Count down

I've started the lists. There are many. One is all the things I won't have time for in Berlin....I am already waxing nostaligic about this place...how it will go on, unpreturbed, by my departure. I am falling in love with this city . I wish I could live multiple lives at once.

This trip has been good for me, in many ways I've re/gained some confidence regarding my career. I can see now how one builds a research program. I can see how you don't need to be Einstein to do so.

I was up at 5 (AGAIN) with Artemis. It was a beautiful morning, so we went on a walk. The city is very quiet on Sundays, especially at 6 am. We found a park and played building water ways with sand. When she wanted me to sing hush little baby while she lay on a hammock, I decided it was time to walk home. She fell asleep, of course, 5 minutes from home, so I streched two blocks home into 30 minutes.

We (I) were absolute shattered by a trip to the beach yesterday. It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed with Berliners. We had a good time - especially Nemy who loved the huge inflatable slides. I took her out to the waterslide in the middle of the lake. Fun, but not a simple feat: we had to wait in line, and I had to hold her while treading water, then catch her while treading water, and haul her back in. Surprisingly little nudity here. Disappointed, naturally. I like to see the humanity of it all.

I feel so torn - I would love to stay here, I would. But I would miss my life in Canada, I know that too. Our lives are very different here. You are not focused on your house/your home. Life takes place mostly outside of the house. I think it would be an interesting study to compare cultures in how much time is spent at home. Europeans spend a lot of time out - eating, socializing. Canadians spend most of their time in their houses/yards. What does it say about the culture? I think we hunker down on our homesteads bc so recently we were alone on the frontier. No where to go, and more importantly, nature wild and scary bearing down on us from all directions.

This has been a very cognitive post.....can I prosleytize for a moment? My anxiety peaked a few weeks ago, not unrelated to the fact I had started drinking coffee here - it is so good (who knew?). It is insidious, caffeine is, and unless you stop completely you have no idea how incapacitating it is.