Hello, my pretties! Sorry it's been more than a week since my last post (though those of you reading this via Google Reader are probably glad for the decreased spamming!). Most of last week was supremely boring so I didn't have anything to report, but this weekend I actually went places and did things! I know, it's so exciting. I guess I'll go in chronological order?
Thursday Rick and I were planning to get me a German cell phone. This was stalled somewhat when Ric's key broke in the lock of his door. Since we needed the paperwork that was in Ric's room, not to mention his wallet, books, clothes, and bed, which would all be necessary later, we plotted to somehow open the door. After attempting to turn it using bobby pins, tweezers, a knife, and a crochet hook that gave its life to the cause, we were frustrated. It was also, mind you, about a bazillion degrees out and humid as anything. The windows in the apartment open in two ways; they can either swing open and in, or they can just be open at the top.
Ric's window was, unfortunately, in the latter position. While one might think this precludes crawling in through it, one would be mistaken. After he boosted me up (we live on the first floor, but it's still a few steps up to get into the building, and I was not nearly tall enough to jump up), I proceeded to try and reach through the open slit to turn the knob that allows the window to swing open. I sadly discovered that my arms are neither long nor thin enough to manage that, so I had to use my brain (I do that sometimes, you know). I sent him in to the kitchen to look for tongs or something I could use as a grip, but we didn't have any. Then I remembered that scissors exist, and that we had a big pair somewhere in the kitchen. I managed to weasel my arm down far enough that, with the scissors as a nightmarish claw-hand, I was able to reach the knob and very slowly and painfully twist it open. The window swung in with a creak and some jubilant hoots from myself and Ric. Needless to say, my ninja cred went up 1000%, so much that I may feel ready to participate in Ninjagrams next Valentine's Day. Tragically, this triumph was followed by the discovery that the door could not be opened from the other side, either. After many sweaty minutes of effort, we gave up and crawled back out, grabbing the paperwork and Ric's wallet on the way. When Peter got home, we regaled him with the epic/tragic tale, and Monica came over to offer support. Ric called Monika (different person), who runs the apartments for the Akademie, who said that they could send over a locksmith in the morning. Until then, they would just have to climb through the window. So ended an epic adventure. The next day, however, on my way out to use the free internet in the parking lot like a hobo, an angry old German man accosted me and started yelling about the marks on the wall outside the window. I attempted to explain what had happened, but he interrupted and said he knew we'd been climbing through the window. I never got to tell him that, hello, it was not by choice, because he kept going on about how we had to clean it and that the apartment building had recently been repainted and blah blah blah. I understood about 75% of it, mostly because I already knew the words for "to clean", but wasn't about to ask him to slow down his rant. Get yelled at in German: Check! Good thing I can take that off my to-do list. I told the guys to wash the wall because I did not want to be confronted by an angry neighbor, though they have yet to actually do it.
Friday it was unbelievably hot, but I managed to alleviate it somewhat by spending several hours in Starbucks. Saturday was even hotter, somehow. I went to the Kunsgewerbemuseum, the Arts and Crafts museum, for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. It was wonderfully air conditioned and full of various arts and crafts spanning from the Middle Ages to the modern day. I spent most of my time with the older stuff, and got to see lots of 500-year-old carpets and furniture, as well as a truly impressive collection of religious artifacts.
A lovely carpet from Belgian, approximately 1540.
There was a beautiful ring with an asymmetrical cluster of rubies that I would totally wear, and I was shocked to see that it was from the 7th century. Some things really are timeless, it would seem! There was some really gorgeous furniture with exquisite carving, and it was so weird to think of a person making it hundreds of years ago.
A different carpet, from the late 1500s, with a beautiful carved chest from the late 1300s.
Seeing all the art and crafts felt like a very personal connection to both the creator and the user/wearer. It's amazing to imagine how different their lives must have been. There was pretty much nobody else in the museum; there were more security guards than visitors. The descriptions were all in German, and I'm glad I waited so long to start going to museums, because I can understand way more now than previously. They had one-page, double-sided summaries for the various collections, but they charged 10 cents apiece! So I took one, read the first page, and put it back. Not like they would have checked my bag when I left, though. Germans are very law-abiding and by-the-book, and most would never think of taking a copy and not leaving the 10 cents. I was offended that they charged for take-home knowledge; it was 8 euro to get in (I had to pay full price because I couldn't find my Swat ID, grr), and I'd like to think that covers things like copies of information! Such was not the case, though :-( So I can't tell you many facts or histories, but I had a fun time nonetheless.
Afterwards I headed to Ric's bar for the Germany-Argentina game. It was a bajillion degrees, but the game was good: for those who didn't watch, Germany scored in the first 3 minutes or so, and then there was nothing for another hour, and in the last 25 minutes they scored three more times, keeping with their recent beat-downs of opposing teams. Argentina was left goal-less, which was undoubtedly embarrassing for them. I then had to endure 3 hours of honking, screaming, singing, and general chaos, before it finally calmed down around 9.
Here are some very very drunk guys who were singing the German anthem and other pro-Fußball songs very loudly, first in the subway station and then on my subway car. I encountered others like them at the other subway stations I got off at, as well as on the street in front of the apartment, where there was a traffic jam of crazed soccer fans tooting their flipping vuvuzelas (unbelievably annoying horns). Good times, my friends, good times. It's better when they play during the day, because then the celebrating has usually stopped before I go to sleep! So Germany is in the semi-finals, along with Uruguay, Spain, and the Netherlands. If they keep playing as fantastically as they have been, they'll win the World Cup. Fingers crossed!
Sunday was the 4th of July which is, of course, not celebrated here. I slept in late then spent most of the day in a haze of suffocating heat and wet towels, and did not do anything remotely patriotic. I did wish I could eat some potato salad and baked beans with the family, though. Last night we went to an all-you-can-eat rib place near Potsdamer Platz, which I retroactively applied to the 4th of July. It was delicious, as long as I pulled the gobs of fat away. Then last night we watched The Hangover, which they'd never seen (horror of horrors!), and ate strawberry crepes, which have become my standby numminess when I get tired of döners (sadly, it is possible).
So I hope that all was worth the wait! I promise to write more often, not least because of my increased museum-stalking, and hopefully I can actually impart some knowledge next time. Happy belated 4th of July, and I hope you all ate a corn dog for me (except you, Mom, I know how you hate corn/hot dogs)! Tschüss!
