"Sie ist vom Pech verfolgt " or "Bad Luck Follow her Around"

Lucky Ian makes ebe angry!

It's always hard to complain to friends & family back home about how difficult it it living your dream as an expat. But it is difficult sometimes! Obtaining visas, apartment searches, scams can seriously suck. Lately, we have been dealing altogether too much with the icky stuff.

Everyone knows Ian is the lucky one. Usually I think since I've hitched my cart to his wagon I will be safe in his afterglow. But with all of our recent troubles it is unclear if he has lost his shine, or possibly my bad luck is just rubbing off.

Yesterday, a sign from above came to tell me- nope, you guys don't have bad luck (whew!). It's just you, ebe (damn it).

It has been a lovely spring and Monday was the nicest day so far at about 83 degrees F. We had a great day where we finally found some breathing room with a free book, great lunch, and we found an apartment
(we will write about that when we actually, for real, move into the place. Can't blame us for being nervous).

Hummus Plate: grilled meats, veg, & serious fries

Ian + free book

We decided to go swimming in nearby Weissensee. People lounging around the park, a fountain in the middle of the lake, boat rentals, happy dogs....Summer! All this positivity was dashed as I put my first foot in the lake. Something stabbed my foot. Startled, I sat down -plunk!- in the water as the many curious onlookers wondered what the hell was wrong with me. Ian was also looking at me.

Weissensee

"My foot!" I gasped. "Something stabbed it." Bringing it up for the inspection- yep, blood was gushing out fo a straight puncture into the bottom of my foot. Blood dripped into the suddenly disgusting-seeming lake water. As my foot throbbed, I asked Ian for guidance. German swimmers no longer cared that I had made a little scene and now just wanted me to move so they could get in. I hobbled over to the bank and sat with one damaged foot clenched to my stomach and the other dangling in the water. Ian looked at me helplessly, frozen by the awkwardness of the situation. "I don't know." he said. Stuck with a still bleeding foot and a struck-dumb husband I tried to play down the scene. "Just go swim." Thankful to be released, he frolicked into the cooling waters and I watched him swim around as my foot bled and ached.

When he had enough fun in the water world, Ian helped me limp to the blanket as people casually stared.

(I also saw later my ass had been scraped up when I abruptly sat down on the steps so another thing to feel awkward about).
Ian admitted that the swim had been great and I evily wished him Swimmer's ear. We eventually made the long walk back to the bus and all the way home. I opted for no medical care besides neosporin & a band-aid so we will be watching my jaw for signs of stiffness (just joking mum- I'm fine). Today we have to move our bags over to the new place which will be fun with my broke foot.

BUT I did make a positive assessment of our situation. Ian has not lost his luck, it's just me.

Mystery in the Berlin Bathroom

We are lucky to have this temporary apartment to call home in Weisensee. We have really grown to enjoy the area and the place is crazy funky. There is a boar's head that the guys grandfather shot. Awesome.

The bathroom's potential is maximized, but it is literally a closet that was re-done into a bathroom. Tight! And what we were really curious about- What's behind the shower?

Use Your Hands!

We had a real "America-Fuck Yeah" eating kind of weekend. To keep up our energy while apartment searching we checked out the much hyped Dolores. Berlin has got the goods on food and cheap bites are the city's specialty, but good Mexican food is scarce. When we arrived in Berlin in 2007 restaurants billed as Mexican were more often Spanish - or not even close. Today's growing taquerias are getting closer, but pickles in the salsa, poorly treated tortillas, and an absolutely pathetic spice level still has us missing the Mexican food of home.

We were excited to try this place, based on San Francisco Mission style Mexican. We were surprised to enter and find a cooler Chipotle-style restaurant. Ian ordered a burrito with beef, awesome cream (Ian's re-named sour cream FYI), and an unusual spicy peanut sauce. I went for a burrito bowl, which most resembled nachos with house-made corn chips, corn salsa, and mole tofu. Innovation & flavor! Not authentic to Mexico, but some seriously tasty food for under 5 euro. Dolores, we are in your debt.


On Saturday we ended up at another joint billed as Americana. The Bird has a bit of a kick-ass attitude and tells it's diners how to eat. In all fairness, Berliners, and Germans in general, appear to have a serious deficiency when it comes to dining. They won't use their freakin' hands!  The Bird addresses this:


"Note: Burger eating does not require a fork and knife
It ruins the burger, violates several laws of nature and drives the cook nearly to the point of running amok with a hot spatula. We don't provide big rolls of paper towel for nothing. Please pick it up and get it into you, it's just better that way."


We have twice seen a German take apart a burger in this cruel & bizarre manner, taking a bite of pure bun. What are you doing!? French fries are provided with tiny forks, we've watched burritos be dismantled this way, and the sausage vendors appear to be the only ones selling food that escapes this terrible fate.  I like a fork & knife. I am embarrassed to say I am a little finicky on picking wings etc. apart with my hands. But the atrocity of eating a burger with knife & fork will not stand,  man!


The burgers at the bird were tasty, but unfortunately a bit too expensive & served on a roll that more resembled an english muffin. Good for right then, but doubt we'll be back. Keep up the good fight on table manners guys.


We have thoroughly been schooled on one thing we are still trying to feel comfortable with. In Germany, you have to ask for the check when you are ready to  pay. None of this rush-you-out-the-door, waiters gotta make that money, table turnover, attitude. Feeling guilty about asking, we think it is nice to say "When you have a minute, can we get the check?" Our German friend explained this is actually kinda rude. Sounds like we are being sarcastic, like "If you can stop being lazy and bring us our check that'd be grrrrrreeeat." Touche.  German manners.


For some real burgers that bite, check out this crazy animated short. BEWARE: it's bloody & beautiful. 

Hambuster from Hambuster Team on Vimeo.

 

Das Perfekte Dinner

I'm in love with a TV show. Which is difficult, because we don't have a TV. Luckily, with the internet being what it is we watch a better selection of TV than most of our friends & family back home. Back to my obsession:

Das Perfekte Dinner

I can make excuses like it is good for my German skills (which it is) or it teaches us interesting cultural norms (which it does), or that we learn new recipes fro it (which we don't) but the plain truth is- I just adore this show. The theme music is permanently etched in my brain.  It was actually on briefly in the States, in NYC, but somehow it did not succeed. What the show is a dinner party each night of the week, with 5 people who don't know each other. Each night, one person hosts, wines, and dines trying to throw- you guessed it- the Prefect Dinner. Obviously this is  a lot more difficult than it looks and there is a good deal of sweating (sometimes directly into the food- eww!), drinking, and awkward moments. And Germans are not known to hold back on criticism, they can be just plain mean! I love it.

Ian & I have plans to get him on the show sometime (you know, once we have one of those things called a house with a kitchen and table), but we have lately been the benefactor of 2 fine, Das Perfekte Dinner worthy evenings.

Our friend Jeff had an awesome dinner where a bunch of us came over to watch a masterpiece come together. Salad, bread, and chicken marsala. I am sorry to say the only time I have ever had it is at the dreaded Spag (Ole Spaghetti Factory. Yeah, Ian & I worked there).  This was a vast improvement. And it was my favorite kind of evening where everyone comes together to make a table, set out the dishes, ohhh! and ahh! over the delicious dining, laugh filled conversation, and a group effort to wash all the dishes. Pretty close to perfekt!

Next we got a surprise invite to our friend Chester's for dinner. A transplant from Louisiana , we were looking forward to some serious soul. Cornbread muffins greeted us and homemade lemonade. YES. We bourbon-ed the lemonade up and dug in. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Salad with chili oil was perfect and by the time we were served Gumbo I was smitten. Tasty fish, rice, sausage, shrimp. Plates & bowls were color-coded. Casually, Chester mentions that he made the andouille sausage. Wow. That's taking it to Perfekte Dinner level.

Now it is about time for us to host our own event. No surprise, I think we are going on the Mexicana route. We want to class up our usual burrito routine, so we will see what we come up with. We've got plans. Big plans. Pictures are sure to come.

Cardiff Love

With the whole getting conned thing & looking for housing we kinda left off on our UK adventure. We showcased Cambridge, practiced the English accent,  cheered on our favorite horses at the track and showed some of our favorite pictures in London, but we have yet to talk about our final destination- Cardiff.

Unlike our trip in 2007, we wanted to see more of the UK than just London. With limited time & resources, the easiest option was to get ourselves to Wales. We took off that morning with plenty of time- we thought. After 5 trains- yes 5- went by that weren't for us, we started getting worried. As we hit unexplained stop mid-station after unexplained stop mid-station in the tube we positioned ourselves to run. As we exited the train we attempted to use the machine to claim our ticket. 10 min later, it kept claiming a random error message. Ina  total panic, we sprinted to the information center on the other side of Paddington Station. I got in line while Ian tried to claim the tickets from another machine. 5 min later- success! Ian had the tickets & we raced to the departure board to find which platform we should be sprinting for. 2 min before departure- no train. We stood in another line to ask at information. The man kindly explained the train would have left already (yeah right) and we would need to go to the ticket desk. FRUSTRATION.

Now sweating from our multiple sprints and anxiety, we waited in line once again. As we approached the desk, Ian told me everything would be ok. After listening to our story, the agent told us the only option was to buy new tickets, 36 quid each. My jaw dropped. Urgently we explained the difficulties (and wished the Engs could copy whatever the Germans do in transportation). After much pleading, he went to speak with a manger. Hopeless, we discussed our options. Refund? Pay? I felt sick.

He came back with an answer- they would adjust out tickets and we could hop on the train. I couldn't believe it. Mercy? Now that is something I wouldn't have expected at Deutsche Bahn. All criticism at English transport is forgiven.

A 2 hour train ride whisked us into the lovely city of Cardiff. Tiny, hardy, and perfect. It was awesome.

We dig in at the first pub. Asking what we should know about Welsh beer, we received a sampler and a native tasting coach. These people are nice.

Cawl- traditional Welsh soup. That butter & bread tasted like magic

Goofing around in the Park

Arcades enclosed the shopping areas. Brilliant!

Main street

My Knight in Shining Armor

Within the walls- the castle

Cardiff Castle

Looking at the city from the top of the castle

Arab Room- one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen

Crazy for Cardiff

Signs & people speaking Welsh at Natural History Museum

Ian Re-enacts WWII historically accurate

More pictures of lovely Cardiff

London Town- a Love Story in Pictures

As the source of my paternal roots, the place we were engaged and a pretty rockin place, we easily name London as one of our favorite cities. We spent our time in a little room in a flatshare just off of Brick Lane, scored for an incredibly tiny fee on AirBnB. We struggled with the pub closing hours of "no food after 6pm", discussed the short-comings of the much praised Tube, and ate and drank our way through the city.

Some highlights:

Double Decker Buses! We happily took the seats at the front whenever we had a chance

The now coming together with the past. A passion play was taking placein the square.

We were happy to miss the Royal Wedding, but got to see the city all gussied up.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I took at a kickass breakfast place where I got French toast with bananas and bacon. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Luckily- the bathroom is awesome

Random Graffiti that rivals Berlin

Indian Food. YES

Beautiful Necklace/time piece bought from the Brick Lane Markets

Tower Bridge, beautiful symbol of the city & site of "the proposal"

Where it happened!

Globe Theatre.We saw a performance of Hamlet on Easter

We had "groudlings" tickets standing next to the stage

Cider- I fell in love. Not a fan of flavored liquors & beers mixed with sodas or many ciders in the States. English cider however, is heaven.

Quite possibly one of the best things I've ever eaten. Ice cream created before our eyes!

Valrhona chocolate ice cream. He said it "makes no economic sense to use this chocolate", but it's his favorite. Plus salted caramel sauce, raspberry sauce, and candied pretzels. AMAZING

 The ice cream is from Chin Chin Laboratories. If you are ever in Camden- Go! Eat! Love!

Wandered into this place in Camden thinking it was a regular store. It was not. Took an escalator down into Rave heaven.

Camden was really one of our favorite spots. Vintage!

On our first night we rode up to Camden looking for fun. We found the Wheelbarrow & Justice Force 5. This would be our band, our bar, our neighborhood if we lived here.

Tea Time!

Free Museums make my world.

Food was so delicious and presented so beautifully. Pork & apple pie

Ridiculously named bars: Dirty Dicks

Imperial War Museum

Even more pics of Londonville

The last thing we noticed about London was all the GERMANS! They followed us. We counted exactly

27

groups of Germans. Not individuals- groups. There is no escape.

Eurovision- A Love/Hate Relationship

When we were in Berlin in 2008 we met at a friend's house to go out, but we were sucked in by a show. Not just any show,

Eurovision

Never heard of it before? Either had we. It is a song competition between European nations (I am confused how is Israel is grouped in there). Unfortunately, in the past few years everyone started singing in English. Luckily, that does mean you can hear some hilarious pronunciation and understand some bizarre lyrical choices. Some performances are good. Some performances are fun. Most performances  are crazy tacky and terrible! 

Example A: Maldova

This guy's were actually our favorite. The Princess on the unicycle? The hats? The monocle!?

Example B: Russia

This was the winning performance when we  first watched in 2008. We were transfixed.

 

As you can see from the last video, the song quality doesn't really matter though. Because when it comes to voting, the countries vote for their friends. Each country gets several votes and, Austria votes for Germany and Switzerland. Spain votes for Portugal and Italy. Etc.

Proof in point- someone totally random won. 

AZERBAIJAN? seriously?

This led to a flurry of Tweets: "Where's is Azerbaijan?"

Somehow I almost forgot another favorite: Ireland's totally unhinged Jedward. 

 

Ian - Professional Educator

Ian had a photo shoot at work a while back to have him put into the list of educators at his school. Thinking this was low-key, he showed up in his usual attire of jeans and a t-shirt (luckily this time not depicting any guns, nudity, or general violence). It was actually a professional shoot and this is his picture on the site:

Not bad! Made ole' ugo look not child-molestry. Just kidding. Ian really is a great teacher and he actually had the most returning students of any teacher last time he taught. He talks about them all the time and I feel like I've gotten to know them too. Especially little Alec.

Meet his other teacher's here, the rest of the "pebble" group, and get inspired by Ian's quote:

"Learning is fun!"

Caught the Culprits!

In a turn of events I would have never expected (sorry for my lack of faith German police, I  have been well trained by your American brethren), they caught the female half of the duo who conned us on the apartment!

I still can't believe it. A prost to you sir! And to you, and you, and you! Little is known about what actually went down, and the man is still on the loose, but I can tell you it made our night thinking about her in a jail cell somewhere in Berlin last night. I know it's not becoming, but I hope it's awful. I hope she is terrified for her future and questioning how she even ended up here in the first place. Because that is exactly how we felt.

Who knows if they will catch him, if they will spend time in jail, or if even a little of our money will come back to us, but for now we feel like

JUSTICE. 

UPDATE: They caught the guy in Munich! We just heard & can't be happier. Feels like victory...even though we had little to do with it.Hopefully the good news will continue to flow in day by day. Thanks for all of your support!

Guide to Berlin- out now!

Starting the guide to Berlin for EasyExpat. Should be fun and I am sure I will learn more about the city, but already feel the pressure from inevitable mistakes...

BUT- we really do love it here and I will do my best to make Berlin proud. And how about a few personal photos that encapsulate our adoration.

Badeschiff- My FAV place in the summer

Bier & bikes

Beloved graffiti

Ever moving, ever changing

Kreuzberg

Goerlitzer park

Shadow of the Fernsehturm in Alex

City Sunset

View of the Fernsehturm from Prenzlauerberg

Berliner Dom

My favorite statue 

Olympiastadion- site of 1936 Olympics and many a Hertha game

Statue at Sanssouci, nearby palace

Happy to be in Berlin

NEWS: It's out- read all about it! 
Guide to Berlin