Why are Hipsters so Tall?

Other titles considered for this post:

We know you're from Seattle

Three concerts, zero pictures

I had to throw away the olives to stop myself from eating them (this one is a little long)

In the past week, I have gone to three pretty good concerts in Berlin. I've seen a lot more music here than I normally do. I've been more proactive and shows are more accessible. You don't need wait logged-in to ticketmaster or buy some sketchball stub-hub deal.

I take really terrible pictures are concerts. My pictures are mostly ok considering most come from my phone and I've never taken my camera off the default settings. 

But concerts are another story. Let's say the problem is primarily due to my height. The only way I can get a picture of the stage is if I fully extent my arm at such an angle that I can't even see the screen. Issue 2: I somehow always manage to time my shot when a funky lighting thing is going on. Which would be awesome if I wasn't also underexposing or using my own crappy flash. Don't forget I'm impatient and lazy. I will not hold my arm in the air for an entire song to take a photo. And because I can't see the stage I often take my shot the moment when someone is facing the other way or taking a drink of water.

So for illustrations of my entertainment from the past week I recommend using your imagination. But in case you don't believe me here's a link to the pictures I took (not even worth embedding a slide show).

The first was Bright Eyes. It was the evening we got back from a fun weekend in Budapest and I've seen them a few times around New York so it wasn't so exciting. It was still a good show but we knew there was more to come.

Next, we went to see TV on the Radio. We spent the afternoon on a boat party with our coworkers and unfortunately had to disembark for the concert. At one point on the ride I was having such a great time I considered skipping the show but luckily Randi really wanted to go. The concert was great! I was exhausted from a crazy day but it flew by. Max advised and I agreed that the band is great on stage, really lively and interactive, and I like them even more now after seeing them in person. 

And tonight was our last concert in the series. The main show was Death Cab for Cutie, who are ok, but it was their opener I was the most excited to see. Of the three concerts we expected Death Cab to be the post popular even though TV on the Radio is probably the most famous (in our American minds).  We were right and we got there on time for that reason. it didn't really matter because 90% of the spectators were over 6 feet tall. 

The Head and the Heart were very awesome. They play all kinds of hand instruments and harmonica and violin and who knows what else I couldn't see! The folksy stuff was great with the extra pizzazz. Also, their bass drum was surprisingly deep and it seemed to emphasize how passionately they were playing. I also loved the great harmonizing that make their songs so lovely to listen to. If you like that kind of stuff you can download some of their songs gratis on their website or almost free on Amazon, my personal favorite for music purchasing.

And then Death Cab played for a marathon two hours (maybe more!) and we couldn't make it through the whole thing. They played so many songs it was a really good value if you consider the price of the ticket.

While we contemplated leaving early Randi spotted the band selling their own merch! At first we weren't sure if it was them because using a beard to distinguishing someone is like describing someone by the number of eyes they have. Also, I have only seen them from the internet since I forgot to bring a step ladder. Identity was confirmed but not a bad plan for imposter-ing if you're a dude with a good beard.

Because my pictures are always from so far away and terrible, I thought if I took a one-on-one it might not be bad. Problem is, I ruined it by being shiny from the steamy hot concert and all veiny. I used every trick in Picasa:

The streak continues.

Top Three Chairs: A Trip to Budapest

Randi and I left the office early on Friday to fly to Budapest. As I filled out my urlaub forms to leave at 1:30, I realized we don't get summer Fridays in The D! Booo. Granted, we get more vacation summer Fridays are special because those that DO show up get a combination of a super productive and playful day. Well we don't play much at work so I guess it doesn't matter.

Neither of us are much for planning trips. I compiled a google map from places that friends recommended but nothing else. Randi printed a list of recommendations from a random website. Between the two of us, all we knew was that Buda and Pest were two different places. 

Because of our unpreparedness, we arrived on Friday and set out wandering. The streets were empty, which was a little eerie. The buildings were Berlin-style large (not to be confused with tall) but many were almost black with what appeared to be soot. Randi theorized this was due to their previous reliance on coal. we both agreed that it looked cool.

While wandering, I came across my favorite chair of the trip. It was of the wooden dining room variety with a padded velvet seat. Here's a picture of me sitting in it.

After a lovely beverage on the Danube, we went to a Hungarian restaurant called Rosenstein Vendéglő. I would have taken pictures of my food but I didn't bring my camera on the trip and my phone was dead. 

(this is a recurring theme we discussed - that we have become so desensitized to travel that we don't even take normal precautions such as bringing a camera or learning the first thing about a city)

I had a lovely pea soup followed by some meat thing for my monthly dose of iron that was on some really fantastic pan fried fingerlings. We had a really great Hungarian wine made from kekfrankos grapes in the Bodri region and named after this cool looking dog. 

We were very full after dinner so we accepted our waiter's offer for Palinka. Every country has their own preferred aperitif - The theory is the alcohol helps you digest your food by cutting through your belly like a macheté. I think it kind of works and I wonder if I had an aperitif or 20 after the painful yet delicious dinner at Dovetail if I would still be permanently scarred. Probably not and I still only regret it just a little.

Before I get to the next topic, I need to disclaim that I have probably some of the most offensive looking feet ever. My pal Kevin reminded me daily that even though everyone has ugly feet, mine were a special kind of ugly. At some point in the dinner, we noticed that my right foot exploded. check this out! it's a giant. it also hurt and had some issues fitting it in my shoe. ole lefty was a good role model while righty went rogue.

Next we checked out a couple of the places recommended by Naman. First was a club Corvintetõ that from the outside seemed like a typical Berlin place with youths and techno. Turns out it had a sweet roof deck and it was a great night for sitting outside. Next we went to this other place Szimpla. We determined it was a full size apartment building, complete with Hof and Hinterhaus that was gutted and turned into this bar. 

There were all kinds of tucked away rooms and random surprises. This is where I came across my #2 and #3 favorite chairs. There was also a Pommel horse which made me think of Evan since he's good at doing a pommel horse even on a pool table. I tried to swing around for a while but then my weakling arms gave up and we went home.

Saturday, I went for a run around the Danube. Running is maybe my favorite things to do while traveling. I already like running but there are so many good distractions while in a foreign city I can go for hours until I realize I have to get home because the breakfast buffet ends at 10. For the first time ever I kind of almost got lost. I didn't get off track but I didn't know where I was! I reverted to GPS before trying to figure it out myself. Like a Tigger I could have found my way I just didn't want to.

As I talk about grocery stores in almost every post, you already know they are my second favorite thing to do in foreign cities. I found these really great cookie/cracker/granola bars called Jó Reggelt!. They were sooo good. I emailed HQ to see if they can be purchased or shipped to my area and I got this response:

Darn

We went to this huge palace in Buda, We had to climb some great steps which I missed out on my run and at the top the view was overlooking all of Pest. Turns out this is also the palace from one of the most annoying songs/videos on VIVA. It is a really beautiful palace though. We wanted to enjoy a beverage at the top but the cafe had three competing groups of panhandling musicians and between the upright bass, the xylophone, and the violin, it was not our idea of a nice time.

Instead, we went inside a labyrinth! In the entrance way of the labyrinth there was a child's birthday party. Those kids are hardcore because it was spooky inside! It was just a titch more dark than I was comfortable with so I used my phone as a flashlight. I wasn't as scared as in the Minnesota State Fair Haunted House where I would open the emergency exit door to see the creepers. Also, the floor was really uneven and there were lots of puddles from the leaky cave so I was just trying to protect myself.

Some areas seemed to be preserved and some were built up as replicas. We had a hard time telling what was old and new and then towards the end we didn't even know if they were serious. It started with these cave drawings. Next, there was this room with a wine fountain (not potable, or so they claim). And there was also this giant crowned head sticking out of the ground (reminded me of the part in Star Trek IV when they go back in time). There was one area that was barricaded with glow in the dark ropes. Didn't seem effective at keeping people or monsters on either side of the barricade. 

At the end it got really goofy. there were these "fossils" that were of cell phones and computers, so clearly they were trying to make a statement regarding our consumerism but they took it so seriously it was hard to see the point. The very last room was up a set of stairs and completely dark. I couldn't believe it was a part of the path but there was no other way to go. i cracked out my flashlight and found other people also looking for the path out. 

After the labyrinth we went to Vörösmarty tér for a beverage. There was a nice xylophone player who let all the little kids play too. He needed to learn more songs. There was also a protest but it was poorly organized so the xylophone man just moved to the side and went back to the square when they were done.

We had dinner at Hungarian place recommended by Melissa, Cafe Déryné. It had a frenchy feel and reminded me of Artisinal or Balthazar but they were serving up Paprikash.

Sunday, we went to a Bath house. Melissa recommended it and it is also one of the largest in the world. We had a vague idea of what to expect but were sure to confirm in advance that folks would be wearing swimming suits (even though Randi forgot hers and bought one in the basement of the covered market). There was a mix up in the beginning so we ended up having to barter for a bed sheet to use as a shared towel. 

The place was huge. but repetitive. and pretty normal - as normal as a bath house gets. There were about 30 pools of various temperatures with different minerals in them. Maybe if we could read the signs or knew the significance it would have been exciting but instead we just got in and out of each pool after about 5 minutes. Neither of us "relax" so when we found the room with the treadmills it was obviously where we spent the rest of our time.

We ended our weekend with a Bright Eyes concert in Berlin. The show was great and full of the crunchy folks in town. They played my favorite songs and we swayed with the hipsters.

I really liked Budapest. I liked how it shared a similar feeling to Berlin - a little beat up, rough around the edges, but still beautiful for the history. Budapest has massive and impressive structures but not the crunchiness of the inhabitants. Also, their bottled water is in GLASS bottles. Love it. The tap water was tasty but for those with special needs I'm glad they don't need to go plastic. And somehow there still isn't broken glass everywhere. Berlin, take note!

Hey! Remember When I Went to København?

Post written shortly after the trip taken in March...


Many months ago, possibly before I moved here, I made plans to meet Naman in Copenhagen. I hadn't heard much about it but my pal Ginia studied abroad there and she does cool stuff so I figured it was a good place.

Overall, Copenhagen did not impress me. OK it was a new European city (early in my travelling days) but I don't think it really had anything special to offer. It's a huge biking city with canals so in that way it's like Amsterdam. Bike after bike parked in each square and theft must not be an issue because in some cases the bikes were just parked and not locked to anything.

One of the unique things about Copenhagen is this commune-type village called Christiana. It's political status varies but basically it is self governed and Danish and EU laws don't apply (I've been informed that since I wrote this, the status has changed). They even have their own currency! 

No photos were allowed which was really a shame because it as quite a sight. There are a handful of cafes/bars where folks are drinking beers and playing backgammon. The natives closely resemble homeless folks minus the smell (although it was so smokey maybe they did smell). There were a couple old asian ladies dolled up and smoking drugs in the corner schmoozin with the homeless looking men. And then there were the folks like us that show up just to gawk at it all. We really stood out with our bright sneakers and clean hair.

Also a drawback to Copenhagen is the Kroner. It's not such an expensive city but when you're getting out hundreds of Kroners at  a time and burning through them in hours it starts to make you feel like your pockets are empty. We stayed at a hostel again but since the hotels are so expensive the hostel was full of adults and families, not just kids like us. Someone in our room smelled so bad I think it's still on me.

We heard they had a bike share program so that was high on the list. Unlike most cities, the bikes were 20DKK (about 3 Eur). We found where the bike stands were on a map and set out to get some. We looked and looked and went to a number of places where the stands were supposed to be but saw nothing resembling city bikes. We also didn't know exactly what we were looking for. Finally, we found it. The city bikes are locked in the same way that grocery carts are: Each is attached to a stand with a small chain and if you put a coin into a slot in the chain the bike is released. When you bring it back, you get your coin back. So basically these bikes cost 20DKK. Not much motivation to bring it back, right? We gave up on the bike idea and went for a boat tour instead. 

Brought to our attention by the tour guide was a small submarine on display outside of the water. "The submarine on your right was contributed by the Danish Navy to the second Gulf War. Unfortunately, the sub broke and had to return to Denmark". OK. so what were they using a sub for? and they sent a busted one? I think that was the Danes' way of saying "we don't support this war but we don't want to get on your bad side so here's an old sub we're not using." Funny stuff.

Next, the boat stopped at a statue of the Little Mermaid, created because HC Anderson who wrote The Little Mermaid was from Copenhagen. We weren't going to get off the boat but everyone else did so we figured maybe there was something worth seeing. nope. Just another small statue with tons of people taking pictures (reminded me very much of mannequin pis in Brussels). So we obviously also took a picture with it.

Also nearby was supposed to be a castle with a moat. Growing up playing Super Mario Brothers and building sand castles, I think moats are awesome and having never seen one in real life this  was going to be huge! Unfortunately, the moat really was not a foot deep and could be forged with your standard Oregon Trail wagon train. We also weren't able to even find the castle on the island because turns out it was a church. We crossed a moat for this? So here's a picture of the moat.

On thing I really liked about copenhagen was the Boxmaster, a sandwich at KFC. Now I don't think I've eaten at KFC more than 5 times in my entire life and usually then only on road trips but we went there twice in two days! The boxmaster was a spicy chicken sandwich with a rosti on it and you know I love rosti's since I discovered the Big McRosti at McDonalds.

We met some cool people at the hostel, including a kid named Max from Minnesota! He could have been the biggest crazy but I didn't care because he shared two traits with my good pal MAP. We were hanging out with him and these two canadian girls when we went to  KFC the second time. The canadians seemed disgusted with us and commented that they didn't think Americans actually ate at KFC, not to mention twice in two days. Ladies, first try then judge.

Sunday before leaving we stopped at the Carlsburg Brewery. I haven't spent much time with Carlsburg in the past because the bottle reminds me of Heinekin which I don't like. Actually, it's pretty good! I skipped the brewery tour since I've seen enough malted yeast in my day and went to the bar instead. 


Finally some beer variety! We sampled some of the products and then went back to catch our flights. We took public transit to the brewery and I was extremely impressed. Not only was it clean with very nice seats and televisions, but there is free wifi! and it's fast too. we rode the train two stops which was enough time to register an account (in Danish), log in, sync up email and scrabble. Pretty sure the train wifi is faster than the LAN connection at work. They've been talking about putting wifi in the NYC subway for a while but it would be for pay and probably busted.


I didn't take many photos but Naman did! link to Naman's album 

Insides and Bike: Busted

During our trip to Florence, I started getting chest pains. Occurring in various locations and intensities, at some points (while driving through the hills, for example) they were so intense I thought I might pass out. These continued for weeks and weeks until finally, on probably the worst possible day at work, I managed to get myself to the doctor.

I've always been good about going to the doctor so to have something wrong that I ignore for an extended period of time is both stupid and uncharacteristic. But I knew I would spend a full day at the doctor's office and that I did.

The first visit:

I took the first early morning appointment I could get, thinking I could get out of there by 9 and barely miss work. False. When I was finally called in to the doctor's office much past 10, we started with an awkward encounter, obviously. She waited for me to sit down and tell her what ailed me. I started… then realized that I don't even know this lady! So i stopped, introduced myself (…?) then continued on. 

Side bar: while Jessica was here, she developed the theory that my chest pains were related to  my stomach moving around and pushing against my other organs. Her idea made total sense to me and I was hoping it truly was something stomach related, you know, instead of any of the other critical internal organs that seemed to be paining me all and every day.

I could tell there were things the doctor would have asked me but was resistant because of the English. Instead,  I kept volunteering information to see if that's what she wanted to know, "I drink tons of coffee. I exercise almost daily. My job causes me internal and external misery. " etc.

She ordered some tests in the office and asked that I schedule and appointment to come back for a blood test. 

Next, I met with a nurse who didn't speak a lick of English. She asked my height and weight but was not patient while I put my stats into my metric converter. I blew into a tube for a while and then she hooked me up to all kinds of electrodes.

The biggest difference about German doctor offices is the lack of paper on the bed. As I write this,  I have been to four different doctors. Not one has had paper or a disposable covering. Various concoctions of towels, if you're lucky. But really it's you against the bed and it's not what we've come to know as sanitary.

I saw the doc again. She now seemed to be quite concerned. She mentioned enzymes in my heart and described them as "what you get after a heart attack". She also said there was "mucus in my organs". And said I needed to do the blood test both that day and the next. Again, it was clear to me that I would have received more information if the language issue wasn't there.

I went back out, took the blood test and waited some more. Finally, the gal at the front desk called me up. "Your blood test is fine". She told me. "OK, so should I go back and wait for the doctor?". "No, you're fine. you don't need to". Lady, I am not fine. the fact you found nothing does not mean I am healed….

I argued and insisted that I still needed to see the doctor. Finally, I did and probably because I started to become a crazy lady she wrote me a prescription and gave me a referral to a stomach doctor with the comment that she hoped it was something in there. 

I made and appointment withe the Artz für Innere Medizin und Gastroenterologie. As I waited in line to see the receptionist, I noticed she was being a jerk to everyone. Not a good sign as I intended to conduct this transaction in English. New game plan. I spoke in German as I gave her my transfer paper. She asked me in English, "what am i supposed to do with this?" then proceeded to ask the gals around if they would help me.

Finally, one lady came out to help me. She said my transfer paper wasn't filled out correctly and they had to call my doctor. The lady came back and gave me a stack of papers. She apologized that they were in German but it was all they had and I needed to complete them. I told her it was ok and I would translate them for myself. 

So I sat in the waiting room and translated word-by-word. I really wanted to understand this. and that I did. THE FORMS WERE THE PERMISSION SLIPS FOR A COLONOSCOPY. I panicked. what the heck was going to happen to me! I'm going in for these things and they don't understand me and i don't understand them...I'm sure it was an honest mistake but so is amputating the wrong leg! oh man, i was not signing these forms. 

I went back to the jerk receptionist and looked for my English speaking lady. no luck. the jerk tried to take the forms and said I couldn't see the doctor until they were completed. now I was freaking out. these are wrong! I don't even want these in my file just in case there is a mix up! I stood in the middle of the room, waiting for anyone. Finally, the doctor came out and called me in. I showed her the forms and she agreed they were wrong and I watched her rip them up. 

She was great. I explained my whole story and she walked me through the CORRECT forms for an endoscopy. She gave me a prescription for some more pills and I made an appointment to come back.

I would also like to mention the pharmacy situation. I've now picked up two prescriptions and spent €0. The copay at the first doc was €10 and that's all I've had to pay out of pocket.

Yesterday, I went back to the tummy doc in for the 'ol look around. My needs were simple enough so I managed with the receptionist on only Deutsch and she was pleasant. When the nurse called me in, she seemed to be in a rush. quickly they had me lay on the un-papered bed. She gave me a shot to knock me out and a dude came in and introduced himself, in German, as the doctor. I asked if he spoke English. He said nein and that's the last thing I recall.


I woke up super confused, in a different room, alone. I found a nurse and spoke german to her but I didn't understand her directions so I just went back to the waiting room.

I was eventually called to see the doctor again and he told me the same line - everything was fine.  People, stop telling me everything is fine because it's not. Actually what you should tell me is  that you didn't find the problem so now I have an even more obnoxious issue.

He said they were also doing a biopsy and would send it to my doctor in 10 days and he gave me an envelope to give her. He instructed me that since I was sedated, I shouldn't operate a car, a bike, or the internet.  Right, like I'm going to not go on the internet for an entire day. I already picked up wifi in the waiting room.

By the evening, my head had been clear for the entire day and I was questioning the bike rule. I had to meet a pal in Friedrichshain so I decided that I would ride my bike but be extra extra careful. And that was when my tire popped.

Scandinavia - Check!?

Last week, we had Thursday off work for Ascension and Melissa and I met her American pals (who live in Amsterdam) out in Stockholm. First, we spent a day and a half in Stockholm. Next, we took an overnight boat to Helsinki where we spent another day and a half.

Max went to Stockholm last year and loved it a ton. When we asked him what he loved about it, he was only able to cite the royal wedding. While it makes no sense to me why the wedding of Royals would be a reason, I trust Max and had high expectations for the city.

Sweden is the home of the Wasa cracker. I LOOVVEEE Wasa crackers, I celebrate their entire collection. A coworker told me about the Vasa museum which I was excited about but then it turns out it was for a big old ship and I had misunderstood his accent.

Framed picture of Royal Family in Supermarket

We arrived Thursday morning and spent a casual day around the city. Stockholm is clean and quiet. The only thing is everything has a tint of smoked fish smells. We stumbled on a festival with music and food and beverages and to my excited surprise they had Brooklyn Beer, 4 types! I went nuts. The other Americans we met thought I must really miss America but we all know it's not like I would have gotten excited about a Miller Light.

Thursday night, we were once again tricked by the bright bright sun. We went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner and realized that it was far too late to get served at the restaurant. Melissa and I ate M&M's in bed and called it a night.

Friday morning I went out for an awesome run while Melissa got caught up on work. I ran all over the city. There were good stairs to run up and down and everything had a view of the water. It was so perfect I wanted to stay out for hours! When I finally dragged myself back to our hotel I was ready for breakfast and luckily our hotel came with the best breakfast spread I've seen since Vail '06. After stuffing myself like a carry-on, we want back out for another stroll around Stockholm.  Before we knew it, it was time to catch the boat. We had walked so far that we practically had to sprint back to make it in time.

We rode the Viking Line from Stockholm to Helsinki. Even though it's only a one-night cruise, it's still a full sized ship. I pre-judged the boat based on how it was described to me and my perception of anything that just runs a shuttle back and forth. party boat.

Turns out it's more of a commuter boat than anything. We chatted with this Finnish dude that was moving home from Sweden. We sat with these other two guys at dinner who had bought a vintage BMW and were bringing it home to Finland. I kept asking my new Finnish friends which was the best country and they were passionately pushing theirs. But I begged them to elaborate and no one could! Folks, if you want to say you come from the best place be ready to back it up. And then I made friends with this Italian bachelor party staying in our hallway and they were hilarious.

The rest of the boat ride was like a typical night out but on water. There was a club with bad music and an arcade with Guitar Hero. Our room was similar sized to the palace that Ginia and I shared last year on the Carnival and along the same lines we were glad when we finally finally docked and we could get back onto land.

So there were all these ladies in these big sparkly get-up's. At first I thought they were opera singers but there were far too many of them for that. Also they were also both pushy and rude (this is a generalization, we didn't meet every single one so maybe some were polite). I asked our Finnish friend what the deal was and he explained they were gypsies. The gypsies in the Christina Aguilera video looked much prettier and weren't so rude in the elevator line.

So now let's pick up in Helsinki. Melissa and I checked in at our hotel which was a renovated prison. It operated with prisoners through 2002 but closed and was picked up by Best Western. The rooms were nice and each was made up of three former cells. The hallways maintained the prison feel and actually were a little creepy. but not as creepy as the restaurant that featured low ceilings and this unrenovated cell.

Next, we found a grocery store and ate a brick of brie on a park bench. 

Neither of us had done research (aside from my ship interrogations) so we didn't have an agenda in town.  We stopped by a farmer's market and picked up some cherries. We also saw these morel mushrooms with signs all over that said "don't eat! Poison!" We asked a lady and she told us if we touched them then put our fingers in our mouths three hours later we would die. 

We went to a different stand and asked a different guy who explained we would get sick but probably not die. I wanted him to tell us what kind of sick but I don't think he knew the words in english.

We took our cherries and sat on a dock and ate them for what seemed like hours. Next we went to a park nearby to continue our loitering. I met this great chicken and we took a picture together.

So the day pretty much consisted of us wandering from place to place having snacks and beverages. At one point we ended up in the public library! I wanted to hang out because I love libraries but Melissa pointed out we wouldn't be able to read the books so we moved on and sat outside somewhere else.

The next day, we had a few hours before our flight so we wanted to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. We did the same wandering and concluded that Helsinki was both a small and boring city.  It seemed tot to have the least in common with the other Scandinavian cities, for example there was so much litter on the ground even my favorite Gorlitzer park seemed well kept.

With this trip, I could check Scandinavia off my list. I'm ready yet for a couple reasons: I loved Stockholm and hope to go back, perhaps even this summer; I hear the fjords in Norway are where it's at and all we saw was the city; I haven't even posted about my Copenhagen trip yet!

Halfway There

Today, I start the second half of my zehn in elf (my fünfte). Although not really because October 31 is a Monday it is unlikely that I will leave on a Monday. Let's just keep saying it's the halfway point, though.

I feel like I've been here forever. Compared to when I arrived and all I knew was "Goodbye Lenin" I now I call things "Soo German" or "Sooo Berlin" (such as having a relaxing weekend, who appreciates that but the Deutsch?) but I don't really know what I'm talking about. After my first five months in New York City I was little more than a tourist; here I have exceeded that but still haven't been to one museum.

Due to some medical issues, the past few weeks have been very reflective for me. I've had to think about my priorities and put into perspective my needs and wants because apparently I can't go without sleep for days at a time anymore and I can't add hours to the day - although if our reporting system were faster, it really would add hours back to our lives.

I'm not done here, but I am accomplishing what I wanted to do by moving abroad: 

I wanted to learn about working internationally. What are the cultural differences and what are the challenges of reporting to the man behind the curtain? 

In some cases, my working relationships here are very similar to those at home. But in other cases, they are absolutely not. I was warned about people, attitudes, and the like but I thought how bad can it be? and will that even affect me? yes, it matters. and yes, it has certainly affected me. I can only project this midwestern positive attitude so far. There are certain people that I think just hate me or think I'm the biggest dummy. Sometimes I almost think they might like me! but then the next day it goes away… But also I'm learning that sometimes you won't be besties with everyone you work with (although maybe I just don't know how to read these people). 

I can't say how often I ask people if they are serious or kidding, and even after they answer I still have no clue. Also, the emoticons. Possibly the first thing I learned in school was don't ever use them. Maybe if you're chatting on AOL but in a work email they have no place. They are everywhere here and if someone gives you :) :) :) that means #@(&!*%!. 

Fortunately and unfortunately, I have also become quite familiar with the challenges of reporting to the man. There are two teams that we report to in New York, one that I was a part of and one that I was barely familiar with. I was guilty in my last role of thinking everyone could fit into the same 18 passenger van. In fact each country is like a special child that is good at soccer but needs extra help with math. It is possible to fit us all in an RV together but we won't be like the Duggars. 

I recently attended a training given by HQ to the countries in my region. We were flat out told that our needs were not a priority and were only a difficulty to our trainer. and this is supposed to be our representative? our advocate? With one statement, I picked my team. You don't need to say to our faces that you don't give a poop how much we have to do to make your life easier. 

I wanted to work directly with the businesses that generate the P&L where I have spent my last five years. In my former positions I saw everything that was going on in the world but the simple stuff I had no clue about. During my last role in New York I started to feel like I was ready to pull away from the numbers but before I did that I wanted to get a closer look so I could finish out the picture. I most definitely have a close look here. Cate sent me a sweet new magnifying glass and is quite symbolic of how granular things are.

Ok that's the work part. I also wanted to come here to live. And even though I spend most of my life at Stralauer Allee 6, I also am appreciating life in Berlin. Melissa, who I had spoken to five times before Berlin, and I do almost everything together, I have also never spent so much time alone. I have never lived alone before and not since over 10 years have I been this long without a boyfriend. This is so great for me. I love living alone and I can finally do random stuff all hours of the night and not have Kaite ask me to stop working on my halloween costume at 4AM. I sleep on the couch. sometimes because I'm too lazy to put sheets on the bed or maybe just too lazy to walk over there. I am extremely particular about composting, reusing, and recycling as Jessica learned when she was here. And I'm finally fulfilling my dream of living paper towel/paper napkin free!

I still want to have some German pals and I really wish my German was better (no one to blame buy myself for this one). I am still trying to find good veggie burgers to grill at Melissa's and a vegetarian restaurant that serves something other than salad and soup.

I am so thankful for this opportunity in Berlin and even the days where I claim to be "miserable" I am actually very happy and appreciative for every bit of this experience. I'm sad to think I only have five months left but looking forward to every single day.