Happy new year! Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

A new year started today in Vietnam, the year of the buffalo. In China, it will begin with spring festival tomorrow. We already celebrated our new year on January 1st. And the Ukrainians the old orthodox new year on January 13th.
Berlin ist a multicultural city, and all these festivals are celebrated here. Since the old orthodox new year and the chinese spring festival are on working days this year, I chose to celebrate the vietnamese Tet festival.
My favourite vietnamese restaurant Van Xuan, right at the corner of Crellestraße and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz, offered a big party with a buffet and music. I had missed it all the years before, and was resolved to celebrate with them now.
I invited friends from Couchsurfing, three women joined me, and we had a great evening indeed, with delicious food and prosecco, a dragon dance, jazz and Chopin played by members of the staff, and a karaoke show. What fun it was!
I tried to upload my video of the dragon dance, but failed to do it properly. Until I find means to correct it, just turn your head a bit - or your laptop. Enjoy!

Happy birthday, Currywurst!

60 years this year, and still going strong, especially in Berlin where in 1949 Hertha Heuwer invented it. They say. Others claim it was invented in Hamburg. Or Köln.
Whatever: more here (Deutsche Welle, it's in german).
I wished currywurst helped fight my headaches. ;)

An evening in ancient Greece

My friend Peter came to Berlin to promote his new book on ancient greek mythology with an evening of lecture and music. I was invited, and even though I felt really tired after a hard day at work (my cold is still not overcome), I took the s-train to Steglitz to join the evening at the greek community center.
Peter was his usual happy self, embracing all his friends with a big smile and wide arms. How nice to see him again. Since his retirement from working at ver.di, he lives (and writes) in Gelnhausen, so we can't meet very often. He asked me to join the close friends meeting at "Terzo Mondo", a greek tavern in Charlottenburg, after the lecture. But considering my health and work next morning, I had to refuse.
The evening was nice, Peter reading his epic poems on a rewritten history of Achilleus and Thetis, greek actor Kostas Papanastasiou (Germans know him from "Lindenstraße") reading the greek translation (beautiful!), a jazz musician playing ancient flute and drums to guide us into the scenes, and the world premiere of a composition to one of the verses topped it all. Peter knows how to bring all those artists and arts together to build a lovely picture!
Afterwards a greek buffet, and chatting with newly found collegues I hadn't met for at least 15 years!
Three hours only, but what a great change from my daily routine!

The new president

Obama has made it! He's president of the United States of America!
Millions went to Washington to attend his inauguration, more Millions watched this historical event on tv and computers. I was one of them, following the ceremony between work and taking Emil to the vets. No chance to join one of the many parties held in Berlin to celebrate the inauguration.
All the best to the first african-american president, and good luck on his difficult job in these times of financial crisis and wars in the Middle East!
Here's his first speech as president. How wise he was to call the american people into action a few days ago: Organizing for America!
P. S. I loved Aretha Franklin singing! And what a wonderful hat she wore!
P.P.S. The benediction by Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, dean of the civil rights movement, was a gem!

Good bye Bush!

One more day, and he's still trying to change the world according to his ideas. Here's a song for Bush by Ratatöska, featuring famous lawyer Ströbele (Christian from Berlin, not Volker from Stuttgart). "See you in Den Haag!"

The morning the pan talked to me

How weird can life be? I went into the kitchen this morning, still sleepy, and stopped frozen in front of my stove. There was my pan, standing there since a week or more, and in the middle of the oliveoil a big heart!
Now what is my pan trying to tell me by offering a heart?
Love is in the air today? Time to ponder about Valentine's day? Or - more profane - time to clean the kitchen?
I thought a bit (not easy, since still half asleep), and opted for the cleaning. Now I know what to do today after Winterfeldtplatz market...

Thursday 11:00 am at Liverpool Station

Train stations should be like this more often...

Arts and Light in Finland

I got an invitation to an exhibition opening at Finland Institute, close to Friedrichstraße, and I had to go. I haven't been in Finland for a long time, more than two years now. I miss it!
The exhibition on light design and art by Tülay Schakir was well worth a visit, and a lovely end of the day, after working for long hours at ver.di. Read more about it here.

Freezing cold...

It was freezing cold all weekend, even though not as much so as last week. Since the sun was shining brightly, I left Emil and my flat, and took a long walk around Berlin center. This is the frozen river Spree opposite Berlin main station. So beautiful!
I surfed a few bookstores on my way and found birthday presents for Anna. In the evening, I wrapped them up nicely, and today the parcel was sent off. Hopefully, it will reach her before Thursday!

Snowcovered Berlin

My garden in the morning, seen by Roberto a few days ago. Lots of great photos showing Berlin covered in snow here!

What I did in 2009 - so far

Oh dear, ten days of the year went by, and I never found time to tell you about them. Bad girl! Well, I did have to recover from a nasty cold, and I had lots of friends visitig until Jan 6th, plus I started work again, and working out to loose a few of those pounds the delicious dishes during the holidays had added to me.
Temperatures in Germany dropped to a century low, so I enjoyed the snow and cold wrapped up in layers upon layers of wool as well as from inside my cozy flat. Which seems so empty now that Dirk and Roberto had left, and most of my Berlin friends can't visit since they are staying at home with a bad cold/flu/cough.
Here's a pic of Roberto and our wonderful spanish tapas dinner we had on Monday, Jan 5th, the evening before he left. Daphne and Sean were invited, but were kept from joining us - by a cold, of course. It was a great evening, all the same. I'm still living on the leftovers. :)
And all those Leonidas chocolates Dirk had brought from Belgium are tempting me whenever I open the fridge (even though I had safely stored them right in the back).
More pics and videos of the last days in Berlin taken by Roberto are to be seen here (on BerlinWinterCamp), here (Free Hugs at Alex) and here (Potsdam). There are a few photos of the rare times when I managed to join my friends, either downtown or at home, in the BerlinWinterCamp album. You can see we had a great time together!

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoyed the last hours of 2008 with friends. I sure did! Dirk had offered to cook a meal, and we invited a few others, so we were six friends from six countries to share the last evening of the year together. US, Guatemala, Spain, England, Belgium, and Germany - chatting happily in english and spanish (Sean and Mario even in katalan).
The hours flew by, and around 10 pm Dirk rushed us to Brandenburg gate, to join the 1 million visitors for the huge party and fireworks.
Sean and I preferred the Kreuzberg close by, took a leasurely walk through the cold, and were stuck for an hour in fireworks, crackers, and smoke, surrounded by a friendly, cheering crowd.
Back home around 1:30 early in the new year, the flat felt empty and quiet. Emil loved it (he's hibernating in the locker lately), but I pondered on inviting friends over for a dinner and a talk more often. A good solution for the new year...