8. Go to New York!

I arrived in New York City the day before my birthday so I just managed to tick this off my 25 before 25 list!

Classic New York City view from our hotel

We had a bit of a whirlwind weekend in New York for my Birthday. We arrived on Friday afternoon, my flight arrived first so I just sat waiting the carousel where his luggage was going to show up. He found me sitting, surrounded by my luggage, translating my German gossip magazine. After that we made our way (with help from the airport info personnel) to the Supershuttle desk and booked a shuttle to our hotel. The wait was about 30 minutes so we grabbed something to eat in the airport.

When we arrived at the Wellington hotel the woman behind the desk couldn't find our reservation, and we went trawling through our emails to find our reservation confirmation email. As it dawned on us that neither of us had booked the hotel, we started to wonder where we would be sleeping that night. As it turned out the woman behind the counter just smiled nicely and said "it happens all the time, let's see what we can do for you" and she booked us into the same kind of room we had originally thought about booking, at a cheaper rate, and with free wifi! It turns out there is an abundance of accommodation in New York City, and if our hotel had been booked there are even apps that, if you are daring enough to leave your accommodation organization to the last minute, will get you awesome deals at hotels trying to fill up their empty rooms at a lower rate. Thankfully we didn't need it though!

It was late in the afternoon already so we dropped our bags in our room, freshened up, and took to the streets! We went straight to Broadway to wander up the street towards Times Square. When we got there we had a quick look at the night's show timetable, we hadn't booked in advance, thinking that you can get cheap tickets a few hours before the show, mainly due to my experience doing that in London. When we asked about tickets to Jersey Boys they said that we could get tickets, but not seated together. We weren't okay with that, we had just been reunited, so nothing was going to convince us to sit apart for an extended period of time. Instead we went to Dinner at a burger joint, I LOVE American burgers, they are just awesome! I swear every other time we ate out I ordered a burger. It was also at this point when I noticed that everytime we went into a store or went to buy something I was still figuring out how to do the transaction in German in my head, only to be surprised when the cashiers would speak to me in English! It's weird how long it takes you to get used to some things! Then we wandered down to Central Park, contemplated going on a night bus tour, but decided to head home and try to catch my parents before sleeping. We had both had early flights and time zone changes so we thought making it until 9pm was a respectable effort!

Early morning walk in Times Square

In the morning I woke up first, it was apparent that it was going to take more than kisses, a smiling face, and several cheery good mornings to get my Love out of bed. I wandered alone down to Times Square to see what it looks like at 7am on a Saturday morning. I shared the street with a few runners, and several garbage trucks and garbage men. Times Square was empty, I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about Times Square, is it just all the people in one place? I then made my way to a coffee/breakfast place, picked up some donuts and bagels, and of course coffee! When they asked me what type of milk I wanted in my coffee I made the mistake of answering with "just normal milk please". This was followed by "we have full, half, soy, goat, almond ...." The barrister listed off seven different kinds of milk! Now that I'm writing this out it seems like a pretty dorky thing to be wowed by, "I went to NYC and couldn't pick which milk to get in my coffee because the choices overwhelmed me!". I should really get out more.

Anyway, after the exciting milk-choice adventure, I made my way back to the hotel, as the smell of coffee reached his nostrils my Love began to wake up and wish me a Happy Birthday! We skyped my parents and I opened my presents while we had our breakfast.

Then we got into our running gears and went for a run in Central Park. There were so many runners there! The only time I've felt so crowded whilst running was in the We Own the Night race held in Berlin by Nike. We just so happened to arrive in NYC in the middle of a freakish heatwave, my Love, who is now very used to the Californian climate, was not in the least fazed by the heat. In comparison I struggled through until my face seemed as though it was attempting to out-warm the sun! I'm one of those get-up-at-six-AM-to-avoid-the-heat kinda runners. It didn't serve me well on this particular run! We ran for about 4km and then wandered the paths of the park until we found ourselves back where we started. On the walk back to the hotel we saw our first street-corner-crazy-shouter. He was shouting about prostitution, and how lax the police are in that area.

Some street art in Williamsburg

Then we jumped in the shower dressed up in the most hipster gears we had brought with us, and caught the subway to Williamsburg! The thing about us, is that we don't really do a whole lot of research about where we are going, so we just picked a subway stop in the middle of Williamsburg and went there. It didn't look like much, and we wondered if we had come to the wrong area of Williamsburg, or if there was a specific spot for Hipster-watching that we should have researched beforehand. We eventually stumbled across a cafe/restaurant with a sign outside that had 'free love' scrawled across the bottom, so we decided to take a chance. 

Lunch time in Williamsburg

We sat down and ordered drinks, I decided to branch out and order a cocktail, my Love ordered a beer, when the beer arrived in a mason jar we decided that we were in the right place, and then a crew of mustachioed, suspender-wearing hipsters arrived for a late brunch. We both ordered a pulled pork sandwich and got apple pie and crême brûlée for  dessert. Then we just wandered the neighborhood for a bit and made our way back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding!

Some friends of ours are having 52 weddings, so that instead of one big wedding during which they might be pulled in 100 different directions and barely get any quality time with anyone, they will have 52 small weddings, in which they can spend the whole evening catching up with one particular couple or friend group. We managed to find their Manhattan apartment, the view from the 44th floor is pretty fantastic. We caught up over hors d'œrves and fancy wine and champagne. They showed us their home, we were particularly impressed by the banjo displayed on the wall that used to belong to Neutral Milk Hotel. Then came the vows, I played officiant and only mixed up the words once! It was lovely, my Love and I are particularly mushy over weddings at the moment, though neither of us can be bothered planning ours, we are enjoying watching other people take the plunge!

Manhattan from the 44th floor

Then we took an uber! The driver dropped us off at Kiwiana, a New Zealand restaurant in Brooklyn. We started with a Pinot Noir, the Central Otago ones were pretty pricey, so we had to go for a Hawkes Bay one. We ordered a variety of starters including the green-lipped mussels, ceviche, tater tots, and something else that slips my mind.

Then we ordered an Epic beer each and split a main between each pair, my Love and I had the ribs glazed with manuka honey and marmite. They were the most delicious ribs I have eaten in my life! Once we had eaten our dinner the chef came out to chat with us, as it turned out he was from my home town. Our friends asked which desserts he recommended to which he replied "leave it to me". Shortly after that he sent out the pavlova, the milo cake, and two off-menu desserts: a sticky date pudding, and a lamington. He also sent us out some complimentary champagne as a congrats on the wedding and me turning 25.

Then we went on a tour of several Manhattan dive-bars. We tried Pabst Blue Ribbon, the men played a game of pool, which ended in my Love returning, looking pretty chuffed, saying "turns out I'm pretty good at pool!". Eventually we found ourselves wandering back to the Hotel through Times Square at 5 AM, agreeing that it was a fantastic evening but we probably don't need to go bar hopping for a long time now! We woke up in time to book a shuttle to the airport and have something to eat and drink before we left. We were the first people on the super shuttle which means you have approximately one hour of dicking around, picking up other people, before you even start heading to the airport. Our hangovers thankfully weren't that bad, I had been drinking lots of water in between all of the wine, beer, and whatever else we drank. We made it successfully to the airport with plenty of time. At the airport we ate at a Taqueria and bought some postcards, then off we flew, home to California.

New York is wild, I'd love to go and spend a week there, but not for a while I think, I'm all New Yorked out for now! Plus there are so many other places I want to see before re-doing NYC!

25 before 25 recap!

1. Publish a paper in an academic journal

This isn't too far away really, I have a second author paper doing a second pass by the reviewers, so hopefully this will be ticked off soon enough, my first author paper was reviewed and rejected, so we are fixing it up to send somewhere else now.

2. Learn conversational German

This is one of those things that lacks appropriate definition … my German is a lot better than it was, and I am about to move onto a B1 book in my Deutschkurs. But I would hardly say I can successfully hold a conversation with someone in German, so this one is a work in progress!.

3. A secret for my Love, will let you know after the surprise :)

This one required a bit more artistic talent than I currently possess - so this is also a work in progress - but it is coming :)

4. Run the Avon Berlin Women’s Running course - 10km section DONE :) - I actually did the Nike women’s 10km - but the distance was the main thing. Read about it here.

5. Visit ALL the interesting Museums in Berlin (ambitious)

This was hugely ambitious, and I didn't actually get my student card until six months after endeavouring on this task, so couldn't get the sweet student discounts. I hope to see some more in the next year.

6. Keep a list of the best Museums and what I like about them (this is more so that when I have visitors in town I can decide where to take them easily lol

ditto #5

7. Visit my Love in America!! DONE :) Read about it here and here.

8. Go to New York! DONE! Read about it here.

9. Move to Berlin DONE :) Read about it here.

10. Take a foreign cooking class (Italian or French? Maybe even German?) DONE :) Read about it here.

11. Graduate! Susan Tyree, B.A., M.Sc. DONE :)  Read about it here.

12. Be a Bridesmaid DONE :) my sister got married in April 2014 and I was a bridesmaid :) blogpost coming

13. Enrol as a Ph.D. student at the University of Potsdam DONE :)

14. Get a residency permit to live in Berlin for 3-4 years  DONE!

15. Learn to play some songs on the Keyboard (Kate Nash/Erik Satie)

I learned some songs, but I have mostly been focusing on the guitar, so I'm not sure I could perform my keyboard songs just yet.

16. Practise/Improve my touch-typing skills (for thesis writing) DONE! :)

17. Make some friends in Berlin DONE :)

18. Go to the Berlin Christmas Markets DONE :) Read about it here.

19. Do the 30 Day Shred Challenge

I attempted this a few times, but have been focusing mainly on running, so I might tackle this again over winter when I don't want to run in the snow!

20. Learn to inline skate! DONE :)

21. Complete the Berlin Half Marathon - inline skating (registered for March 2014!) DONE :) Read about it here.

22. Go to Paris with my Mum DONE :) Read about it here.

23. Go on a walking tour of London with my Mum DONE :) Read about it here.

24. Go to a Pride Parade DONE :) Read about it here.

25. Go on a beer tasting and start cataloguing my thoughts on my favourite German beers DONE(ish) :) Read about it here.


17 out of 25 completed, and most of the others are still a work in progress :) I'm okay with that :) Now I'm working on the next list!

24. Go to a Pride parade

I attended the Christopher Street Day in Berlin! It had rained a bit before the parade started but it mostly held off during the parade. There were some very drunk people there and some people smoking weed in the crowd which I am weirdly getting used to having been in Berlin for over a year now, but I still remember how much it used to shock me back in the beginning! The parade had an awesome atmosphere of celebration. I saw a lot more penises than I was expecting to! Anyway, these parades don't need much explaining so I will just pick some of my favourite photos that don't have penises in them and share them :)

25. Go on a beer tasting and start cataloguing my thoughts on my favourite German beers (not so much the last bit)

I traveled to Munich for a weekend in March, and I had an awesome time. I didn't get to see as much of the city as I would have liked, because I was actually there representing my old high school at an information fair for students interested in doing an overseas exchange to an English-speaking country. I’m not sure I was so good at the fair because it seemed to be full of 12-13 year olds whose parents were only interested in sending them to the U.K. or America … but New Zealand is far too far away!

So after a day of explaining to parents that - really it’s only ~48 hours of travel and there aren't really hobbits and dragons there, and they don't have to jump off bridges and out of planes if they don't want to - I finally got to see a bit of Munich! I stayed at an awesome hotel with a fantastic shower (I'm a sucker for good quality bathrooms, they make my life worthwhile).

After the fair and a quick wander around the city centre I decided to tag onto a Beer Tour of Munich, we started with a beer from a street vendor, with this first beer they explained a bit about beer drinking etiquette and the beer culture in Germany. We learned how to Prost! without accruing 7 years of bad sex, and the alleged history behind cheers-ing everywhere.

Once we were adequately educated, we were deemed ready to go to Augustiner am Dom to try the Augustiner Edelweisse, this beer is well known because it is only sold in Germany - with one exception. According to our tour guide it was Pope Benedict’s favourite beer, and upon his request, a regular shipment of the beer was delivered to the Vatican so that he could continue to enjoy it there. I tried a half-litre of the Pope’s favourite beer (review: not too shabby), and then had a half-litre of their Dunkel bier which was more up my alley. Whilst some members of our party were ordering and devouring the half-chicken and chips I found myself sitting next to two Tennesseans, father and son, and we got to know each other. 

Next stop was the Hofbräuhaus, which was packed! I got a half litre of their Hefeweizen which was tastyyy and watched my two new friends each struggle through the full litre Maß that they ordered. Seeing some of the older buildings in that part of town was pretty magical, coming from New Zealand, which saw it’s first white man approximately 200 years ago I'm easily impressed by old buildings!

I intend to go back to take a lot more photos and explore a bit more. Though I didn't see a whole lot this trip, I was glad I got out for my free evening, though it was just a quick tour, I managed to try 5 new beers and meet some cool people! I have a place to stay next time I'm heading through Tennessee at any rate :)

When I got myself back to my hotel room I realised that 5 german beers are the equivalent of ~10 New Zealand beers, and I had technically engaged in an episode of binge drinking. I managed to stop feeling sick before I had to take the train back to Berlin the next morning!

Photooooozzzzz

Train trip featured: Germany farms sunshine.

School mascot enjoying a trip to the Hofbräuhaus!

A strange bird-house/bride statue at the Sophie Scholl Gymnasium 

Hotel room!

I looked up on the train ride and there was just a castle there! Not quite Hogwarts but still pretty magic!

4. Run the Avon Berlin Women’s Running course - 10km section

Well I ran 10km! It wasn't the race I had planned to run (the Avon women’s 10km in the Tiergarten) because I was nervous that I wasn't quite ready for it, so I signed up for the Nike -We Own The Night 10km for women which was due to be held 3 weeks after the Avon one. It was only 20€ to enter so I figured even if I had to walk some I wouldn't feel like it was a waste of money. I had managed to run 10km one time before the race while I was back in NZ for my sister’s wedding. It had been okay, I ran it with my Love and it was tough but I did it, even if I was walking funny for a few days afterward! I had also run a few 8kms that I had finished well, feeling like I had more to give. So I was a bit nervous but feeling ready! This was my first running race so I was pretty excited to pick up my swag bag! There was a cool t-shirt in there and some samples of products, some running/nutrition related and then there were a bunch of makeup products. I don't really wear makeup much, but it will be fun to play around with on the odd occasion that I do :).

The race atmosphere was pretty cool, it started at 9pm and they were going for a party theme so when the course went under bridges there would be lights and smoke machines and dance music playing, it wasn't that good for visibility and I really didn't want to break my ankle so early in my running habit so I was a bit worried about that but thankfully I finished the race with my ankles intact!

The race course wasn’t really well thought out, there were a lot if places where the runners bottle necked to the point where we were forced to walk which was frustrating because I was feeling kick-ass! The course was just a bit too narrow for the number of runners, especially at the end where there was a small hill on a narrow path (~3 people wide plus party lights so ~2.5 people wide) and everyone decided to walk the hill in the final kilometre of the race!! It was a bit frustrating but overall I was pretty happy with it all :) I finished in 1 hour 8 minutes 14 seconds which I was very happy with for my very first 10km. There was also a medal inspired finishers necklace which was an extra bonus! And free coconut water in 3 different flavours at the finish line!!!

20. Learn to inline skate! AND 21. Complete the Berlin Half Marathon -inline skating

I did this back in March and never ticked it off the list (I'm about to post a flood of catch ups as my birthday is hurriedly approaching! I'm doing okay with the list actually but there are still a few things to get done before September :)

I completed the half marathon - it was slow for skating and I felt like I was the only person there who didn't have those fancy speed skates! But it was a beautiful sunny day and we got to skate all over Berlin taking in all the landmarks on the course :) I was a little sore after but overall I finished feeling badass and glad that I wasn't running it - only because of the heat - it was unseasonably warm for March and the runners were starting after the skaters!

22. Go to Paris with my Mum

I went to Paris with my first ever French teacher - my Mother :) it was a bit of a whirlwind weekend but it was lovely nonetheless! When I started writing my 25 before 25 list I asked my mum for some advice on things to add, and was then bombarded with “Do X with my mother”, “Do Y with my mother”, “Do Z with my mother”. My first thought was how on earth are we going to accomplish all of that? So we kept it to ‘go to Paris’ and ‘do a London walk’ together.

It certainly isn't cheap to fly to Paris from Berlin for a weekend, but coming from New Zealand, where you would be spending roughly $3000 in flights and accommodation, it seems rude to call flights that cost me less than 200€ expensive!

As a young thing I was enamoured with France in general, Paris specifically. I studied French for five years and spent a lot of my spare time absorbing all the information I could find about France and French culture. I spent a month living with a French family in Tahiti! which was bliss, but I was too embarrassed to really practise my French.

My parents arrived in Paris before me and spent two days exploring the city. I believe the last time they had seen Paris was in the time they refer to as ‘B.C.’ (Before Children) and my Mother had been very ill with scarlet fever.

I arrived late on Friday evening and - after only one embarrassing French-speaking incident - met them at our hotel, we drank some red wine and went to bed (so glamorous I know!). The following morning we got up early and went to Notre Dame cathedral, which seems to be the first thing I do on all of my trips to Paris (all two of them!).

What I love about Notre Dame is that it is this magical place where fairy tales and reality intersect, you can wander the chapel and look at the saints and see where Esmeralda prayed for help for her people in the stories - it makes some of the fiction seem a bit real. We didn't go up the towers this time because I want to do it on a tour next time (and maybe not in the middle of winter). I lit a candle for Joan of Arc and wandered the cathedral, we went very early so there weren't a lot of tourists there, score! Then we went to a little café down the road called Esmerelda’s where we paid far too much for hot chocolate and croissants (Quelle Parisienne!). Then we wandered the Marché aux Fleurs before we went to Saint Chapelle and had a look at the beautiful stained glass windows. We wandered along the Seine, looking at all the bookinists buying some postcards and trinkets for family and friends in NZ - all the while humming the tune from the Paris scene of An Education in my head :)

That evening we went to the Le Coupe-Chou for dinner and I had boeuf bourguignon which unfortunately wasn't great, but it is the first time I have had a bad meal there so I still recommend the restaurant, just not that dish! The crême brûlée was fantastic as usual!! Then we went to see the Tour Eiffel and the Arc de Triomphe for some night-photography.

The next morning we went to Sacré Cœur and climbed one of the many staircases before looking around the inside of the cathedral. Then we had lunch (French onion soup!) and wandered through the square where all the artists sit and paint and sell their artwork, I regretted bringing such a small bag and having no home to decorate!

Then we took a mandatory trip to the Apple store under the Louvre before I made my way to the airport and back to Berlin. 

Paris is lovely, I still have to go there some time when it is not winter! Maybe next time :) 

I love sharing my list with my family and friends, I think maybe next time I will come up with a few more activities involving other humans. It’s probably time I ditched my hermit shell. 

Part of me still wants to live the dream in Paris for six months, but the rest of me just wants to find a home and feather my nest with artworks bought from Montmartre and play French music sometimes! 

HOTEL SLIPPARZZZZ



Only in Paris can the teeniest tiniest courtyards look so romantic!

23. Go on a walking tour of London with my Mum

I tried to write this without sounding like Harry Potter gave me some sort of abandonment issues, but it just wasn't going to happen - so here goes … we actually went on two walking tours! We used the website: walks.com which are good because you don’t have to book and they take roughly 2 hours.

The first walk was the Harry Potter London Town Tour with Richard Walker, and I have to say it was amazing for me personally, I'm not sure what it would be like for general audiences but I can give you my experience - starting with my Harry Potter background - WARNING this is going to be totally nerdy, I am wearing my dork-heart out on my sleeve here!

I read the first two Harry Potter books before I turned 11 - the age of leaving for Hogwarts, I waited and waited for my Hogwarts letter to arrive - obviously it didn't and I was devastated. I kept reading and adoring the books, and even read one in French to practise my French. When I finished the last book, I had this weird feeling like Harry Potter had betrayed me a little for not being real, because it felt so real when I was in the middle of a book, and then all of a sudden it was gone, and I had heard Joanne Rowling talking about how that was the real magic of Harry Potter, but it seemed so fleeting. So I had kinda been walking around with a little Harry Potter-sized chip on my shoulder ever since I put down the last book and the magic wore off. 

Don't get me wrong - I still LOVE it, and whenever the movies came out I was so excited, I just felt a little betrayed by it - I know this sounds lame, but you need to know where I was at with the franchise before the tour.

I also hadn't seen a huge amount of London, just the neuroscience department at UCL really. The tour is set in the location around where Joanne Rowling worked at Amnesty International while she was writing the books, she has (according to Richard Walker) talked a bit about how the location inspired certain locations in the book. 

Arguably one of the most important locations in the first book is the Leaky Cauldron, for Harry this is where he steps into a seemingly ordinary bar/shop front and this is his portal to a whole new world full of magic that he could only imagine before. The street that The Leaky Cauldron is located on is Charing Cross Road, which is known for it’s second hand book stores, which are -in their own way- portals to different worlds, several different worlds. Richard took us around several locations making a lot of the book seem a bit more real, a small alleyway that Diagon Alley was based on was my highlight. It was during this trip around the old bookstores and around the locations of the books and films that all that Joanne Rowling had been saying all along about the magic of getting lost in a good book finally clicked with me. Now I don't feel cheated for missing out on being a part of that world (unintentional Little Mermaid reference), because I did get to go to Hogwarts, through the magic of literature, and it was real for me for a time. Anyone who has had a real book hangover (where you are actually mourning the friends that you have lost by reaching the end of the book and saying goodbye) knows that it really is it’s own sort of magic. I'm not going to flip out and start writing Harry Potter fan-fiction or anything, but it was very cathartic for me.

Anyway - enough weirdness (or maybe some more) - the second walk was also another of my old obsessions! The Tower of London Tour! I was an absolute nut for anything Henry VIII or Anne Boleyn (or any of his wives or daughters really) when I was in high school. It was so cool seeing all these locations where these people, who had really just been characters in books to me, had really walked around. As much as I had always known that they had been true stories they hadn’t seemed more real to me than any of the other books I had read at the same time. I read anything and everything I could find about Henry and his wives as well as his daughters, both historical novels (based loosely on facts) and more rigid reviews of the knowledge and sources available - still filling in the gaps a bit but less likely to bend that facts for a good story (as if the real story wasn’t good enough!). But I hadn't come across some of the other characters of the Tower in quite as much detail. So where some of it filled in the background of historical scenes that I thought I knew very well, other areas brought new fascinations and characters to light - which I started researching as soon as I got back to Berlin!

I really want to go back to London again :) we also went to the Portobello Markets in Notting Hill and I found the most wonderful dress stall!! I bought my new favourite dress there - I might see if I can manage to take a picture of it for the blog :)

We also found a store full of vinyl decals of street art that I just adored, I absolutely love the street art in Berlin and I know I will miss it when I leave here, so it’s nice to know that I will be able to mimic the greats in my home when I am missing it :)

The snow is starting to melt in Berlin and I find myself prematurely singing songs about Spring :) I LOVE Spring, it’s usually a sign that my birthday is approaching - but that is not the case in this hemisphere … just as well - I have a fair few things left on my list before the big 2-5!

My Love has been flown to a University for an interview for a Tenure-Track position!!!!! Such proud!

7. Visit my Love in America!!

It is so sunny in Palo Alto! If you go out without sunglasses you will come home with a headache from too much squinting. Coming from Berlin winter, where sunrise was 8:30am and sunset was 4:00pm (and I work from 8 until 5), it was a very welcome change! They definitely still had shorter days, and it could get pretty cold in the shade, so you could kind of tell it was winter, but it was just so lovely! Of course there were other things that made it lovely - seeing my Love in his regular habitat, seeing where he lives, works, and plays was good, and now that I am back in Berlin I find it easier to picture what he is doing when my mind wanders to wonder what he is doing, a regular occurrence for me!

I briefly got to meet my Love’s flat mate before he flew to Canada to see his girlfriend, and to my horror I had my very first experience of long-distance relationship jealousy:
My Love got home from work, started making dinner for the three of us, they chatted about buying their first car together, and then put the x-files on while we ate dinner, and my Love said “This is pretty much what we do every night here” and my brain went ‘Why are you living our life with someone else?’, when I picture our life-after-Ph.D. (does it exist?) I picture us living pretty much that life exactly, so it is hard to see him doing it with someone else- silly I know! I absolutely love that he gets on so well with his new flat mate and that they will soon have a car for fun weekend adventures, I just wish I could share his daily life with him. Our time will come!

My American experience was very interesting, I didn’t have any expectations that I was aware of, but once I was there I realised that I had built up a rather unfavourable image of Americans, and I was pleasantly surprised with the type of people I came across in California. The only excuse I have for my previous ignorance /prejudice towards Americans is poor marketing on their part and my lack of curiosity for finding out more about the USA. The image of Americans that is projected to the rest of the world (in my experience) is those reality shows where people are fight over possessions, or food, or fame. Add to that their reputation for fast food and obesity and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Thankfully Palo Alto seems to be nothing like the image I unknowingly had in my head of America. So I walked away feeling slightly sheepish regarding my prejudgment of the American people, and feeling like -should the opportunity arise- it would be a pretty fantastic place to live! So I’m sorry America, I was a bit ignorant before I met you, but I would like to be friends now please!

We did several of the ‘must-do’s in San Francisco, but still left some things for my July 4th trip :)
Mostly I just spent the days working on my Ph.D. readings and my evenings being with my Love, pretending that it was our real lives and not just a holiday. I spent a day or four looking up the possibilities of transferring to Berkley or one of the Universities in the area, but the timeline of applications etc. would mean I would be heading over there in about 2 years, and as I am already almost a year into my Ph.D. here I would be almost finished by that time anyway (all going well …).
So when all of our scheming to get me to move to Palo Alto had failed I sat packing my suitcase the night before I had to leave. My Love heard me sniffling from the other room and came in to be with me in my pathetic state, he just held me while I told him what a fantastic man he is, how important it has been for me to move to Europe on my own and gain my independence, and how grateful I am that he understands how much I need this. 

It was lovely, America is lovely, and being with my Love was lovely. I am very much looking forward to next time!

PHOTOS:

I smuggled this deer head into the country because my Love had fallen in love with it when he came to Berlin - and I even managed to keep it a secret! (I’m terrible at surprising people - who can hold in the excitement?!) Also there are our Christmas decorations from giantmicrobes.com I was SO EXCITED to open them!

Our Nerd-mas tree with our decorations from giantmicrobes.com we were very happy with our tiny tree, we also made pumpkin pie from a can, it wasn’t a raging success :/ will have to do it properly next time!

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, pretty!



The Golden Gate Bridge!



Hoppers Hands are just beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, for runners to high-five as they turn around, with little dog paws at the bottom so that dogs can high-five too! Too cute!



Hemp Plus Granola! What a way to start the day!



The tram conductor turning the tram around manually in San Francisco!



A late night trip to Google to see their cool statues! They were hard to photograph in the dark, but they were so cool!



And Google campus HQ!

10. Take a foreign cooking class

This was a rather unexpected thing that we ticked off my list - but it is one of my favourites so far! :) My Love, my parents, and I all attended a cooking class in Palo Alto! It was called the ‘Date Night: Italian Feast’ cooking class held at the Sur La Table store, and we made the following:

     Arugula and Fennel Salad with Blood Orange Dressing

     Osso Buco with Citrus-Herb Gremolata served with Creamy Parmesan Polenta

     Mascarpone Semifreddo with Caramelized Apples

*drool* I am salivating just remembering it! It was so much fun, we learned about the different types of utensils and kitchenware we were using, I even picked up some awesome tips for egg whites which will hopefully help with my Pavlova technique! They are:

•     When making meringue (or pavlova one assumes) to get more volume just leave the egg whites out over night before you start working with them - she explained how that works, I might find out why and update this later


•     The alcohol content in vanilla essence can have a negative effect on the crust of your meringue (again; or pavlova one assumes) - to ensure that you have a delicious crunchy crust use vanilla paste instead!

It was SO much fun and I learned so much. It did, however, increase my lusting after a stand-mixer, not even bringing into the equation how much cheaper Kitchenaid stand mixers are in America than they are in New Zealand! *wimper* …. my time for a stand mixer will come, I hope!

The course was fantastic and you walk away with an awesome experience under your belt as well as a booklet with the recipes you used. Also that store is HEAVEN for any foodies, we spent a half hour wandering around the store before our cooking was served up for dinner, and my goodness! Every 30 seconds I had found something new I wanted to buy, unfortunately three of our party were about to fly away so there was not nearly enough suitcase space for all of the things we wanted. I bought my Love a nice sharp kitchen knife after doing battle with the ones in his kitchen for the previous week or so. Even my Dad (Dr. “glacé-cherries-would-go-great-in-an-omelette”) had a good time, and learned some new tips and tricks that might re-spark his culinary talents (he’s not bad - just out of practise I think), but that remains to be seen.

I think I will do another one when I am heading back for the fourth of July. I spent two days after the class just trawling through the cooking classes and stumbled across their Culinary Vacations, where you pay XXXX amount of dollars and it covers hotels and cooking classes and tastings in New York, or London, or a few other places (airfares not included), they are VERY expensive for our budget, but my goodness, a girl can dream!

I will take more pictures of our creations next time, it completely slipped my mind!

18. Go to the Berlin Christmas Markets

Before it is too far after Christmas, I should probably update you on the first of my 25 before 25 tasks that I ticked off over holidays; I went to the Berlin Christmas markets!

I went to some in Potsdam with some colleagues from work, where I saw the most fantastic salami selection I have ever seen in my life! They had some salami that had been rolled in chilli flakes, some that had been rolled in fried onions, and a few other coatings too! It was awesome - I taste tested the chilli one, that was probably a mistake, but my tongue has recovered now!
I also went to my local market; the Schloss Charlottenburg Christmas markets, where I bought some Christmas decorations for my sisters and my Mum. I drank some glüwhein and also some Christmas beer - which didn't taste particularly Christmassy to be honest - it just tasted like beer, but it was still good beer. 

They had the most fantastic food stall where there was some kind of fish set up over the fire, it smelled delicious, and I was very tempted to try some if the line hadn't been quite so long!

I also went to Alexanderplatz and had a quick wander through the stalls, it’s hard to pick a favourite because they are all so similar, but I think a mixture of the Potsdam and Schloss Charlottenburg markets would have nailed it, mainly for the salami and the fish!

The Christmas bonus for me was going to the Potsdam markets with my workmates, the lack of socialising with colleagues threw me a bit when I first moved to Berlin from Dunedin - where we went out for a beer every Friday and my supervisor bought the first round. Here they mostly do their socialising in their lunch breaks, and my German isn't nearly good enough to understand them yet, especially when there are a few different conversations going on around the table! So it was nice to get to hang out with them outside of the Laboratory setting and they worked hard at speaking English to me, teaching me a few of the German Christmas traditions and asking me about Christmas in New Zealand.

I spent my Christmas in California where you couldn't really tell it was winter, so I am yet to have my first ‘White Christmas’ - something to look forward to for next year perhaps!

Graduation 2013

I have now ticked number 11 off my 25 before 25 list :) We graduated :) Huzzah! I now have ‘BA, MSc’ following my name and my Love has ‘BSc, MSc, PhD’! It was so nice to see the family again.  I went to most of my favourite local eateries, and we got to drink wine from our favourite kiwi vineyard :) so it was an awesome trip home.

I am now holidaying at Stanford, my Love doesn’t get as much time off as I do, but he will take Christmas day off to spend with me :) I am strangely feeling more at home here than I do in Berlin, and I am not really looking forward to leaving, but I guess my Ph.D. won’t finish itself.

25 before 25

I have a thing about lists. I love them. Especially ‘To Do Lists’, there’s something about striking off each task that I thoroughly enjoy! I caught myself absentmindedly telling someone that I am 25 years old last week, it was strange, but it made me realise that 25 is on the horizon. This gives me the perfect opportunity to start a 25 before 25 list! I am a workaholic most days so I hope that having a lovely list will encourage me to start tackling these things (particularly improving my German).

I haven't included any cooking-at-home challenges as I’m not currently set up for kitchen adventures :( but hopefully I will be able to start cooking/baking again soon!

1. Publish a paper in an academic journal

2. Learn conversational German

3. A secret for my Love, will let you know after the surprise :)

4. Run the Avon Berlin Women’s Running course - 10km section 

5. Visit ALL the interesting Museums in Berlin (ambitious)

6. Keep a list of the best Museums and what I like about them (this is more so that when I have visitors in town I can decide where to take them easily lol)

7. Visit my Love in America!! 

8. Go to New York!

9. Move to Berlin  

10. Take a foreign cooking class (Italian or French? Maybe even German?) 

11. Graduate! Susan Tyree, B.A., M.Sc. 

12. Be a Bridesmaid 

13. Enrol as a Ph.D. student at the University of Potsdam (still not actually done yet!) 

14. Get a residency permit to live in Berlin for 3-4 years 

15. Learn to play some songs on the Keyboard (Kate Nash/Erik Satie)

16. Practise/Improve my touch-typing skills (for thesis writing) 

17. Make some friends in Berlin 

18. Go to the Berlin Christmas Markets 

19. Do the 30Day Shred Challenge

20. Learn to inline skate! 

21. Complete the Berlin Half Marathon - inline skating (registered for March 2014!) 

22. Go to Paris with my Mum

23. Go on a walking tour of London with my Mum 

24. Go to a Pride Parade 

25. Go on a beer tasting and start cataloguing my thoughts on my favourite 

I will keep you posted as they are completed :) It was too wet for skating after work this evening :( but the weekend and next week are looking good! :)