A bi-monthly post..?

Picture right: Mauerpark Flohmarkt

Visitation number two has been and gone, an
d a week of uni wrapping up. I've managed to enjoy the city with mum and dad and practice my fairly rough-shod hosting skills, and I once more possess a camera, and love using it. Early christmas pressie! Uni this week was a bit aaargmaraghahh, but its going steady at the mo. It sometimes feels a little like a never-ending hamster wheel by the end of the day, but I can remind myself of a bigger aim than reading wordy linguistic texts in German.

You always have to be shown a bit of the centre if you come to Berlin. At least one or two of the well known spots - Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag, Museumsinsel, Unter den Linden, Gedaechtniskirche.. we went for Unter den Linden area on the first day, in which I realised I had no clue where to eat out, because I just don't really. I was very glad to have discovered with Luke that the little unnassuming organic place over the road is actually brilliant (a little like Victor Hugo's of Edinburgh, last year's nice deli below me, but more relaxed and friendly). To make it even better, I discovered they give 5% Kiezrabbat (discount for locals).


Picture: Fernsehrturm from Zionskirche.
Sunday with mum and dad panned out quite well. Germany, particularly Berlin, particularly Prenzlauerberg, does weekend breakfast very well. They generally serve buffet breakfasts 10-16Uhr, German style bread and cheese and hams and cereals and joghurts and fruits.... so of course we started with one of them. Then off to the Mauerpark Flohmarkt, which was typically crammed with both goods and people. We took a wander along to Zionskirche (near the foody street Kastanienallee), where we were (as time has moved on) unexpectedly met with a lovely late sun view of Berlin, from the top of the tower. I had no clue that was there, so an unexpected delight.

University, is ok, German is the hardest bit I think. Its quite a slog to get thorough all the vocab even before I get to the subject matter of semiotics or methodology. Otherwise..I chatted to one of my leturers about Hausarbeit topics, which was a brilliant help - despite not being loads closer to a topic, he said to to my presentation work first, so, thats going.. God knows what he is doing, I'll make sure I give it a go. Met up with the church plant bunch on Wednesday evening, which was great to see them again and have a bit of time praying together.

Maybe a quick trip to some German Weinachtsmaerkte tomorrow, see whats on offer there, the first weekend of opening (though they started Monday). Well, I kind of know, stollen and crepes and fruit in chocolate and christmas decorations, but you know what I mean!
The terrorist alert means theres plenty of police about, and the parliament is closed, and it might have had something to do with the disruption of the ring line, but I'm not too fussed. I'll let the government do its job, and I'm still just doing normal stuff. Hopefully Weinachtsmarkt events won't be ruined for all the stall people! Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will look after itself.
Oh, and I have to talk about THE WEATHER, as its changing and so has to be mentioned. I am British. There is a graph that shows me nicely how the min and max temperatures trundle happily to well below zero over the next couple of weeks (see picture). My weather widget learnt the new sign of an igloo probably signifying the -7c to -10c temperature range for Sunday. Its reconsidered its estimate now to -3 to -8, which apparently doesn't deserve such a sign. I'm very happy to have a heating inclusive rent :) The first snow has settled very faintly today! Walked home in crisp cold with this through my earphone (thank you dad!). Till later, take care.

I'm still around, things have been a little busy...

Picture: us in the kitchen, from Luke's nice camera
Hello after possibly three weeks.
I've taken various approaches to my uni work, tried to work out what I should be doing, and how to learn all this academic German, and (tried to) work extra before Luke came to visit. We saw a few tourist things possibly of interest to you... As he's just left, theres no pesky person to distract from writing this blog (though he was possibly going to co-write an edition).

University life has been a little blurred, but taking it a step at a time. I visited an exhibition by Stefan Koppelkamm in the Muesum for Communication for my cultural language course (called Ortzeit/Localtime) which was good. He took pictures of East Germany post reunification, and about 12 years later re-photographed the same places. We did a short presentation on this in German, which wasn't too pressured as that class is all German-as-foreign-language learners.
I've chosen my presentations for my English language courses: aspects of language in Scotland for one , and linguistic typology in my other. These areas will probably become the area I do my two Hausarbeits in. The other assesments are German exams (essay style) on lingustics, so I really need to develop my academic vocab and writing. The texts are a good challenge to read.

VISITORS
I met Rachel on Monday eve, which was great. We went to a recommended italian, which wasn't particularly pretty, but did do very good and very cheap italian. A good post-food walk and chat too. My official first visitor!

Having Luke here was brilliant, he stayed a week. I did some stuff in uni and he got to explore whatever he fancied at points, and we had a good chunk of time together too. We went to the Weinerei with coursemates one eve, and celebrated bonfire night with Claire and some friends, as well as going to the JKB church. The latter two were principally in German, which tested my translation skills, and Luke had an impressive go at following conversation/participating!

We also cycled round Tempelhof park/old airport grounds. The fact I'd never been before was particularly evident at the point we we cycled down past muddy allotments with two Westie type dogs snapping at our jeans, to find a dead end with a fence, with Tempelhof joggers passing by on the other side. We got there eventually! And it was very beautiful.

We also went to Potsdam, the place of important international conferences, which is quite tourist geared but pretty, lots of shops and cafes and very impressive gardens and stately homes to wander round. Unfortunately I can't upload pictures as I managed to leave my camera at the Potsdam train station - I won't see it again, but I'll move on from that. I live and learn. I'd just told Luke how my brother had managed to miss a train or two in his time, I think I needed a comeuppance. Luke had his SLR so we've got a few pics. Oh, and from the SLR I learnt I might need reading glasses - I couldn't read the numbers on the screen.
Luke left safe yesterday, and I'll be seeing him for the new year. Thank God for Skype.

Mum and dad are here in a week, so not too long till my next visitors!

This is probably enough for one entry. Till later.