With a face like that and 20 Dollars, you can buy yourself lunch in Switzerland
Sorry I haven’t updated this in a while. But, you should automatically expect an apology like this about once every two or three weeks. Last week(end) I was in Berlin, and it is quite a schick city. But, the city itself is nothing like other international big cities (i.e. London, Paris…). The city is pretty spread out and the buildings are rather short. I was talking to my manager’s manager’s manager (it’s sooo Office Space sometimes…) and he was telling me about how it was expensive for buildings to be built tall and how the composition of Berlin is about 4/5ths former East Berlin. West Berlin only comprises of about 1/5 of the area, and even within that 1/5, most of the tourist attractions (museums, shops, etc…) lie in the former Eastern areas. So, that surprised me a bit. It was a good four days in Berlin and I’ll be going back for another five in June. So, this last trip was a good introduction and overview. Next time, I’ll have more time to find the kitchy stuff…!

So, my trip to Berlin was an all expenses paid excursion brought to me by my German ‘Congress’woman. So, it was me…Elaine…our hosts and 54 other old people. The entire trip was planned with a schedule we had to follow, which included visiting government buildings (various ‘Ministries of____’). But, the schedule basically ran like this: Visit to Ministry of___, Huge meal, Visit to Ministry of___, Huge meal. After the four days, eating really became something we had to do between visits to buildings, monuments and ministries. And, we didn’t do a lot of moving either. Old people don’t walk much, so even if we had to go only a little way to the next scheduled visit, we would all have to get on the bus and drive there. I felt like I gained 50 Kilos last week. But, not to worry, I didn’t. I was there during St. Patrick’s Day so I met up with some friends at an Irish Pub and we celebrated right along with all sorts of other study abroad students. (Americans always flock to Irish Pubs. I don’t know what it is about Irish Pubs…) Later on in the night, this old man who was a part of the folk band (he was at least 70 years old) got up on the bar and did a little jig while playing the spoons. Yes folks, he played the spoons like a bad-ass.

Two weekends ago I took a little trip to Basel, which is on the border of Switzerland and Germany. The interesting points there would be: A. It’s expensive…I paid something like 20 USD for lunch one day. B. Its clean; they must be using the money I paid for lunch to clean the city. C. Basel is not far from nature. We hopped on a Tram and were out of the city in a short time span and were able to climb up a (short) mountain.