Danke, Deutschland

In twelve hours, my roommate, Lenz, and I will be on our way to the airport, so I can catch my flight to Newark and then on to Seattle. Total travel time from airport gate to airport gate will be seventeen and a half hours. Let's hope there are no delays.

I just finished packing, and now Lenz and his friend, Aga, are prepping dinner as they promised me a nice last meal in Germany. How nice! I just tried to ask if I could help prep, and they shooed me out, telling me to go finish packing. Haha. I just have to wait for the rest of my clothes to dry...

Yesterday, I was extremely lucky to have "good" weather for my farewell party in Mauerpark. All week it had been raining, and the grass was undoubtedly wet. But the rain finally stopped around 5 AM yesterday (yeah, I went to bed late), and the sun came out by late morning. Despite the sunshine, the wind didn't get the memo that we were supposed to have nice weather for my party, so it was quite windy.

Nevertheless, it was fun...after people showed up. I had invited people to join me at 2 PM, and in my hurry to pack all the beer into my bag and not be late, I completely forgot the sausages in my fridge (actually that turned out to be a good thing as I ended up having something for lunch today). But when I arrived at Mauerpark at 2 PM exactly, there was no one to be found. I waited for maybe 15 minutes, looking kind of idiotic with a gigantic duffel bag stuffed with beer, bread rolls, and sports gear with another plastic bag with the one-time grills on the side.

When it seemed no one was going to come till later, I moved over to the basketball court, which was empty—something that has never happened in all the times I have visited Mauerpark. So I kept my headphones in and promptly shot hoops by myself. Before long, Laura showed up (she'd come the long way around as she got a bit mixed up by my lack of directions provided). Soon after, Arnhild arrived, and Stefan and his friends showed up right behind her with Stefan's grill.

After some trouble getting the fire going because of the wind, we got the grill hot and ready for cooking up some meat. They had brought some sausages thankfully, so we had food to eat!

People told me they kept checking the Facebook event page I had made to see if I had changed the plans. C'mon, people. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, the grill party was going to happen, rain or shine. I will say that coats and jackets were a good idea yesterday though.

It was a fun afternoon of food, drinks, sports, and just plain old catching up. Tamar and Nino came by as well, and later Brian, Temneet, and Rachel all swung by too. Lena came too with a nice bottle of wine, and we all had lots of fun taking pictures, eating, and playing sports. Later on, Danielle came by too.

I had stopped by the grocery store in the morning, so I picked up a small thing of mustard. Can't eat German sausages without good mustard!

Despite the wind, the day stayed dry overall, and the sun made a few extended appearances. 'Twas real nice.

I forgot who, but someone brought these amazing cheese-filled sausages with bacon wrapped around them. Man, those were good!

Looking at the pictures now, the sky didn't look quite so friendly, but it felt fine out.

Some of us went to play basketball and football; some of us just chilled and chatted. I think everyone enjoyed it.

I had to leave around 6:30 to have dinner with some good friends, Kerstin and Holger. They had offered to take me wherever I wanted to go for dinner, since they figured that'd be better than buying me a farewell present that I'd have trouble sticking in my suitcase. 'Twas very nice of them!

Some of my Fulbright friends had told me about a supposedly really good and authentic Chinese restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg that was well-known for their dumplings. We'd tried to go there for lunch during the Fulbright Conference back in March, but they were only open for dinner that day. Kerstin and Holger said that sounded good, so to "Wok Show" we went.

I'll be honest: as much as I enjoyed their dumplings, they weren't the best I've ever had nor really even in my top five. Their other options were even worse  (not to mention pretty cold customer service from the main lady). But I enjoyed chatting with Kerstin and Holger, and they also asked me how I would rate the restaurant after it. I told them I still like my mom's cooking the best. Haha.

During dinner, Kerstin remarked that it's pretty awesome that I could speak in German now, since when I first met them in 2007, I could only speak English. Now, it's somewhat weird to speak English with them now, and we always converse in German. It's also good, because then I can talk with their two young sons, who can't speak English yet. Always a treat speaking German with a little kid. :)

They were kind enough to drive me home after dinner to drop off my bag and then take me back to Prenzlauer Berg for a night out with friends. They even gave Lenz a ride too, since he was at home. I'll miss seeing them, but as we said, I'll be back before I know it.

Lenz and I ended up being the only ones who showed up on time (again), since I had told people to meet up at 9:30 PM. He hadn't eaten yet, so we ended up chilling at a little convenient store with good quality Bavarian beer. He also snapped a photo of me in front of graffiti. Typical Berlin.

Aga showed up shortly thereafter, and finally, the rest of the crew came too from the winery where they had been enjoying wine. I had really told them to just show up sometime after 9:30, so I shouldn't complain. Besides, I showed up an hour late once for a Schnitzel dinner with Anton and Arnhild (I got lost)...something Arnhild hasn't let me forget. Haha.

After a bite of pizza since some of the crew hadn't eaten yet, we went to Alte Kantine, a club in the Kulturbrauerei. I know Lenz has gone there often, so that's why I knew about it. It was my first time though, and we had fun going in. We had a few drinks and danced the night away (I don't really dance though) until about 3 AM. I was getting tired and a tad bit cranky, so we left. As we walked out, there was a long line still waiting outside the door—people were still trying to get in, and it was already full inside. Ah, gotta love the night life in Berlin/Europe.

Today, I was not in the mood to really see people or even talk to people. I think the realization that I am leaving in less than a day hit me a bit harder than I'd expected, and I am feeling more sad about leaving than feeling excited about being back in Seattle. That is not to say that I'm not excited to see my family and friends, but I expect that I will experience a bit of  reverse culture shock after having spent the past 365 days in Europe.

I have met some amazing friends, several close ones I expect to remain close to for quite a while. And I reconnected with my pre-existing network in Berlin, while growing it even more. In the past day or two, I've received so many encouraging notes from friends here and back home who have wished me a safe trip back, and I have heard from many of my German friends who had known me before this year that my German has improved dramatically. Indeed, I'm understanding more of what people say now, and my own vocab has expanded drastically.

Most of all, nearly all of them have said, "I am 100% certain you will be back." And I whole heartedly agree. As I told a friend earlier, I don't quite feel like I'm "going home." Rather, it's more like I'm going from one home to another, and I just don't know when exactly I'll be back in Berlin. I'm not sure if any of this makes sense, but I expect that the coming weeks will include much self-reflection as I realize how much I have grown personally during my year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar.

I had thought about writing up something in German for this likely final blog from Berlin, but then it probably would only make sense to a small handful of my blog readers, so I'll just save it for my own journaling. But I want to thank all my fellow Fulbrighters, my friends, and all the people I met along the way in the past year who made my Fulbright year one that I will not soon forget. I'm seriously feeling quite melancholy right now, and I expect that I will be somewhat more reserved during my first weeks back in Seattle. I hear from my friends who've spent extended periods of time abroad that it's quite a normal feeling when you return to the U.S.

Since Aga and Lenz are making dinner right now, I will likely have more pictures to post in another blog post once I am back in Seattle. I was also thinking about writing up all the major highlights from the past year. Perhaps I'll post that too. In any case, my blog will continue. I still have the travel bug, so I am certain I'll have other travel stories to share shortly as well.

Thanks for following my blog this year though. Thank you again to all my friends I met and reconnected with in Berlin. We will see each other again very soon.

Cheers from Berlin,

Sam

Food as Social Lubricant

My friend and mentor, Stan, always like to say that, and I must say: I agree.

This morning, I met up with my Fulbright professor (one of two), and we discussed my project over lunch in Humboldt Universität's cafe. 'Twas good stuff.

We had a nice discussion about policies and education. It reminded me of how much I enjoy discussing policies and ideas. I am so grateful to Prof. Dr. Klepper as well as he agreed to support my project, even though it's not necessarily his area of academic expertise.

After our lunch, I went over to the Fulbright Commission office to say goodbye to the Fulbright team that really supported me and my fellow Fulbrighters this year. I was able to speak with a few of the folks who run the American Program, and I was able to thank them for all the support they've given me this past year.

I'm looking forward to staying in touch as well, as they also provided me with a great network in Berlin and beyond.

Tonight, I cooked at home for probably the last time in Berlin as my friend, Henry, came over for dinner. He was a Senior Fellow already when I became an HIA Fellow, and he looked out for me and my needs in Berlin during our program. It was a fun evening, and I cooked Thai Sweet Chili Turkey and Sichuan-styled green beans with rice.

I think Henry enjoyed it. He also brought a nice bottle of red wine from Slovenia. Pretty good stuff!

Lenz joined us later in the evening after his football training. They had to run 7 km today! That's probably more than I run all year. Haha.

Sadly, Henry and Lenz both won't be joining me for my farewell party tomorrow as they are both busy. Bummer. I hope it works out though, because the weather has been absolutely horrendous the last three days. It's still raining now, and we were planning to go grilling in the park tomorrow. There's still roughly 20% chance of rain tomorrow, but otherwise, it's supposed to be dry-ish.

I failed again on packing today, so it looks like Sunday will be busy with packing everything into my bags and throwing out the rest that doesn't fit. :)

Down to my final two days/weekend in Berlin! Boo...

Sam

P.S. The Good Wife in German is quite interesting on TV...

English Lessons and Georgian Cuisine

For the past two months, I've been teaching English twice a week to two friends from Georgia (the country). Although they can already speak English well, they wanted to improve their fluency, particularly in business English.

It's been a fun challenge in figuring out how to teach the material from the English for German learners book we use, and I have had to figure out how to make homework assignments and write up quizzes. It's also a bit time-consuming, but it's nice to know they feel like they've improved since we started lessons. I certainly can tell that their English has improved.

Tonight, we planned a dinner after English lessons so they could cook up some delicious Georgian food for me. We'd been talking about it for several weeks, so I was super pumped. Tamar and Nino both made some awesome stuff, and I took plenty of pictures. Here's the beer I brought...really strong stuff.

Nino made a potato salad with other goodies mixed in.

'Twas so good!

I don't remember the name anymore, but Tamar made these dumpling-type things that were stuffed with spiced meats. Really good stuff! I took pictures of nearly all the steps. First, some flour.

Then the dough.

After that, roll out the dough and cut out little circles.

Then roll out the little circles into thin round pieces.

Then add the spiced meat...

...and wrap it up.

There are two ways to eat them, apparently: one, you can eat them straight after you boil them. Two, you can boil them, let them cool, and then pan-fry them in some butter (like gyoza).

We had both, and they were delicious! Here are the boiled ones.

Tamar also made a spanakopita-type dish with cheese. I love cheese, so I loved it. It was so fresh out of the oven. Yum.

Tamar and Nino also invited their Italian friend, Sergio, to come over, and he brought his roommate along as well. We had some fun taking pictures in the kitchen.

With the table all set up, we ate like kings. We were all so hungry and then after all that food, we were stuffed!

This is just one of the many plates of food I ate.

We had some of the gyoza-like dumpling things later too. They were also really good!

All in all, we had a great night of excellent food (thanks, Tamar and Nino!) and a fun time of chatting with friends.

This afternoon, I also went to the bank to close my German bank account. I had heard from others that you have to give up your EC Karte when you close your account, so I briefly contemplated telling them I had lost it. But then I worried they'd make me pay for a replacement card, so I just thought I'd ask them straight up if I could keep the card as a souvenir.

Apparently not.

There's a long bureaucratic process for deregistering the card and allowing one to keep it after closing the account. Typical German. Haha. So anticipating this, I took pictures of said card earlier this morning. :)

I will miss it. I'll think about writing about this another time, but the German banking system is actually extremely good. I like it much more than the U.S. banking system. Checks do not exist in Germany, and you can pay for things via automatic bank transfers. It's completely safe to give out your bank account number, since you have to have fifty-bajillion pieces of security information in order to even make it work (it's actually not hard if you own it all).

Anyway, step two of my bureaucratic responsibilities is now checked off my list. Step one was deregistering from the Berlin citizen's office (Bürgeramt?). I thought that was going to be a hassle, but I found out you can do it by mail, so I sent in all my info, and hopefully there will be no problems with it. If there are, I will be long gone and back home in Seattle already anyhow.

Tomorrow, the goodbyes continue as I have lunch with my other Fulbright professor and then will stop by the Fulbright Commission to say goodbye to our wonderful German-American Fulbright Commission team. Then I need to start packing in the afternoon. My attempt at packing today was pathetic, and I failed miserably. I will have tomorrow afternoon mainly because I have dinner with my friend, Henry, in the evening, and almost of all of Saturday will be busy with my farewell grill party in Mauerpark followed by dinner with some good friends and then drinks in the evening. Undoubtedly, I'm going out with a bang. :)

More as the adventures continue,

Sam

Friends and (More) Fun Times

The good stuff just continues. Last night, I went out to dinner with my friend, Kathleen, whom I met in 2008 through HIA. She has always been so great about showing me new and cool things in Berlin, and last night was no exception.

A few months back, the New York Times had a short feature on this mobile garden in Berlin. Although I'd never visited it (until last night), I knew where it was since it wasn't terribly far from my old apartment. You can buy all sorts of fresh vegetables and herbs there. Pretty neat.

In the middle of the garden space though, there's also a little eatery, where you can choose one of the two daily specials. Yesterday, there was risotto with lime, zucchini, tomatoes, and a fried flower stuffed with cheese. So good! The flower part reminded me of something Taso's cousin made for us in Vitalo, Greece. Delicious.

After dinner, Kathleen and I took a stroll through Kreuzberg. There was this one building that just looked really cool, so I took a picture.

You could also see tons of people on the grass along the canal. It was fairly comfortable outside too. It's actually quite near where Tamar and I had English lessons the other day.

We met up with Kathleen's boyfriend for a beer and Pflamkuchen (a flat pizza like dish). 'Twas fun. I'm so glad to have gotten to hang out with them, since I likely won't see them again for a while.

This morning, I headed over to my buddy Rob's house in Schöneberg. We planned to hang out for a few hours, since I won't see him for a while either, although luckily, he's coming to Seattle in a few weeks for a trip. By the way, if anyone knows of a van, truck, or car for sale (under $1,000), please let me know. We're trying to find him a car for his three week trip—all it has to do is actually run.

We spent a few hours chilling at his house, where he showed me some pictures of his hair when he was younger. He had these awesome dreadlocks at some point, and other times he had Joey Harrington-like hair. Anyway, his hair now is long and can be worn in a ponytail, but with his beard, it looks cool. I've told him I'm trying to get his beard's status before...hmm, not working so well. Haha.

After chilling at his place, we headed to a park where I used to live for a walk. I never realized how big the Hasenheide is. It's huge!

There are even these little creatures there!

Too bad there weren't any beavers...I was kind of hoping to see a beaver.

I was starving though, so we went to a great falafel place. Ok, so I used to think the falafel place across from my old apartment was good (it was just cheap), but this place was completely a whole new level. I have found my new favorite falafel place in Berlin.

The intersection where it's at isn't far from two of my Fulbright partner schools actually, so I passed it many times this year without knowing about it. The fact is though: there are so many good döner, schawarma, and falafel places in Berlin that you can't really go wrong with where you end up going.

In the evening, I went over to friend Stefan's house for dinner. He invited me over because he said since I cooked for him (and Brandon and Ariel and Joan) back in March on St. Patty's Day it was his turn to cook. Of course, I said, "Sure!" He made this amazing lasagna. The bolognese-type sauce he made included some chicken liver and some other meat, but I didn't even taste it despite not liking liver.

He also made a salad with some chicken liver, and I could only try one or two pieces. I'm really not a fan of liver at all...

The finished lasagna was sooooo good. I ate nearly half of this...haha. Stefan, Stefan's roommate, and Stefan's roommate's girlfriend finished the rest. I'm such a pig!

Again, trying my creative food shots inspired by my friend Priya's food blog. :)

After dinner, we went to the absinthe bar with our friends from the UW. It was Wednesday night, so shots were only 2,50€ each. This bar is really touristy, but it's just one of those things people try in Berlin. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

I never got to buy a drink for Temneet on her 21st birthday, so I helped chip in for her Hurricane drink, which we then shared. Haha. At least it was a good drink. I will bring her a special beer this weekend.

After drinks, we actually went to the döner place around the corner 'cause some of them were hungry. Even though I was stuffed from lasagna, I also had a sudden urge for munchies too, so I got a Turkish pizza. I couldn't finish it...that's a first. All in all, everyone had lots of fun.

We were going to go elsewhere after strolling through the Kulturbrauerei, but we ended up finding a park, where we promptly went swinging on the kid's playground. I also found a random ball in the sand in the playground, so we tossed it around in the dark before playing on the slides as well.

Finally, it was time to get home as the sun was due to come up in two hours or so. I ended up taking a taxi, because I really didn't want to wait for the tram and walk, which all combined would've taken another hour. The taxi driver was really nice, even though the ride was more than I would've liked to pay. He told me he is originally from Stuttgart, and we had a nice conversation.

Apparently, according to him, I speak "super Deutsch". Haha. He thought I'd only learned it since arriving a year ago, but upon hearing that I've studied it for three years on top of my year here in Berlin, he was like, "Yeah, but still...it's super." How nice of him.

Tomorrow, the packing officially begins. I have to clean up my room and stuff everything into my lone suitcase. Not sure how it's all going to work. Shipping boxes is way too expensive, so I may stuff lighter stuff into my duffel bag too and just carry that on the plane. We shall see.

Toodles,

Sam

Sightseeing in Berlin (Again)

Spencer left Berlin this morning, but not before we explored all the major highlights of Berlin. Honestly, I hadn't seen much of it in months, since I don't really go to some of the more touristy places. When you live here, you mostly avoid those spots.

But this post will have lots of pictures that are actually credited to Spencer, since he took the pictures. I just stole them from him, since I didn't take pictures of the sights. :) These are from Sunday, when we went to eat Schawarma.

Afterwards, we walked around the Topographies of Terror, where the sky looked extra threatening.

Then, of course, there was the Women's World Cup final game viewing in Kreuzberg with friends. The U.S. Embassy did a great job in hosting it. I think the Japanese Embassy as well, but I only know folks from the U.S. Embassy, so I have no idea if it was a joint effort.

In any case, I met up with the director of the Meet US Program yesterday morning to go to lunch. I had been meaning to take her to lunch as a way of saying thank you for such a great year, but she said it would be her treat. Seriously, that was super nice of her. She also gave me a nice letter of appreciation from the U.S. Embassy for my work with them over the past year through Meet US. Pretty sweet!

After good Thai food, we said goodbye, and I went to meet Spencer for a second day of touring around. I showed him Alexanderplatz, and the most famous meeting spot in former East Berlin—the World Clock.

You could also see the TV tower in full (as opposed to the top being hidden in clouds).

Until Spencer mentioned it, I also didn't realize how big the city hall building actually is. And Fulbright even held one of our conference sessions in there (tall windows on the lower right).

We moved over to the Nikolai Quarter, where the statue of St. George Slaying the Dragon is finally back after having been removed for restoration or something for several months. It looks totally different from the one I was used to seeing. The old one looked more like the Statue of Liberty in terms of color, due to the natural elements, no doubt. The restored version looks pretty sweet too though.

After a beer at the St. George's Brauhaus, we walked toward Museum Island, where Spencer got a shot of the Berliner Dom that reminded me of one of my first pictures in Berlin back in 2007. Pretty much the same angle.

The Lustgarten was filled with people (and Roma ladies begging).

With the warmth outside, the mist from the fountain was quite refreshing.

Spencer ended up going into the Pergamon Museum and checking it out while I waited outside. It's always impressive, though they're building some new circular structure directly in front of the door that I hope is only for a temporary exhibit. It looks awful.

We ended the day with a ride on public transportation around Berlin, so Spencer could also get a glimpse of former West Berlin. I have never liked that area of town (too posh), so I really didn't know much about it.

For dinner, we met up with my friend, Arnhild (from HIA), for all-you-can-eat schnitzel. Yum! It was also Temneet's birthday yesterday, and the crew decided to join us, though they did show up much later than us. I had already finished eating when they arrived.

It was also Temneet's 21st birthday, so we got her some drinks. 'Twas fun. :)

Spencer left this morning, and he's off to Denmark now before returning to the U.S. I took him to the airport, and it was pretty sweet that STA Travel got him first-class seats. He got to skip the whole line.

After going home for a short break and catching up on about 1/3 of my emails (I'm sorry if I haven't been responding to you...it's been busy), I went to lunch with one of my professors. As a thank you for all her support, I treated her to lunch...at the same place I went yesterday. :)

Funny thing though, I met the same waitress again today, who chatted us up yesterday and told me she's Malaysian Chinese. She was like, "Oh, we're practically neighbors" when I told her I was Singaporean Chinese. As my professor looked on with an amused smile, the waitress invited me to a party at her house on Saturday and gave me her number. That's never happened before. Haha.

Anyway, I'm off to Kreuzberg to meet a friend for dinner. Toodles!

Sam