General thoughts...
Following up on some of my storm thoughts from last post, it's amazing how much of the news on BBC World has to do with weird weather, and congruently amazing at just how much weird severe weather there is in the world. Similarly interesting is the BBC's decision to repeatedly frame the global warming issue as an ethical one, even with the appointment of an "Ethical Man" who does specials on how to reduce your energy consumption.
I can't say I argue too much with framing saving the habitable world or not as a matter of "ethics". No news organization in the States would ever openly validate the global warming issue like that, though. No, no...it's much more important to hype "continuing debate and disagreement" on whether global warming is happening, although within the peer-reviewed scientific community there just isn't any of said "continuing debate and disagreement" on whether said phenomenon is actually happening or not. Not surprisingly, the rest of the world is trying to address the problem while the U.S. continues to employ the "What, you talking to me?!?" stratagem.
Yesterday was Petra's birthday, which she got to celebrate at home with her mother and step-father for the first time in five years. I had decided to get her an ear-cuff for a present, a piece of jewelry like an unpierced earring that clips on halfway up the ear. She had had one (which I really liked on her), but lost it at some point and hadn't found another she liked for a couple of months. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to find such a thing in Berlin (as it is a bit of an uncommon adornment) and really don't know anyone to ask. Over the past week I've met some of Petra's friends, most of whom speak a fair bit of English. But despite my cunning plans to arrange some time alone with said friends to talk about birthday presents ("Petra, could you go in and order me another piece of pizza? What's wrong with my legs? Uh...they're asleep. Yeah, and I'm really hungry. Pleeeease?"), I never managed to actually get any of the friends alone. I tried writing a desperate note and dropped it in one of the friend's car explaining that I didn't know Berlin, was under a deadline for a present, and could the friend e-mail me. Apparently I folded the paper weird and when the friend found it she only saw the "Please drop me an e-mail" bit and thought that I was making a pass at her, and was a bit unnerved that I did it so brazenly in front of Petra. But she finally opened the rest of the note and got it; the friend said she dropped me an e-mail but I never got it, although scribbling furiously in the back of a car after several good German beers probably makes for sloppy penmanship on my part and so my e-mail address was probably somewhat less than legible.
Sunday there was a yoga festival in town which I decided to hit figuring there would be lots of new age shops that might have the jewelry I was looking for, and even managed to run off on my own; Petra is not particularly interested in yoga and the fact that we had a lot else to do that day and so I was going first thing in the morning did the trick, and she decided to stay in bed and sleep an extra couple of hours. So I hit the yoga festival on the fly, had to pay a five Euro (about $6.75) entrance fee which I had negotiated down from 18 Euros on the basis that I only wanted to hit the shops and wasn't going to do any actual yoga...and found squat. If you had something besides yoga mats to sell, you obviously were doing it somewhere other than this festival. There really was absolutelY nothing else. Very frustrating.
I tried asking Petra's mother and step-father for jewelry shops, but their English is limited and ear-cuffs are an esoteric enough topic that they just couldn't help. I looked into some other possible gifts: there is one strange Germanic puzzle magazine that Petra likes and I thought I would get her a subscription, until I spent an hour working with a German-English dictionary through the legalese of the publishing notices on the inside cover and discovered buying a one year subscription is about 50% more expensive than just buying the magazine each month. See, you pay for the magazine and ALSO have to pay for the shipping, so it costs more. I guess that is one way to keep your local newsstand in business. I decided to take a pass, and the other ideas I had similarly fizzled.
So Monday I once again skillfully extricate myself from the family for a bit ("I'm going to go for a walk, Petra. No, I don't want you to come. No, everything is fine! I, uh...just want to stretch my legs?") and decided to content myself with all purpose emergency back-up gifts: espresso and chocolate. On the way to the grocery store, I happened to pass a small jewelry store and decided to peak in just in case. And lo and behold, they did indeed have a fairly sizeable display of ear-cuffs. Prima. What is even cooler is that I had decided to actually get Petra two ear-cuffs: one to wear, and one to put in a safe place for when she inevitably loses this one (as she is frequently wont to do with just about everything; we made a rule while traveling that she is not allowed to hold onto any tickets or other important but temporary documents, as they tended to evaporate out of her pockets). Using my amazing southeast Asian bargaining prowess, I even got the two ear-cuffs for one Euro off the normal price. Not something anyone else is going to be impressed by, undoubtedly, but I was absolutely enthused; I saved a couple of cents, but more importantly actually stopped and decided to even try and bargain in a Western shop in the first place. Trying to bargain in a regular shop (as opposed to a yard sale, flea market, or the like) is not something I would have ever done before starting to travel, and it's just nice to know it can work; it helped that it was a small shop owned (or at least operated) by a Bolivian immigrant who was just chatting with a friend when I walked in, and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Viola!
The celebrations yesterday were subdued by happy. Presents in the morning, I did a fair bit of reading on Bush's commutation of Libby's obstruction of justice conviction (sorry, just couldn't stay away from the political theatre surrounding that after following the trial fairly closely for the past several years; oh, and just as an aside -- Fuck Bush and the horse he rode in on! As I saw someone correctly quip, "Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby." Words fail to describe the depth of my emotions on this matter, so I will suffice to say that I sincerely hope there will be an appropriate cosmic, karmic balancing one day and that Bush and his cronies will suffer for all the corruption and lawlessness they have forced upon my country and the world), followed by one of Petra's favourite meals in the evening. A very pleasant day, and she liked her presents. So smiles all around.
I can't say I argue too much with framing saving the habitable world or not as a matter of "ethics". No news organization in the States would ever openly validate the global warming issue like that, though. No, no...it's much more important to hype "continuing debate and disagreement" on whether global warming is happening, although within the peer-reviewed scientific community there just isn't any of said "continuing debate and disagreement" on whether said phenomenon is actually happening or not. Not surprisingly, the rest of the world is trying to address the problem while the U.S. continues to employ the "What, you talking to me?!?" stratagem.
Yesterday was Petra's birthday, which she got to celebrate at home with her mother and step-father for the first time in five years. I had decided to get her an ear-cuff for a present, a piece of jewelry like an unpierced earring that clips on halfway up the ear. She had had one (which I really liked on her), but lost it at some point and hadn't found another she liked for a couple of months. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to find such a thing in Berlin (as it is a bit of an uncommon adornment) and really don't know anyone to ask. Over the past week I've met some of Petra's friends, most of whom speak a fair bit of English. But despite my cunning plans to arrange some time alone with said friends to talk about birthday presents ("Petra, could you go in and order me another piece of pizza? What's wrong with my legs? Uh...they're asleep. Yeah, and I'm really hungry. Pleeeease?"), I never managed to actually get any of the friends alone. I tried writing a desperate note and dropped it in one of the friend's car explaining that I didn't know Berlin, was under a deadline for a present, and could the friend e-mail me. Apparently I folded the paper weird and when the friend found it she only saw the "Please drop me an e-mail" bit and thought that I was making a pass at her, and was a bit unnerved that I did it so brazenly in front of Petra. But she finally opened the rest of the note and got it; the friend said she dropped me an e-mail but I never got it, although scribbling furiously in the back of a car after several good German beers probably makes for sloppy penmanship on my part and so my e-mail address was probably somewhat less than legible.
Sunday there was a yoga festival in town which I decided to hit figuring there would be lots of new age shops that might have the jewelry I was looking for, and even managed to run off on my own; Petra is not particularly interested in yoga and the fact that we had a lot else to do that day and so I was going first thing in the morning did the trick, and she decided to stay in bed and sleep an extra couple of hours. So I hit the yoga festival on the fly, had to pay a five Euro (about $6.75) entrance fee which I had negotiated down from 18 Euros on the basis that I only wanted to hit the shops and wasn't going to do any actual yoga...and found squat. If you had something besides yoga mats to sell, you obviously were doing it somewhere other than this festival. There really was absolutelY nothing else. Very frustrating.
I tried asking Petra's mother and step-father for jewelry shops, but their English is limited and ear-cuffs are an esoteric enough topic that they just couldn't help. I looked into some other possible gifts: there is one strange Germanic puzzle magazine that Petra likes and I thought I would get her a subscription, until I spent an hour working with a German-English dictionary through the legalese of the publishing notices on the inside cover and discovered buying a one year subscription is about 50% more expensive than just buying the magazine each month. See, you pay for the magazine and ALSO have to pay for the shipping, so it costs more. I guess that is one way to keep your local newsstand in business. I decided to take a pass, and the other ideas I had similarly fizzled.
So Monday I once again skillfully extricate myself from the family for a bit ("I'm going to go for a walk, Petra. No, I don't want you to come. No, everything is fine! I, uh...just want to stretch my legs?") and decided to content myself with all purpose emergency back-up gifts: espresso and chocolate. On the way to the grocery store, I happened to pass a small jewelry store and decided to peak in just in case. And lo and behold, they did indeed have a fairly sizeable display of ear-cuffs. Prima. What is even cooler is that I had decided to actually get Petra two ear-cuffs: one to wear, and one to put in a safe place for when she inevitably loses this one (as she is frequently wont to do with just about everything; we made a rule while traveling that she is not allowed to hold onto any tickets or other important but temporary documents, as they tended to evaporate out of her pockets). Using my amazing southeast Asian bargaining prowess, I even got the two ear-cuffs for one Euro off the normal price. Not something anyone else is going to be impressed by, undoubtedly, but I was absolutely enthused; I saved a couple of cents, but more importantly actually stopped and decided to even try and bargain in a Western shop in the first place. Trying to bargain in a regular shop (as opposed to a yard sale, flea market, or the like) is not something I would have ever done before starting to travel, and it's just nice to know it can work; it helped that it was a small shop owned (or at least operated) by a Bolivian immigrant who was just chatting with a friend when I walked in, and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Viola!
The celebrations yesterday were subdued by happy. Presents in the morning, I did a fair bit of reading on Bush's commutation of Libby's obstruction of justice conviction (sorry, just couldn't stay away from the political theatre surrounding that after following the trial fairly closely for the past several years; oh, and just as an aside -- Fuck Bush and the horse he rode in on! As I saw someone correctly quip, "Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby." Words fail to describe the depth of my emotions on this matter, so I will suffice to say that I sincerely hope there will be an appropriate cosmic, karmic balancing one day and that Bush and his cronies will suffer for all the corruption and lawlessness they have forced upon my country and the world), followed by one of Petra's favourite meals in the evening. A very pleasant day, and she liked her presents. So smiles all around.