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Having survived this terrible winter without ever getting sick, it only seems befitting that the moment Spring starts kicking in, I get a terrible cold. So I did last Sunday, and only since yesterday, I am starting to feel okay again. I mean, it still is only a cold, but it did bother me quite a bit. Particularly because I actually needed to work quite a lot (deadline on Monday). I have some first numbers resulting from my main research project! The numbers dont mean anything yet, really, but this first estimation puts the costs of all conflict between 1960 and 1999 at an estimated 1.5 trillion dollars. I reckon it is still a major underestimation, so I will be cranking that number up a bit further!

On Wednesday, we joined Nicole and some friends to go to another Pub quiz (last time, the three of us were an embarrassing failure), but this time with a twist. Or actually, two twists. First, it was in German. Second, it was a "glamour-themed" pub quiz, presented by a drag queen in one of the gay bars around the corner. Well, as you may have guessed: our knowledge regarding German glamour themes was rather inadequate.... :-))) We only knew 1.5 questions (where "we" refers to Nicole in particular. I think the most shocking thing is actually that there were people/teams who actually had 18 out of 20 questions correct... With questions like "who is designing the wedding dress of Princess Victoria of Sweden" and "What celebrity was on the t-shirt of Oliver Kahn when he was spotted in a Bavarian Biergarten last year?", it seems hard to do well!

On Thursday, Fedor's brothers arrived for a weekend-in-Berlin. Fedor is delighted to have them around, and it is a good reason to drink and eat well. So we did/do! Tomorrow morning, Hascar (Fedor's oldest brother) will be running the Berlin half-marathon, so we are hoping for some nice weather. And in the afternoon, they will be taking the train back to the Netherlands. Currently, the boys are all out in the city, so I have some time to relax and work more on my tax returns. It is said that 50% of all tax law in the world is written in German, because it is so complicated. And I must say that I am indeed having a pretty tough time, despite using some handy software that is making it all a lot easier. But it looks like it will work out with a nice taxback, so that will be delightful!

Oh, and next week is Easter, so a 4-day weekend! Looking forward to it already, let's hope there will be some nice weather....

Tschüßi,
OJ

As promised!

Washington DC: my god, there is sooo much snow!!!!

 

 

This is at the hotel, during blizzard 2.0

 

Thankfully, I finally did make it to Milano. Where I got to see the Duomo naked for the first time!!!! (as in: no scaffolding)

 

And we had good times, including at Massi and Jen's, where we made Massi very happy with a bottle of scorpion-infused whiskey from Laos (btw: it was rather disgusting)

 

Back in Berlin, during one of our after-work trips to our regular haunt: Pony Bar!

 

And finally, Wittenberg with Nicole and Pieter

 

 

Now I really go back into the kitchen!

Spring is here!

So, I guess I have just been suffering a winter depression over the last 6/7 weeks, which is why I have not been updating my blog. It certainly wasnt because of an overdose of visitors, because in fact there have not been all that many... Anyway, I will give a short recap. And after finishing this, I will just add a little post with photos that give a nice overview of life.

First of all, spring is here! Finally. Because wow, this was a heavy winter. Heavy enough for us to decide that Berlin is definitely not our city of choice for the rest of our lives. I mean, the occassionally -20 (or colder) is bad, but I think it has been the 2 1/2 months of snow cover that really did my head in. But it is fine now, because it hasn't snowed for nearly a week and in fact temperatures have risen substantially (of course it is rainy and a bit lousy, but hey!).

What have we been doing? So, after I finally managed to get out of bloody Washington DC, I finally made it to Milano on Friday afternoon, where Fedor joined me too. We had a great weekend, but unfortunately I did not actually manage to do the work that I was supposed to have been doing with Idil. So I went back 2 weeks ago for 3 days to get that over with. Furthermore, Matt came over from Coventry to see us, and Linda was supposed to come from the Netherlands but couldnt because she was injured :-((((.

In the meantime, of course there has been work-work-work-work (and a bit of play every now and then). Some of my work is progressing steadily, some of it is not progressing at all and some of it is going really well. I am quite lucky to have a posse working for/with me, consisting of a Research Assistant and an intern, so that relieves some of the work. Overall, I guess I can say it is going quite well, actually!

I know this post is a bit varied and has some unrelated bits and pieces, but oh well, that is just the way it is. I recently realised that I have been living in Germany for nearly a year and that I still havent bought (or missed) the Lonely Planet for Germany! How terrible is that! It means (and this is true) that we have not been doing nearly enough sightseeing. One of the reasons for that is of course that there is already so much to see in Berlin itself that we do not need to go out of the city, and another is the fact that Brandenburg etc is not nearly as packed with pretty places to visit as Lombardia was... Anyway, apart from our days visit to Potsdam last year, we hadnt really seen anything yet. Until last weekend that is! We joined up with Nicole and Pieter (who have a car) and went to Wittenberg: the birthplace of Protestantism (you know, with Luther and all that), as well as the printing press! And it was quite a cute city. At least, the city centre was. The surroundings consist of chemical industry and half-abandoned ugly towns, but the city centre was pretty. The weather wasnt great (got hit by a blizzard on the way home), but it was great to get out of the city for once. Should do that again!

Well, I think I have now written about enough. I should go back to cooking anyway: we are having some of my colleagues over for dinner tonight...

Tschüßi,
OJ

PS Party Planning for June 5 is going superbly! It is gonna be awesome!
PPS Photos will follow shortly...