Recap of the Week

Since I can't seem to post anything during the weekdays, here are the highlights from this past week.

One thing our group is doing is to have different evenings were we experience food from our native countries. Last week the guys from India fed us Indian food as part of their country presentation. This week, we had traditional German cuisine at a restaurant right next to the old west Berlin City Hall. Apparently Kennedy used to eat in this restaurant frequently when he was in town (the walls are covered by pictures of JFK). It's not a large restaurant, so we pretty much took it over with our group. I had some kind of goulash served with spatzle and red cabbage (my new favorite vegetable). The goulash was described to me as game and was basically hunks of meat in a savory sauce with mushrooms - delicious! There were a couple German speakers at my table who helped translate the menu for the rest of us... which was no small feat considering we spent 10 minutes discussing the first item. It was initially described as a "sophisticated chicken." They finally settled on a translation of "partridge" and we moved on through the rest of the menu at a slightly faster speed. Subsequent research revealed it was actually a guinea hen. :-)

On Friday evening, Ozlem invited everyone to her apartment and cooked Turkish food for us - which was delicious! Fortunately, since she has her son with her in Berlin, she has a somewhat larger apartment. So with people bringing extra chairs and dishes, we managed to all fit comfortably. It was a really fun evening and a great way to kick-off the weekend. I've posted some pictures from the party if you're interested.

On Thursday evenings, all the museums in Berlin are open late until 10pm and admission is free after 6pm. This Thursday was the first chance I've had to take advantage of this deal. Several of us grabbed dinner after work and then walked to the Gemaldegalerie, an art gallery featuring 13th-18th century European art. We did discover that though admission is free, they get it back from you by charging for the audio guides, which are typically free. Though granted it's much less than the normal admission. The gallery is fairly large and had a good selection including artists such as Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others who didn't start with "R." Most of the group headed out after the first hour. But Martin and I stayed until closing time, having a grand time coming up with our own "interpretations" and barely making it through the whole exhibit before being kicked out. I'm hoping to enjoy many more Thursday evenings at museums.

Another highlight from the week is I decided to go to Amersterdam for a weekend in early December! There are a number of people from the group going, including one guy from the Netherlands, so it should be a great time.