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?