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!

So that's where I've been keeping my extra wisdom!

Well … I've booked an appointment for oral surgery :( it’s 8 weeks away.

The oral surgeon speaks english so that is helpful but I'm still pretty nervous.

They are extracting all six of my wisdom teeth.

Yes. Six.

I will be receiving a local anaesthetic and I really hope it all goes smoothly. They get pretty close to the nerve in the bottom jaw so I am a bit nervous about the potential for nerve damage resulting in some facial paralysis, but that’s the worst case scenario so I'm trying not to think about it!

UGH! I'm just ready to be over with it! It’s the day after I get back from my next holiday in California so I won't even have time to stock up on soup and other liquid forms of nutrition. I’ll just have to whimper my way around the supermarket after the surgery - unless I buy some cans of soup before I leave. Living alone sucks balls!!!!!! 

The good news is that the surgery is completely covered by my German health insurance, my whole dentistry experience in Germany has been MUCH cheaper than if I had done it all in New Zealand. *positivity*

4th of July Trip to California

I just got back to Berlin from a one week trip to California (yes it’s a long way to go for one week, but I only have so many holidays!), and everyone keeps asking me “what did you do?!” and most of what springs to mind is hanging around the house with my Love. It sounds really boring but it was absolute perfection! I know on travel holidays you are supposed to go sightseeing and exploring, and there are a lot of things on my “to see” and “to do” lists in the bay area, but one week isn’t a very long time and I wanted to spend it living out the things I miss about living with my Love. These include but are not limited to: sleeping in the same bed, sharing a kitchen that is too small for two people to be in at the same time, watching T.V. series that we both love, introducing each other to new music or T.V. series, going to concerts, sitting around staring at each other, sitting with arms/legs strewn across/entangled in the others arms/legs and talking about the future/science/our days/people we know/everything, and just being able to hold hands/each other.

We did do a bunch of things though, we caught the tail-end of the Pride-parade festivities (which looked pretty messy by the time we got there - some people hadn’t paced their drinking very effectively!) as we headed to see Sharon Van Etten in concert, which was fantastic! She and her band are a stellar ensemble. I got introduced to a few of my Love’s friends so that now I can put some faces to the names I keep hearing about which is nice. I tried some American treats, a few of which just left me feeling nauseous, but I tried waffle and chicken flavoured crisps, which may now be up there with Netflix in my list of things that Germany should get right now thank you please! My Love took me to one of his favourite restaurants and I ate so much that we had to walk it off for a while afterward! We brewed a batch of beer together and I made us a pavlova using our brand new KitchenAid stand mixer! It is so much easier to make pavlovas when you can just leave the beating to a machine! I used all the tips and tricks for working with egg whites that we learned in our cooking class at Sur La Table. I think the combination of fancy ingredients and our new baking robot contributed to the quality of the pavlova, it was delicious - and most importantly it didn’t collapse!

We were going to go to a BBQ with some friends on the 4th of July, but it was our last evening together and we decided that we would rather just enjoy each others company, so we stayed home and shared the pavlova with my Love’s flatmate.

Last time I was in Palo Alto we watched the whole of season 1 of House of Cards, and season 2 was released the week after I left. We knew we wouldn’t be seeing each other for a while but we decided we would wait until we were together to watch it. For no reason other than it is fantastic and we wanted to share it. So we watched an episode or two each evening and crammed in some extras on the weekends. It is such a fantastic series and I am pretty stoked that we have just purchased tickets to spend a week in Washington D.C. in November, we will mostly be attending the Society for Neuroscience conference, but we have some time to go and check out Frank & Claire’s ‘hood.

Then it came time to leave and I showed my Love around my favourite haunts of the SFO airport. He decided that it would be more sensible not to drag out the goodbye and we so we said our goodbyes and he started walking away, only to return two minutes later saying that was not his best idea to date - which warmed my heart a lot (figuratively obviously) :). So then we got some Buffalo Wings and cola and talked about everything except’ the fact that I was leaving - I think that getting into a restaurant and out of the airport check-in area made it feel less like I was about to leave for 2 months. Then came the actual goodbyes and off I went! I bought a Runner’s world magazine in the airport and was a bit disappointed by the articles but they had an awesome recipe that I am currently living off of. 

I am home in Berlin now, drinking a glass of Zinfandel wine and missing my Love. Not long between trips this time though :)

Flying into SF

Wandering the campus :)



New cookie cutters from Sur La Table!



Sharon Van Etten!!!



We went to Trader Joe’s and found the hidden soft toy!



And some cultural stereotypes selling products!



*drool*



They have a 4 foot burrito.



The angel of Grief on the Stanford campus.



We went to another Trader Joe’s - found another soft toy!



Our beer being created!



And the delicious pavlova! I put kiwi fruit on it on a whim of kiwi-ness and later decided it was a mistake.

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!