Jackie Comes to Visit

so to everyone who is reading, i apologize for the month gap in my posting. A week after my last posting I bought a journal and I have been writing in that instead of this blog.

OK so last time Jackie was about to arrive, and she stayed for a week, so here goes:

Friday: before picking up Jackie from the airport i explored my neighborhood a bit and found some great little restaurants and boutiques in the area. After running into multiple problems on the way to the airport, including a late train that forced me to reroute myself and switching to a bus, but having construction at the bus stop and having to search for its temporary location, and then finding it just as the bus pulled away, i arrived to pick up jackie. We spent the afternoon doing a bit of sight seeing at alexander platz, followed by lounging by the river at hackescher markt. While we were at Alex, we got a bratwurst, and Jackie mentioned how disproportionate the bun was (the size of a dinner roll) in comparison to the wurst (a good 10 in wiener). The guy must have noticed her comment because when he gave her her bratwurst he had broken it in half so that it fit more nicely in the bun. For dinner we met up with Danny and his friend Anna-Sophia who was visiting as well. (Danny, Jackie and I all work at Coho together back home). We went to a place I had discovered on my earlier exploration called Pizza Dach, which had 3-5 euro pizza and pasta entrees and 350 cocktails. Afterwards we met up with a few more friends, went for a drink and then went home.

Saturday: Summer had finally arrived just a day or two before Jackie came, so we all decided to enjoy the sun and the 80 degree weather out at one of the lakes in southwest berlin. The lake was a bit crowded and we stumbled unknowingly upon quite a few nudists. We also saw one of our professors there with her naked children, thankfully she was not naked as well because that would have made for an awkward next class. we found a beachy area and settled in there and enjoyed the afternoon lounging by the water. That night I took Jackie to one of my favorite bars in Friedrichshain called Kapitan, which serves these amazing rhubarb vodkas. On the way to the bar we came across a squatter street party that looked like it had been going on all day. The crowd was mainly anarchist-punk types but they were dancing to eighties pop and raggae music. Walking through i had to avoid getting whipped in the face by a man's 3 ft long dreads. Later on we met up with my friends Ted, Jack and Katie and we went to a club called Villa. Apparently its kinda underground, you have to know the DJ thats playing that night to get in, and they close during the summer as to not attract too much of the tourist crowd, so this was their last night until september or so. We ended up not leaving there until 6am and I felt like a vampire walking out of that club.

Sunday: We got a pretty late start and didn't leave the house til 4. We grabbed some sushi nearby and the cutest dog came and sat by our table, so of course i pet it the whole time it was there. I was in heaven, haha. We went over to east side gallery to check out the wall and all the artwork it was pretty cool. Then I took her to mauer park to see bear pit karaoke, and then we went and got mexican food at this australian owned place called Maria Bonitas in Prenzlauerberg. It was amazing! it actually tasted like something you would find in California.

Monday: We did a free walking tour of the city and it was pretty good, though our tour guide was not as enthusiastic as the guide we had in prague, but he set a pretty high bar. The most interesting story was the one that closed the tour, the story of the fall of the wall. So for about a month leading up to the fall, people had been gathering at monday night meetings, in a church in Liepzig, to talk about their discontent with the current system. Churches were the only places people could congregate in groups of more than six without raising suspicion. Anyways, as these grew in intensity the government had a meeting deciding what to do about it. They essentially decided to just say that they would reassess the government and tracel restrictions at some point in the future. Well at the press conference, the press secretary had not been present at the meeting, and did not read the minutes that were given to him and he essentially opened the borders without government approval. That night we went and saw a production called "Shut Up and Dance!" It was experimental ballet, and some of it was ok, but 2 or 3 of the performances were really weird.

Tuesday: Jackie joined me in class where I gave a presentation about media coverage and in the impact of television on american presidential elections. I took her to the Mensa for lunch and then we went to the turkish market. That night we went to Weinerei, which is a place you drink all the wine you want and then pay what you think you should. They also had a little bit of food there, salad, bread and potato salad. the potato salad was amazing, it was the best potato salad i've ever had- potatoes, parmasean cheese, parsley, garlic and a little bit of milk. mmm. Afterward we went to a club called White Trash to meet up with my roommates. It serves american food, but had signs like chinese takeout and a very creative menu, with very funny/sexual descriptions of their beers. They also had a bucket o' beers, which obviously we ordered, because it was so white trash. We got 6 becks beers but they came in a corona bucket which just made it that much better.

Wednesday: Kinda a low key day. I had doctor appointments in the morning. I went in because i had a bug bite on my foot that got infected and my foot swelled and changed colors, plus i had lost my voice for the 4th time since coming here. She referred me to an ear nose and throat doctor and he said that there is something on my vocal cords which is causing the problem, and too try not to strain my voice too much and come back in a month. Wednesday night we went to Burgermeister for dinner. It had great burgers and is actually a converted public toilet under the Ubahn station. weird but delicious none the less. Next I took Jackie to Madame Claude, and on the way we met up with Danny and ICED him. (ICE-ing someone is when you suprise them with a smirnoff ice and they have to get down on one knee and chug the drink right then and there, danny had iced me on tuesday when we went to weinerei, so it was payback). Later on we went to Bar 25 which looked like a giant fort from the outside. It was pretty cool inside. its an outdoor bar right on the river, it has a photo booth, swings and a little mechanical pony like you find outside grocery stores. We tried to fit 5 of us in the photo booth, and while successful in getting us all in there, we failed at getting all 5 in the photos and Jackie, who was infront, pretty much took up most of the picture, but it was good. On the way home at the Ubahn station we ICED ellie, her reaction "Fuck you guys! I'm gonna spew now on the way home!" PRICELESS.