The Gnome Visits Berlin

(see description in the post below)
Sorry there are a couple of typos in this. The slideshow software interface isn't very user-friendly, but hopefully, I can fix the obvious ones coming up soon.

To Do in Berlin

First of all, a recent piece of news is that my last journal article from my PhD was just accepted for publication. This finally completes the last hanging chad from my PhD and is a welcome relief. Now that that stuff is behind me, I can concentrate on other things.

My sister and brother-in-law came up with a list of things I should do while I am in Berlin, and slowly over time, I have been making progress on them. I was also given a small gnome to carry around with me and keep me company on these excursions. As yet, the gnome is unnamed (I hadn't thought of this oversight until this moment). Suggestions? Perhaps Gnomey McGnomerton for now. In any case, I have (basically) finished the list as of recently and here is the pictoral evidence. Thanks again, Anna and Casey!

By the way, the slideshow is above, as you've probably already seen. I tried to make it go below, but after wrestling with the blog a bit, I decided it wasn't that important. Enjoy.

KC in the DL

Ok, I've had a bit of an unprecedented rash of posts lately, so be sure to look below and make sure you've caught my most recent ones. Here is a short one. I've run into a couple of Kansas City (MO) references in Berlin and thought I'd put them up here. This is exciting for me anyway, so please just humor me for a minute.


The first one was a completely random poster advertisement near one of the train stations. And here it is.



I saw it and took a picture because I was excited to see the KC reference. It looks like a fashion show. Or maybe an art exhibition. So, I looked it up later on the internet. And, the website was pretty mysterious. And maybe a little creepy. There are some strange pictures of a tattooed man wearing snuggie-like baby clothes, it appears. Feel free to check it out (but please don't blame me for the strangeness that lies behind).

http://www.peggynoland.com/shop.html

And little to no information on who Peggy Noland is. Very strange. Whatever, something new.

Anyway, the next second reference to KC came from when I was walking down the street. I walked past this old man, and looked up...and saw...a Kansas City Royals baseball cap. Be still my heart :). So, I went up to him and started frantically talking to him in German to ask him about his hat and where he got it and if he knew of the Royals and if he was a fan etc. He appeared visibly disturbed by the encounter and I managed to catch that he had no idea who the Royals were or anything about baseball as he ran away. I was working my way up to asking to take a picture with him, but this appeared out of the question at this point. So, I was only able to snap this photo of him as he fled the scene. Trust me, that blue cap says KC on the front.

30...

So, I recently turned 30. This happened to be on the same day as the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, so it was a pretty big deal in Berlin. I tried to go and participate the festivities, but it was quite ridiculously crowded and I couldn't get really anywhere close. Plus it was rainy. To illustrate, here is a photo of the festivities from the newspaper.

And here is a photo of the real experience, from our point of view.

Patience ran out quickly under such conditions. We ended up deciding to just leave and go to a tamer area with an unseasonably-early Christmas market instead.

30 doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal. I only turned one year older than 29. And really I was only one day older than the previous day. But, one apparent difference is the round number. I've read some about this before, and Americans, in particular, tend to emphasize round numbers, even a little more than other cultures. 100 yards rushing for a running back in a football game seems much better than 99, for instance, and 30 seems a lot older than 29.

Also, another difference is in the way we categorize ages. I received a survey from the Mizzou alumni association, the day after my birthday. Here was the first page.

For reference, my cursor hovers over what I wanted to put, and the checkmark designates the answer I had to honestly put. And, um...can I also say...30-45!?!??!?! Ridiculous. I am in an age group with 45-year-olds as of one week ago. That is different. This is all I have to say about this for now... :)

Soccer

I managed to go to my first German soccer game a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun (even though of course I made them lose by being there). I think I've decided to become a Berlin Union fan while I'm here. This is their second-division team in Berlin (which is in the East; the first division team is in the West and they are horrible). Anyway, this seems to be shaping up to be my most underwhelming post ever, but I think this video turned out pretty well. I almost captured the scoring of a goal, but not quite. Turn up the volume to catch all the sounds, and enjoy.

Church

Going to church in Germany can be added to the list of things that were routine for me in the U.S., but are more challenging here. First of all, the number of churches here isn't huge. This is partly due to Berlin's location in the former East Germany. When someone from East Germany is asked to what church they belong, they will say, "I'm East German." It is interesting that Germany has governmentalized tax support for the Protestant and Catholic churches in the country. When you fill out your residence registration (which is required anytime you move in Germany, even just down the street), you can check a "Catholic" or "Protestant" box. I've learned that it is by this method that the government collects special taxes that it distributes to these two churches. Where is the separation of church and state, you might ask? I don't know... There are only the two boxes, so if you are a part of a third church then the government doesn't have an option for you. You can opt not to check either box however.

Anyway, so in looking for a Catholic church to go to, I kept running into churches that seemed like Catholic churches, but they would turn out to be Protestant. This kept happening over and over. There was some indefinable property of these churches that made them seem Catholic to me. But then I would turn out to be wrong. It was really starting to bug me. Then, I was reading about the history of one of these churches, and it said that it had been a Catholic church for a couple of centuries, before the Protestant Reformation. Then, it was a Protestant church afterwards. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... This was one of my, "Aha, stuff in Europe is quite old...." moments.

Well, I have gone to a few different churches here to check things out. The common denominator is that I have little idea what is going on in any of them. Of course I understand some words. But, they speak quite fast, of course, and there is a bit of specialized church vocabulary. And the echo-ish effect in these large cathedral type churches isn't helping. At one of the places I've gone the most often, they have a big, beautiful organ which they play during mass. Then afterwards, the organist goes crazy and plays a virtuoso organ solo for a few minutes, which I always look forward to. Here is a taste below. Turn up the volume and enjoy. I videoed it stealthily from my lap so that no one was aware. Like a ninja.

Also, here is a picture of some of the treats they have at the Protestant churches. Here you can see some Martin Luther Bonbons. They also had cookies. For the kiddies.