pilgrimage to ikea
last night, upon reaching home after some serious grocery shopping (yes, utilising my handmade guide to german names of Things Commonly Needed in Household, ie. hand soap, moisturiser and exfoliator), peixin and i made a mad dash to ikea to procure me a decent pillow. see, the past few days have been fraught with neck/back ache because the pillow i had, while seemingly big and puffy and beautiful, sinks down to nothing when i lie on it. so despite being on the verge of sickness (am now squarely there in land of Sore Throat) and quite drained from the first day of school, we set off to german ikea (which is really the same as any other ikea, except that you can't really tell if things are in swedish or german).
the journey was less straightforward than it should have been because the train didn't reach the last stop, which was the one we needed. but with great skill and cunning we arrived at about 8pm at ikea, an hour before closing time. there was a brief moment of anxiousness when we got off the train with a really drunk man behind us, and walked into an essentially deserted compound, but all was fine and we managed to get on the bus.
anyway, we blitzed through the showroom, waylaid by the occasional awesome thing-i-did-not-need-but-was-sparkly/awesome/brightly-coloured. note that i say "i" because peixin is impervious to charm and deception, and shops with great purpose. i am a lesser being. despite said lightning conquest upon ikea showroom, the swedish meatballs still evaded our grasp because we foolishly did not check the restaurant's closing time, which was half an hour early than that of the main store. a tactical error!
instead, we wolfed down the fast food counter's last hot dogs and went home, mildly disappointed but nonetheless satisfied that we managed to accomplish what we had set out to do. after that, it was a simple matter of going home, except that going home is not that simple when you are in a foreign land and you don't know their transport system all that well (yet. but i'd say that after last night, we have each gained several experience points). we ended up on the wrong side of the road for a while, and got off the bus much earlier than we should have. but in the end all was well and we arrived back home at 10pm. the entire adventure took three hours, but it seemed like a whole day's work. i think it was the amount of walking that did it.
ever since coming to berlin, though, time always seemed to be behind our perception of it. we'd think that it was eight when it was really six; things like that. the sun sets at 4.30 and there is so much more darkness during our waking hours. it throws me off. i can't wait for it to be spring again, but at least it's not subzero here. (but only applicable until this friday, according to my weather widget) oh noez
the journey was less straightforward than it should have been because the train didn't reach the last stop, which was the one we needed. but with great skill and cunning we arrived at about 8pm at ikea, an hour before closing time. there was a brief moment of anxiousness when we got off the train with a really drunk man behind us, and walked into an essentially deserted compound, but all was fine and we managed to get on the bus.
anyway, we blitzed through the showroom, waylaid by the occasional awesome thing-i-did-not-need-but-was-sparkly/awesome/brightly-coloured. note that i say "i" because peixin is impervious to charm and deception, and shops with great purpose. i am a lesser being. despite said lightning conquest upon ikea showroom, the swedish meatballs still evaded our grasp because we foolishly did not check the restaurant's closing time, which was half an hour early than that of the main store. a tactical error!
instead, we wolfed down the fast food counter's last hot dogs and went home, mildly disappointed but nonetheless satisfied that we managed to accomplish what we had set out to do. after that, it was a simple matter of going home, except that going home is not that simple when you are in a foreign land and you don't know their transport system all that well (yet. but i'd say that after last night, we have each gained several experience points). we ended up on the wrong side of the road for a while, and got off the bus much earlier than we should have. but in the end all was well and we arrived back home at 10pm. the entire adventure took three hours, but it seemed like a whole day's work. i think it was the amount of walking that did it.
ever since coming to berlin, though, time always seemed to be behind our perception of it. we'd think that it was eight when it was really six; things like that. the sun sets at 4.30 and there is so much more darkness during our waking hours. it throws me off. i can't wait for it to be spring again, but at least it's not subzero here. (but only applicable until this friday, according to my weather widget) oh noez