La famille!!

Une petite entrée en français, car elle va surtout intéresser Mamou Papou!!!
Voici quelques photos de Tata et Tonton. Ils vont tous les deux très bien. Ça ma fait plaisir de les voir et de passer quelques moments avec eux. Le brunch dimanche matin était très bien. On a surtout mangé des légumes (elle est pour toi cette blague Tonton!!!!).

Pour une amie chérie!

Et en allemand aussi, car je vis à Berlin:
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

Türkenmarkt!

Did you know that Berlin has the third largest Turkish population of any city in the world? I knew that there were a lot of Turkish people here, but I did not realize that there were so many!!! There is a Kebab Imbiss (snack bar/diner/fast-food stall) at every corner, and you can get a Doner Kebab (Doner meat, lettuce, tomatoes, red cabbage, garlic sauce) for 2 euros, which really is not very much!

You can find Turkish specialties in many grocery stores, but the best place to find Gozlemes, flat breads, olives of all kinds, herbs and spices, and special Turkish cheese has to be at Kreuzberg's Turkish Market, which takes place every Tuesday and Friday. It is the largest Turkish market in Berlin and runs along the banks of the Landwehrkanal for nearly ½ mile. Kreuzberg, the neighborhood where the market is located, is the center of Turkish immigrant life in Berlin.

I visited this market today with ma Tata Colette et monTonton Joël, who are in Berlin to visit friends here. It was lovely to see some of my family and to visit this market with them. There were so many fruit and vegetable stalls, and I would have bought much more than I did had I been going home directly after the market. But as I was not, I restrained, and only bought some ruccola/arugula/roquette (which I had for dinner in a salad and which is DELICIOUS!).

Like any good aunt and uncle, I was spoiled by them, and I got, for my birthday (which, by the way, is next Wednesday, for those of you who may have forgotten this VERY IMPORTANT date!!!!!!!!) a very nice hand bag made of hemp! They also treated me to a nice lunch- it is lovely to be in the company of family (and to have a birthday in the upcoming days!).










Valsis, this picture is for you! Can you see all the ground cherries?!?!?!

Berlin- a few pictures 2

Painful, but beautiful!

The only good thing about having to wake up SUPER early to be at work for 8 am is that you can still see the moon and the stars!

Germany's national sport! (No, it's not drinking beer while eating a sausage!!!)

I am no sport fanatic, but I do enjoy watching tennis matches on the television when there is a tournament. I also get very enthusiastic during soccer matches, especially when France is in the final of the FIFA World Cup (we should have won that game!). If soccer where human, it would be a god here in Germany. Fussball is Germany's national sport and people here take it very seriously. Every child plays soccer and almost every grownup is a hard core fan of one team or another. Soccer is played at thousands of amateur clubs, and with more than 6.3 million members, the "Deutsche Fussballbund" (DFB; German Football Federation) is by far the largest sports organization in Germany. Every week during the regular season, hundreds of thousands of people attend the professional games while thousands more watch or actively take part in matches between local amateur clubs (Info provided by: http://www.germany.info/relaunch/culture/life/sports.html). Like the saying goes "When in Berlin, so see a soccer match!".
On Saturday, Berlin's team, Hertha BSC, was playing in the Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion) built for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games and site of the FIFA World Cup's final match. Hertha BSC was playing against Energie Cottbus, the last ranking team in the league at the moment!
The stadium itself is very impressive and resemble Rome's Colosseum. The stadium can seat 76 ooo people and it makes it Germany's second largest stadium.
The stadium was not at full capacity on Saturday, but there was a decent number of fans, and the atmosphere was very energized.
The game was pretty exciting, and although Energie Cottbus played very well, the game ended in a tie 0-0, which is perhaps better, because there were some sketchy characters in the Cottbus section and if their team at lost, I am not sure what they would have done. But as the whole of Berlin's police force was there, I was not fearful for my life!!!

This is a little video to show you how dedicated the Cottbus' fans were. The video is actually 14 seconds long, but I guess all of it could not be uploaded to the site.

The stadium seen from the outside.

A random German man selling random German beer outside of the stadium. Only here in Germany!

The colours of Hertha BSC.

The stadium from the inside- the game had not started yet.

Germans (and at least one Canadian!) watching a Fussball match.

A panoramic view of the stadium- a bit small, but you get the picture (no pun intended!).

German hoodlums!

No fear, Berlin's police is here!

Fun fact?!

Sometimes we think we know the neighborhood we live in, but then one day we are walking around, and we discover a bran new little cafe or specialty store that we had no idea existed there! I made such a discovery yesterday, while on my bicycle tour with my roommate Anja, but unfortunately for me it was not a cosy little bakery where I can buy tasty bread, or a fun clothing store where I can buy one of a kind shirt. No, what I found was a jail!!! Yes, there is a jail just 5 minutes away from where I live. Actually, to be perfectly honest, there are TWO jails, both walking distance from my flat. One is for men and the other is for women. At first I was not sure what to think about all this, but now that I have thought about it for a little while, I have no issues with it.

The women's jail is just next to the supermarket where I go shopping (5 minutes from home). I passed in front of it repeatedly without knowing that it was a jail. The building is sombre and non-descript, and if you didn't know it was a jail, you would simply think it was an old, ugly building.

The men's jail is slightly more impressive, with barb wire and watch towers around it, but it is further away from where I live and well guarded I would imagine (!). I managed to take a few pictures of it while on my bicycle, but I did not want to linger there with my camera- these days it is perhaps not the best idea to dwell in front of a jail taking pictures!!!

Here is the link to a satellite view of the Moabit jail (http://deu.archinform.net/projekte/4984.htm). The jail itself is the start shaped building. If you follow these directions, you can see the building where I live:

1. Click at the top of the jail. You should see a street called Seydlitzstrasse appear of the right side jail.
2. Follow this street until you hit Lehrter Strasse.

3. Then click on the top (north) of Lehrter Strasse. Right away you should see an orange building, to the right of Lehrter Strasse. That's where I live!!!

4. If you follow Lehrter Strasse to the south (opposite direction of where I live), you will see the newly built Hauptbahnhof, all made of glass, very impressive.

Let me know if my directions worked and if you were able to see where I live!

I hope this won't stop you from coming to visit me!