Missed Connection - Berlin

I went to see Childish Gambino in Berlin on the 15th of February. The show was fantastic! I was so excited to see/hear him perform and while I was waiting patiently (all on my lonesome as I went by myself) a girl named Laura came up to chat to me, she had come alone as well. We chatted and she was lovely and we had heaps in common, we talked about how we hadn’t been able to find anyone to come with us because no one we knew had music taste as fantastic as ours - or my weaker excuse of not having made a huge number of friends since I moved to Berlin - I seem to have been living to work rather than working to live!

We stood together for the whole show and chatted about some upcoming concerts, I told her to check out CHVRCHES and she told be about some other artists she is into, comparing stories about how we discovered some of our favourite artists. Then we started to head home, and as the train came to my stop we hugged goodbye, and as the doors closed behind me I realised that I didn’t have her number, or even know her last name. Friendship opportunity fail! Oh well, maybe she will come to CHVRCHES this month :)

The gig was so awesome though, Childish Gambino is amazing to watch live. He performed for about an hour and had a pretty awesome set list. I love the way he moves, I know that’s a creepy pick up line, but I swear I could just watch him on stage for hours. He had a cold apparently but I couldn’t tell until he said that he was sorry he was a bit sick, his band is pretty fucking cool too, it was just an awesome night all around. 

There were a few people lighting up joints in the crowd - that would NEVER happen at an indoor concert in New Zealand! I was so shocked, but apparently that’s not uncommon here - sometimes I feel like such a country kid in this city :)

It was awesome, one of my favourite nights in this city so far! The proximity to awesome gigs here still blows my mind, coming from the south of the south island in New Zealand big concerts are pretty rare, though Elton John totally came to Dunedin in my last year there - so that might be slowly changing!

Grizzly guts

Having a bit of a low day today for some reason I can't put my finger on. Lots of pressure on at work, the big Boss is talking about sending me to Japan for anywhere between 3 to 12 weeks in the next 12 months, and I am getting absolutely no info about it. I'm actually totally pumped about going - it’s just a bit stressful not knowing what is going on!

I had three presentations over the last week and I have another one on Tuesday that I have to spend all weekend on. I'm also trying to rewrite a paper so that I can tick that bugger off my 25 before 25 list!

Missing my Love, we've had so much going on these past two months it’s been a bit hard not being able to share the experiences :( he had his first job interview for an academic position and was offered the job! Professor Love certainly does sound good! Unfortunately it wasn't quite what he was after, so he’s going to stay at Stanford for a couple of years before going back on the market.

I am training for my skating half-marathon next month :S it kinda snuck up on me! I've also been increasing my running in the hopes of running the Avon women’s 10km. We'll just wait and see how that goes!

Berlin is light again, I'm still not used to the backward seasons in this hemisphere! I’m a spring baby in NZ, but here September is not springtime!

Time for a quiet weekend to catch up on sleep I think!

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.