New Year's Eve in Berlin

Brandenbug Gate from website berlin.de

Last night was just about the best New Year's Eve I've ever spent. I guess that should not be surprising--we are in Berlin, after all! I had heard about this enormous celebration at the Brandenbug Gate here and wanted to try to see what it was all about. However, we were warned that it is so crowded (over a million people were expected) that it is impossible to see or really do anything there. Also, we didn't relish the idea of standing around for hours and hours in the cold. So we decided to go early, see what was going on, and then go home and watch the rest on TV.

And that's what we did. Greg, Chris, and I arrived in the late afternoon around 5 pm. The area is enormous, stretching from the Brandenburg Gate a kilometer or two towards the Victory Column. The street is closed off to cars, food and trinket vendors line both sides, and there is a huge stage beneath the Gate. After we arrived, we promptly purchased our Gluehwein, watched the band on stage for a while, then strolled along the boulevard all the way to the end. We made our way home, had a nice dinner, then settled down in front of the tube with drinks and snacks to watch the festivities.

We ended up switching between the party at the Brandenburg Gate and a documentary on the Bee Gees (who knew they were so interesting?). A little before midnight the special guest performed on stage--it was Heino, the famous singer of German folk songs! He sang a couple of more modern, pop-style tunes, very cool to watch. He just turned 75 and looked a little funky and out of place up there, but what a treat to see him. At midnight the fireworks went off.

Heino

(Apropos fireworks in Berlin: they are everywhere on New Year's Eve, all day and all night long. Chris wrote on facebook that "New Year's Eve in Berlin is the single most horrifying, deafening and absolutely amazing experience"--which sums it up well! We thought it was probably good that most people who experienced WWII in Berlin are no longer living because it sounded like a war zone out there, and it could set off a lot of post traumatic stress if you had actually lived through the war here.)

It was indeed a memorable evening and a fun way to start the New Year!

A Quick Merry Christmas from Ddorf

Yesterday, on Christmas, Greg and I walked from my apartment in the Wersten neighborhood in Duesseldorf all the way to the Rhine River. We walked through some areas of town we hadn't yet seen, and ended up in Althimmelgeist near the river. Here we happened upon a brass band playing Christmas songs, and we were given the words to the songs and encouraged to sing along. The band then walked to another street corner nearby and played some more songs; we went with them and sang along again. Finally, we broke away and continued to the Rhine.

Today we are headed to Berlin to spend a week with Chris and see what interesting things we can find to see and do there. We have some opera tickets lined up too.

Merry Christmas!!!

Conrad and Chris are Traveling

Conrad has been on a two month around the world trip, of sorts. He went to Japan in mid August for a few weeks (I joined him for 10 days), and then spent September in Hamburg at a Goethe Institut, polishing his German. In his usual way, he saw and did a lot on his travels! After Hamburg he went to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit Chris, and now they are traveling together through Sweden and Norway.

I'll see Conrad for a couple of days when I arrive in Duesseldorf tomorrow. He flies home from Duesseldorf, with a week stop in Washington, D.C.

Chris went to Copenhagen in early September, and now he is planning to go to Berlin and work on his German at a language school there. Greg and I will be able to visit him at Christmas in Berlin (since we'll both be in Duesseldorf then).

Both boys are enjoying using their newly acquired German citizenship and passports in the EU! Here they are touring the world's largest ship that recently made a stop in Copenhagen.

Book Update September 2013

L'Assommoir by Emil Zola (1877).  A friend and I who have similar reading tastes are doing an online book club sort of thing. We both love late 19th, early 20th century fiction, especially by German authors.  My friend introduced me to the French author Zola, and I have been hooked. His novels, written in the "naturalism" style, are bleak, but the characters are fascinating. Zola's characters don't learn anything in the course of the story (which is why the stories are bleak). Instead, they act true to themselves to the bitter end.

This story is about the problem of drinking in the lower classes of Paris and the destruction it wrought. Interestingly, the title of this novel is usually not translated. "L'Assommoir" is the name of a typical, cheap drinking establishment of the time.

Across Islands and Oceans: A Journey Alone around the World by Sail and by Foot by James Baldwin (2012). In the 1980s Baldwin, only in his 20s, sailed alone around the world in a very simple boat, using no navigation technology. He didn't even have a radio on board. He stopped at various islands along the way and hiked across them. The story is told well, and this is an absorbing, enjoyable book.

Yoram by Ulrike Kolb (2012).  A story about a relationship between a German Jewish man and a German woman who meet in the eighties, when Germany is trying to move away from its past and its guilt. The difficulties of this situation are played out in the relationship of the two characters. It is done so skillfully and in such a gripping way that the reading is never trite or clichéd. I love this book!

Nana by Emil Zola (1880). Yes, another Zola! Nana is the name of the daughter of the main character in L'Assommoir. Nana represents all the excesses of Paris in the late nineteenth century. She comes to ruin, of course.

Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1964). Ngugi is a prolific Kenyan author who has written a lot about the oppression of his people by British colonists. This is a work of fiction, but it draws heavily on the author's experiences as a child, when he and his family witnessed and participated in the struggle for independence. It is told simply and eloquently and is very moving. Ngugi is often a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he has not yet won the award.

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy (1994). Grealy, a poet who died at a relatively young age not too long ago, had cancer in her jaw as a child. The operation to remove it greatly disfigured her, and numerous surgeries to try to reconstruct her face failed.  Here she tells her story, and it is a difficult one to read. But the writing doesn't get bogged down in sadness, and the author does ultimately come to terms with her fate.

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama (2007). A very light novel, great for reading during long layovers at airports. The lives of two brothers who grow up during WWII in Japan are chronicled here. One brother becomes a sumo wrestler, the other a Noh mask carver. What I found most interesting about this book was the description of what it was like for ordinary Japanese to live through the bombings and the long periods without food and supplies during the war.

Just Some Knitting Stuff

I recently purchased this enormous knitting bag, and it is so handy and so pretty to look at. At the risk of sounding horribly consumeristic and like a spokesperson for the "Vera Bradley" company, these bags are wonderful. They come many sizes and shapes, and if you sign up for the mailing list, you get a coupon for lots of money off. Then you are hooked, I guess. As you can see, the bag has several pockets inside and holds a ton of stuff.

Here's a top I recently finished, made of a light worsted weight wool and linen blend yarn--Berroco "Linsey." The pattern is the "Aria Shell" by Angela Hahn, in the spring issue of Interweave Knits.

And here's another finished project--yes, one more mini-shawl/scarf. You can't have too many of these! They are a blast to make and are just so pretty and practical. But actually, I do end up giving some away; I can't wear them all. (As always, let me know if you like something I've made, and I'll make one for you, in the colors you like!)

The yarn is a DK weight, plant fiber and cotton blend from Queensland Collection, "Haze." The pattern is called "Ripples," by Annelie Wallborn. (You can find it on Ravelry.)

Finally, Our Vienna Pictures

Here's the link for a few pictures from our March trip to Vienna and Bratislava:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103967026405398398091/albums/5861731929418374673

Spokane Falls in Spring

Conrad and Greg at the lower falls

This year Conrad made a great looking video of our Spokane River Falls in its thundering spring glory: