Yesterday (Thursday) was a public holiday here in Germany. In English, we call this particular day Ascension Day (when Jesus ascended into heaven). In German, it's called Christi Himmelfahrt. Or as one German told my friend, Caitlan: "It means something like Christ drives to heaven." Hooray for direct translations!
Quick recap of Wednesday though: I headed over to Brandon's in the morning to have my haircut, and man, Brandon's getting real good at cutting hair now. I may give the Fe-Hawk a try for my last haircut from Brandon before I leave for Seattle, but we'll see. :P
In return for him giving me a haircut, I marinated some chicken thighs, and we popped 'em on the stove at Brandon's place. We decided to just cook in the kitchen instead of grilling, and it turned out excellent anyhow. We also made a little Greek-esque salad (aka E.coli salad...JK!).
Looks delicious, doesn't it? It was.
After heading home and prepping nearly two and a half hours for my English lesson, I finally went to teach English in the evening. I was so engrossed in prepping for the lesson that I skipped dinner too. The lesson worked out really well though, and I'm happy to say all the preparation really paid off. I will need to keep that up throughout the next six weeks.
I was supposed to meet with Brandon, Stefan, and Mary in the evening for drinks, so I headed toward Prenzlauer Berg. The only problem: I was the first one to show up, even though I arrived 10 minutes after our agreed starting time.
Mary came and met me soon after since she lives nearby, and she accompanied me to the hot dog joint on the corner. I'd always seen that place but never got to try it. Seemed like the perfect time to give it a try, so we picked up some beers and went to get my hot dog.
I was so disappointed...and rather disgusted with the stark reminder that American-style hot dogs are just nasty. Clearly, I have been eating too many fine German sausages.
The night was full of fun though as we enjoyed our good company and plenty of drinks. I made it home, and Lenz was already in bed. That doesn't happen often. Haha. It's usually the other way around.
On Thursday morning though, I had to wake up early because I'd volunteered to help pick up one of the incoming HIA Fellows from the airport. So I made a nice little sign with his name on it and headed to the airport to stand among the people picking up passengers. Funny.
The lines for buses and tickets at the airport were ridiculously long. Seriously, I've never experienced so many people at Tegel before. Must be the sun driving people out. Or Berlin's just too cool of a place to visit. Or both.
In any case, I finally guided the HIA Fellow to his host family's house, and I made my way back home. I had planned on buying a couple of one-time grills for our afternoon party, but being so brilliant, I failed to remember that stores are closed on Ascension Day. So it was up to Brandon to rescue our grill plans, because the grocery store at the train station near him is always open.
We met up at Mauerpark around 3 PM and joined our good friends from Fulbright, Nora and Caitlan. It was supposed to be a reunion of sorts since we'd all met in Marburg back in August. Crazy how time flies. We all had brought tons of stuff to eat though, so I took a picture of our pile.
Brandon had brought the grills, so he made sure to read all the instructions before setting it all up.
It was great simply catching up, and we all had lots of updates.
When I had marinated the chicken thighs to take to Brandon's house on Wednesday, I'd also marinated two more for us for Thursday's grill party. Hence, they tasted extremely delicious, and I'm quite happy about how they turned out. I think B was too.
Reunions are always fun, and especially when they're in the sun. Ha! Just rhymed.
We had a bit of a fiery grill, and we accidentally hurt the grass. Oops.
We ended up hanging out in the park for the entire afternoon, and then a few other Fulbright friends joined us in the evening to hang out in the park. In the end, Brandon, Mary, and I went to Prater Garten to finish off the night.
I was in such a relaxed mood all day 'cause of the weather, good food, and plentiful drinks that I completely forgot I'd scheduled two Skype dates in the evening. I felt awful forgetting when I finally made it home and checked email around 1 AM.
I would've made it home a bit sooner too if I hadn't fallen asleep (again) on the tram. I was finally woken up by the tram driver 'cause we'd hit the last stop, and I was the last one on the tram (and had not heard the recorded announcement to get off the tram). Slightly dazed, I apologized and stepped out of the tram with no idea where I was.
So I just took off walking back along the tracks. Eventually, I hit the next stop and looked on the map. I wasn't terribly far from my house, but it would still be a bit of a trek. As I walked between stops, two trams passed me too, and even running I couldn't catch up to them. So it was just a nice stroll through the neighborhood around my house at 12:30 AM.
40 minutes later I got home and that was that. So overall, I had a pleasant "Christ drives to heaven" day. Tonight, I'm heading toward my university to a restaurant, where I'll meet this year's HIA Fellows at the opening dinner. Should be fun.
Tomorrow, my Fulbright buddies, James and Dan, are headed back up to Berlin, so we can go to the Berlin Adler (American) football game in the evening. We're planning to toss a football around in the park before hand and have a nice little grill party too, so I'm bound to get more sun this weekend and lots more good food.
Enjoy your weekend!
Sam
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