Thank you to Katrin's co-worker's Mom for playing detective

Remember that post we wrote about the funny sign we saw at a playground near Katrin and Christian's apartment. Well, wait until you read what Katrin's co-worker, Moneim, did for us--without any prompting! His mother is fabulous. I'm in love. Love. She actually sent an e-mail to the city government to figure out this whole weird sign.




(Apologies for any weird-sounding translations.)

E-mail from Moneim to Katrin:

-----Original message-----
From: Moneim
To: Katrin
Re: Questionable Prohibition Sign

The puzzle about the prohibition sign has been solved. My mother has refused to let this mystery remain unsolved and so she has asked about it. The answer follows.

Message 1:

-----Original message-----
From: Moneim's Mom
To: The Department of Parks, Berlin

Dear Sir or Madam:

Recently, I was at a park where I stumbled across this prohibition sign, and I cannot figure out what is being forbidden by the symbol, which I have have marked with a green arrow. I would be grateful for your clarification.

Kind regards,
M.E.

Message 2:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ms. Bureaucrat
To: Moneim's Mom
Re: Questionable Prohibition Sign

Dear Mrs. E.,

The sign should make clear that children should take off their bicycle helmets when climbing on the playground equipment. The equipment is constructed according to special safety standards, which are based on a child's body measurements. Bicycle helmets could cause them to hit their heads. This is not a legal prohibition. Because most would not read the details, the pictogram provides the information.

Kind regards,
Ms. Bureaucrat

Sure, sure, now you post one

I've always been a fan of these "36 Hours In ..." articles that the New York Times does, and I was really hoping for an updated Berlin article before we left last month. Oh, well, better late than never: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/travel/11Hours.html?em

Long post on the wedding

Christian just reminded me that I never wrote up my thoughts about their wedding. So, here we go...

Trying to get from Berlin to Schloss Ziethen was hysterically maddening. The S-Bahn was in disarray because the whole system was being worked on or repaired, so the trains weren't going the way my directions indicated. Using my crafty street skills and asking people every few minutes, I managed to figure out which trains we needed to take. We finally arrived (late) at the train station, where Christian's wonderful father picked us up and took us on our first German car ride. He drove fast! It was a fun ride through the countryside from the station to the Schloss, where we met up with Christian and were introduced to a few of Christian and Katrin's friends. Then we headed up to our room, where we changed and cleaned up for the wedding. After gathering in the hotel lobby, we walked across the street to the church, which is the village church in Groß Ziethen. It is this beautiful, simple, old church with wood pews. The sermon was pretty good. Did I already tell this part? I was slightly worried about what the minister was telling them--that we can only expect 50 percent of life to be happy. He said something to the effect of this: don't expect to be happy all the time. Be happy with what you have and do the things that make you happy: listen to music and share time with friends and love each other.

After the service, (in which there was no kiss! and in which I could not believe how strange it felt to hear Christian and Katrin say "Ich will" instead of "I do" that it felt somehow incomplete and shocking!), we all walked together back to the manor house/hotel. When we got back to Schloss Ziethen, everyone filed out back and started drinking Sekt (the best-tasting version of Champagne I've ever had). It was terrific! Then we all got balloons and let them go together, to symbolize our support for the newlyweds. This part felt like when in U.S. weddings we throw rice or confetti or blow bubbles; it felt like we were doing something collective to celebrate the newly married couple. It was so pretty to see all the different colors float up into the air. This was organized by Katrin's mom. I wondered if Katrin was worried about it being environmentally unfriendly to release balloons and hoped she was not anxious about such things on her wedding day.

Then we kept drinking Sekt and talking with Katrin's friend from work (Moneim and his girlfriend from Sweden whose name I can't remember at the moment) and other people--many of Katrin and Christian's friends speak impeccable English. We ate wedding cake (no feeding each other cake from what I remember--another U.S. wedding tradition that seems not to transfer over--and there was certainly no threat of the cake-in-the-face smashing, a truly horrible wedding idea that I don't think I've ever personally witnessed). It was heart-shaped with strawberries on top. Also, there was wonderful apple küchen and more Sekt. I drank perhaps a bit too much, but that just made it fun to chat. Two of Katrin's friends took pictures of everyone framed by an empty picture frame, which was lots of fun and will make a great wedding present. The atmosphere was very playful. Some people wandered back to their rooms after awhile, but Ryan and I only took a very short break before returning to this back patio area, where Christian and his band entertained everyone and more Sekt was drunk by all. It was great fun. Then we all filed into dinner.

Dinner was amazing. Katrin's dad gave a great speech. Christian's uncle gave the long, complicated Donald Duck speech. There were games! Games! Fun games. This was fantastic because as our American readers know, there are no fun games like this at American weddings. It was all designed to keep people busy and getting to know one another. And it worked. Our table had great fun.

One of the games involved everyone at the table writing their wishes on the back of a piece of wrapping paper, which was then wrapped and secured around a bottle of champagne, one for each of the next seven wedding anniversaries. Our table was lucky: we were bottle number seven, so in seven years, K & C will get to read our wishes to them and hopefully they will laugh and enjoy thinking of all of us thinking about what clever things to wish them for their seventh anniversary.

We also had to do a quiz, which was horribly difficult, testing our knowledge of all things K & C. The first question was our favorite: "What U.S. state (in which Katrin went to school as an exchange student) has the capitol city of Columbus?" Of course, many people came around to ask Ryan and me about this one, since we were the token Americans in the room. Other questions wanted us to know about their musical interests, sports, hobbies, and the places where they have lived. We all learned a lot, I think. The hardest question asked "Which famous place did Katrin and Christian visit on their pilgrimage to the land of The Beatles?" (The answer was not Abbey Road or Penney Lane, despite our attempts to make these words fit into the spaces. The answer was the Cavern Club, the place where the Beatles once played together.)

Another "game" involved us choosing greeting cards to send to Katrin and Christian over the next year. Ryan and I are excited about the ones we chose. We got some excellent dates! Also, I think we got to send the first one! I hope they received it already. I can't wait to send more mail to the "Eheleute" (Married People) this year. This was perhaps my favorite idea of the night.

Another activity involved everyone singing a song that Katrin's mom had written to an old folk tune. It was corny but fun and everyone had a great time singing together.

The food was unbelievably good: creamy mushroom soup, salad with grilled fish on top, venison from a young deer that tasted buttery and delicious--the best I've ever had, apple tart, wine, coffee, and a tasty pear schnapps to finish off the four-and-a-half-hour dinner. It was a true celebration.

Ryan and I especially enjoyed talking with Bernard and Eva, friends of Katrin's mom, who were incredibly fun to talk to and who had lots of entertaining stories to tell. Also, they were great at telling us about everything we didn't understand and explaining little cultural things (like the Donald Duck speech). It was great fun.

After dinner, everyone filed out the doors and picked up big torches, which we then carried around in the dark down a winding path around the property. It was lovely and romantic and fun. I mean, fire on sticks?!? Is that ever not fun? Already it was getting cold, so everyone was glad to put the torches down and go to the dance hall, where an open bar offered fruit punch (with real fruit! and lots of good wine and Sekt mixed together), beer on tap, wine, juices, and other beverages.

At the dance hall, the first dance was so classy. They danced a waltz! No schmaltzy sentimental pop song and silly and awkward slow dance! This was a real waltz! No surprise that Katrin looked glamorous as she has trained in dance, but Christian looked like a natural. He was such an elegant partner for his new bride. Others joined in. Clearly, this is something Americans need to do. I mean, the waltz! How romantic. Now if I could just get Ryan to take some lessons with me...

Dancing and talking and drinking... Well, before I knew it, it was almost 2 a.m. We had the best time. We talked a lot with one of K & C's friends who is a high school English teacher. I learned a great deal and enjoyed myself immensely. It got cold. And late. So we went in to sleep. I hardly remember falling asleep, I was so tired.

A whole wonderful wedding with no bouquet toss or awful obligatory garter removal, in fact there were almost no parts of the evening that felt staged or awkward. It was just like a big wonderful dinner party. Probably my favorite part of the evening is when we first came into the dining room and Christian and Katrin went around the room introducing everyone. That never happens at an American wedding! It was just so nice to hear who everyone was and to feel as if everyone had been properly acknowledged. And did I mention the food? Wonderful food--nothing like the dry, tasteless banquet food I've had at some big American weddings. The waiters served us all at once, as if they were one seamless machine. Very classy. And did I mention the part where we carried torches in the dark? How romantic.

The next morning was the biggest, most amazing breakfast spread. Fitting of a German breakfast: cured meats, lox, trout, cheese, spreads, jams, cereals, breads, cake, soft-boiled eggs, yogurts, milk, fruits. I could have eaten all day. The breakfast was like a relaxed version of the dinner the night before. Lots of socializing and relaxing. It was very nice.

After some downtime, we took a taxi-ride back to Berlin with some others who were in town to do sightseeing. It's hard to believe how quickly the weekend went.

Arghh, matey! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

So, I'm apparently a bit addicted to this blogging business. Just a few quick things:

This from NPR for your Pirate Day needs: 'Keelhauled' by Alestorm, a pirate metal band.

Or, better yet, a now-defunct Portland band that Ryan and Chris introduced me to years ago: Pirate Jenny.

My dad has a blog

P.S. My dad said he was inspired to blog after reading our blog. I thought I would share the link with any of you who are fans of my dad or want to become one of his fans. My dad should seriously have a fan club. He is one of the funniest, coolest people I know. He even let Ryan take pictures of his scars, which is so awesome. A total warrior. He also helped my sister and Ryan unearth my grandfather's old photography equipment from the back corner of the garage. If you have ever seen my parents' garage, you will understand what a feat this was. And now that hulking equipment has been set up in my bathroom, where Ryan is enlarging and printing photographs from the Holga. I can't wait for him to share them with you, but you're probably going to have to wait a few weeks for that, since he's still perfecting his technique (and developing about 40-kazillion rolls of film).

But back to the blog thing. I feel like we are experiencing the year 1999 all over again. Is this what happens when tech-slow people catch up on old trends? I've had blogs off and on for years but haven't kept a public one in ages. This is kind of fun. I wonder how long it will last.

Here's what my favorite 59-year-old father has to say about my cat:

Each time I peeked out on the back porch, Charlie was wearing her best demented "wild cat" visage. She would peer out from under a chair, the table, or the gas grill with a wide-eyed, crazed feline look.

This morning when I went out to make amends, Charlie went into "berserk cat" mode. After ascertaining that I was not going to allow her into the house, she went streaking around the back porch, banking off the walls and screens. She did this repeatedly. Finally, I could only find her wild-eyed face peering out from under the gas grill cover. I felt guilty all day long.

Oh boy. Poor guy. He's been guilted by the fluff monster. Next thing you know, she'll have convinced him to feed her tuna straight from the can. Good thing she's coming home this weekend.

Back in Columbus

It was a long day yesterday. We took the #42 S-Bahn to Beusselstraße, then transferred to the TXL bus, which took us to Tegel Airport, where we went through security and questioning and then had a little breakfast and coffee before our eight-and-a-half-hour flight back to the U.S.

My seat partner was (remarkably--this is my third time in a row sitting next to an unknown academic on a cross-Atlantic flight) an English and Music professor at Fordham. He was reading a Conrad short story at the back of a copy of a Barnes & Noble edition of Heart of Darkness in preparation for an undergraduate English class on--get this!--narrative and modernist literature. Crazy coincidence. I can't wait to tell my adviser, who heard all about my previous encounter with a much less quiet professor of philosophy. Turns out Prof. K. teaches Kermode and Ricoeur and Peter Brooks, but it sounds like classical music is his true passion. Most of his research and scholarly activity is in music now. I should have talked to him about Dr. Renker's classes in nineteenth-century poetry and alternative music. He was quiet, so I didn't want to bother him too much, but we had a very enjoyable conversation before we both got back to our respective reading and movie-watching.

It's so nice to have your own personal TV screen on the seat back of the chair in front of you. I watched several episodes of House on this trip when I wasn't sleeping or reading about science studies in preparation for my upcoming class this fall (Global Studies in Science and Technology). What have I gotten myself into? I think ultimately I will teach it like a narrative theory class with an emphasis on how science uses narrative forms to present its research. Or something like that. Only three days left to prepare. Eek.

Ryan got searched at Newark, which was a little scary, but since we weren't smuggling drugs or farm animals, they let him go. After waiting through security again (I don't remember having to do this in Philly, but if I did, it was not nearly as annoying as the security at Newark). After a little more waiting, we finally got on our plane to Columbus, which was a quick 1.5-hour flight. Then our lovely neighbor and friend and catsitter-extraordinaire Nancy brought the Yanmobile to pick us up and we were finally safe and sound at home.

Kashka seems happy to have her people around, although we hear that she has a new boyfriend. Our upstairs neighbor, a wonderful guy named Dave, has been letting her inside his place to sleep at night. I just hope she'll decide to come around our place at night sometimes... Charliekat comes back this weekend from my parents' place. They are coming to Columbus to pick up a new piece of furniture, which my mom apparently found in the Columbus area. It's a very cool Heywood-Wakefield dresser, which I think means that my parents can finally get rid of the old, falling-apart dressers they inherited from my sister and I years ago. I'll post a picture later.

So, yes, the trip was a success. And we're happy to be back. We'll post more photos and notes after we catch up on some more sleep. Thanks for reading!

Last full day

Ryan said he loves the sound and the feel of the subway. I love the sound of people speaking German. I like the smell of cooking Wurst on the street, the Germans walking their ever-so-polite dogs off-leash and riding their bikes and ringing the little bell to warn you of their approach. I like the little green man that tells you it's okay to cross the street. The bike lanes everywhere. The scarves that people wear to keep their throats warm, no matter the weather. The children playing in the park. The old Turkish women on benches. The little cups of espresso. Even the 24-hour McDonald's around the corner, which has a McCafé that sells Küchen and Lattes. I haven't seen a drive through all week. We only took a car once and yet we went all over the city, even left the city to go to Potsdam and to Schloß Ziethen. I like sparkling Mineralwasser and cheap pizza and cheesecake at every bakery.

Thanks, Berlin. Thanks, Deutschland. It's been a great week. I'm going to miss you. I hope it's not another eight years before I return.