Pour ma maman chérie!

Ma chère maman chérie,
En ce 12 février 2008, jour de ta naissance, je te souhaite, du fond du coeur, un très joyeux anniversaire!
J'espère que tout les bisous que je t'ai envoyé vont arrivé à temps- des fois la poste prend plus de temps qu'on ne le pense!
Amuse-toi bien aujourd'hui en companie de tes invités!

Je t'embrasse tendrement,
ta fille qui t'adore,
Caro xxxx

Berlin- a few pictures 4

The begining of a new season!

I don't want to rub it in, make people jealous or make enemies, but guess what?!?!?!?!??!?!
Spring is here!!!!!! I can hardly believe it myself, but it's true! For a week now, the temperature has been above ten degrees and the sun has been shinning almost everyday. On Saturday, on my way to the market, this is what I saw:

It is so lovely to be able to wear one layer less under your winter coat, to be able to eat outside on terraces, to sit in a park and soak up the sun and to hear the birds sing.

I love spring!

A taste of the Okanagan Valley

I am an avid baker- cookies, muffins, cakes, pies- I love to bake it all! There is nothing like the smell of a freshly baked good to put you in a good mood. Whenever my friends and I have a potluck dinner, I am the one in charge of dessert. That must mean that what I bake is good, right?!
Many people don't have the time/talent/interest to bake their own goods and instead use prepared mixes for their dessert needs. I have never, until now, used such a mix. Baking does not have to be complicated and I refuse to take the easy way out of an activity that can be so much fun and is always rewarding. However, there is always a first time to everything, and even I am willing to give everything at least one chance!

Last fall, my sister, who lives in Calgary, and a friend of hers, who was there visiting her, explored the Okanagan Valley (located in southern British Columbia) for a few days. They stopped in Kelowna, a beautiful region (or so I hear, as I, unfortunately, have not yet set foot there). Kelowna is well known, among other things, for its nature, its wineries and its lavender. There are fields and fields of this purple gold and the seeds of the lavender plant are used in everything from tea to oil, bath products to jelly, without of course forgetting culinary lavender, which brings me to the subject of this post. While there, my lovely and very thoughtful sister got me a lavender and lemon cake mix, which she gave to my parents so that they could bring it to me last December. On Wednesday, I had a sudden urge to bake a cake, and the lavender-lemon cake mix called to me, sreaming "Bake me! Bake me!". How could I resist such an enticing call?The result was a delicious, fluffy, lavender cake. This cake has made me reconsider my view point on prepared mixed. Although they will never be my number one choice when I want to bake something, some of these mixes are actually very tasty and when they include such delicate and interesting ingredients as lavender, who could say no to them?

Bobiy, you would have loved this cake!

My roommates, and myself, thank you again Tootsies for this delicious treat!

The view from the top of the obsession tower!

I was looking through the many pictures I have taken since my arrival here in Berlin and came across pictures I took in the fall, from the top of the Fernsehturm- you all remember the Fernsehturm, don't you?!?! That's Berlin's television tower, the tower that I am slightly obsessed with!
The pictures themselves are only moderately good, as they were taken through a thick sheet of glass, but they give you a good idea of what the city looks like and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing them (also, I had nothing else to write about, but still wanted to post something!).
By the way, if any of you have questions about my life/life in general here in Berlin, or want me to talk about something in particular, please don't hesitate to let me know. I will be happy to answer most of your questions!!!

Behind that big black square building is the Reichstag building

The Berliner Dom

The Neptunbrunnen fountain

Berlinale

Oye, Oye, the Berlinale is here!!!! Well, not quite, but soon! The Berlinale is Berlin's International Film Festival, where films from around the world are presented- that makes sense doesn't it, as it is an international film festival!!!!

This is how the official website for Berlin's International Fild Festival describes what takes place during the two weeks of the festival:

"Berlin - a cosmopolitan, exciting capital, a city of culture with international appeal. In the middle of it all: the Berlinale – not only the city’s largest cultural event, but also one of the most important dates on the international film industry’s calendar. More than 19,000 film professionals from 120 countries, including 4,000 journalists, are accredited for the Berlin International Film Festival every year. The Berlinale is truly a mega event. At the same time, it is a festival of encounters and discussions. With more than 200,000 tickets sold, the Berlinale is not only a film industry meeting. It also enjoys by far the largest audience of any film festival in the world. For two weeks, art, glamour, parties and business meet at the Berlinale."

http://www.berlinale.de/en/das_festival/festivalprofil/profil_der_berlinale/index.html

More than 400 films will be presented this year, and most of them are world or European premieres. It's all very exciting people!

Will let you know what I saw and what I thought about everything in a future post.

Happy Fasching!

Most of you may not know this, but it is Fasching season here in Germany. What is Fasching you ask? Fasching is another name for Karnaval- better known to us North Americans as Mardi Gras. Karnaval is very popular here in Deutschland, especially in cities like Kôln and Düsseldorf, where the whole city is in Karnaval mood and mode for a week or so. People dress up in silly costumes, go out in the streets, participate in parades and party hardy. Karnaval actually officially starts in November and lasts until Ash Wednesday. The high point of Karnaval festivities is on Rosenmontag, which was yesterday.
In smaller villages, like in Lehde, which is a 20 minutes' walk away from Lübbenau, Karnaval is also celelbrated, but there it is called Zampern. On saturday, I participated in my first Zampern and it was a lot of fun. Zampern in Lehde started at 9 am, and as most of you know, at 9 am, I am still FAST asleep. There was no way I was waking up at 8 am on a Saturday morning to get to Lehde in time for 9 am. No way, not even for Zampern!!! Ronny and I only made it to Lehde at 4 pm that afternoon, but it turned out that it was perfect timing. I got to see enough of what Zamnpern is all about to realize that even if I had made it there for 9 am, there was no way I would still be standing on my own two feet by 4 pm. Why you ask? Well, as all of you already know by now, when there is a celebration of any kind here in Germany, it is accompanied by a ridiculous amount of alcohol, and Zampern was no different. What exactly is Zampern you ask? For Zampern, people put on costumes and walk around the village, stopping at every restaurant, guest house and holiday house singing, playing music (performed by the village's Firebrigade, moonlighting as the village's band),dancing, drinking and eating, while at the same time collecting eggs, bottles of booze and money. The eggs are eaten later that evening for the Zampernessen, and the money and alcohol collected during the day are saved for a big village party that takes place two weeks later.
Zampern is celebrated as a way to chase the winter ghosts away and to welcome the spring season.
By the time Ronny and I arrived, the group was in great spirits! I had a great time visiting the last few houses with the group, and although I was not disguised, I was warmly welcomed by everyone- of course it helped that I come from Canada and that I speak German with a French accent!!!!
I love experiencing things like Zampern. Coming from a big city like Montreal, and from such a young country as Canada, celebrations such as this week-end's are not part of what I know and therefore it is super interesting and very entertaining to participate in all of these news experiences.





















A note to my still unknown message leaving friend- are we friends by the way? No, I haven't read "Sophie's World". Do I need to read that book to discover who you are? I really have no clue who you might be!!! Do you live in Montreal or here in Germany? Can you give me another clue about your identity?