• Berlin,  Thoughts

    It’s Not Me, It’s You: The Remnants of my Berlin Dream

    i love berlin. everyone who knows me knows this. everyone who knows me and doesn’t know this, should. i first visited in 2006 on a whirlwind month backpacking central europe where it was by far my favorite stop on the trip, made even more fun by the fact that i knew some locals living there at the time (uw german department professors and affiliates) and they really pulled out all the stops to show me a good time. dinner parties, city tours, an evening at a crusty prenzlauer berg bar trying different flavors of berliner weisse– i loved it all. my friends there convinced me to take german language classes…

  • Berlin,  Summer,  Travel

    A Surprise Berlin

    when i returned from sweden, i had no intention of planning any more international trips this summer. but SURPRISE! i ended up planning an impromptu berlin weekend: summer’s last gasp. and it was a fabulous weekend to be in my lieblingsstadt: gorgeous weather and plenty going on.  i’d only been in berlin for the summer once (2008) for a few days and fell in love with the buzz and energy i never quite fully felt when living there in the fall and winter months. winter in berlin can honestly feel like the darkest coldest place you can imagine that can make you want to hole-up in your flat drinking A&P…

  • Berlin,  Life Abroad,  Prague,  Winter

    cooking in the CR

    food, food, food.  i love food.  living in seattle, i got pretty dang good and cooking asian food and had some great resources– uwajimaya, huge asian superstore in south seattle.  living near the ballard market was a big win for cooking in general as well. so after alex and i were finished with our work-stays in scotland and arrived in paris, we were now on our own for cooking.  i fell into the cook position at that point and have been cooking almost all our meals ever since.  i’ve never cooked consistently for two people before– as before i would feel free to make whatever super crazy healthy concoction i…

  • Autumn,  Berlin,  Prague,  Teaching

    berlin; arrived in prague!

    i cannot believe there is less than a week until the american thanksgiving holidays!  whoa!  just spent approximately the last two weeks in my favorite city, berlin.  i spent lots of time showing alex around some interesting historical sites like east side gallery, topographie of terror, and the bernauer strasse wall memorial. eating at my favorite restaurants was a thing to do by itself:  thai huong snack: home of the 4 euro huge portion asian noodles with veg and pillowy delicious tofu! also delores california burritos: the restaurant that changed my mind about burritos. other things we did in berlin: ate lots of currywurst, got the flu (me), recovered from the flu, was…