Germany
White Christmas - sort of
Germans have this obsession with snow on Christmas, a
bit similiar to the american obsession with weather
in general (by that I mean "severe
weather"). So, the weather forecasters guess
weeks ago if we are going to have a white
christmas or not. I did not really pay
attention, how they did this time. But, after
celebrating my nephews birthday on the 23rd in
Jena we went out with our friends Stefanie &
Jens to a bar - and it started snowing -
yeah!
I like snow a lot and the night got even more surprising when we met 5 people or so at that bar, Cafe Central, (which kind of used to be one of our favourite hangouts, and does not even have a website, since I did not find one...) which we had not senn in 2 years or more. So, it became a pretty long night, but it was fun!
The snow did not stick around for very long, netx morning it was aleady pretty sketchy. We spend the rest of the holidays at my parents home and had soooo much soooo good food...
I like snow a lot and the night got even more surprising when we met 5 people or so at that bar, Cafe Central, (which kind of used to be one of our favourite hangouts, and does not even have a website, since I did not find one...) which we had not senn in 2 years or more. So, it became a pretty long night, but it was fun!
The snow did not stick around for very long, netx morning it was aleady pretty sketchy. We spend the rest of the holidays at my parents home and had soooo much soooo good food...
|
Thanksgiving in Berlin!
Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity to gather
some friends in our new place in Berlin and have a
party. So, I prepared some stuffed turkey, for the
first time. I actually had to prepare 3 baby turkeys,
as a regular (american-sized) one would never fit
into a european style oven. I think it worked out
pretty well.
Additionally we served orignal Thuringian Bratwurst charcoal-grilled on our balcony and freshly brought to Berlin from Jena by Jens on the very same day. Qiute a number of family and freinds showed up, it reminded us that is nice living in Berlin, because everyone will actually come and visit. Sarah from Seattle was there too, as she was on business in Germany anyway that week and came up to Berlin. Some pictures are here.
Additionally we served orignal Thuringian Bratwurst charcoal-grilled on our balcony and freshly brought to Berlin from Jena by Jens on the very same day. Qiute a number of family and freinds showed up, it reminded us that is nice living in Berlin, because everyone will actually come and visit. Sarah from Seattle was there too, as she was on business in Germany anyway that week and came up to Berlin. Some pictures are here.
Berlin!
07/11/07 17:50 Filed in: Personal
Ok, I know, it took me a while to write something.
When you move to a new place there is so much to do,
it took weeks until our apartment was finally
liveable. It is not done by now, but definitely it
does feel like home. And we have two little kittens,
which are growing everyday - and won't be kittens
anymore soon.
Anyway, I was trying to get some smooth transition into this blog Seattle to Berlin. I thought about this during my long commutes in the train, and that's what I found: the bears. In the Northwest we have been seeing bears in the wild. In Berlin there are non, except Knut, the cute (now that he has grown not so much anymore) little polar bear, but even he lives in the Berlin Zoo. But, and that is the link, Berlins coat of arms contains a bear:
And it doesn't stop here: there is a theory that the name "Berlin" actually means small bear. Makes a lot of sense to me, and maybe to some of the german speakers out there too: "Ber" could easily be an old version of the current german word "Bär" for bear and "lin" is derived from "lein". Put the suffix "lein" on the german noun of your choice and you make it small. But, as I said it's a theory and there are other theories like Berlin being derived from slavic for swamp, making more sense as slavic tribes were the first to settle here (long, long time ago), and there are a lot of lakes and rivers, see a nice discussion at wikipedia here. Anyway, I like the bear link. Although, thinking about it, it could also mean "small beer". I don't know
Anyway, I was trying to get some smooth transition into this blog Seattle to Berlin. I thought about this during my long commutes in the train, and that's what I found: the bears. In the Northwest we have been seeing bears in the wild. In Berlin there are non, except Knut, the cute (now that he has grown not so much anymore) little polar bear, but even he lives in the Berlin Zoo. But, and that is the link, Berlins coat of arms contains a bear:
And it doesn't stop here: there is a theory that the name "Berlin" actually means small bear. Makes a lot of sense to me, and maybe to some of the german speakers out there too: "Ber" could easily be an old version of the current german word "Bär" for bear and "lin" is derived from "lein". Put the suffix "lein" on the german noun of your choice and you make it small. But, as I said it's a theory and there are other theories like Berlin being derived from slavic for swamp, making more sense as slavic tribes were the first to settle here (long, long time ago), and there are a lot of lakes and rivers, see a nice discussion at wikipedia here. Anyway, I like the bear link. Although, thinking about it, it could also mean "small beer". I don't know