
Cheerio,
Sam
I even went grocery shopping earlier in the day to avoid the heat, and even at 11 AM, it was already plenty warm. I went out in cargo shorts and a white t-shirt—my typical summer outfit (switch cargo shorts for basketball shorts if I'm just at home though). I've been thinking about that more lately as I've gotten a few questions from university friends who are studying abroad later this summer. The questions/comments are typically something like:
We were told that it's a bad idea to wear shorts in Berlin because people will give you dirty looks. Or...
People who studied abroad in Greece last year made it sound like a bad thing to wear shorts or sleeveless shirts.
The funny part is, I heard something similar before my first trip to Berlin in 2007. In fact, I was so worried about it, I pretty much only packed khakis and jeans for my trip in August. While the nice clothes came in handy for excursions to government buildings, etc., I felt kind of duped into thinking that nobody in Berlin would be wearing shorts.
I was wrong.
At dinner tonight, I even told Lenz (my roommate) about it, and his initial reaction was a quizzical look. Exactly. As I responded to my friends, I thought about all the people—Germans or to be even more precise, locals in Berlin—I see wearing shorts on a daily basis. There's the tons of young students I interview at the schools, there's my roommate and his university friends, and then there's just all the random people I see on the bus, tram, S-Bahn, or U-Bahn every day.
Sure, you don't want to wear short shorts. You know what I mean by that. Keep it modest, but do be comfortable too. I just wouldn't do what I did only once in Rome in 2008—my buddy Brukab and I had to walk some friends to the bus stop and then went to a friend's place a few blocks away, so I walked out in my white t-shirt and basketball shorts (too lazy to change). The guy at the corner kiosk stared at me all the way down the street and back.
But if you're going out to play basketball or something, it's perfectly okay to walk out in your basketball shorts. Heck, that's what I did on Sunday when James and I went up the street to play basketball. Since we had a ball in our hands as we walked, no one stared at my North Carolina blue basketball shorts. Totally normal.
So, to wrap up this mini rant, I think it's perfectly fine to dress comfortably when abroad, as long as it's done with well thought through modesty and awareness.
It was quite difficult to work today, and frankly, I got nothing done. It was way too hot in my apartment, and I found other things to work on instead (like marinate chicken for grilling :P). Around dinner time, Lenz and I chopped up some carrots, bell peppers, turkey, and green onions to fry with our eggs and rice. We washed the vegetables really well (don't want to get sick now), and then we fried it all together. Turned out pretty splendidly. We both put way too much Sriracha sauce though...and beer does not make your burning tongue feel any better.
After a whole day of sunshine, the evening finally gave way to this tremendous rain shower. I had to close all the windows quickly as the water just came down hard. But thankfully, it cooled off the air outside, so that I now have a bit of a breeze coming in (rain has stopped). It actually looks quite nice, and you can see one of the airplanes arriving at Tegel in the distance (second picture; see it?).
Tomorrow, I am headed over to Brandon's so he can give me a haircut. I don't care what people keep telling me; I think my hair is getting too long, and frankly, when I can feel the hair on my ears, it's definitely time for a haircut in my book. Plus with all this heat, I'd rather just have really short hair. We'll throw some chicken thighs on the grill at his place and have a quick lunch before we both head back to our respective work.
I have to prep for my second English lessons tomorrow. Thankfully, I have a book to follow, but it still takes some creative thinking and time management to know how to translate the two units per session into a productive 90-minute session for two people with different agendas. It's a fun challenge. Plus that's why I'm getting paid for it, right?
I'm looking forward to the rest of the week as I'll get to meet up with some of my fellow Fulbrighters in Berlin for a mini grill party in Mauerpark on Thursday and then the HIA opening dinner on Friday, where I'll get to meet this year's new fellows. In fact, I'm picking one of them up from Tegel airport on Thursday morning. Then on Saturday, it'll be my first Berlin Adler American football game with James and Dan (another Fulbright English Teacher I know, but from Cottbus). We'll be grilling it up in the afternoon before the game too. Can't wait!
But I also have much more work to do on my research, so I need to really get cracking on finishing up my report. I finished writing my report for the German Fulbright Commission this afternoon, so that's good. But I still need to update it with some information after I finish my full report for the actual research project. Reports galore!
Last note: it sounds like UW's spring quarter is coming to a close this week, so best of luck to all my friends who are heading off in different directions. Hard to believe this past year has flown by. In less than four hours, it'll be June here in Germany, and that means that I only have another month and a half (plus) left here. Shoot. I need to stop with this countdown thing. It's depressing.
Cheerio,
Sam
1 comment:
Shorts.. I was told that too when I first came to Europe in 2004. And silly enough I kind of followed the same pattern of not wearing them... but now its just to dang hot :)
Sounds like you've been busy!
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