I know, a week with no updates! Sorry sorry sorry!

Last week was pretty quiet, just working and whatnot. Thursday Chelsea and I had a True Blood date and I got to try this local Colombian place that had really good food. I'm now an empanada fan!

Friday Boyfriend came back from Israel, and we took the train together to Nürnberg on Saturday morning. We had planned on going to Munich but that didn't happen since we didn't have as much time as we'd originally planned. So we hung out and Sunday he signed me onto the base and I got to buy some American food (with dollars haha) at the Commissary. I ended up staying Monday too since we didn't feel like rushing back to get the last train at 5. Nice, relaxing weekend in Bavaria :) And much sunnier than Berlin!

One of the things I got at the base was poptarts. It's kind of a joke with us since we once saw poptarts in a fancy department store for 9€! It was so unbelievable that when we saw poptarts for the normal price of like 2 bucks, he was like, we've got to get some. I didn't have much time between trains to buy some food, and since food on the ICE is ridic expensive, I was thankful for my poptarts in my backpack. On the train en route to Berlin I was sitting between a Berlin soccer team that had just won and a group of high schoolers going to visit Berlin. Both groups were loud, excited, and drinking. Naturally they started chatting with each other (and asking for beer) and at one point the soccer guy sitting next to me spilled sparkling wine on me (since he was drinking it OUT of their huge trophy). He apologized but it didn't stain so I wasn't mad. We started talking-he was really sweet. 19 year old kid from East Germany, worked for the S-Bahn repairing the trains, he was really funny. Well when I pulled out the poptarts he and his friend were staring at them so I offered them some. It was so funny-they looked at it like Martian food and they kept asking me to spell "Poptarts". They liked it in the end, I even offered them another pack since I had a whole box. Yay cultural exchange :) They were all really nice guys though, and it made the train ride much better meeting new people.

Tuesday I was back to work but since Matthias was on vacation it was just me and Verena. She is so ready to go on vacation that she was like, this week, we're leaving at 4. Not bad, right? We got some work done, then met the artist in residence and his wife for lunch. They're from Chicago-very nice people. After work I met Peter and his friends and we sat outside by the river, drank beer and talked and hung out. Everyone had a feierabend that day so it was really nice and gemutlich. I even explained pop tarts again! We hung out til late, I was home around midnight, but it was great to see all of them :) Love my Germans!

Today was just working-I had a lot of things to do actually, organizing for this big Photography Prize. One of these students is going to win 5000€, which is nothing to sneeze at! Verena is dog sitting, so she brought the dog, Tiffany, with her to work. She's not much of a dog lover though haha. When I was riding the subway home it was soooo jam packed I could hardly find a space-turns out there's a big soccer game tonight. Everybody of the platform was wearing blue and white stuff. So...go team! whichever one you are! :)

So now I'm just hanging out...trying to think up something for dinner. Craving Indian food. Hmmm...

Grüße aus Berlin :)

Potsdam and dodging rain around Berlin

My boss was very nice and since I'd worked all weekend she gave me most of the week off! That was awesome. So Tuesday, on the advice of a friend, I decided to go with a friend to see Potsdam, a city 20 minutes by S-Bahn outside of Berlin. What a good idea! It was the cutest place!

The weather was perfect, so we wandered around Potsdam looking for something to see. We went in the wrong direction and ended up finding a war cemetery (which was neat) and then headed back towards the city center where we started finding lots of castles and things. Potsdam was kind of like the Versailles of the Prussian rulers. It was pretty cool. After some lunch we found a cool church and wandered around inside a bit.

It was a Catholic church, which I always find a bit interesting in a Protestant country like Germany. From there we wandered around a bit until we spotted some interesting looking houses. I thought it looked like the stuff you'd find in Holland, and then I saw a sign that said we were in the Dutch Quarter! How funny! Apparently Potsdam was well known for being a very multi-ethnic place. Mini Holland in Potsdam, how appropriate :)

From there we ran into a Soviet war memorial...

and from there we walked a bit...

and then we found the Palace gardens!

and then back on the S-Bahn and headed home!

Today I went around some Berlin landmarks! The weather was pretty awful compared to yesterday-cold and windy and threatening rain. But it was fun anyway. I didn't take many pictures since I've seen all the stuff a bajillion times, so sorry if this part isn't so photo heavy...

Anyway, first stop was the Old History Museum, which was super awesome. Lots of Greek and Roman stuff to be seen! Nerddddddd right here :)

Then it was off for some lunch with a friend, and then to see the Brandenburger Gate and Holocaust memorial.

Then some Starbucks to escape the rain!

I on the other hand am off work til Thursday! Spoiled, I know. Then working a bit Friday and the weekend. Whoo! :D

Rundgang!

So if you've been keeping up with the blog you've probably heard me stressing about Rundgang-it's basically a huge open house for the university I work for (which happens to be the biggest art university in Europe!). The group I work for was putting on a huge art sale from former professors and our current stipend receivers, not only to raise money but also to raise awareness about our cause and the artists we represent. There was a lotttt of work involved and I basically worked the entire weekend. But it's over now, and I'd say it was a success!

i made all these info cards (and yeah they're in german!)

this was part of a series-the most read books in the world and their most used words. Here we have the Bible and Harry Potter. The Koran was the other one, it's not pictured.

kids outside at the Rundgang party

Thursday was the opening-we worked all morning to get things set up and that night came back to wrangle the crowd. It was a huge production since the first night is actually part sommerfest, which is a giant party. So there's beer and drunk students and crazy art exhibits and live music and tents outside and food. It was crazy but really cool. Plus the weather was perfect so a ton of people were there. My boss let me walk around and explore for a while and I saw all kinds of neat things. It was just so much-all different kinds of art, all different levels, all different ideas. It was crazy. I had a beer and a crepe (can you imagine a college at home serving beer to students at a function??) and wandered around a bit.

me and my coworker hard at work.

party!

note the wine glass full of free cigarettes! Crazy!

this is made from muffin cups that've been baked in an oven to get more and more brown. pretty cool

Friday was a free morning in Charlottenburg, then back to work. It was much quieter without the party going on, and I got to look at the rest of the exhibits when it got slow. We sold a lot of art but I wasn't that useful since my German's limited and I was kinda stuck behind the counter handing out flyers and answering (simple) questions. After work it was off to the theater to see the new Harry Potter!

Saturday was more Rundgang...I ended up in the paper though! Well, not by name, but they called me the KHG's intern :) I'm kinda famous hehe

my boss giving directions

me being very bored during a super slow moment

there's the mention of me!

Sunday was the last day of Rundgang, so much of the same stuff from the last two days. Selling art, schmoozing new members, etc. We hosted a talk about art in Berlin that morning. Despite some technical difficulties with the projector we were eventually on our way and everything went well. The best part was the catering-scones and quiches and the first American-esque brownie I've had in months. I ended up bundling some up in a napkin and saving them for my tea time.

setting up..

the third dog who came to the art sale. he was huge!

i helped make this! :)

After that I bought a little bag from the UdK giftshop then back to work...I was so exhausted when I got off work I couldn't do much besides lurk on facebook and skype my dear Kallilein and Jud.

Rundgang is over! And now I get a few days off during the week since I worked the whole weekend! :) Now I wonder what I'll do at work...

gearing up for Rundgang

Rundgang! That's all anyone is talking about right now. It's this huge event for the university, basically like an open house and a fundraiser and a big party all rolled in one. The foundation I work with is putting on a big art auction to raise money-we've included our stipend receivers, past artists in residence, professors from the university, and even some well known artists. But, as I'm learning, dealing with artists is sometimes a headache since they can be particular, not to mention most of them have no concept of time or doing things in a timely manner. Today, I met Matthias at the venue and helped him unwrap allll of the artwork we moved in there yesterday. That took AGES. I didn't realize what a delicate process that is-there are special ways of wrapping and unwrapping everything and then we had to carefully fold and label all the packing stuff so we could repack the art when it's sold. Plus it was stifling in the room, so we were getting a little short.

I like Matthias though, and we've (thankfully) moved past the initial rough patch we had when we first met. I think Matthias had made up his mind about me, but after working so closely together the last month and a half we've really built up a good rapport, and I can take his sense of humor. One problem we have though is that Matthias either doesn't understand or doesn't listen to a lot of things I say. A lot of times when I'm talking or explaining he'll just start saying "Sure sure sure sure sure" while I'm talking which is SO annoying. And then he completely misses everything I say! I got really annoyed with him today while we were trying to finalize the list of the artwork we're selling. I was asking for specific details regarding the titles, dates, dimensions, etc. and he would start giving me the links to the photos or completely different artists. I lost my patience a bit and told him he had to listen to me carefully because I was getting really frustrated. Sometimes it helps if I switch to German, but mostly it's a communication problem. Oh well. He's still a nice guy.

A good example; today Matthias mentioned to me they'd be selling drinks at Rundgang. I was hungry, exasperated, and quite annoyed with a quadruple saran wrapped painting I was trying to unwrap and I grumbled, "I think Rundgang is DRIVING me to drink." Matthias gave me a quizzical look and said back, "Oh, but drinking and driving is never a good idea! Quite illegal in Germany!"

haha what do you say to that?! "Yep, you're exactly right. It is."

After we unpacked and set up the art we had to deal with Frau Tafel for a while. That wasn't so bad, but she and Matthias don't get along, and sometimes it feels like they argue with each other just for the sake of arguing and I just wanna be like, stop acting like you're 4! Just do it! But you know, artists and sensitive, peculiar personalities seem to go together so I can't really say I'm surprised that a workplace with 4 people can get so dramatic. But, as the foreign intern, I just sit back and watch them interact and wait for instructions. Especially now, there's always something I can escape to and take care of.

Tomorrow we set up the last of the pieces, finalize the lists, and start putting the finishing touches on before the opening on Thursday. Long weekend ahead with lots of work...but I've been promised some days off during the week to make up for it!

Sunshine returns to Berlin!

FINALLY!

I was getting so sick and tired of this awful weather we've been having in Berlin. So when the sun started peeking through on Friday I was ecstatic. I had a smile on my face the whole way home from work. That was also partly because work was pretty stressful on Friday, but oh well. Sunny weekend ahead!

Boyfriend is going to Israel for two weeks while he's on leave, and since his flight was out of Berlin he came up for the weekend. He got in Friday night, and we went for some drinks at the cafe outside my flat, where we met some friendly Germans, their beautiful dog, and tried Wobble Bubble-this kind of weird pudding that is the cafe's specialty.

Saturday we decided we'd go to Tempelhof since it was such great weather. Tempelhof is this old airport (i think the Nazis built it actually) but they closed it in 2008 and now it's a big park. It was actually very important during the Cold War since it was used a lot during the Berlin Airlift. Lots of history!

You don't realize how big an airport is until you're walking on the runway and having a picnic in between the lanes. It's huge! We walked around it before getting to the actual park, which gave you an idea of how huge this airport was.

Once we got to the park we found some shade and rested, watching people playing frisbee or riding bikes. Then we discovered the Bier Garten, and Hefeweizens were in order. We walked around a bit after that, but since it was getting hot and we're both pretty fair we decided we'd better head back and try to find a late lunch. We found some Thai and had some awesome Thai iced tea with lime (and ice cubes!!) and then we looked through a street market near Hackescher Markt and bought some raspberries for a euro (yay breakfast!). As we turned the corner we ran into this weird dirty hippie parade-that's the only way to describe it. A bunch of vans and cars, rigged up with awful pounding techno music, were slowly crawling along the street, surrounded by tons of unwashed hippy-hipster types dancing really crazy and holding signs about art being for all. And bringing up the rear were the Polizei. We watched for a while and then got bored and moved on to find some shade by the river.

After that we headed back to Charlottenburg. There are a ton of great restaurants near my flat, and one that's always intrigued me is this Georgian one (Georgia the country!). Boyfriend lived in Russia, and when he saw it he was like oh, their food is great! So we decided we'd go there for dinner. We ate kinda late, but the food was AMAZING. Oh my gosh. We tried a menu for 2 people and we had so much food we were near to bursting. The first dish was a salad with parsley and radishes, as well as these spinach balls with pomengranate seeds, soft bread, and this tasty, mild goat cheese. Then we had some beef soup, followed by meat and vegetable dumplings, then cheese bread, then beans, and finally lamb and pork kebabs. It was so amazing. At the end the waitress offered us a complimentary drink-schnapps or tea or coffee. It was nearly midnight at this point, so we took the tea/coffee offer, and Boyfriend even spoke Russian with the Russians who'd come outside from inside the resto to smoke. That was pretty cool. I'll have to go back there some time!

Sunday just about everything is closed we decided we'd make the most of the weather again and spend the day outside. We walked around an antique market (found a lot of cool stuff but a lot of the vendors were super unfriendly!) and then stopped for some sandwiches at Einstein Cafe (a Berlin favorite) and finally found the Victory Column. For 2€ you can climb to the top, so we did. It was a great view.

Once we climbed back down we explored the memorial to Bismarck, sat in the park for a bit, and then headed to Kreuzberg to meet Cisco and some other people from my program to watch the USA vs Brazil game (USA won by the way!) A bunch of people were there and some interns from the US Embassy passed out red white and blue leis and flags. We watched for a bit and hung out with my fellow Halle-people, but then Boyfriend and I left at halftime to find some Indian food. The neighborhood was totally hipster, but those hipsters do know a thing or two about cheap, tasty food. After some good dinner we walked around a bit, but we can only take so much dirty hipster and we headed back to Charlottenburg before too long...

Boyfriend left at 4 am this morning to catch his plane (crazy!) but I just had work. We had to move all the art we're selling over to the venue. That was kinda crazy-plus I had to speak German with the movers as well as with the artists who showed up asking me a million questions I didn't know the answer to. But this was the end result; all moved in!

From there I had to go back to the office and try to get the artist info sheets done. I feel like my German is really improving from writing all this stuff up!

Rundgang starts Thursday! Hopefully it all goes off without a hitch!