Picture time!

After two months and several polite "reminders," finally here is some photographic evidence of my time so far in Micronesia. More to come, barring my patience (upload time isn't quite what it was in Germany). Enjoy the beauty of Kosrae :)

Overlooking da jungle on an orientation hike

The Sleeping Lady mountain in her sun-lit glory

Mandatory tropical beach shot. There are some pretty darn nice ones here.

The back porch area of Peter's and my cute, yet termite-infested, home on the water

Our loveliest of lovely view from the porch

Sunset view

Kosrae High School, my place of employment from 8:30am-1:40pm Monday-Friday

My geography and world history classroom. Check out that map!

The classroom looking uncharacteristically tidy and with a "hominid" display. This teacher has had to brush up on her human evolution facts.

The WorldTeach group in front of a colorful tree deep in da Micronesian jungle

It's traditional basket weaving time!

Sarah and I under a waterfall

Hullo! (See Sleeping Lady mountain in the background)

With Sam on one of Kosrae's beaches

Lizzy and I rocking the muumuus on Gospel Day

Paddling (trying) a canoe during the Liberation Day celebrations. I was  on the Seasider team - see the green?

Lizzy, Christina, and I showing off our laundry detergent winnings at the Liberation Day Games

Big fish

This cat finally has internets!

After successfully moving once again – and finally, at least for the year – to a cute home on the water and visiting the telecommunications office at least seven  times, a man arrived last week to spend one minute installing a modem. Being without internet certainly was peaceful and good for my reading habits, but for communication and lesson planning purposes being wired is the way to go.

So now I can update mah blob!

Since I wrote last I’ve graduated from bucket showers to having an actual shower head, from my host family’s rickety bike to a new (although obviously meant for the shorter heights of the people living to my west) mountain bike, and from learning how to be a teacher to actually being one.

I started teaching last Monday: world history to four groups of seniors and geography to one group of juniors. They’re not the most participation-happy students (probably due at least somewhat to their ESL status), but they haven’t given me too many problems other than the time when one of my students said a Kahlua shot was her favorite Kosraen “food,” causing quite the uproar. The female students are also fond of wearing shirts depicting such sayings as “Future MILF,” but I think even in such classy garb they’ve been pretty interested in the prehistory topics we are covering. I certainly thought the story about the Ice Man was captivating! Oh, and I confiscated my first betel nut yesterday - definitely a coming of age moment for every Micronesian teacher.

I do enjoy being a teacher, and I think the subjects I’m teaching are well-suited for my abilities. I’m really enjoying learning about topics in world history and relaying them to my students, although it can be difficult to maintain my voice’s loudness and clarity for hours on end. The plight of teachers everywhere…

School is from 8:30 to 1:30 , and following my transformation into “Helen, certified teacher in the Federated States of Micronesia” (Yes, I am actually certified whatheheck and even managed to make a 100% on the math section of the certification test, thank you very much!) I’ve been spending a lot of my time at home or running errands to make my life/our place run smoothly here. There is lots of termite dust/poo to sweep, rats named Scat to exterminate, an extremely sweet dog named Heartz (ok so her name was Choko but I renamed her Heartz because she has a heart-shaped spot on her back) to pet, and bread to bake. I really enjoy making homemade bread here, and the results have so far not disappointed. Now it’s time to get creative!

The house is cute as a Micronesian button, the perfect size for two people with the perfect view. Peter, my roommate, and I each have our own room and bathroom as well as a water-side common room and an ample-sized kitchen to share. The best part of the house, though, is the back porch: OK so it’s actually a concrete slab, but plastic patio furniture allows us the perfect vantage point to look out over beautiful Lelu Harbor, just 10 feet away from our back door, and the jungle-ridden mountains of Kosrae in the background. We have enjoyed many a morning coffee and many an evening sunset outside. The backyard also has a plethora of coconut trees, and the front yard offers us fresh papaya. I lucked the heck out.

In the past couple weeks I’ve tried to soak in some cultural opportunities: a variety dance show, featuring girls who can really shake those hips to island music,  a traditional leaf basket making class, and an “uum” session with a local family here. An uum is an outdoor cooker (think cooking things over campfire coals but on a slightly grander scale), which produced the most delicious Kosraen food I’ve had to date: fresh baked breadfruit, juicy chicken, and turkey tail! Nom nom.

I’ve also done many not-so-cultural but still awesome activities such as observing a meteor shower from my backyard, having my host family over for dinner for some green bean casserole, and completing a 300-piece cow puzzle. Boredom is not a possibility, as long as you are creative in spending your time here :)

There have also been frustrations, probably arising from some cultural misunderstandings…but really? We learned this week that we’ve been drinking contaminated water for essentially the first month: from an unclean catchment at the high school, from another unclean catchment at our field director’s house (e coli…eek!), and for the past week from our own faucets…our landlord “forgot” to tell us the city water, not the water from the catchment, was turned on. It’s alright, though, because we got some worm/parasite pills from the hospital without having to see a doctor and fo free! The wiles still work here.

A big fat fish is for dinner tonight!

Pictures to come :)

Tu woh!

Tu woh from Micronesia!

I arrived in Kosrae about two weeks ago, but the time requirements of our intensive orientation and a very bootleg internet situation have limited my blobbing abilities. It's a relief to finally put something here!

I arrived on this island in bad shape; After traveling almost constantly for five days (with a very fun birthday stopover in Los Angeles with dem catz) my body was very confused and very tired. Fret not, though, I've more than made up for it since I've been here: I've been sleeping at least 10 hours most nights and have been having some very strange dreams!

Rick, the valiant field director of the WorldTeach Kosrae program, met me at the "airport" in a pickup truck and off we went to join the other volunteers at the high school. Note: the "airport" was two concrete-floor rooms with a very lax customs inspection process. Things are very different here. I knew they would be, and they definitely are. I don't know if I'm culture shocked yet, but it's probably coming. Darn that iceberg.

The drive to the high school provided my visual introduction to my home for the next ten months. This island is even more beautiful than I imagined or that pictures can convey. There is just one road connecting the four main "towns" on the island (more like clusters of homes and the occasional market), and it stretches along the white beach-framed Pacific with lots of coconut, mango, and papaya trees along the way. The food here literally falls from the sky. Homes and what businesses there are are mostly on this road, and the inside land is mostly beautifully untamed, thick jungle. I feel as though I live on the edge of Jurrassic Park.

We (the other seven volunteers and I) meet at the high school each day, all day, for orientation activities and teacher training. The other seven are some pretty great kids, and I feel lucky already to have their friendship and support for the year. The high school is probably the most modern building on the island, completed by Chinese contractors last year who apparently did not take the weather conditions here into account. It is a pretty nice building, but the excessive rain makes the already slippery floors very slippery. We are in the rainiest place on earth, after all. There have been wipeouts, but I take very small, very cautious steps to prevent that. We'll see how long that lasts.

Activities at orientation range from daily Kosraen language classes (I've become skilled already in the numbers and colors, thank you very much) to teacher training lessons to "cultural" activites. These are my favorite and have included learning to make a basket from banana leaves, how to husk and grate a fresh coconut, how to de-bone a freshly caught fish (sashimi is awesome here), and hikes around the island. We've swam under beautiful waterfalls, trekked through the thick of the jungle to some ruins, and spent a day snorkeling in the warm Pacific. It is pretty awesome.

My least favorite activity was a tour of the "hospital"; fingers crossed none of us get sick!

I lived with a Kosraen host family for these two weeks, and the Kineres welcomed me into their home and island with overwelming generosity and hospitality. My host father, Tensley, speaks excellent English and is always rife with important facts about this place. My host mother, Panina, is limited to the Kosraen language but has a pretty excellent laugh and dotes on me way too much. Two cute-as-a-button little girls (Moreen, age 8; and Natalie, age 7) are my host sisters, and they follow me around everywhere. I feel lucky to have these adorable little ones to call family for this year. Moreen already speakes excellent English and we read The Fantastic Mr. Fox together at night. The older brother, Haldon, seems less enthusiastic but occasionally I was able to get a word out of him. What is it with pre-teen boys all over the world?

Here are some more things that have become a part of my daily life here:

• Mosquitos. Whew, they love me! I researched and found that mosquitos are very attracted to some people's skin and not at all to the skin of others. Darn my "luck." For now I'm beating them with a daily deet dose.

• A bike with a faulty chain = my all-over transportation. My host family lent me a bike to use during the orientation period, and it's got some issues. I did feel accomplished when I learned how to re-attach the chain the first time, though. Then it started pouring.

• Lots of heat, humidity, and sweat. Summers in Louisiana have prepared me well, though.

• A whole new wardrobe: I wear long skirts and shoulder-covering shirts every day to comply with local customs. It's been a bit of an adjustment, but it's nice to not have to think or care at all about how I look. In fact, it's better if I'm not looking so great to hopefully ward off the cat-calling by local gentlemen. We white ladies are definitely a curiosity here.

• The juiciest tangerines and most delicious bananas and coconuts I'm sure I will ever have.

• Some pretty wild dogs. The dogs in Germany were strangely obedient, these are strangely untamed. They're so untamed that they will chase you as you ride your bike along the rode and growl at you menacingly. Usually yelling the word "chuck" and pretending to throw a rock does the trick. I love dogs, and I hope nothing that happens this year changes that. No weenie dog sightings yet :(

• Cold bucket showers and hair that never seems to dry. It might just be time to break out some scissors.

• Micronesian food. I eat breakfast and dinner each evening with my host family. I'm not at all a picky eater (much of this blog has been devoted to culinary pursuits), but I'm not such a huge fan of what I've had so far. The people are really unhealthy (diabetes is a big problem on the island) and much of the food is fried, made with lots of oil, or left to sit for a long time. There have been some tasty dishes, though, and the raw ingredients are certainly there. I'm looking forward to cooking on my own (yay fresh fish and crabs!) when I move.

• Kosraen donuts. Theory about every country having it's own awesome version of the donut further confirmed.

I moved out of the host family's home on a hill last night and will be living with Rick for the next two weeks while my final house is cleaned and readied by the current tenant. I'll ultimately be living with another volunteer, Peter, in what looks to be an awesome house right on the crab-ridden water on Lelu island (it's a smaller island connected to the main island by a causeway). We will each have our own room, bathroom, at least one shower head, and eventually a decently speedy internet connection!

After one more week of orientation and one week of "registration" (the high school students must come to the school to re-register each year) I'll be facing my first class of real, live high school students, who are hopefully ready to learn about their continents and Ancient Greece and Rome.

There are certainly challenges here, but these first two weeks have washed away my larger apprehensions about my decision to spend the year here. I am quite content with this island and this program. More to come from the South Pacific!

Today's the day!

In about nine hours I'll be up in the air and on my way to Honolulu and then Micronesia. While the last thing I want to do right now is get on another plane and subject my very confused and sleep-deprived body to another drastic time change, I think I'm ready to do this. I am definitely ready to stop getting "you are crazy" looks when I tell people what my long-winded travel plans in the past months have entailed.

This CATmageddon weekend is just what I've needed after too long away from my bestest friends. In the past 36 hours we've accomplished almost all of my Los Angeles faves: In-n-Out, USC (new campus center is marvelous), thai iced tea, El Cholo, and two great nights out in downtown and Newport Beach. Yes, obviously a lot of food and JOKES. Still to come is lunching with the lovely Insalatas in Redondo. With these ladies anything is possible, and I'm loving this time in the place where it all began.

I'm hoping to write more letters this year and take advantage of Micronesia's use of USPS. Letters and flat rate packages can be sent at domestic prices! (The US gives Micronesia such privileges and foreign aid, and in exchange we can build a military base there anytime we want.) I'll give my address here for anyone who's interested and would love to receive some addresses as well - I do like writing letters :)

Helen Moser
c/o WorldTeach
P.O. Box 419
Kosrae, FM
96944


Bai from this cat from delightfully sunny and traffic free Southern California - here I go!

It all ends...

I've made a couple stylistic changes to the blog - it's about time this thing got some work done! I'm fairly happy with how it looks (remember that I'm technically challenged) but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear.

Tonight is my last in Berlin, and serendipitously it's also the night Harry Potter 7.2 premieres here. Oh good fortune...now I just need to snag me one of those US posters that say "It all ends July 15"...my birthday ;)

Hustling forward to the stop

Things are a flurry of motion around me: My friend Travis is furiously cleaning his apartment and the whirring of his vacuum is my sloth symphony. These next few days will be the last I have for a while to be a laze on the couch, so that's what I'm doing. My fingers are getting a bit of exercise, though. Tonight I've booked travel plans, updated my ipod with a plethora of awesome new "gifts", and made a task list for what I need to accomplish in the next couple days, my last in Berlin.

It feels good to put fingers to keyboard again. My body has been in constant motion for the past month and I have failed to properly record my experiences, as the good blogger should. Here I put forth my July 10 resolution to chronicle what's to come with more resolve - both for you and for me.

My friend Julia left today after an incredible two weeks in Greece. Despite lost bags, cancelled ferries, and a very striking Athens we had a great time in the place where my name came to be. Rando fact: "Helen" means "light" in Greek. Not one Helen of Troy sighting, though! The cats toured the lovely capital (which totally doesn't deserve its rep as a "one day only" city) and then moved to the beautifully dramatic islands - Mykonos, Santorini, and finally Crete. Highlights included getting tear gassed, eating our weight in souvlaki and tomato balls, riding donkeys up a cliff, being told that when we dance we "make people go crazy," an epic and too-dangerous river hike, and taking pictures of all the "real" cats we saw. I hope to blog more about this (and post some pictures) as time allows. I already miss the Julzkitteh but am so excited to join her and Jencat in Los Angeles in five days!

In a little over a week I'll find myself having crossed one and a half oceans, my home continent, and over 8,000 miles to get to the place where I'll stay for a long time. I don't even want to think about the jet lag! This year has been peripatetic, next year will be settled. I'll build a home in Kosrae, Micronesia - a 42 square mile island of about 7,000 people in the South Pacific. I'll be there with seven other "young" Americans as part of the WorldTeach program. I'll be Miss Helen for the year - I'm teaching world history and geography to high schoolers there. Couldn't be more excited about my assignment :)

I'm still putting thoughts together on how to properly say goodbye to this country, this program, and to the wonderful friends I've made here. I need to buy a big journal. For now my mind is distracted with where my body will be in the next week: Berlin, Mainz, Frankfurt, New York City, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Kosrae. Stop.

Auf Wiedersehen from Germany, more to come from the stop :) And hopefully a blog facelift too!

"Wir haben auf diese Zug geschlafen."

"Bitte Entschuldigung Sie die Verspätung," or, please excuse the delay - in my updating! Deutsche Bahn and I have something in common (hopefully just this one thing). I think I have better than a 66% batting average, though :)

Since I last blobbed I have continued to move into a comfortable pace of life in Ber-lin. A lovely city, and even lovelier now that afternoons and weekends can be spent outside. Check out them freckles! And in a change from my wanderlusting ways I have actually spent most weekends here...the 9-5 doesn't allow for so much travel, and I think it's probably better that way.  Europe will always be here, and I'll be back, so for now it's about gritty and wonderful Berlin. I have even become competent enough with my surroundings to give directions to tourists - barring the one woman who I very wrongly directed to Alexanderplatz this week. Sorry! (Years in this city still probably wouldn't help my shotty sense of direction.)

In recent weeks I have explored the neighboring town of Potsdam, scoured the Mauer Park flea market for some German take-home items (my Opa will look so cute in his Bavarian hat!), toured the Spree River on a boat, visited a Soviet prison, and spent countless hours laying/picnicing/otherwise capitalizing on the presence of the sun in numerous green spaces. If I lacked Vitamin D before, now I have enough to ship.

Random German lesson: When you want to say you don't really care one way or the other about something it's "egal" or "scheiss egal" when you REALLY don't care. Doesn't egal sound like a great word to connote "whatever"? I think so. Definitely think I'm bringing that one back to the States.

Berlin is my lieblings stadt, but it is still a stadt, and I had been craving some time with nature...fortunately plans had been in the works to spend last weekend (a long weekend for Easter) down in the Süd with my good friends from the program. The 7 of us stayed in Reutlingen, a town just outside Stuttgart, in my friend Brent's student apartment and had a helluva fun weekend of what the older generation might call tomfoolery. In shorts and tank tops (finally!) we hiked the Alcham hill in Reutlingen, trained to Stuttgart for Frühlingsfest (aka the spring version of Oktoberfest, huge maßes and tents included) and spent a day exploring the sublime Black Forest - but no cake :(. I probably could have fun with that crazy group anywhere...just the nature and friend fix I needed.

Oh yea, and we slept on an empty train one night that was waiting at the station until morning? That deserves a lolz if anything does. Not the most comfortable night, but Deutsche Bahn's solution to us being totally stranded, and a great story. Made even better when we had to explain to the ticket controller the next morning why we were still using yesterday's tickets and someone in our group piped in with "Wir haben auf diese Zug geschlafen," or "We slept on top of the train."

A running theme of the weekend was how lächerlich (ridiculous) DB is, but no words can really express my rage so I won't even try.

These days when I'm not being a tomfool (?) with my friends from the program, I'm working. Work has gotten alot busier lately - I was promoted to be the assistant on a big event coming up in a couple weeks. I love them productive days and feeling as though I'm working toward something. Could still do without that commute, though, but I'm many books down on my Kindle.

Oh yea, guiz guiz I'll be spending next year in Micronesia! (It's OK if you have to wiki it - so many people have no idea what/where it is.) I'll be doing this program and serving as a full-time teacher on the island of Kosrae, which has about 6,000 people. I'm trying not to go in with expectations, but I do think I'm in for a very interesting, challenging, and hopefully rewarding year that will be very different from this one.  My Southern roots have prepared me for lots of heat and humidity, but maybe not as much as I will experience. And there will be lots of pictures of me in a muumuu up on this thing next year, that's for sure. But that's not even scratching the surface. More to come on that as the time gets closer.

In the next few weeks: my life devoted to work, a road trip to Krakow (!), and the final seminar of this program right here in Berlin. 75 Americans roaming the streets? uh oh. 

Bitte Entschuldigung Sie die Verspätung

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

Long-overdue updates to come :)

A Berlin bahn metaphor

I'm one of those people who loves to celebrate "sorta" holidays, and last week had three! Did you miss them? They would be pi day (3/14), the Ides of March (3/15) and of course St. Patrick's Day (3/17). Unfortunately I neither had pie nor did any math on pi day...but to balance things out I did not meet the same fate as Caesar the next day. And then there was St. Patty's. It's not much at all celebrated by actual Germans: I was the only one wearing green in my office but decided it would be a tad bit unprofessional to go around pinchin'. But like every big city, Berlin has its share of Irish pubs and we went to a great one. I paid homage to my "O'Shee" middle name and hopped along to a live Irish band while drinking cider and Guinness in a large top hat.

Last weekend was again delightfully busy. I hosted my German friend Chiara for the weekend, and highlights included going to a large Roman-style indoor swimming pool, eating at a Canadian pizza place with delicious sweet potato pizza and spicy maple syrup, traipsing through the main sights of Berlin at night, and again visiting the inevitably crowded Mauer Park flea market. I have big plans to show up at 7:30am one weekend to buy all my souvenirs...and so I can actually walk through the place. Another happening thing in Mauer Park: on Sundays hundreds (or thousands?) of people show up to watch karaoke at the park's amphitheater. I'm thinking it might be time to warm up the vocal cords and sing "You're So Vain."

One thing that has become very evident to me about Berlin is how much of a place in progress it is. I imagine if I would come back in 10 years (and I will!), this city may be drastically different. Still only 20 years from the fall of the wall, Berlin is wavering between two identities: the largest and capital city of the most powerful country in the European Union and an alternative haven where street art reigns, unemployment is 17%, and cost of living is still pretty darn cheap. It will be interesting to see which identity, if either, more defines Berlin in the future. For now, though, I'm living in the in between and loving it.

It's a bit of a funny metaphor to make, but this divide can be witnessed on the two main forms of transportation here: the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. (S-Bahn stands for schnellerbahn or  the "faster train" that runs mainly above ground and U-Bahn stands for untergrundbahn or "underground train"). I take the S-bahn to and from work every morning, and it's a bit more of a distinguished experience. My fellow riders usually look very put together if not outright professional, the train is clean and quiet, and the most interesting thing that happens is maybe a saxophone performance. Then there's the U-Bahn. The trains and stations are dirtier, people talk loudly and animatedly, and there are a whole lotta interesting people and curiosities to watch. One of my favorite parts about going out here is taking the U-Bahn back to my station later in the night. Last weekend I witnessed a girl carrying around a huge stuffed platypus and waving it around in people's faces.

The people who make up this city are quite interesting...many of the people I have met are just here, for only the reason of wanting to be, without a job or school. So many have told me they came to Berlin to find themselves, or just to party, or to find themselves while partying. I'm happy to have my not-so-gainful employment, but I also like the idea of finding myself more in a place like this. Unfortunately, though, I don't think better German speaking ability will be one of the things I will find: The incredible amount of English spoken in Berlin means I have gone entire weekends without hearing much German at all on both the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn :/

Compartmentalizing Berlin

Like the bears that are their city's symbol, Berliners crawled out of hibernation this weekend and into the streets. Excluding the ridiculousness of Oktoberfest and Karneval, I've never seen so many Germans in one confined place as I saw in Mauer Park on Sunday. This city is alive!

The weekend for me was all about embracing the tease of spring. On Saturday I spent the afternoon lolling around Kreuzberg, weaving in and out of interesting stores. Kreuzberg is a neighborhood in the south of Berlin that has a delightfully grungy feel that screams "Berlin!" (Another expression I've started thinking about using, if not actually doing so, is "that's so DDR!"...but I'm not sure if that's PC just yet?) Anyways, Kreuzberg is the go-to hipster locale in this city, although non-hipster identifiers like myself still feel welcome. There are lots of ethnic eateries shoulder to shoulder along the streets, small boutiques showcasing Berlin designers, and tons of book stores. That afternoon I also catered to my obsession with Taiwanese beverages and had an amazing coconut milk tea. It's been too long since I had at least one a day in Taipei.

Saturday evening a friend from the program had some of us over for a good ole' barbecue at his apartment's rooftop deck. It was just not cold enough to sit outside with our eats...bratwurst and burgers for everyone else and grilled sweet potatoes for me. Like a typical southerner I love me some sweet potatoes, so I didn't feel as though I was missing out (too much). I'm really looking forward to spending lots of time outside in the coming months...and hopefully losing some of this perpetual paleness. I tried out some German self tanner lotion this weekend, and now exactly half of my body has a fake sunkissed glow :/

Sunday my friend Tara and I strolled around Prenzlauerberg. I've decided the best way to get to know Berlin is through a compartmentalization strategy, one neighborhood at a time.  Prenzlauerberg is the next stop over from Wedding, where I live, with lots of cute cafes and shops and now...gasp...outdoor seating! We strolled until we stumbled into Mauer Park, which apparently is the place to be Sundays. We pushed our way through crowds at the flea market to check out the wares and then had a shotgun picnic on a rock. I find it comical that 60 degrees and gray skies would be regarded as crummy weather in Los Angeles, but here it is bliss. Perspective.

My cultural Berlin Sunday wasn't over...another friend here won a couple spots on the guest list to a literary reading and discussion at SoHo house, a swanky members-only club. The author was Claire Messud, who I had never heard of until yesterday, but the reading convinced me that she's worth reading - and so did my friends at the New York Times :) Fabulously our winnings included a copy of her book The Emperor's Children (y'all know how I love the free stuff!) so I will be starting that soon.

Later we met up with another friend for a beer happy hour at a hostel followed by a screening of a documentary called Jakarta-Berlin. The premise is a guy's land-only journey from Jakarta, Indonesia to Berlin. I love anything Southeast Asia, so I enjoyed the film (and especially its culinary aspects), although we only made it to Kazakhstan.

It's pi day today, and I recommend celebrating with some math and some pie...I have some good memories from my high school math club experience of this day :)  And that also means that I  have exactly four months left on this program. Really?

A bunny with a facebook and other stories from FASTNACHT

 I have spent these past few days mostly resting from the debauchery that was my time at Fastnacht...the Louisianans and the Germans should meet up some time, I think they would throw a pretty great party together. I don't know if the world could handle that, though.

I left Berlin last Friday after work to catch a quick flight to Frankfurt and a brief train to Mainz to meet up with Chrissy and start the celebratin' (or festin' as would be more appropriate to say here, but Germans don't get the southern twang anyways). I knew it would be a good weekend when I plopped down right across from a weenie dog on the Sbahn to the airport :)

Friday night we met with some of Chrissy's work friends and headed to a party. I quickly donned my first Fastnacht look, that of a flapper girl with fishnet tights and a feather on my head. Probably my favorite thing about Fastnacht is that everyone is dressed up in outlandish costumes, every day, all the time. After 18 years of clamoring for shiny Mardi Gras beads to add festival pizazz to my plain clothes, wearing costumes made it feel more like a week-long Halloween than anything else. That night we encountered Scottish folk in kilts, the cast of Sesame Street, and what sticks out most in my mind: a huge scary bunny, who has a facebook page. At Fastnacht there is always something curious to look at.

The next day was focused on one thing, and one thing only: Americaaaaa. Chrissy can get herself and friends onto the American Military Base in Wiesbaden, complete with a food court of everything gross and wonderful about the US: Taco Bell and Popeye's. We nommed endlessly for hours. Free drink refills! Incredibly slow counter service! Delicious yet suspicious "Mexican" food! Red beans and rice and a biscuit! They import everything on that base from the US, huge SUVs in the parking lot included. For that brief sojourn I may as well have been back in America, and technically was, I think?

Sunday we went to the home of a very nice German couple and enjoyed a delicious homemade traditional lunch before heading to a parade in a small community in Mainz. (Side note: the husband greeted us wearing a shirt that said "Eat. Sleep. Karaoke." My kind of people.) In Germany parades are called zugs, which means "trains." How's that for German literalness? Lots of marching bands, dancers, and small floats whizzed past, throwing out candy and, in large quantities, bags of sweet popcorn. I was a "scary" bunny with the aid of hot pink tights and a furry mask - the scary part came because the gross bunny teeth fit right over my own when I smiled. Creepy.

After the parade we returned to the city to take in the festivities in the main square, which quickly turned into a huge outdoor dance party. We danced to German favorites like this. (I highly recommend clicking on the link and learning the motions to the song. So fun).

Rosenmontag is the Fat Tuesday of Germany, the day when it all goes down. We awoke early to catch the big parade going through town and spent the day just doing whatever Mainzers do...which seems to be mostly just wandering through the streets. I was a Native American and met many more...and got to take pictures with Cookie Monster (om nom nom!) and some nuns. The next morning I joined Chrissy at the home of a German family with two excessively cute daughters and watched her march in another small parade before heading back to Berlin. Whew. That's three parades in three days, lots of Taco Bell, and endless celebrating. I'm still tired.

What's better: German Karneval or Mardi Gras in Louisiana? The program would instruct me to say that one is not better, not worse, just different. To be honest, though, I had a great time at Karneval but found myself longing for the Louisiana traditions I've come to love: floats on 18-wheeler truck beds, catching armfuls and neckfuls of colorful cheap beads, King Cake. I guess we like what we know.

In recent news, I've had my last curry wurst for at least 40 days. Wanting a bit of a challenge, I decided to give up meat for Lent this year. Where better to do so than a country whose diet is centered around it? Wish me luck.

Amidst some lovely weather this week, Berlin's transit workers went on strike. I wasn't much affected, apart from being utterly confused and 45 minutes late to work one day. There was craziness on the tracks, though. Germans yelling in German is not so soothing to the ears. Now on to the weekend...

Humming along on the S1 nach Wannsee

I always hope in the mornings that my favorite Berlin transit music duo will step on the S1 nach Wannsee and strike up the saxophone and guitar. So far they have graced us with excerpts from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," The Beatles' "Let it Be" and Billy Joel's "Honesty." Some favorites. I'm no music critic, but it makes me happeh, and I can never help humming along. It's the little things.

Yesterday I got out of work a bit early and decided to check out a traditional Turkish bath, or "Hamam." (Germany has a large Turkish immigrant population, so such things are common, as well as lots of places serving döner and other Turkish foods). The Hamam came recommended from a website I like here, and really I just wanted a couple hours of total warm. Definitely a neat experience. It was located on the second floor of an unassuming building in Kreuzberg, down the hall from a karaoke place and a gym. But upon entering I found myself in an ornately decorated lobby space that led to two bathing chambers. Now of course I heard "bath" and thought of small pools like the ones in Hungary, but a Hamam is really heated steam rooms with raised stone ledges around faucets. You are given a small bowl to fill with water and wash yourself as you please and then lay on the heated stone. Men are verboten most of the week, so it was just the ladies. It's a nice concept...traditionally women go with family members or friends and bathe each other. I relaxed and warmed to my heart's content while hearing lots of Turkish chit chat around me. Apparently I need to get a lot more comfortable being naked around strangers, though...I blame the nuns for that one!

When friends from the US or here ask me about where I work in Berlin, I often jumble my words (in German or English!). Luckily, I spotted this NYT article in the lobby that does an excellent job of it. Even though the article is from 2003, things seem to be pretty much the same at the AAB, at least from my vantage point in the basement.

Oh what would I do without the NYT? Bring on that pay wall, cause I will definitely shell out the dough for an unlimited subscription.

A totally American weekend, po-boy included

With a great weekend behind me and a high of 48 degrees today (!), I can feel myself slipping deeper into a love affair with this city. Berlin is still awesome while frigid, but on days where I do not have to use my morning commute to defrost the tips of my ears I can enjoy it even more. Working in a villa on a lake isn't so bad either on days like this...

I'm still on a post-food high. I had the pleasure of welcoming three good friends from the program this weekend, and we made it our mission to check out some dining hot spots with rave reviews on authenticity. I never thought the day would come, but I had amazing Mexican food in Germany! The locale: Maria Bonita, a tiny sit-at-the-counter place that reminded me much of somewhere I went last spring in Hermosa Beach. It is owned and operated by an ex-pat Texan, who chatted us up while serving us delicious margaritas, tacos with homemade corn tortillas, fresh guacamole and salsa with actual spice. We were all euphoric and a bit in disbelief. 

On Sunday we had another great success, and one for me that was close to home. Having read about New Orleans Haus (but a bit wary because of other botched experiences with "authentic" Louisiana cuisine), we walked through the lovely sunny streets of Kreuzberg to find the location along Görlitzer Park. Walking into the small restaurant was like entering a place in the French Quarter...bare wood tables with elegant chairs, a ceiling fan turning softly, hot sauce bottles on prominent display, the guy in the kitchen wearing an Abita Beer shirt. I never thought I would have a fried shrimp po-boy in Germany (my last meal before leaving my home state...remember, Katherine?) and this place rocked this southern girl's world. It was opened recently by a real Louisianan, and all the dishes my friends had (gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish etoufee, macaroni pie) tasted just like home. The owner has even contracted a German butcher to make andouille sausage for him and imports the seafood from the Gulf. Now that's legit.

Such places are why Berlin is awesome. But I realize this isn't a food blog, so now moving on to some things that don't involve eating: on Saturday my friend Chrissy and I went to an awesome costume store (with a line to get in, whoa!) to buy some things for Karneval next weekend. An hour later I emerged with a black flapper dress, hot pink leggings, a cat mask, and a bunny mask complete with buck teeth. Should be a great time...I'll be visiting Chrissy in Mainz to celebrate German Fastnacht (or Karneval, or Fasching...from my understanding a huge celebration before Lent similar to Mardi Gras that's named differently in each region in Germany). I look forward to donning my costume pieces in whatever combination for what should be some awesome street parades and parties. Time to see how what these Germans do stands up to what my home state is known for.

The weekend also included a fun party thrown by a friend from Taiwan and then a birthday celebration for a friend in the program. I provided the birthday cheesecake with bananas foster...I've become quite the baker here now that I have a richtig kitchen, even though the conversions are a bit difficult for math-challenged me. If only I could go back in time and bring a measuring cup instead of all those seldom-used tank tops! Hindsight is 20/20, and I was a fool.

I'm relishing living in a place now where visitors are happy to come...Berlin is definitely a destination, and I have plenty of floor space in my wohnung. I love seeing my good friends from Bremen, laughing a helluva lot, and being able to talk about the joys and challenges of living here. My friend Brent put it well when he says he feels "one dimensional" in German. So having a weekend with some Amerikaners and feeling totally 3D is quite nice.

Some musings on this nomadic life

I'm now over the halfway point in the CBYX program, with under five months to go living in Berlin. When this experience is through, I'll have spent about 19 months of my 22 years living abroad. And things are looking now as though I'll be off to another faraway land for next year (sorry, mom and dad). Someplace warm!

When I was younger I romanticized the idea of life in a foreign country...maybe because I felt so confined by my southern town I pictured myself working for the State Department or something similar where my existence would be permanently nomadic. I've obviously got the wanderlusting gene, and I've catered to it in the past few years. It's given me alot of perspective on this big world, and it's also just been fun.

No regrets. And I'm excited to go somewhere even more different next year and throw myself totally into that experience. But when Germans ask me "Do you see yourself coming back and working here?" I often have to stop myself from yelling something akin to "Hell nah!" in lieu of a more polite and vague answer. But confession: my honest answer is No. I like living in Germany, I like learning German, and I even like making a fool of myself sometimes trying to do those two things. But I know I want to live in the United States long-term. Hopefully my future will include lots of traveling, but I want a home base with an American zip code.

Not only has going abroad showed me so much about what this world has to offer and how other people live, but it has also made me appreciate so much more the US and life there. Cliché, much? I want to live in the place where I completely understand the language and the random cultural references, and where I am completely understood. I want to be where my Seinfeld lines will be appreciated, where I can take part in the holidays and traditions I grew up with (even random stuff like Groundhog Day), where buying lots of groceries and driving home is the norm, etc. etc.  Of course the US has got its issues (who or where doesn't?) but they are issues I know well. Insert the most famous line from The Wizard of Oz here.

For now, though, I like this being young and mobile thing.

Another obligatory weather.com screenshot and the week that was

I think this upcoming week may be the coldest yet of my time in Germany so far...wunderwar! Thirteen degrees?! (Also, some excellent advertisement optimization by Westin Hotels haha). But I realize I gripe about the cold way too much, so here are some positives:

1. I'm building character...or so says that saying that enduring cold weather builds character. My boss (who is German) disagrees, though. She says growing up somewhere warm and sunny leads you to be more vibrant and open to life's experiences. Interesting.

2. Enduring cold weather with others promotes solidarity...the same way waiting in a really long line at a grocery store with an extremely slow checker-outer (?) does...had that experience yesterday at Real. Having something basic and common to commiserate about can be an ingredient in social cohesion and maybe even the forming of a friendship.

3. The cold helps me to run faster when I go out for a run because I want to get back into the warmth as quickly as possible.

4. Always looking like a marshmallow is sexy?

OK so I'm grasping at straws here. For now I will continue to rock the down but dream of sun...an unsarcastic positive of this is that I now really appreciate more the quality of life that good weather provides. I've definitely been spoiled.

My commutes have gotten alot better now that I have a wealth of great books for my Kindle. I'm spending 45 minutes each morning and evening with Mitch Albom and Jon Krakauer and enjoying it immensely :) Germans always stare at the Kindle, though. Germans stare at everything.

This week I checked out a cool East Berlin pizza hall with some friends, went to a traditional market with some great food stands (will definitely be going back), and last night hosted a pretty successful cats-style wine pawty. There might not be Two Buck Chuck here in Germany, but some super cheap bottles of Riesling and Shiraz allowed the event to translate well over the Atlantic. Also, I highly recommend this brownie recipe...what would I do without the New York Times? With no Betty Crocker to turn to, I might just be a pretty good baker when this year is done :)

Happy Valentinstag!

A very happy Valentine's Day to all my loves around the world!

 The requisite weenie dog valentine...makes me smile :) Unfortunately Valentinstag is not so popular here in Germany, but I brought a little love to my office in the form of some Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookies. I've been saving the mix (shipped from good ole America) for the right occasion, and they have been well-received. Cookies here are hard as rocks, a co-worker informed me. Germans school us in other baked goods, though. I will definitely miss bakeries with amazing fresh bread and pastries on every corner. And still to come on the baking front: some delicious-sounding coconut brownies from a NYT recipe. 

This past weekend I again made the pilgrimage to Dolores, the might-as-well-be Chipotle, followed by a Mexican restaurant with some pretty legit Piña Coladas. I figure that even though outside is as far from tropical as one can get, simulating it with food and beverages is the next best thing. 

A tale of failing miserably as cultural ambassador: At said Mexican restaurant, I stood up to leave and bam! there went my head knocking into the huge metal Aztec mask above me. The mask became unattached on one side and teetered precariously as everyone in our part of the restaurant stared, cheered, and clapped.Cheeks burning I attempted to gracefully exit, a moot point then. Hilarity. 

The weekend also included a night of macaroni and cheese making followed by some fun ausgehen with friends. Macaroni and cheese just doesn't taste the same without cheddar (it's pretty hard to find and expensive here), but it'll do pig, it'll do. I also did something cultural on Sunday and checked out The Kennedys Museum. It's a fairly small exhibit right on Pariser Platz near the Brandenburg Gate, and very well done with lots of beautiful photos of the Kennedy family at various stages. The Germans really embraced JFK during his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" visit...one thing that sticks out to me from the museum is the Jackie Kennedy quote in which she said her husband's most famous words were not in his own language.

Have a lovely love day everyone!

Just a little bit of Mr. Sun

After another week in Berlin I'm doing much better finding my way around. With an area of 344 square miles (thank you, Wikipedia!) doing so can be quite overwhelming. My commute to work every morning is about one hour door to door, with 45 of those minutes spent on the S-Bahn.  I've attempted with resolve to productively sleep during that time (Wannsee, where the American Academy is located,  is the last station on the line -  a sleeping me would be kicked off the train rather than missing my stop!) but that failing I've turned to reading an Agatha Christie novel and some Brothers Grimm stories on my Kindle. I'm also actively soliciting more book or hobbies-that-would-fit-on-an-S-bahn-seat suggestions!

The weird continues...after working late one night this week for a film screening I was almost chased by a drunken man and then just missed stepping on a plastic hand in the street...which I thought at the time was real, of course. What is it with random hands and this city?

Mr. Sun decided to show his glowing face for precisely five hours this week and it was glorious. Most of that time I was unfortunately sitting at my desk, but even just the taste of spring has made me oh-so-excited for the warm months ahead. I've just returned from our weekly buffet lunch with the fellows here (amazing) and a very nice wife of one of the fellows from Stanford (a fellow sorta Californian, yay!) said her attitude is that she wasn't even expecting sun at all this week, so what we did have was great. I need to adopt that attitude. Sigh. I've heard Berlin in summer is glorious and I've just about had it with my down coat - I sure hope that groundhog is right with his early spring prediction.

Last Saturday I checked out the Deutsches Historiches Museum, which currently has a temporary and somewhat controversial exhibit on Hitler and the populist society that supported him. It was incredibly packed on that Saturday afternoon. The New York times did a story on the exhibition back in October...it's the first of its kind in Berlin with tons of Nazi paraphernalia and items like Hitler's gradeschool pictures. I found it to be interesting and also a bit chilling. And I was in lots of company - the small exhibit was incredibly packed that afternoon.

The weekend's activities also included a couple fun nights out with friends, including a trip to a great Thai restaurant (green curry and Thai ice tea - heck yes!) and a "pay what you want" wine place. You go and drink all the wine and order all the food you want, and then at the end of the night decide what you want to pay for everything - an interesting economics (and moral) experiment - and also great fun.

I always laugh a bit here when I meet Germans and they ask with a look of bewilderment: "Why are you learning German!?" It seems that alot of Germans (and especially Berliners...who are especially good at English) can't understand why we Amerikaners would want to embark on learning their "ugly" and "not useful" language (the quotes are there because those are things I've heard from Germans). It's too easy here to just speak English...I'm afraid of my German going down the tubes, especially since much of my work is now in English. I put a very short posting on a local university's sprachenzentrum website last week seeking a German speaking partner and now have about 30 responses...what the heck?! I didn't realize what a commodity my English als Muttersprache would be. So now I'm completely overwhelmed - should I interview these people?!

Live reindeer, a burrito, and a huge hand

I've been in Berlin for about a week now, and this city is rocking this former Erfurt resident's world. I think I'm sometimes in denial about how much I love huge cities - so many interesting and diverse people, so much great food, so many things to do - but this city doesn't even need to grow on me the way Los Angeles did. For the next six months I know I will be happy to be overwhelmed with all that Berlin has to offer.

Some observations about my new home:

- The tap water here is wayy worse than that of Erfurt. I'm a bit of a tap water snob because Baton Rouge has apparently the second best tap water in the country? The water here reminds me of Los Angeles water, and that's not a good thing. Now I understand better why Germans judge the heck out of people who order tap water. I guzzle water so I'ma need to invest in a Brita.

- It's really cold. Berlin is always one of the coldest cities in Germany at any given time, and especially so on the outskirts where I'm working. I've given way too many "oh my gosh it's cold" gasps in the past week and a half. Tomorrow's Groundhog Day, though, so maybe Punxsutawney Phil will prophecy us an early spring.


- It's so nice to finally be able to see movies in English again. Berlin has a huge movie theater that mostly shows movies in their original form - aka all in American English. Black Swan, anyone?


- I really need to start liking electro music. ASAP.


- So far in the past week I've had many-a-serving of falafel, delicious Vietnamese food, a burrito that seriously may as well have come from Chipotle, and what is claimed to be Berlin's best curry wurst. This city has everything, and I'm so excited to attempt to try it all...and then start training for another half marathon haha. 


- The people here are just...interesting. I love even seeing what people are doing on the metro: drawing intricate sketches, playing the accordion, rapping auf Deutsch. And I came home the other day to find my roommate (a theater student) making a HUGE hand just to have for herself.  I'm definitely embracing  the randomness.


- And, lastly, this is an example of some art in Berlin:

Last week I went to see this exhibit at the Hamburger Bahnhof, featuring twelve reindeer, twenty-four canaries, eight mice and two flies. Check out the concept at the link. Very, very interesting...and hey, I got to see some live reindeer!


I started my internship today, and while I'm really excited about it I'm going to attempt to be professional and keep the blogging to a minimum. I think I'm in for a very interesting five months, with lots of opportunities to get my brain working and to meet some very intelligent people. Yay for employment! It's been awhile.


P.S. This was also on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof:

Alles Gute in Berlin

I have to spend today waiting around for the gepack service to bring round those two embarrassingly large bags, so I thought I'd take the time to share some photos of mah new place:

I love how light and big my room and the kitchen are, and how much space there is for all the nick nacks I've accumulated. I also love that I have a balcony, which I'm sure I will enjoy mightily during the summer months - alas, I must keep the door shut now. And I really like everything the girl I'm renting from has left me - I sorta feel like I'm living in an indie Anthropologie. I already really feel at home and am looking forward to the other bags arriving so I can really put everything in its place (fingers crossed they actually come...you never know with Deutsche Bahn or its services gahhh).

I'm living in Wedding, a neighborhood just north of Berlin central that is heavily Turkish (= lots of good food opportunities). My apartment is just a five minutes walk from the Gesundbrunnen Center, a large shopping mall with a Kaufland (see the megastore entry), an Aldi (grocery store owned by the same company as Trader Joes!) and...gasp...the German version of Wal-Mart! Plus there is a U-bahn and S-bahn stop right there. So alles gute.


Update: My bags just came! Weeeeeeee

Packing it all up and moving it out (with some help)

I’m writing this entry from a train currently travailing between Erfurt and Berlin. I would say that I feel a mix of emotions right now if that were true, but it’s not. Mostly I’m just excited to be on my way to Berlin and rid of my über critical Erfurt roommate! (Some Germans fit that stereotype too well, and she most certainly was one of those people).

Yesterday I happily watched as a buff German guy from the gepack service came to take my two embarrassingly large suitcases from my apartment. I felt a pang of remorse for him as even he struggled to lug them down the stairs. Oh how will I get my stuff back to the US? Don’t even want to think about it!

I arrived home in Erfurt on Friday after a fun but exhausting mid-year seminar week in Cologne. The week included probably too many late nights and long days of information and excursions, but it was a blast to see my Bremen family and friends from other places again.  Cologne isn’t really a pretty city but it’s definitely a fun city, so we made the most of that.

A highlight of the week was getting to see my first coal mine! A Unesco-recognized World Heritage coal mine, to be exact (otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have cared). We learned about how the miners faced really rough conditions, including being forced to bathe in black swimming pool water every day that “kept their delicate parts inWisible!” (The tour guide was a hilarious German chap whose English was even more hilarious). The coal mine also featured the escalator voted “World’s Best Escalator of 2007.” Random, much? But other than some orange lights it didn’t really rock my world the way I would expect the world’s best escalator to do so.

Oh, and I am now happily a GIZ tote bag richer! (To be used here and then probably tossed before I return to the US).

I’m really looking forward to what awaits me in Berlin, even the mundane stuff that comes with moving to a new place. The next time I update I will for sure be able to tell where the closest Deutsche Bank is, where the best place is to buy my groceries, and naturally also the best places for some German imbiss (although I’m off the sausage for awhile).

Pictures of my new wohnung to come!

Hungary, where the goulash flowed

I didn’t go hungry in Hungary, that’s for sure! (Sorry, I just had to do it).

While I am now a bit relieved to be back in a land where I do not have to use so much charades communication, my tour of the East was enlightening and very enjoyable. I pretty spontaneously took a pleasant flight from Berlin to Budapest, where I met up with Chrissy for some Hungarian fun.

Upon arrival at my hostel I received some excellent news (especially since I get excited when I get anything as small as a bag of popcorn free). The hostel had overbooked my small budget room, and would I mind being upgraded fo free to a full size apartment with living room and kitchen? NO. Vegas-style upgrade and the digs were awesome.

We pulled ourselves away from the place of our good fortune to have dinner at an amazing- and cheap – Hungarian all-you-can-eat and drink buffet. The goulash and Hungarian wine were flowing for the next 3.5 hours.

The next morning we awoke early for the must-sees: the chain bridge, Castle Hill, the parliament building, St. Stephen’s Basilica, etc. Budapest is separated into Buda and Pest by the Danube River and in addition to being a lively city it is also a beautiful one. And I really got the sense – unlike in some other European capitals – that it is a breathing city where real people work and live.  For lunch we visited the huge Market Hall, with vendors showcasing lots of paprika, and had Hungary’s version of fried bread called Langos. It reminded me of Navajo fry bread, so I was happy.

Then it was time to take in a beloved Hungarian tradition: the thermal bath. I had especially been looking forward to this, as the picture of one of the big spas in my Europe on a Shoestring book suggested I should be. No one going to Budapest should miss out on the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath.

The theme of my Hungarian vacay was confusion, and this spa was probably the most confusing experience we had. How to pay? Where to go? Does this labyrinthine hall lead to anything? We had no idea, but once we figured it out we were able to spend three hours enjoying the copious indoor and outdoor baths. The outdoor was my favorite for sure: See pic below and notice steam coming out of water that just gave the whole thing an unreal feel.

That night dinner at HUMMUS BAR, a recommendation from a USC friend, lived up to expectations with delicious hummus and all the trimmings. Darn I miss Trader Joes hummus now. 

The next morning we trained to Eger, a smaller town that is known to be the capital of the Hungarian wine region. Budapest is such a world city that I didn’t necessarily feel different than I would in say Vienna, but in venturing outside the city I really felt I was seeing a different part of the world.  Things appeared pretty desolate outside my train window – in some cases there just seemed to be nothing.

In Eger we stayed at a lovely pension above the city with a German-speaking owner (the communication, we had it!) and used our short time there wisely to see the town and the wine area, of course.

 As one might expect, mid-January is not peak wine tasting season.  What that meant for us was that the entire place (called the Valley of the Beautiful Women) was completely lacking of tourists - a bit eerie but also a bit refreshing.  The area is known for a type of red wine called “Bull’s Blood” that is supposed to have magical qualities? We traipsed to three wine caverns deep underground, tried lots of delicious and cheap wine (they will fill any plastic container you bring for about $2), and attempted to communicate with the owners - English hasn’t really made it to those parts. Then we happily went to the local thermal baths, where we stuck out like we Americans tend to do and were easily the youngest bathers by 40 years.

Chrissy bid me adieu the next morning and I trained it to Tokaj, a wee wee town further into the wine region known for its whites. With only 8,000 residents and not a tourist in sight I walked around the small town without seeing anyone until I popped into a wine cavern to taste. Definitely an interesting feeling. I enjoyed my day of solitude, though, only interrupted by a drunken man who stopped by my table to give me a sloppy hand kiss. Ewww.

On my solo walk through Tokaj I came upon a sight that made me giddy and I sketchily took a picture: A local man was walking through a park with a huge dog in one hand and a weenie dog in the other! I think he has a good idea – the best of both worlds. And they seemed to be good friends.

The next day after a train fail (involving me being incredibly confused by all the fast Hungarian and standing out on a track like a lost puppy waiting for a train that wasn’t coming) I made it back to Budapest for one more night. The absolute highlight was discovering the Hungarian version of Chipotle, which, surprisingly, was really good. Fresh guacamole? Heck yes. With a stomach full of Mexican – finally – I flew back to Cologne for a week of PPP shenanigans. 

* Danke to Chrissy for some of the photos in this post!