from Nov. 25th, 2007: Snow!

Well, I am 0-5 in terms of sleeping at night so here I am up at 4:30am. I got up and came in the front room to find it snowing! Big, glorious, wonderful, clean-white flakes of snow! This is the first time that I have seen snow in I-don't-remember-when. Last time I went to MO we got stuck in Salt Lake City for 3 days and saw snow on the ground then, but it probably has been at least 2 years since since I have seen it actually snow, and then it was probably not big fluffy flakes like these. I guess because of the city lights, even though it was night time, it really looked about that light out there.


4:30am, view from patio

Yesterday (I mean Friday), I did finally go to sleep sometime in the morning and R got me up about 1pm. We had a nice mixed American/German style breakfast of hearty toast, some swiss cheese, avocado, some procuitto-like ham, eggs, coffee, and yummy vanilla yogurt for 'breakfast dessert'.

We did some emailing, got food and cooked dinner and the like and went to meet up with a friend I had meet one evening in San Francisco. SS, a friend of a friend, was in SF briefly this past summer and was moving to Berlin in September. SS and her boyfriend B, first went to Copenhagen and hamburg but got to Berlin in Oct. or early Nov. We had an excellent time with SS and B, who had lived in Hamburg for 3 years before going back to the US for grad school in Baltimore (where they met perhaps?). We have a surprising amount in common, especially considering we are both trying to move here around the same time...

Mostly we hung out at their new apartment but later we dropped by a great small bar where we sat in the narrow back room that was covered with amazing 70's wallpaper with large abstract patterns (reminiscent of the former GDR perhaps) and comfy basement-like quality furniture.

Today (or yesterday more precisely), we wanted to do some exploring we started by walking to the Hackesher Markt we had read happens on Sundays. It was OK but the area was pretty bourgeois-y (designer clothing and shoe stores, etc.) and one goal for the day was to find a cheaper market than the Bio we have been going to so we turned around and walked in the other direction. Through investigating many different neighborhood maps that are readily available all around, R thought it might be good to explore a neighboring area called Prenzlauer Berg. We walked quite a long ways around this mostly residential area and saw the Plantarium and various interested examples of old architecture. On the way out we had found a cheaper grocery, just a couple of blocks in the opposite direction of the Bio, which we returned to after dark to start building up a more substantial arsenal of groceries...mayo, spices, and the like...plus frozen pizzas for dinner, which were awesome and cheap. €2,69 for 2!...one sufficient for each of us. They had mushrooms, proscuitto, some bacon-like meat, and spinach on them. Yum!

I also bought stuff to try out making my favorite SF Sparky's style brunch, hash browns (with carrots and onions) and eggs benedict, for tomorrow morning. I can't wait!