Meatball sandwich

This is an example of what passes for swimwear in Berlin. Can you believe someone would wear this?

This is a photo of the girls after their swim.


Not a terribly eventful day, and not so stressful. Connection?

Work, subsampling soil, rewriting a paper. Mealoaf sandwich for lunch (who am I?).


These were taken at the Pride Parade the other day.


Nem irked quite a few Germans with her splashing (both girls did).



Everyone here is gaining weight. It makes no sense - we bike/walk everywhere, and must climb 4 flights of stairs to get to our apt several times a day.

Tomorrow we leave for Krakow, and I am excited to see E Europe. We're renting a car, and have booked an apartment (why on earth do people ever stay in hotels anymore?)

More, later, from Poland.

Day of rest

It was not. A day of rest.

It was a crazy day, that is only now winding down (for me and Artemis at least). Today we went to the local park and Artemis is learning to ride her baby bike. Kids here learn to ride 2 wheeler bikes w/o pedals, they balance and push themselves with their feet. So they skip the tricycle/training wheel stage. I t makes such sense, and she is starting to get it. She came up to me at the park today, "I want a croissant". Atta girl.

Nemnuts is out late again, watching the final. There is no noise at all - Germany must be losing. We went out this afternoon to Brandenburg, but at 4 pm it was already so crowded and rowdy that we left. We met Paula and Pedro and went to a pool near their house. Yianni and Jennifer went in in their underpants. We then went for pizza and watched the start of the game. Then A. and I took the subway home, alone (deserted, of course) - Everyone. EVERYONE is watching the game. She sang in her buggy the entire way. She is a song bird. When we got home, she said 'i sing the ice cream song." ok, what is it? "ice cream ice cream ice cream ice cream..." then, "Ok, I sing the Artemis song, artemis artemis artemis artemis artemis..." And on and on and on.

Yesterday we went to the pride paraade, supposedly the largest in the world. I for one was disappointed. No extremely outlandish behaviours. Just bus after bus of half naked people dancing. There was an endless parade of people, but nothing too outre or shocking.

Gun shots? Something loud.

Forgot to blog about Grossbeeren. We went to a research centre on Friday for tours and a possible collaboration. Learned so many many things about the GDR, the transition, things that happened during the war. So many things that you don't even want to know. "There is an ugly part of our history that we don't like to talk about", he says, right off. During the war, the institute conducted research on prisoners.

And then this little town, former GDR, lost all of its farmers. After unification, none of the locals could afford to buy back their land; what hadn't been sold off surreptitiously in the days before unification to former Party members, went to foreign multinationals.



THe War! The War! It is everywhere, always! It will not slink mildly into the past. Good, or not?

Easy does it

I woke up this morning to fuzzy ear - tingly arm syndrome, ie imminent panic attack. Why? Who knows. So instead of my usual - run for the hills!! I stayed put. Well, I had to bc last night I stupidly put my new $150 Mizuno running shoes in the washing machine which then made minced meat out of them.
So I stayed home with my girls and we did nothing all morning and I was all the better for it. A leisurely bike ride to work, poked around a market, gelato, a bit of work, and that was a day. Maybe instead of trying to outrun my anxiety I should surrender to it? However, I might quickly become housebound.

Nem woke up late this am (930) as she was out past midnight. She woke bright and sparkly eyed - so enthralled with her experience last night. I will miss out no more - SUnday we will all go to Brandenburg Gate with 1000 000 other Germans to watch the cup. I only hope they win.

I love Anemone's sense of nationalism. She's fiercely German right now. Last year she was French, in a couple of weeks, she'll be canadian. No one would be killed in the name of nationalism running that shallow.

Melissa, your drive to work out is commendable. I am living in slow motion for the first time: ie, take it easy! Slow down! What's the rush? I get it. I finally get it. E/o passes me on the bike path, I actually stop for red lights. It takes me twice as long to get anywhere as it used to, but its so much more relaxed.

Big night

Two photos by Jenn - first of Artemis at the zoo, the next of Anemone after Church with Jenn, overcome with ecclesiastical ecstacy - she had to jump in the fountain.

And where am I, you might ask? i am dithering my life away - half conscious (by the grace of diet coke am I not completely torpid) 10 km away, rotting on a seat at the Freie University.

Today was a bit different, to be fair. Pedro and I went to an old agricultural station E of Berlin to collect samples for a project.

More reasons to love Berlin:

The city stops abruptly at its boundary. Nowhere ( not even Saskatoon) is there a more stark urban/rural transition.

The entire city smells like Tilia flowers. This is by far the best smelling city I know.

The bicycle lanes. There are reserved lanes, in red brick, on the sidewalks just for bicycles. Meaning you have an uniterrupted, safe, stress free ride through even the very centre of this city. It is like flying. I love it.

The city is wild tonight. Germany vs Turkey and all I hear are firecrackers and shouts. Must be Turkey's ahead. Anemone is out with Y and J watching the game at a pub with Pedro and Matthias. She has made a sign for the occasion - completely on her own, "gehen deutschland". She keeps the english/deutsch dictionary close at hand, at all times for such occasions.

Mush mouth

Evidence that I was German in a former life:

I feel a strange familiarity in the streets of this city

I love the heffeweissen

The language isn't just run-on mush....I can pick out distinct words.


Today was another epic day - ran to Paula and Pedros house bc Anemone had her first sleepover. She did so well = she was excited and not at all weepy.

After, went shopping for our home schooling supplies. Then home, and Y and I went out for supper. We walked around East Berlin, past the DOM, past all the East German big, square buildings. We took the train home and had supper at Nik's restaurant in our neighbourhood. I love the trains. They are so modern, so efficient. I feel truly part of human culture on these trains. Or at least part of a movie set.

This city is still great. On my run this morning...I can run for so long because everything is new, so novel that I am distracted the whole time. Of course you can become hideously lost because the streets are not on a grid, and veer off on wild tangents. However, that is all part of the excitement.

Now it is almost 10 and i just had an espresso. I am also in love with these strong, dark little coffees after meals. They are very satisfying. Lets hope I sleep tonight.

You'd think I was on some serious drugs - I mean more serious than the ones I am on - in fact I am fit to be tied about the sorry state of my so called career. It is stuck, knee deep in plaster of paris, half cast. Why can't I get moving?

European Cup in full force. It dominates everything here. Next week is Germany vs Turkey - 1000000 at the Brandenburg gate. I have to tell you I think I am too nervous to go.

Im hiding in the bedroom bc the girls are incapable of eating if they sense Im in the apartment.

Today we went shopping bc Artemis has already outgrown this season's sandals. Unfortunately shoes for kids are outrageously expensive...I did pretty well spending 35 Euros...

The girls get very silly, I think we might need more structure: after a morning in the park/on the town, we come back to the apartment which is nice, but not set up for kids: no books, no toys, no videos....

Yianni is in the dining room threatening hell or high water if they dont settle down and eat....


I dont have much to say today.....I think blogging on a regular basis when its such an extended trip becomes a bit dull...

Back to work?

This picture was taken a few days ago, up the Funkstrum.

Writing from my new office. Today we biked in to work (and felt so much more like we lived here - I love my bike). Y gave a seminar, then we went to lunch, had espresso, had a cake and champagne with his lab, and now it's almost 3 and no work has been done yet. I like Germans, they are so much more social and convivial than NA's. We really are stick in the muds.

Yesterday was insanity - we went to some flea markets to buy bikes, ended up meeting the Rilligs and the Powells for lunch - while kids played on the street - then raced home with bikes and buggy on the trains, subway broke down, and were late for meeting Paula et al. for supper.

We're in big doggy doo with our neighbours. THey held an intervention yesterday. Apparently, we (kinders) are too loud, the whole apartment is shaking from 6 am on. I guess children in Germany are much quieter, don't jump around like oraguntans. So our life has turned into, shh, walk, shh, walk, shhhh, walk. Artemis looks so ridiculous trying to walk down the hallways - it is so unnatural for her.

Spending more time in E Berlin. Everything is NEW NEW NEW here - so strange. The shadow of the war follows you all day, every day. I cannot believe W Berlin was a tiny island in the middle of E Germany. Such insanity!

I strongly encourage visitors - this is a great city, and we have a great place. As of early Aug, we will have an empty bedroom as Jenn and April are off on their trip to Italy.

Fait accompli

Today it is a beautiful morning, and I went for a run through the leafy ,green streets, still sleepy on a Saturday morning. Ran through a flea market, past the bakeries. There is such a strong drive for me to live in Europe at some point. Maybe my ancestral memories? It feels more right somehow.

But everything seems better now that things are sorted.

The girls are CRABBY. Wow. Their default mood is complaint.

Today is not rainy, but still a bit chilly. We are going to try to find cheap bikes, bc a subway pass is 70Euro a month, and takes longer than biking. THere's a fantastic grocery cart that you attach to your bike that I have my eyes on....I am going to become crazy cycling woman when I get back to canada.

Schloss Charlottenburg

Today the girls and I went to Scholss Charlottenberg - a palace and grounds within the city. It was beautiful, and we walked through the forest, played at the park. The bus system is very good here, and I much prefer it to the underground - I hate subways in general, I feel too claustrophobic.

Today there was a big game (Euro cup) and the germans were draped in flags and red fuzzy blankets as they watched the game from outdoor cafes.

We went for supper at a dismal Italian place and the girls were wild. They are completely out of control and our mealtimes are agony.

Tomorrow, Jennifer arrives (hip hip hooray!) - I think she might regret coming once she sees the wild, crazed look in our eyes, and the way we glom on to her at the airport. Alternatively, she may be relieved to see us with our suit cases as we wave "caio!" and deposit the little monsters in her charge as we take off for Greece.....


(just kidding Jennifer, we're not going to Greece. Yet).

Showdown on the B-bahn

We had a big melt down on the bus today. I attribute it to Y. drinking his heffeweissen (and mine!) too fast. He freaked when the driver asked for our tickets and it quickly escalated. We had gone down to the big, central park for a walk before supper. I like being a foreigner. What little propriety/inhibitions I had before go out the window. Danke! Guten tag!

Today the girls and I went to the Funkstum...a radio tower that looks like a mini Eiffel tower. IT was a long slog, and not really worth the effort - but they're troopers, those two. And the promise of an ice cream treat (a BumBum is the current favourite) and the park are enough to motivate them for now.

I asked Y to come home early today (aha....I'm starting to understand his knicker knots now...) because I have been off work more than a week and wanted to get something done (revolutionary idea, i know). SO I holed up in SB (only place that takes MC and I had no cash) and tried to map out the summer. I must say, not much time for science.

Berlin is the most de-centralized city I've ever been to...there is no centre. Just a collection of neighbourhoods that feel like small towns.

Must learn more German: in a public toilet the other day, pulled the emergency cord instead of the flush. Entire restaurant came barrelling down the stairs!

(note: red buttons usually connote some sort of safety/security/emergency system)

Fatigue and scooters

My sleepless weeks have caught up with me today - could barely drag my corpse around the neighbourhood. Took girls to a park where they proceeded to excavate a giant lake. Ended with Artemis screaming "yucky yucky" because she had eaten sand. THe park was full of children, and they all wore socks with sandals - !

Nemy got her 2 wheel scooter. Jamina has one and it was pretty inevitable that she would, too. All these european kids and their scooters!

Heres why I like Germany:
-everyone, EVERYONE, bikes. No one owns a car
-people are not quite so rigidly stylish as in Paris
-they make great fruit flavoured buttermilk
-fresh cherries are superb


Here's what I dont:

The bread tastes great, but man, Im still working on some I had two days ago. That stuff is solid!


Im sure I'll come up with something else...but Im very tired tonight.

kurfurstendam strasse

Today it was just me and the girls. We live right next to a very big shopping district so we headed off for a look. Of course being Europe, can't afford a thing. And of course, all I look at are kids things. The Playmobil selection is pretty damn good. Girls don't like shopping much, so we stopped for weiners (what else?).

Artemis is getting a cold so we spent the afternoon at home. I went shopping when Y came home and our local grocery store is ABYSMAL, not so much if you like canned weiners.

Not yet.

The produce is fantastic. Local strawberries, apricots, asparagus. But you must buy at the little fruit vendors, not the grocery stores.

Yesterday was Vera's second birthday, so we went to Paula and Pedros. They had a wide assortment of expat friends, and it reminded me of living in Massachusettes, how open to friendsihp and socializing the dispossessed are. Another check for the expat life style - so many friends, and intimates too.

So Melissa what would you do with such limited exercise options? I surrender: walking, maybe the occassional run, but through a caucophany of traffic, its not so great, and ? Two months, I'll fall apart and roll back to Canada on my beer gut, but god help me, I won't care (that's the beer talking).

Decided tonight will take a 4 week course at the Goethe institute starting on July 1. I have always wanted to speak German, and this is it....my big opportunity. Dad, do you have any rudimentary pathways still firing? Who will I speak with?

Tomorrow the zoo? Checkpoint Charlie? THe needle? Curry wurst - a local specialty. Must try that.

Euro cup again tonight and the neighbours are rowdy. Germany isn't even playing.

Yes of course Henry, my Euros are your Euros. And sorry, brought the wrong cord to download pics. Four days in, my camera is already full. What'll I do?

June 7

Not very original titles, I know. And sorry, no pics. But Im knackered. Too knackered to download photos. And besides, Nemy is the only one smart enough to take pics ( mind you their all of Jamina and Benjamin on the train, anyway).

Today we got up early to go to the Rilligs for breakfast. They live in a beautiful apartment - these places are huge and bright and beautiful. We then went to..? I dont know the name of anything....a huge forest in the south of berlin. It was beatiful, surrounded by gigantic houses that looked straight out of a german fairy tale. We stopped for lunch (weiners, sauerkraut and beer of course) and the kids played themselves senseless, as Berlin, like the rest of Europe it seems, knows how to do parks, and do them all over the place. The girls come home at night covered in filth.

Germans are fanatical about pingpong. There are stone tables set up in all the parks and people (everyone) carries around their own paddles and balls for impromptu games.

Reconsidering taking a language course. I would love to learn German. Might take a short course in July.

Not much else to report as we spent the whole day wandering around with the Rilligs, and being witness to the gigantic love affair Y and Matthias are having. So rarely do you see people so thoroughly enjoying the same pathetically base sense of humor.

Berlin has to be one of the worlds most livable, giant cities. It seems very easy here, and there doesnt seem to be any of the horrific poverty one sees in North American/other European big cities.

June 6

Good gracious, even blogger.com is in German, how did that happen?

Today we took the subway/train to ? I let y. be my guide so I didn't pay too much attention. A big station north of the centre, by the Reich....sumthin sumthin sumthin.

Basically the bombed out seat of government by the Tiergarten and Brandenburg Gate, which we also saw. We decided (I, I decided) to walk back to the apartment, and three hours later, we were there!

Our apartment is huge and lovely, your standard European issue that I love: 12 foot ceilings, huge windows, wood floors and white walls. I love that asthetic. Lovely courtyard, front and back. It seems bigger than our house in Guelph.

The girls are having a good time (other than bed time) and Nemy has decided that she is in love with Artemisia- they have been best buddies ever since we arrived.

However, little Artemis was a handful on the plane, ran circles until she was hysterical then writhed and screamed. It didnt help that they had us sitting apart - begging strangers to let us sit together, nor that we were directly under the tell so that lights were flashing in their faces all night. We missed the flight in Dusseldorf, and so hung out there for a bit, with nemy on 1 hour of sleep, the rest of us on naught.

Artemis is still crying, unable to sleep. Is it worth it?

Berlin feels different than other European cities. Very spread out, no discernable centre, no big buildings and lots of trees. Buildings are all new, streets are wide. Slim on the cafe/restaurant front, but could be our route today.

The beer though is fantastic. I think it is the world's perfect beverage. Its like the wine in France: you cannot get a bad bottle.

The last time I saw deutschland

The last time I saw deutschland, Nemnuts was still my tiny forest creature...she was such a monkey! Today I went to African Lion Safari with Maternelle, Jardin, 1eme annee....It was intense. The din, my god, the din on the bus. How do teachers stand it all day? It was an exercise in behavioural control - sit down, stand up, dont do that.....Im not built for that kind of stress.

And what kind of stress am I built for?
The very most familiar and mundane: should my toiletries match? How much organic should I buy? Should I do route 1 or 2 on my run this morning?

So, until then....gutenacht.

For Sale

This little piece of global terrorism has finally pushed me over the edge. I have tried on countless occasions to start the f'er, resulting only in severe shoulder strain. I cannot start it. Add to that the god awful toxic sludge in consumes and burps throughout the neighbourhood and all over our shed...I've had it.

Someone, anyone, give me one reason to have a gas mower. It is so vile to me, that I feel dirty owning it. I have shame and loathing. Im not that person, so why is it there? Yianni, i dont think you understand how incompatible that machine is with the life I want to live. I cannot abide with it any longer.

For the second night in a row, Nemy was marched ruthlessly into the tub, washed aggressively, then put to bed without stories or a snack. Tonight, she refused to get in the car leaving Nadia's, she kept unbuckling and running recklessly throughout the neighbourhood. I know it does not make sense to withhold reading: how do I discipline her? All I do is threaten to take away priviliges. I have been lauding her every move, reinforcing good behaviour, to no avail. She is so needy right now, what am I doing wrong?

Cumulatively, my girls ate today: a sip or two of pink milk, half an orange segment, a bit of burrito shell, a few popcorn kernals, a spoon of white rice. Nemy had a small piece of icecream cake, but artemis, almost none.

Then today I almost lost Artemis because she ran out of Starbucks like a shot and into the traffic.

I think my mothering license is about to be revoked.