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| not going to post here anymore. only posting at dancingfly dot org now...
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| i used to hate that assignment where you were supposed to "write a one-page composition on what you did during spring break" because usually i just stay at home and do nothing exciting. but this year we decided to just up and go somewhere not too touristy and with lots of history. so last week hubby and i used airline miles to fly free to berlin for spring break (first time in europe!). here's a quick run-down of what we did. it's also a nice itinerary for anyone exploring berlin on a budget and a short amount of time. we were there for a week but we had a lot of down time too... all we accomplished could easily be done in about 4 days (riding bicycles got us everywhere faster than walking and also the trains/subways run on-time and very frequently)...
monday 4/5: arrived on monday evening and went to check out the kaiser wilhelm memorial church before checking into our hotel. the hotel is a former east berlin factory building converted into loft spaces. coolest budget hotel ever and in the best location - right across the street from warschauer strasse station trains and subways which we took everywhere. a stone's throw from the berlin wall east-side gallery and spree river...
tuesday 4/6: we rode bicycles all over and checked out the city's main attractions, some of which were: alexanderplatz and nearby church buildings, checkpoint charlie, remains of the berlin wall and a wall watchtower, hitler's bunker, brandenburg gate, memorial to the murdered jews of europe (holocaust memorial), bebelplatz (site of nazi's 1933 book-burning), luftwaffe ministry (former nazi air force headquarters), museum island, reichstag, soviet war memorial, victory column, and then we rode through the tiergarten (city park), and along the spree river. we also ate some really good currywurst at konnopke's imbiss...
wednesday 4/7: we took bicycles on the train and rode all over potsdam (a half hour train ride outside berlin) where we saw the lavish palaces, parks, and gardens built by/for friedrich the great and other prussian royals. we also visited the site of wwII's potsdam agreement and the nearby dutch quarter of potsdam. the palace architecture was impressive but mostly i was just happy to be riding my bike in a bike-friendly place on a gorgeous sunny day (was supposed to rain all week but instead we had nice weather every day). oh and we also happened to walk by scott schuman (of thesartorialist.blogspot.com, one of my favorite street-fashion photo blogs) who was at our hotel giving a moderated discussion on blogging and fashion...
thursday 4/8: we went to the bauhaus archiv-museum. we are huge fans of modern design so we HAD to check out the bauhaus...a place where Mies van der Rohe and other designers of our modern furniture (like our barcelona/pavilion chair) got their start or influences. we also walked along embassy row and the tiergarten, visited the memorial to gay victims of the holocaust, revisited the holocaust memorial, and wandered around potsdamer platz mall, the buchstaben museum (letter museum), and the tempelhof neighborhood where hubby's ancestors were killed when in wwII when their building was bombed. we also ate some mediocre currywurst at curry 36 (not as good at konnopke's imbiss)...
friday 4/9: we were tired so we had an easy day. i played piano in the hotel lobby (a very bohemian loft space) while hubby drank his coffee and we mainly lounged around in our hotel all morning. later in the day we went window shopping in potsdamer platz and souvenir shopping in alexanderplatz. we also checked out (mostly for food) the prenzlauer berg and kreuzberg neighborhoods...
saturday 4/10: we went to a hertha bundesliga soccer game in olympiastadion (site of the 1936 summer olympics and the 2006 fifa world cup). explored more of the friedrichshain neighborhood where we were staying and got ready to go home...
sunday 4/11: we were amazed at how many young berlin locals were still on the train platform getting ready to go clubbing at 4am while we were on our way to the airport to go home. later on, driving home from our home airport, we were amazed at how we hadn't driven or ridden in a car for an entire week and did not miss it (driving/riding in cars) one bit! | | |
| it's beautiful out and i'm home sick. this cold's not all that bad though and it could be worse (i'm glad it's not the flu!). L got it worse this past weekend and i was trying not to get it. fought it off successfully until yesterday. so far i don't have it as bad as he did though so it should pass in a day or two. hopefully. didn't want to get everyone at school sick though. getting some extra rest today but taking some time to catch up on reading stuff online... so J.D. Salinger passed away. sad but 91 is a pretty good long time to live. i wonder if there are some unpublished novels of his that can be published now. i do so love all his novels and short stories. especially Catcher In The Rye of course. my guess is that most people identify themselves with the character of holden caulfield from that book. i always thought i was more like phoebe though... so nothing terribly exciting is going on around here but i'm fine with that. just trying to get through this school year which seems busier than usual for some reason. for the first time i'm not even signed up for ballet. which means i should have lots of extra time, right? but no. maybe more time to sleep. which is definitely what i need. so yay. keeping up with one of my new year's resolutions to dress better (again). or at least to not just grab the same pair of jeans and sweatshirt as i run off to work each day. the sixth graders and kindergarteners are the ones to comment the most on my outfits. they especially like my black-and-white-striped leggings i got from american apparel. recently worn with a navy flannel plaid (blackwatch plaid) miniskirt and a slouchy grey wide-neck top (made out of something sort of like sweatshirt material but a little dressier looking). L calls my striped leggings my wicked-witch-of-the-west leggings. but the kids at school usually say zebra-striped. or they just say they like them. not as many kids (as i would have expected) have seen the Wizard Of Oz. also recently popular with the school kids is the side-ponytail i've been sporting. and my recent outfit which was a black dolman-sleeved top worn with an ethnic-print-like full miniskirt (outback red brand from the limited store, originally bought around 1988). i added this skirt to my donate pile in the early 1990s, later regretted donating it, and was so happy to find it again at buffalo exchange in the later 1990s. bought it again and then forgot about it until recently. i swear i should have just kept all of my clothes from the late 80s and early 90s. It's all coming back in style again and I had some pretty nice pieces since my mom would often buy me some nice outfits in her attempts to try and make me dress better (for school and church). Anyway I am currently missing some of the nice Esprit and Bennetton and Laura Ashley pieces that I sold to Buffalo Exchange when I needed money in college and thought that full miniskirts and huge slouchy sweaters and very floral dresses wouldn't come back into style ever again. Boy was I wrong. Oh well. Anyway, I'm tired again so it's off to take another nap. Hope everyone else is staying healthy! | | |
| I got through the first week back at school okay. I was pretty glum yesterday (after learning some sad news about one of my favorite yoga instructors). I decided to try and have a good attitude today. So, well... I had a pretty good day today. Did you know how much of a positive difference a good attitude can make? Me, I was very surprised! Of course the gorgeous weather helped (75 F and sunny). The mid-day happy hour helped (this place we go to has the best garlic fries). And learning that one of my favorite boba/snack places is reopening this week after being closed for remodeling, AND newly added to their menu will be pho (I LOVE pho!!!)? Well that helped a lot too...
So I've finally been catching up on reading some blogs I'd gotten behind on. Including my own. Thus this little update. Did you all have a nice holidays? Mine was bittersweet since it was the first holidays without Meow. But other than that L and I had a nice time just chilling out and laying low. For New Year's Eve we just got some take-out sushi and watched old movies. One of my favorite ways to celebrate New Year's. By the way, can any of you right this second sing all the words to Auld Lang Syne (okay even just the first verse)? Like without looking it up online first? Just wondering. For most of winter break I was a slug and spent way too much time browsing around online. One winter break ago (or two) I was all into design and architecture blogs (mostly mid-century modern design and desert modern architecture). This winter break (and last) I continue to be really into fashion blogs. Not that I dress very fashion-forward myself or anything. There is just something about fashion blogs that I love. Speaking of fashion, I'm trying to decide whether or not to bother watching the new season of Project Runway that begins this week. Maybe yes. I still have my sewing machine out from when I made my therapeutic kitty ornaments last month. Maybe the show will get me inspired to sew myself something fabulous! Or at least just hem my jeans to the correct length. Or maybe it will just inspire me to dress better! In any case I'll try to keep you all updated. | | |
| I'm usually not very crafty but this week I made a bunch of these calico cat ornaments for our neighbors and for the pet hospital staff who helped take care of Meow when we were out of town or when she needed to see the vet. I'm not a huge fan of sewing but it can actually be sort of therapeutic at times. Making the calico cat ornaments helped a little bit in keeping my mind off of missing Meow so much. | | |
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