Istanbul (...not Constantinople)

Ozlem organized a fantastic trip for us to her home in Instanbul this past weekend. Almost everyone in the group came on the trip and several spouses came as well, so there were about 25 of us. Having everyone together, in and of itself, meant we were going to have a blast.
We experienced true Turkish hospitality (they're practically obsessive about it). Every restaurant had food on the table practically before you had taken a seat! On Friday evening we had dinner at a traditional kabob place, and then on Saturday at another traditional Turkish restaurant - such wonderful food and different spices and combinations that we're used to in the western culture. Sunday afternoon after a boat tour on the Bosphorus, Ozlem took us to a casual fish restaurant where we enjoyed some of the fresh catch.
Saturday was the main sightseeing day. We saw Topkapi Palace which was home to all of the sultans and twice the size of the Vatican. Within the palace, we also toured the Harem. On the tour they emphasize how beneficial it was for girls to be in the Harem because they received good educations and then had better marriage prospects.... not sure I buy it completely. We also visited the Blue Mosque, the most famous mosque in the city, and the Haghia Sophia which had been a Christian church until the Turks conquered the city and turned it into a mosque. The day finished up in the Grand Bazaar where we practiced our haggling skills (or got ripped off, as the case may be). I bought a couple scarves and some beautiful, hand-painted bowls.
Istanbul is a huge city! It has about 10 million people and is (I was told) 150 kms wide. Everything is pretty crowded and tight and traffic was a beast no matter what time of day it was. You also have to be pretty savvy with the taxi drivers because they'll rip you off in a heart beat. The city, especially along the water, has quite a Mediterranean feel to it with the brightly colored houses overlooking the water. It was cold and rainy the whole weekend, so I'd love to go back some day and experience it during the summer. I've posted a bunch of pictures so you can get a feel for the city.
The only down side to the trip was that air flights between Berlin and Istanbul are not too frequent, so our return trip didn't leave Istanbul until 3:30am, putting us in our beds around 6:00am. It was rather hard to drag myself into work my 9 and work for the day. But thankfully I think I've caught up now.
Another hightlight of the trip is that it was my first time in ASIA! Most of the time we stayed on the European side of the city, but Sunday night we crashed at Ozlem's house before our flight and she lives on the Asian side. So I've now added another continent to my list.

Robbed!

It turns out Berlin isn't as safe as it seemed. Last Sunday afternoon, three people in my apartment building discovered they had been robbed - two of them were friends from Genesis Park. The burglar was pretty thorough taking computers, cameras, cell phones, Blackberries and jewelry. We were all pretty shocked because it has seemed like such a safe area. Unfortunately, that complacency meant that most of us never locked the deadbolt of our door. Since the deadbolt wasn't locked, the apartment's insurance carrier isn't going to cover any of the losses. It's unknown whether the burglar actually had a key, or jimmied the lock.

Finding that out last week was unsettling and pretty freaky. But yesterday, it got worse.... I couldn't find my iPod Shuffle or my Blackberry. I don't use either of those items too frequently here, and it had been over a week since I remembered using them. They weren't in the cabinet where I always kept them and I immediately wondered, "could they have been stolen too? Surely not!" But after turning my apartment completely upside down (and there aren't too many places to look) I decided I had been robbed too! It must have happened last Sunday when I was at church. I'm very puzzled why they didn't take my computer and camera too, but I'm thankful at least that I still have the electronics I use all the time. So I reported the robbery to the apartment and visited the local police station to file a report (more for insurance purposes than anything else). By God's grace, I'm remarkably calm about the event - I was more freaked out last week - so that's a huge blessing!

Look out, Kasey Kahne!

On Friday evening the Berlin Tax partners invited our GP class to go Karting, which is their favorite hobby. It's essentially the same as what we call Go Karting. With the prior class, they split into two teams, GP and Tax, and thoroughly whooped the GP class. This time, whether from a belated sense of fairness or because we're 3x the size of the prior class, they split the teams based on individual racing times. We each had 10 minutes to get the feel for the track and then we were split into 10 teams of 3 people and raced for the next hour, swapping out drivers every 10 to 15 minutes. While my team didn't exactly win (though we did beat out 3 other teams), we had Kirsten's husband, Sascha, as our pit crew. The Tax partners were really friendly and fun to hang out with and it was great to connect with some of the people from the Berlin office. After the race, they then took us out to a traditional German dinner at a restaurant in one of the really pretty, historic parts of Berlin (Gendarmenmarkt). I've posted a few other pictures from the evening. It was a great outing and I'm ready to go again!

Barcelona

I left my family a day before their departure and went with the group early last Saturday morning as we headed for a 3-day retreat. We stayed in a 400 yr-old villa outside of Barcelona. Some of the required events for the weekend included the team all cooking a dinner together, eating one of the breakfasts in complete silence, and doing one activity as an entire group. We also had more specific tasks, like plan for the Eurofirms Human Capital Leaders conference at GP in a week and brainstorm new ideas for the GP website. But overall, it was a very low-key weekend. It was a perfect chance to get away from rainy Berlin, reconnect with people in the other strategic project groups, and enjoy some relaxation time with each other. The last day of our trip, on our way back to the airport, we took a quick detour into Barcelona to see La Sagrada Familia church, eat lunch on La Rambla, and see the Port of Barcelona. I've posted a number of pictures of the trip so that you can have a better idea of where we stayed and what we did.

The Inside Scoop

Guest blogger: Julie Apple

10 little known facts about the filming of The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer

1) Also considered for the leading male role were the famous actors Walter Matthau, Sean Connery, and Yul Brynner
2) Gretl was not able to swim…. So in the scene where the children fell into the lake, Maria was supposed to catch her. During take two, however, they fell on opposite sides of the boat and Gretl was left on her own... bobbing under a few times. A nearby crew member had to jump in and rescued the sinking youngster. When the director announced that they were going to do a take three, the poor, terrified Gretl threw up on the spot all over Louisa. Thus, a take three never happened and take two is the one that appears in the movie. Next time you watch, look out for Gretl's bobbing head.
3) There were actually two gazebos that were used for the filming of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” one for the outside shots and another, larger one for the inside scenes.
4) During the filming of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” Liesl's slippers had no tread. So when she leaped onto the bench, she disastrously slipped and flew right through the window. Despite a sprained ankle, they filmed the scene anyway. Consequently, if you look closely while watching the scene, you’ll notice that Liesl’s ankle is wrapped up with an ace bandage. (This detail has been edited out of the DVD version.)
5) The gazebo scene between Maria and the Captain where they sang “Something Good” was filmed in the dark because Julie and Chris could not keep from laughing at the strange, raspberry sounds coming from the archaic lighting fixtures. After many unsuccessful tries at taping the scene with the lights on, Chris proposed that they do the scene with the lights off so that no one would be able to tell if they were laughing.
6) Two separate palaces were used for the filming of the Von Trapp estate. One was used for the front and back of the building itself and another one was used for the backyard gardens and lake.
7) The singing voice of the Captain did not belong to Christopher Plummer.
8) In the song “So Long, Farewell!” when Kurt miraculously hits the high note in his solo, it is not his voice that is used. It’s actually a female’s voice!
9) Only the outdoor and the wedding scenes were actually filmed in Austria. Everything else was recorded back in Hollywood.
10) In the final scene, where the whole Von Trapp family climbed up the mountains, the Captain was directed to carry Gretl on his back. Chris, however, refused to do so saying “I will not carry that fat girl!!!” As a result, a skinnier stand-in was required.

The Hills Are Alive

True confession: The Sound of Music is my favorite movie. Now granted, when Julie and Steve were in their hey-day of acting, I did grow a bit weary of it after seeing 14 different stage versions of the play. But I can still watch the film over and over and know all the songs by heart. So when Mom suggested we take a day trip to Salzburg during our weekend at Munich, I was all over the idea. While in Salzburg, we took the highly-cheesy but oh-so-entertaining SOM bus tour through the city and surrounding countryside, stopping at all the places featured in the film. Julie and I had particular fun re-enacting some of the scenes from Do-Re-Me.

I guess I should back up a bit - my family came to visit me in Germany! Mom, Dad and Julie arrived in Munich Friday morning (sadly the boys and Rachel couldn't make it over). They spent their first day fighting jet lag and seeing a bit of Munich, and then I flew down and met up with them Friday evening. On Saturday, we went into the Bavarian countryside and visited a couple of the impressive castles: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Both were gorgeous! Then Sunday was the trip to Salzburg. We did get a bit of real history in while there too by touring Mozart's residence. Here are my pictures from the weekend (warning, there are lots!). I flew back to Berlin Sunday night, having seen nothing more of Munich than the train station and hotel (didn't even make it to the famous beer halls). The rest of the family drove up through Germany and arrived at my place this evening.

Here is a link to my Dad's blog where he's going to be capturing much of their adventures. I'm also hoping to persuade a couple of them to author some guest blogs on my sight this week.

Back "Home" in Berlin

Ahhhh, jet lag. It's 12:30 am Berlin-time and I'm wide, wide awake. Even though I managed, with great determination, to keep myself awake all day yesterday when I arrived, and despite all my good intentions of starting the 2nd half of the program well-rested, it's just not meant to be. Instead of vainly lying in bed, I thought I'd post photos and highlights from my trip home (that is, my other home - B'more).

I felt like I was back in college with a glorious 2-week break around Christmas! I am truly spoiled. It was great to be home for Christmas (I was singing "There's no place like home for the holidays" and "I'll be home for Christmas" on the plane back)! On Christmas Eve day, most of the family (Steve had to work) played a couple games of bowling. I solidified my status of worst bowler in the family, though I narrowly squeaked by with the title!

Rick, characteristically, was the most focused of us all:

Julie: "Did I do that?"

I got to catch up with so many friends while I was home! Here's a picture of Susan and me at her wine-tasting party.

Also, just before I came home, Becca moved out of our old apartment to a new place in Cockeysville. So last Saturday, she and I spent the day re-painting our beautiful, green wall to boring white, cleaning and scrubbing the apartment, and basically removing all traces that a fabulous duo had once lived there. It was a sad moment. But at least I got to spend good quality time with my BX ! At least we finished off the day in good style eating Cheeburger and watching a marathon of Heros episodes. I don't have any pictures, but Becca has posted a couple on facebook.

Over New Year's, I went down to Richmond and got to catch up with Kate and Marianne (college roommates). Marianne grew up in Germany and it was great for both of us to compare experiences. My poor, dear Kate got a kidney stone the day before I arrived, so we laid low for the holiday but enjoyed spending time together. We did venture out on New Year's Day for a walk through her neighborhood.

Kate, her mom and Halley, who could hardly contain her excitement:

What a lovely neighborhood:
And look, this one is for sale! just kidding :-)
Packing to come home was no fun...

No wonder my suitcase weighed a ton. Seriously, when do I think I'm going to have time to read/watch all this.
I got back yesterday morning and it was nice to come home to my apartment, though my poinsettia didn't quite make it the 2 weeks:

It had snowed while I was gone and was actually so cold that the Spree River was somewhat frozen:

Welcome back to Berlin!

And now, I'll try once again to sleep.