Mon 4.3.13:
We woke up at 4:45, ran into everyone else in the program on the bus, and navigated to the bus station just in time. We caught a beautiful sunrise over the countryside, which translated into a gorgeously sunny day in Berlin! The weather was too good to pass up, so I ran through the Grunewald and around Schlactensee (a lake). It felt relaxing and cleansing to get away from everything urban and just listen to the crackling of branches underfoot and see the sun reflecting off the still frost-covered lakes. I even discovered a 10m tall watchtower on my run! And, since I hadn't run much lately, I was pleasantly surprised to clock a 6:52 pace for 7.42mi, even closing in 6:01 pace for the last 1.58mi!
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| Bridge just outside of Prague |
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| Incredible sunrise |
Then I picked up groceries, did core on the Center's sunny lawn, and rewarded myself with some delicious scrambled eggs w/ salmon, cheese, bell pepper, dill, green onion :D And after Econ and E40, I went home, blogged, and slept.
Tue 5.3.13:
After a quick football toss around session, I headed home and ran around Mitte and East Berlin, and, upon realizing I'd been there before, connected the dots from previous excursions to orient myself within the city layout. I barely had time to shower before leaving for dinner - our German class had arranged a dinner with Jochen! Having let Jochen decide on his favorite Italian restaurant, we should've perhaps suspected some shenanigans - he must've called and pre-arranged the menu (we didn't realize this until the second round of them just bringing us food). The fare was phenomenal: we started with a mozzarella and tomato soup, followed by two different types of squid, tuna and beef carpaccio, prosciutto and cucumber pizza, and thinly sliced steak as shared appetizers, then we received a blue-cheese and apple ravioli in cream sauce, artfully concluded by two scoops of ice cream - one was a rich chocolate with nuts sprinkled on top, and the other was a hazelnut with raspberry glaze. Scrumptious!
Wed 6.3.13:
After our German test, our Econ class toured the Mercedes showroom, so we saw their entire range of production models. All of them were unlocked except those above six figures, so we took turns in the driver seats and pretended to live in luxury. However, many of their models still have an 'old-person' feel to them; they're trying to rejuvenate their image and target a younger crowd with their upcoming models.
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| Mercedes showroom |
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| From the retro (Dennis - your car!)... |
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| to the new and sleek (a mere 234,000 Euro) |
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| A convertible - also well in the six-figure range |
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| Maybach 57 - in a separate display room |
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| A roadster? Haha |
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| Possibly the best sign graffiti I've seen :D |
The rest of the evening was dominated primarily by the E40 pset and by planning the logistics for The Relay (only two months to go!).
Thu 7.3.13:
I woke up early and Skyped the rest of Team 1 so we could collectively sort out Relay details - great to see people's faces! We had the second part of our last German test, and then I met with Cemile to practice my German oral fluency and prepare for an interview, if I'm granted one. Wolf sent off my application materials to Deutsche Bahn, a major transportation logistics planning company, and with luck, I'll hear from them next week!
After Econ and E40 lab (our last! best quote from Timur: "Iqbal? That is a strange nickname…" - since we call him 'Balls' so much, Timur must've thought Balls was his real name and that Iqbal was just a nickname!), I went home, ran to Nollendorf again (dodging street women in what is apparently the poor section of the red light district), and then crashed.
Fri 8.3.13:
Earlier this week, a few of us had wanted to eat at the blind restaurant in Berlin, but since it's expensive for our student budgets, I suggested recreating it with blindfolds at the center. When I mentioned the idea to Karen (program coordinator), she really liked the idea, contacted Stanford about it, and informed us we could go to the actual restaurant! I spent the whole afternoon organizing logistics for the dinner (next Tuesday) and blogging.
Later I ran to a baklava shop, trying to time it to meet others but we missed each other. Then Lulu, Susan, and I hung out and watched some of her films over my recreated Bushwhacker concoctions, which turned out pretty respectable!
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