From Sea to Shining Sea

So a lot has happened since November 14th (like Ashley's birthday - Happy Birthday) and my surprise trip to America. It felt good to be back, even if it was only for a week. I ate so much junk that my digestive trac is still in the process of forgiving me. But it was good, American junk. The most important part of the trip (not relating to seeing people) was that Lehigh finally beat Lafayette. My excitement was slighty masked by the fact that I couldn't feel my feet due to the cold. But, such is life.

Immediately after my return to the Fatherland, I left to go to Bad Saarow (which is somewhere not in Berlin) for the practice weekend retreat thing with the Blasorchester. Think band camp without all of the wierd tradition stuff and more ping pong, but an equal amount of beverage consumption. It was a lot of fun. I talked to a lot of new people and may have even come out of it with a swimming partner. On the way back on Sunday, those that wanted to participate went to this indoor/outdoor heated pool of salt water. When we were outside in the cold air, but warm water, it reminded me of the hot spring Ashley took me to when I visited her in Alaska. It was very relaxing.

Then the next day (last Monday) I had to move after work. So there I was moving to a new apartment with practically no clean clothes. But the move went well. Monika and Dieter drove me and my stuff, and they brought a box and a couple of bags to help me fit everything into some sort of transport device. Living with more people is so much nicer. And the apartment isn't as old and crappy. My room is no longer big enough to do a cartwheel in, but it's bigger than the one I had in college on Polk Street (I think, I've never been good with spacial relations). And, I have a bed now. No more plain mattress on the floor for this girl. Mila, the kitten is adorable and everyone is really nice and asks a lot of 'how is it in America?' type questions. Fun Fact: Apparently Germans (or at least the ones I live with) don't just stick potatoes in the oven and then eat them skins and all (a la baked potatoes). Because I did that this weekend and they all commented on how they had never seen that before. The more you know. This is rushed and not as entertaining as usual because I'm hungry, and I get to go home now. One bad thing about the new place is we haven't gotten the internet figured out yet. So this weekend I watched an embarassing amount of Dawson's Creek on DVD.

Toytown Germany

So my second week of work is shaping up to be much more interesting than the first. Right now I'm working with a lady named Lydia. I basically just watch/help her since I don't know where anything is and I've never operated any of the machines before. It's all pretty straight forward thus far. I'm understanding everything too. I'm even moving passed the just getting instructions into the making actual conversation zone. Lydia plays the bass guitar in a rock band. She said they're looking for a singer if I'm interested. However, I'll have you know she's probably in the age range of 40. But she's very nice.

Paul was really busy this past week and I didn't see him at all Tuesday through Saturday. So since at this point he was really my only social outlet, I decided to find another source. And of course, in this day and age, that source is at my fingertips: the internet. Many of you probably thing meeting people on the internet is dangerous and slightly lame. While I agree, it might be slightly lame, I went about it safely. The first thing I found was a site called toytowngermany.com. It's a forum for english speakers in Germany. I found it by googling english speakers and Berlin. There's a section specific to every area of Germany and it's the largest forum of this sort. People post questions they have about living in Germany as well events in which people are welcome to participate.

The first event I attended was Thursday night drinks. The advice for newcomers was to go to the bar at which they were meeting that week and look for the group of people speaking English. It worked nicely; they were very easy to find. It was nice, a lot of small talk, but still it's something to do on a Thursday.

The second event I attended was playing American football in Treptow park. Unfortunately, only 4 people showed up so it was more like playing catch and occasionally keepaway in the park. But those people were the easiest to get along with. And then we watched american football streamed on the internet at one of their apartments. Two of the guys are cousins from Detroit and the other is from Philly. It's going to be heated next week when the Packers play the Lions.