Week Two (i) - Sick, Broke, Yet Adventurous!

Sat 12.1.13: 

Despite the intermittent sleep last night, I arose at 10 today (probably 13-14 hours of sleep total!) feeling a bit better than yesterday. There had been a tentative plan to meet Susan Molly Esther Sarah at Tiergarten at 12, contingent on them waking up after staying out late, so I added money to my phone and headed over, unsure if they'd be there. They weren't, but I wandered along an open market with predominantly arts/crafts stuff like kitchenware, old photos, clothes, and woodwork - my favorite was a stall with woodcarvings of tons of animals, including several owls that I imagined to be various incarnations of Strix Tender Wurm (thinking of you, Daniel and Deborah!)

I returned to Tiergarten at 4 once the others had woken up haha. Molly Susan and I first crashed the Mercedes dealership and had our own version of the Cold War… pun intended :D 

A snowball standoff

We then met up with Esther and Sarah and wandered through the Tiergarten itself, illuminated spectacularly by the gas lanterns. Eventually we found the cafe nestled amidst the trees, which sported a curling area and stage by the back entrance. 

Stunning. Simply stunning

A Winter Wonderland

View of the cafe

Belgian hot chocolate

Inside, we realized the cafe was even fancier than we expected - we were tipped off by not only the decor but also the numerous well-dressed couples on dates giving us brief looks of mild surprise. We shared an apple strudel and a belgian hot chocolate - this came with a huge scoop of chocolate, which we added bit by bit to the cup and mixed in the warm milk - absolutely delicious!

The main dishes were a tad expensive for us, so for dinner we went to Mustafa's, a 3€ kebab/doner stand that consistently has at least a 15min outside wait (aka it's renowned). We crashed at my house for an hour (Esther and Susan passed the f*** out, under my America sheets and on my floor, respectively…) and listened to Taylor Swift music videos, recuperating prior to our Sprachpartner event later. The Sprachpartner program intends to provide us with native speakers with whom to practice our speaking, but it doesn't seem like it's going to work out. This event was at a bar across town, and we did meet up with several Berliners, but for many of us, it just seemed forced and difficult to actually converse because we have so little German anyway. We stayed in the bar for an hour or so and then took off intending to find a club. We didn't have a great sense of where to go though, and a few of us still weren't feeling 100%, so Anna, Susan, and I took off around midnight to sleep while the others adventured around (we later learned they didn't get in anywhere until 2, so we were justified in our decision to go home). 

Sun 13.1.13: Today was a pretty minimalist day - I woke up at 12, joined my host mom Anna in watching some German TV, and caught up with some of my blog until meeting up with people at 4 at a cafe. We attempted to do work until dinner, and then met up with other people for dinner at a Chinese place. There were 17 of us, and we kept arriving in ones and twos and eventually engulfed a second table, so we felt really bad for our waiters, but luckily there weren't many other patrons for us to disturb, being the stereotypical LOUD American tourists :D

Side note: since Thursday, I realized I have been down to just 5€, having spent my cash and as yet unable to withdraw money. I've been abstaining from meals out and/or purchasing a loaf of bread as the day's meal until I can get home and eat. So, I passed on this meal as well (for this one, I also wasn't hungry due to being sick) - it's been very sobering to imagine what this must be like on a regular basis.

After returning home, I nibbled some fruit and vegetables and then hit the hay.

Mon 14.1.13: Another uneventful day, largely occupied by class - our E40 lab ran until 8:30 tonight, leaving me just enough time to come home for leftovers. Fortunately, I finally sorted out banking stuff, so Tuesday I was able to splurge once more on food and other goodies!

Tu 15.1.13: On my subway ride to school, I observed two guys casually swigging some Scotch straight from the bottle - to be fair, they didn't look employed, but still, I guess when it's less than 20 ºF, you've got to warm up somehow in the morning! Anyway, after German we went to Aldi's for groceries, and my new on-hand cash enabled me to pick up several jellies, chocolates, and some fruits and vegetables - yay! Also, Lulu, Tina, Hector and I explored the surrounding area and found a delicious Italian place for lunch, where we each sampled a different type of spaghetti (pesto for me) and browsed their shelves full of various pastas and sauces and desserts (including one beach-ball-sized, five-pound-ish cake).

Around 5, I took off and decided to explore the Mehringdamm/Gneisenausstraße area (3-4 stops from mine, or perhaps a 25-30min walk). I came across several restaurants I'd like to try out at some point, from a Croatian place that offered the same cheese-filled cutlet dish I had last Wednesday, an Italian place with cheap pizzas, pastas, and desserts, and a number of Indian or East Asian restaurants that seem like good fits for large groups. I also picked found several new grocery stores, from the small, ethnic food store to the natural foods chain, allowing me to pick up some tortillas, a variety of cheeses, a few more veggies, and of course several more chocolates :) Finally, I browsed several bookstores, glancing eagerly but incomprehensibly at the German titles but happily finding a few all-English sections - in fact, I picked up a copy of Ready Player One (highly recommended - look it up!).

I meandered back home and had time to set my groceries down before walking down the street to Santa Maria's for Taco Tuesday (1€ tacos and tequila shots). At least 15 of us were crowded around two tables clearly meant for just 8, but that seemed commonplace due to the evening's promotion. I tried the chicken and cactus (yes, cactus!) tacos - quite delicious - along with a few group tequila shots, and then we decided to check out one of the nearby bars. We found one down the street and had some beers (I had some amaretto, remembering how good it was in the BVI Bushwhacker, and was suitably pleased) while inspecting the quite strange artwork - our favorite was a semi-typical waterfront cafe scene featuring an entire corner of rhinos, bears, alligators, wolves, and other dressed-up animals as patrons! Lulu, Shane, Zixiang and I wandered for a bit longer, attempting to find another bar or club, but to no avail, so we settled on some late night Turkish food before turning in for the night.