Ok, kind of a filler episode.

We pick up on the day after Christmas, the beginning of my third week in Berlin.  That's just about the time it takes to get over the major shock of living in a foreign country and start to notice some of the more nuanced twists of culture present in every day life.  In the quiet period between Christmas and (spoiler alert!!) our Parisian excursion Denise and I made some efforts to bring home to us, but mostly found ourselves swept along, fitting our needs to the offerings of our settling place of the moment.  

The day after Christmas, right out in front of our building.  I thought: What a thing!  You can just drag your old Christmas tree out to the sidewalk and leave it there with a mattress you don't want.

The lines at the grocery store before New Year's Eve weren't quite as long as before Christmas, but they were comparable. Our teller didn't seem to like having her picture taken.

Our New Year's Eve nacho loot.

The New Year's cleaning was in full swing (after acquiring our nacho loot..day before New Year's Eve) and there was a loud flash and snap, the whole place went dark.  Our beloved chandelier had popped one of its bulbs along with the fuse to the apartment!

A breakthrough in culinary technique!  Don't waste time glopping slippery canned tomatoes around your cutting board, use scissors after they're safely in the cooking pan!

Kenny found the biggest can of beer in the store. I told him to drink it delicately. (vs. I thought it would be like to NEW YEARS DRINK LIKE VIKING and how it was.)

NEW YEAR NACHOS.

Only worthy follow up to Viking times and nacho feast: NEW YEARS BANANAS FOSTER.

The final product survived the scorching.

The Germans take New Years seriously.  Starting a few days before it had begun to sound more and more like we were living in some contested territory in the Middle East.  That was nothing compared to the eruption of pyrotechnics once the clock hit 12.  I only had to try for a couple of minutes to get a pretty good picture of the view from our kitchen window.

The Kenny desk setup.

Will set us up with a guy (Chris) who had recently moved to Berlin to complete a PhD.  We went to an American diner (hah!) and there was a decent photo op.  I really wish I had tried once more to get the scene framed a bit better but I'm pretty sure I was freaking Chris out so I took well enough for good.

Dog and baby parking at the Edeka!  I had noticed a couple of times before but this day was particularly good.

When Denise told me where she had found an apartment for us I checked it out on the google maps and noticed a strange structure near by.  Talking to another lady from a different neighborhood, she seemed to think that it is a natural gas holding tank, likely disused.  She also said that you can get up on that cylindrical structure but we never did.

We finally made it to the Argentinean restaurant! Unfortunately, none of the dishes were authentic. To their credit: the steak was solid and reasonably priced.

Kenny came along to document my last meeting with Sarah before we set off for Paris!