Day 74: Shipping and Friends

This morning, Chris and I took our two big luggage bags to the Mailboxes Etc. store.

Filling out the many papers for customs (left)
The two big bags (right)

Again, it's one of those mind games we play. We went in with a price point in mind (which took a lot of debate.. do we, do we not... what is our time worth... what is a ridiculous amount to spend... but we don't want to carry the bags all over...). But you come to decision you feel good about, so you move forward.

Then you get there, and the guy behind the counter gives you a number (what he thinks it's going to cost) and you gulp. It's 50% more than what you came up with in your mind game. But, you're somewhat committed. You move forward trepidatiously. And, phew. When the final price is revealed, it's a lot less than the guy's estimate, but more than you previously thought it would be. But by now, you're so relieved it isn't the huge number that scared you, so you just say, "Do it!"

And then you run home and email your family member you're sending it to that it'll be there faster than you thought, and oh by the way, is it ok that we sent it to you? THANKS, Paul and Tori!

With our wallets empty, Chris heads to work and I head back to the apartment. I have big things on our to-do list today. HAIR and SHOWERS. The kids must take showers. I will cut Xander's hair. I will dye my own roots. This takes all morning and a bit of the early afternoon. But, it's worth it (the kids may not agree, but it is so).

Machine rim (left) and the lint I extracted (right)

The kids eat re-heated pancakes from the other morning (yay for microwaves!) I do more laundry. Side note: there is no lint screen that I can find. Chris once asked a coworker about this and her reply was, "Yeah, that's something you have to be careful of with these machines." She mentioned how sometimes the machine won't work as long as it's supposed to and you can help with its lifespan if you take care to remove the lint. But again, there is no lint screen. So, for each load, I'm scraping, by hand, the soggy lint from the rim of the machine.

There is the main part of the rim, which is easy to access and then there is "inside". Look at the photo above and see the slight gap in the rubber seal? One must pry this apart and stick their fingers inside, swipe, and try to get all the lint that has accumulated in there. If it's slightly damp, it's easier to gather it up. If it's dryer, then you tend to slide over the lint and can't make it bunch up, making it near impossible to grab. It's a battle. I will be very grateful to have a lint screen again where it's super easy to grab all the lint and toss it in the trash. Ahhh, the little things in life.

Our plans for this evening are to head to dinner with an old friend, Barry (we knew him BK - before kids). He is in town on business, as he comes to Berlin about once a quarter. Chris is carving pumpkins at work this evening, so we'll have to meet him there as well. Side note: Of the 10 or so HotelTonight employees staying to carve pumpkins, Chris is the ONLY one who has ever done this before. So, by default, he is their instructor of tips and hints. I asked if anyone's lid fell in, but Chris replied that his first instruction was to carve at an angle to avoid a "falling lid". Good job, Chris!

Their pumpkins turned out great!

Chris' pumpkin is the second row, one in from the left (it has an "H-bed" on the lid.

Funny story: Whoever was in charge of getting the pumpkins and carving utensils, didn't get candles! So they could not light them up at first. However, the next day when we visited, someone had picked up a bunch of tea-lights, so, phew, they'll get to enjoy them fully before they mould over!

So, last minute, we decided to meet Chris in front of his work so we can walk a few blocks together. We head to the restaurant, where Barry is already enjoying a beer. Barry tries to settle his bill, but they say to just bring his beer to the table. This is very common. Your drinks and food follow you where ever you go and you settle your bill at the end of the night. In tonight's scenario, all is added onto one bill. But in other situations, if you have a large group, you might just walk up to the register and tell them what you had and pay your bill (so no need for them to split a large bill into "who-had-what"). Pretty handy! Another great example of how the culture is honest and people follow the rules of paying for what they got.

Xander (and his newly cut hair)
at the restaurant.

It was a nice evening catching up with Barry. The kids might disagree (and I've never heard them so quiet before!) They were bored, bored, bored, with the adult conversations about work, family, and stuff. Good thing it's a weeknight and everyone has to go to work tomorrow. The evening wasn't too long and before we know it, it's time to say good-night/good-bye to Barry.

We're off to find a bus (to take instead of a tram, due to construction). Here's the thing.... bus drivers here are cray-cray. They are double-long with super-serious turning radius. So, the "front" bus will point angle towards the curb, close behind a parked vehicle, to pick people up at a stop. Chris says, "No way he gets out without hitting the parked car." But he does! And, he goes through chicanes of barriers and other cars like he's on a motorcycle instead of a double-long bus. I wish I had a video. At one point, I had to stop looking out the front window as I was gasping at every turn. Phew!

Phew! Another day ends safely.

P.S. This checks off one of my "Bingo" items (to see someone we know in a foreign country! Yay!

Day 13: Dinner

Venice's photo (left) and our amuse-bouche (right) 

I forgot to talk about our dinner out. As is common "back home", we often wonder what to do for dinner. The great thing about our neighbourhood is that there are so many choices. Good thing (choices) and bad thing (choices).

Tonight, we decided to try tapas at Die Schule, just around the corner.

There are many open tables. There are many bees (but we brave it anyway). A taxi driver told Chris that this time of year is not very crowded, as many locals are away on vacations. In a few weeks, it'll be much more crowded as everyone returns for the school year, or for fall. On the other hand, I wonder, what of all the tourists? If they leave, what is the net gain or loss of people? We have heard, from many sources, that we need to make reservations. But in reality, we have walked right into dinner with no problem finding a table. Either, we are the weirdos who eat around 6-7pm instead of later, or, this is "not crowded" and in a few weeks we'll see that we do need to make reservations at restaurants. But for now, it's nice to decide last minute what we want and to just walk right in and seat ourselves.

The tapas menu looked good and was tough to decided, so we just decided to get one of everything and two extra dishes. It was a beautiful display of delicious food.

The downside to our ordering method is that it was a bit heavy on the potatoes and not quite enough protein. But we left with happy bellies anyway.

And the walk home, seemed shorter than the walk there, literally around the corner with a wonderful view.

A view down our street as we returned home from dinner.
Our apartment complex door is on the far left edge of the photo.