Have entered the ROSL, and also Operalia (coz you just never know, really).

I learnt at the post office today that while regular post is 3 Euros, express post for the same thing (just documents) is 40 Euros. 40 EUROS! That's like, AUD60!! Unmoeglich!!

Still, I had to do it. Keep forgetting I guess that London, while close, is international.

Am recovering from my first German Erkaeltung. They take illness quite seriously and are quiet sympathetic. In Australia, we're all "Harden up, mate". Or at least that's how it is in my family (solitary tear). :-p

The word for snot in German is Der Rotz.

New German haircut

A fringe in German is called a Pony. The hairdresser girl wasn't great to be honest - I mean the cut is fine and the colour is good, but my fringe is uneven and she left a MOTHER of a colour stain on my forehead that she couldn't get off so she told me to go home and try perfume in a couple of hours.

Price wise, it was on par with what I am used to paying. Had to laugh though when I found out that John actually paid MORE than me for a guy haircut and there was no colour involved.

School is kind of hard. The grammar is getting scary! But my classmates are lovely and I'm doing alright. Just might actually need to study. Or something.

Might go to see a Bertold Brecht play with my school, and also the Artemis Quartet for 10EU through my school. Apparently they are the best quartet in the world. They're doing Beethoven which I think I could definitely handle. The Goethe Institut has a very thorough culture programme as part of the course.

Fleen xo

Der Krankenwagen und das Krankenhaus

I love the word Krankenwagen (ambulance, literally "sick wagon"). It makes me giggle every time.

I am such a loser. I got food poisoning (I think) on the weekend from a dodgy chicken kebab. Spent all day Sunday shivering with a fever, splitting headaches, worst I've ever had, couldn't stand up etc. Monday my fever left and I thought I might be well enough to go to my first day of school. Still couldn't eat anything, so i downed a carrot, a few spoonfuls of cereal and lots of water. Made it about 300m down the road and I did a special little dance and ended up keeling over and passing out in the bloody snow. 

I didn't quite hit the snow tho - was sitting at a bus stop and someone caught me. They called an ambulance even though I said I'd be OK and the ambos advised I come to hospital. I tried to say, no, not necessary but they were nice guys and kept "strongly recommending" in a polite but straightforward German way that meant "KOMM MIT MIR! SCHNELL!"

I ended up in emergency but I think it was like a clinic. I got seen super-quick and was out about 90 minutes later. They just popped an electrolyte IV into me, let it finish and let me go. The people next to me were groaning and vomiting and carrying on a bit, and I was playing Tetris on my iPhone and waiting to be released. And the bill? 10EU. I think I might be getting another bill, maybe?

Mum says that if you drink too much water without any other vitamins/sustenance you go into water intoxication/low sodium (like athletes do too.. I am such an athlete, man) so yeah, I should have been doing the gatorade/crackers thing. 


The ambulance dudes were so sweet!! They knew a bit of English and were teasing each other about how crap the other's English was, and while they took me to hospital (on their strong recommendation - protocol) we had a little mini Deutsch lesson in the back.


Made it to school in the end - I took a cab from the hospital. I've started at the Goethe Institut in Berlin. I'm in B1 Level - mixed thoughts...everything is clear and easy so far but it's new content and some revision. The teacher is really awesome - a very friendly, funny, laid back guy maybe in his late 40's or early 50's. He reminds me a lot of my Grade 6 teacher Mr Jardine who I liked a lot. 


My main friends (so far) are Lucia (Italian), Mariana (Brazilian) and a Swiss guy whose name I can't quite remember just yet. In my class, also Francesco (Italian), Gabi (Polish), Cinara (Brazilian), Viktor (from Panama - he is so adorable, he's about 18 years old and Panama is so small and Berlin is so big that he is just totally lost all the time), Jens (Norwegian).... and a few others whose names will return to me. There was a Stammtisch tonight and bless us all, we all actually spoke German even though there were several Italians and LOTS of Latin language speakers in the room. The only people I heard speaking English were... Aussies and Americans :)


I am making progress on getting a refund for my tax which is quite exciting. There's a long list of protocol that I need to follow, but I reckon I can do it. Baby steps. I have until the end of the month.
Heard back from the Israel Vocal Arts Institute about their summer course and they were very impressed with my CD which is fabulous! So I have expressed my interest in scholarships and we will see what happens with that. Also thinking about going in a London based comp for Commonwealth citizens but I have so little time and it's such a big programme... eek! May as well enter - they've doubled the prize money this year for the anniversary and it's for under 30's so hey - worth the risk.


Fleen xox

Frohe Weihnachten, Guten Rutsch im Neues Jahr

My first German Chrissie and New Years.


I spent Christmas Eve nervously baking a pavlova which I thought failed miserably but went down enormously well with everyone. The problem? No cream of tartar. So it just went flat. But if you don't mention it, it still tastes delicious.

The pavlova in its various stages of completion. Notice the promising texture in the left frame and the disappointing result post-oven. Nothing that whipped cream and fruit can't fix, however.

Went to a traditional German Christmas dinner at my friend Simone's house. Heiligabend is the first day (night) of Christmas. There are three of them. A bit like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The meal involved tomato soup, savoury muffins, spinach and cheese pastry thingies (Blätterteigtaschen mit Spinat-Käse-Füllung), Frikadellen (meatballs with fetta inside) and of course, a really delicious Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad). After the mean, Baumkuche (cake.... oooohhh.... cake covered with chocolate.... even better) and hot drinks and it sort of turned into a party.

Christmas Day I decided to have a get together for some of my friends who would normally be chilling out with their families. The invitation said it started from 10 - not that I expected anyone close to then, but I had expected a daytime contingent. The Heiligabend had gone until about 7 however, so until about 3:30 we were a group of 3. Good in some respects - we ate all the good food :) From 3-6ish it was a merry group of about 6ppl, and then all of a sudden the floodgates opened and more people arrived, many of whom I had never met. God bless the ex-pat community. They came bearing mostly beer and potato chips (God bless the Americans :-)) and stayed until about 11pm when I kicked them all out. We did watch a cheesy 80's America Thanksgiving related movie with Steve Martin called Planes Tranes and Automobiles which was quite good.

This influx of people caused a small drama what with an impending dinner engagement I had thought I would be able to attend that night. Never mind. I will now know that when you put 10am on an invite, you should expect people at least 6 hours later. So my next daytime event will be starting at 2am.

I have seen many a Christmas market since arriving in Germany. I think my favourite is the Gendarmenmarkt, it is the most beautiful and atmospheric. Here are some shots of the delightful delicacies at the Christmas markets. 

Sharone and I were lucky enough to catch a New Year's concert at a gorgeous church in Berlin. It's quite famous because it was bombed in WW2, so one of the towers is still standing in its splendour, and then they've rebuilt another part of it in a more modern way, with blue stained glass panels across every wall. It's stunning.


The orchestra wasn't bad - they did some CP Bach which I liked a lot, and two Mozart Sinfonie.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Ku'Damm

We also found a 3EU50 cocktail place walking distance from my house. Oh boy.

NEUES JAHR. Started off with a Persian Restaurant in Kreuzberg, as selected by the ever so talented restaurant finder among my friend in Berlin. Persian food is fantastic. Was joined by Sharone, John, Erica and Mahmoud. We then thought we would brave the crowds at Brandenburg Tor. We didn't get overly close to the ACTUAL party - about 300m from the gate they'd blocked off the entrance because they had reached capacity. But we stood Unter den Linden on Unter Den Linden (we stood Under the Trees on Under the Trees Street) and watched kilometres of professional and amateur fireworks with a relatively peaceful group of people (I say peaceful and I mean cooperative, rather than in a "how's the serenity" kind of way.) The only rogues were a group of guys from... Perth. Surprise surprise.

The trip home on public transport was ... interesting... we were packed in like sardines and couldn't move, but it was only 2 stops, and really, when you think about it, BVG successfully transported approximately 1 million people into and out of the city. That's no mean feat.

The crowds at Hallesches Tor waiting for our train... random ppl pashing too I've just noticed!

In the last few days I've been in tourist mode with Sharone. We don't have much luck with museums - they have all tended to be closed by the time we get there, because we are in the middle of a spate of public holidays (or they just decide to close). We tried twice to see the Reichstadt with no luck - the line was incredible. We tried to see the Topography of Terror but it was closed - saw it from the outside. That's the Gestapo bunker and it happens to be behind the last remaining bit of the Berlin wall. 

We did manage to see the Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall museum. Today we're hitting the East Side Gallery.

Guten Rutsch im Neues Jahr!!

Fleen xo