two things of note on this here 28.april

1. tried berlin's very own frozen yogurt shop! (pictured above) (the first i've ever seen in europe) (toni and i shared their original - and only - flavor with white chocolate chips + crushed-pistachio-syrup-goodness) (reallyreallygood!)

2. attended the opening of the INSANE and STELLAR and best-contemporary-art-show-i've-been-to-in-YEARS, i.e. olafur eliasson at martin gropius bau. oh my goodness! at one point in one of the installations it was if you were walking through colour itself. i don't know how to explain the show from start to finish (if only to say i walked through the entire thing 6 times front to back, taking me well over 3.5 hours), only to say yes, this is why i came to berlin:

you still get really good frozen yogurt.

and the art is (dare i say!) superior to new york.

happy wednesday/thursday/whenever you read this to you all! :)

freitag

just two photos today to end off the week!...

good morning...


....and good night.

thanks for following me around this week! berlin is lovely and completely different from nyc, yeah? :) ha! i love it.

much love to everyone and enjoy the weekend!

donnerstag

off to my (beautiful!) Volkshochschule for german class....
the metro here is bright yellow [and UBER-clean]. SO happy.

mittwoch

picked up these babies after breakfast! june 5! jonsi! berlin! -->

next three photos: along the 7 minute walk from my flat to toni's...

a peaceful end of the afternoon snapping the view from toni's window...

dienstag

a sunshine-filled morning! bare legs and sandals are in order!

grafitti on the door to my apartment building. perfect.

canal behind my apartment. beautiful.

massive turkish market along the canal, tuesdays and fridays. wondrous!

montag

oh dear dear germany for having so many versions of my beloved rooibos tea! :)

this bookshop is right below my apartment. it's "opening hours" sum up quite well the berlin business attitude :)

would you like to follow me around berlin for a week? sure! so: sonntag.

huzzah for the nouvelle routine

i love that moving to a new place requires creating new life-rituals: new shops, markets, walks, cafes, bakeries, transit-routes, galleries, modes of communication - all of these daily aspects of living must suddenly be re-crafted, re-discovered. it's so fantastic! my daily routine now no longer includes commuting crunches, gray cubicles, and the omnipresent missing of toni. instead it includes lovely things like walks along canals and cobblestoned-history-infused streets, cafe-sitting, and actually reading interesting books and articles for long, uninterrupted stretches at a time...

it also includes lots and lots of very productive research in the bowels of jstor and googlescholar for two separate upcoming projects (phd, and another one that i feel nervous talking about now until it develops further - super vague! but potentially super exciting!).

oh, and did i mention it includes quite a lot of this?:

again, allow me to breathe a contented sigh... i'm becoming more and more comfortable in my relaxed, self-determined days. who wouldn't be? i'm so dang lucky! life is so utterly sweet right now! this is the epitome of that rare privilege virginia woolf talked about in a room of one's own. i feel like i'm free to actually learn again, and am in general much more present and full and feel truly and utterly complete.

oh, and need i mention the best part of my routine? the cherry on top of all of this new-found engagement with daily life is that around 6:30pm toni comes home from work and we have the rest of the evening to spend together in any way we please. have i mentioned how glorious this is? the switch from long-distance to no-distance is ______ [please fill in the blank with any and all hyperbolic exlamatory words of happiness and contentment :)]*


will post more soon, with actual pictures of my neighborhood and such. in the meantime... skype date anyone? (i'm 9 hours ahead of the west, 8 hours ahead of the mountains, and 6 hours ahead of the east. just fyi :)**


*i'm sorry for gushing so much. my blog has turned into an idyllic-fest! ha! it's all still quite new, so thanks for bearing with all my uber-excitement.
**edited to include texans! sorry for the oversight! yes, 7 hours ahead of the lone-star state!

from kindness to kindness

enfin! i have unpacked my room in its entirety... would you like to see? of course you do!

isn't it huge?! and sunny? and comfy and gorgeous?! ja ja, ja, and ja! you see, i'm subletting this room until the end of august, meaning it came fully equipped and furnished- you can see the corner of the bed on the right, and even a mini-tv should i ever choose to indulge in the delight that is german television [please click on that link and watch that video again. OMG.]

but my favorite is this lovely armchair in which i can sit and enjoy a leisurely morning of tea with john tavener on Q2 radio streamed from new york....

.....gazing up at my beautiful tulips (fresh ones that toni lovingly bestowed on me to keep me company as he spends these 3 days at a work conference in mainz)....

......on my beautiful desk....

....enjoying my favorite chocolate, which fyi is about $2.50 for this monster bar (more than double the size of normal ritter sport squares that ran $4 in new york! i'm in cheap, yummy, chocolate heaven!!)


and oh yes, did i mention that i have the one and only big orange splot house in view from my window?

berlin graffiti/street art conquers once more!

the entirety of my view is actually splendid: the cute yellow berlin u-bahn (can a subway system be cute? well, this one is) runs just out to the right, behind the little park, but i'll wait for a full picture until the leaves have come out again. everything is still wintry branches here, despite the sunny skies :)



so ah yes, i am safely and happily installed. the title of my post refers to the fact that while unpacking i discovered a beautifully kind and thoughtful card tucked secretly into my suitcase by a former flatmate from new york that brought a little grateful tear to my eye, and then the kindness not only of toni (hallo, that goes without saying), but my two new flatmates here in berlin, with whom i hit it off immediately. they are easygoing, friendly, and generous. they have helped me feel instantly comfortable in my new home.

so in conclusion, leisurely mornings with tea and tulips and armchairs, snazzy new bundesliga fashion shows at my disposal, cheap yummy chocolate, lovely memories of new york life and happy beginnings with new friends in berlin. alles wird gut, tudo bem, tout va bien, and all is indeed right in the world.

zusammen.

at last in berlin! oh what relief and calm and happiness i have been met with. it was a coincidence that i came on Easter weekend, but what a happy one! toni took thursday off, and with friday and monday as holidays, we had a full 5 days to revel in the fact that we are at last together with no ending point in mind - this isn't a temporary visit with a return flight to dread in the near future. it's impossible to explain how wonderful this feels, and how happy i am - the trite words do such injustice to the overwhelming feelings...

but i did want to share with you a bit of our blissful weekend together: the Easter brunch toni and i enjoyed on Sunday between Catholic Easter masses and LDS Conference sessions - with a traditional, sweet, yeast-braided Osterbrot as the centerpiece, gorgeous and delish and made from scratch from the loving hands of both me and toni. have i ever mentioned how everything turns out better when toni and i are together? i have made many yeast breads from scratch in my time, but this one was far superior. i owe it all to our united and collaborative efforts :)

i will post more soon, with pictures of my beautiful, sunny room - which toni lovingly prepared for me, unpacking all the books and summer dresses i had sent with him when he visited new york in february, making my bed with new, fresh linens and placing a gorgeous full bouquet of sunny tulips on my new desk (you can see them transported to our brunch table above). have i mentioned how divine and kind and generous he is?... oh sigh, contentment! it's all i can feel - i am so blessed to be here and to have so much love in my life. hope you all had a beautiful Easter, earthquakes aside!

to everyone i send much love from bright and sunny berlin :)