Sept 30 - Red Meat?

Hello friends!

It's another Monday in Berlin. I'm going to give you a brief glimpse into what my day consists of, so that you understand why some of these posts will probably be pretty boring to you. I get up at 6:10a, and leave for the train at 7. After my walk to train one, three train rides, and a bus ride - I get into my office and going about 8:30. I then stay at work until I catch the 5:40 bus, to start the same train situation back to the apartment. So, sometimes, there just won't be much fun for Flat Tony on weekdays. This Thursday, though, is German Unity Day (the celebration of when East and West Germany again became one) - so there could be some mid-week photos.

My only random thought and Flat Tony moment for today is this. (And if you notice - the covering his ears motion is because he's saying - "is she really going to ask this?") I know that red wine should go with red meat. But, is liverwurst on crackers considered "red meat"? Especially when you're eating it with Ramen noodles? I think liverwurst is sort of like hot dogs...you're not really sure what you're getting!

Even though that really is my dinner - I hope I gave you all a chuckle.

Good-night and God bless,

from Berlin

Sept 29 - Sunday

Hello All! I decided to skip anything to do with leaving the apartment while the marathon was underway, so I'll have to give you the update of the church next weekend! My morning consisted of a pot of coffee and a book - nice and relaxing.

I saw that my Irish didn't have a very good Saturday. :( Maybe it's the perfect season for me to miss all of these games!! But my Tigers won on Friday night - and have a big game this weekend against Zionsville! Less than 14 days and I'll be there on the sidelines with them again!! WooooHoooo.

This afternoon I decided to go for a walk - didn't feel much like getting on a train today. So, since I typically go east down my road to get to the train and restaurants - today I decided to head west. At the end of Burgmeister Str I found a park. Not a big park, at least by US standards, but a nice little green space with benches and a pond. In the park there is a huge statue of a bull (or something along those lines). Over the summer, when Unflat Tony and I would drive down to the lake (in S. KY) we would always pass a restaurant with a big Mule sign out front. Every time we'd get there - I would ask him to stop so that I could take his picture with the Mule (I can't imagine why). :) And as you can imagine, he never obliged me with that request. So....since it's Flat Tony going on walks with me, and he doesn't really get a say-so on what he's posing with - I figured a bull would work just as well as a Mule. Ha ha.

All and all, it was a nice weekend. Only one more lonely one, and then I'll be home for 8 days.

I hope you all had a great weekend with family and friends.

Good afternoon,

from Berlin

Sept 28 - Oktoberfest

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but frankly Flat Tony didn't do anything exciting. He bought a DVD player and picked up his favorite Lebanese wrap on the way home from work - and then vegged out with a glass of wine.

So today, we got our butts out of bed and got some fresh air and sight seeing in! It takes 3 trains to get to the Alexanderplatz area - not hard, but you have to pay attention to what stops you're at, so that you get off one train and onto the next. I'm getting better, but I still have to pay a lot of attention.

First stop, the Berliner Dom. So far, in my eyes, there is not a building in Berlin that compares with that one! It is spectacular! I can't remember the religion, but the inside of the cathedral is beautiful. You can take multiple stair cases and about 1000 steps to the top and walk around the outside of the large dome in the middle. Flat Tony and I made the climb today - and with the sun shining, it was completely worth it!

Then, on our way back to the train stop - there was an Oktoberfest area. I can't be married to a Farrell and not give him a chance to experience Oktoberfest! Most of it was like a huge outdoor carnival - lots of food, rides and things to buy. Everything from jewelry, to russian-looking hats, to glass and wood items. Unflat Tony would be glad to know that I decided, today, to not "collect" anything. :) I did splurge on a braut and a beer for lunch and have to admit that both were great! They say that Munich is the place to go for Oktoberfest, but I'm not brave enough to venture 6 hours south yet!

It was a beautiful day outside, and nice to have sunshine. My goal is to go to one of the three Catholic churches that do English masses tomorrow (all of them appear to be on the West/Southwest side of Berlin) ...but I forgot about the Berlin Marathon, so I'm not sure if I will be wanting to deal with that when I wake up - we will see what the day brings.

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Sept 26 - Delivery Day

I finally got my package from home today folks! I realize it's only been two weeks...but I've been lonely. Now I have a blanket, two more package of my most favorite coffee in the world, my pillow, my pictures - and a gift from Unflat Tony!! Don't get me wrong, I knew the gift was coming and he gave me every opportunity to open it at home, but since everything made me cry, I packed it instead.

Before I go further into the gift, I want to acknowledge two other things from today - both sort of related. One, today was the funeral for Lt. Rod Bradway. I watched a little of it online - but had to stop. My heartfelt prayers go out to the Bradway family - and I hope that they can know they can call on any officer (or any officer's family) if they need ANYTHING! Second, today is the anniversary of my always sun-shiney sister-in-law Karen and Tony's brother Duffy. :( Nothing makes it easier - but sometimes knowing that someone is thinking of you and sending you HUGE hugs helps...please know that I am!

Now the mushy part. I opened my gift, and Unflat Tony not only bought me a digital picture frame - but he put pictures on it too!! :) Made me cry, but I watched the whole slideshow twice. I know he will think I'm being a complete, "girly", sap - but I am the luckiest lady on earth. Not only do I feel safe and loved when I go home every night - but I have an amazing husband who - as weird as it sounds - makes it worth feeling this incredibly homesick. :) I know this 9 months (8 1/2 now) will make us even stronger in our relationship, but I wish it would pick up the pace a little bit.

If I could ask a favor, besides a prayer for the Bradway family and Karen, please also send a prayer to the family of the LaPorte High School (my home town) football player who died at practice last night - losing a 17 year old child is unimaginable.

Good-night and God-Bless,
from Berlin

Sept 25 - Hump Day

Hello all! It's a cold (57) day here in Berlin - but besides being "Hump Day" - it's also the day before I get my shipment from HOME! WoooooHoooooo. I can not wait to get my warm clothes, my yoga pants, MY PILLOW, pictures and all of that "homey" stuff! The only thing that would make it better would be if it was being delivered by Unflat Tony...but I'm down to 16 days - so I can see the light at the end of that, specific, tunnel!

I've missed two of my Fishers Football games - and have two more to go. I sure miss those guys - and its hard to say that about anyone between the ages of 14-20! Ha ha! (I skipped the "LoL" I was going to type, just for my cousin April, in case she reads this!)

The train ride home provided my Flat Tony moment for the day. There are typically a lot of people waiting for the train at 5:50, so when it stops, everyone piles on, finds a seat, and we're settled for the next 20 minutes or so. Well, myself and two of my co-workers get on and head upstairs - where we find this (see Flat Tony pic)! This young man was taking up 5 seats, had his shoes off and had totally made himself at home. I know I haven't quite been here 2 weeks, so maybe this was typical...but my co-workers assured me that they had never seen anyone do that in all of their years with R-R (the shortest time frame was 5 years). So, since it was sooooo unusual - that had to be the picture of the day. Your only other option was the salami sandwich I had for dinner - and I didn't think that was very exciting! :)

I hope this finds each of you wrapping up mid-week on a terrific note as we start the slide into the weekend! Thank you all, for the kind words, well wishes, thoughts and prayers since I've been here. Miss you all.

Good-night and God Bless, from Berlin

Sept 24 - Directions from the Train

Well happy Tuesday folks!! I hope this finds you well. It is rainy and dreary in Germany...but it is fall, so I imagine that is to be expected.

I can't believe I forgot my best story for yesterday. As I was walking to the train in the morning, I saw a little "dog" off to my right behind some bushes. This isn't unusual, as it seems that everyone here has a dog (or three) and are always out walking them. I have even seen a few humans walking behind dogs, and the dogs are carrying their own leash as they go along. Well, my "dog" comes around the corner and is walking right towards me - without a care in the world - and it's actually a RED FOX! In the middle of Berlin, just walking down the sidewalk like he belongs there. He walked up to a carryout bag that was laying on the ground, pushed it around a bit, and then peed on it and walked off. Must be a vegetarian. :)

Today's story...people in Germany do not give very good directions. I had to get registered with the local town hall today - until I'm registered, I can't get my big box from home that has all my warm clothes (and Tony may frown if I buy too many more "new" clothes). So I have my registration appointment - and the person I talked to last week told me that after the appointment I would just get back on the train and go to Mahlow (a different train stop) and "follow all the people" to the bus! Well, what they didn't tell me was that there are TWO Mahlow exits, and if you get off at the first one 1) there are no people to follow, and 2) there is no bus!! Luckily, there was a very yummy little cafe where Flat Tony and I had a breakfast snack - and where I found the nice gentleman who spoke English and was able to call and get me a taxi to work!

If nothing else, this whole assignment is building my character. Ha ha.

Sorry...have to have a PS...on my way home tonight, I stopped at the Greek Restaurant downstairs (b/c that is where packages are delivered) and I had my first care package...from my one and only Heidi! :) Thank you so much lady (and Phil too)...I appreciate it more than you will ever know - and I got to have amazing Greek food too! With a glass of wine! That then came with some little shot glass of something licoricey!!! OMG - I am sooooooo going back there! Love you lady, and thank you for thinking of me...although Flat Tony is saying that he's alone too, why am I getting the care packages! :)

Goodnight, from Berlin!

Sept 23

Well folks,  its Monday. Not a bad Monday, not a good Monday...just the average.  I bet you all didn't know that after just 4 days of training I am totally qualified to give advice on another countrys export regulations! I am all on my own already - and I mean alone - my coworker that was "showing me the ropes" has gone back to the UK and my manager is in the US for the majority of the remainder of 2013. She didn't even leave the rope...that might have come in handy eventually! Talk about trial by fire - I'm just praying that I am flame retartant!

The high point of my day was having my Flat pal with me all day...maybe he will get to do something interesting tomorrow...but for today he kept me company, and kept me sane. I did learn that the first german phrase I need to learn - when answering the phone (I hope to start class next week) is "I don't speak german". LoL

18 days and counting!

Good night, from Berlin!

Sept 22 - UGH

Well folks, Flat Tony has had a pretty crappy day today. Had big plans for one of only 8 Sunday shopping days of the year.

Made an IKEA run first...needed to get some "homey" items. Spent a good 90 minutes there...walking and choosing this and that. I get all the way to the checkout and find out they don't take Visa...not even my Debit card. :( So, on the way home I decide that I will run by the electronics store and get a dvd player and some nice english-speaking tv series! That will make me feel better, right? Same story there...no Visa!

I'm not sure if it's Gods way of telling me "cash only", or if its just time to get a Mastercard? :( This is Flat Tony's WTF look.

Good night from Berlin.

Sept 21 - Some Sight Seeing

Flat Tony and I got started bright and early on our Saturday with a bus tour of the Berlin sights. The tour was definitely the best way to get aclimated and decide which things are top on the list to go back and spend more time at - and it forced me to take a new train line!

I know it's easy to have the pictures of "old Germany" in your mind, and some parts of East Germany are still large, cement, apartment buildings. You can almost imagine the Third Reich in the streets. But other parts are beautiful and amazing. Flat Tony's photo stops today were Checkpoint Charlie, Topografie de Terrors (Berlin Wall), and the Deutscher Dom (German Dome).

I am a little homesick but am down to 20 days until I'm there again! Depending on weather and my motivation, Flat Tony just may get his first trip to IKEA tomorrow!

Goodnight & God Bless, From Berlin

Sept 20

Much more important than Berlin or Flat Tony, I wanted to take time today to acknowledge the huge sacrifice that our IMPD officers make for us (as citizens, and spouses/significant others).

These men and women give up holidays, they give up days off (for ridiculous things like a super bowl or some other event that our fine city has no business hosting due to lack of manpower), they give up raises (what self-respecting city doesn't have cricket fields?), and on some horrible days, they give up their lives.

Unfortunately 3/4 of what you see about police officers on the television is negative - because they are human. Some people expect them to be more, to be better than the rest of us, but of course they can't ACT better than the rest of us. It's a double-edged sword, and they pick it up every, single day, and do what they have to do. Because it's who they are.

I am thankful, every day, for the fine officers we have in the city of Indianapolis. God bless each one of them, and please keep them safe. RIP Officer Bradway.

Goodnight and God Bless,
From Berlin

Day 5 - Sept 19

Flat Tony learned some very interesting things today - so I decided to share them now, so we can still share site-seeing pics this weekend!

First, we learned that Germany is very much "about the people". I don't know if it's making up for the past, or what it is, but there are "rules" about how employees must be treated. A few that I learned today: (1) employees must, individually, have a specific amount of work space - which completely rules out shoving as many people as possible in a small office environment; (2) windows in the office buildings MUST open - and the employee has to have natural light!!; and (3) employees cannot work more than 10 hours in a day. Those are national LAWS! An interesting tidbit at work, is that the parking spaces include grass (you will see what I mean from the picture) - they do it just to have the parking lot look pleasing for the employees!

Second, we branched out today and had our first experience with Lebanese food! I can't tell you what the name of the wrap is - but I can tell you that it was chicken, lettuce, onions, grilled cheese and some garlic dressing - WOW! I can also tell you that the young men running that little restaurant will be seeing a lot of "us". Delish!

Nothing overly humerous today - still to many leggings (on girls) and skinny jeans (not on girls) - but I will try to get some pictures of that this weekend!

Hoping this finds you all well. Please know that I truly miss you all (obviously un-Flat-Tony the most), and hope that this blog gives you small glimpses into my time in Germany.

Goodnight from Berlin!

Day 4 - Sept 18

Happy "Hump Day" to my friends! I hope this post finds your mid-week wrapping up well! And for those of you that were worried about me - I made the trains, both ways!! I was so happy that I figured it all out this morning, that I treated myself to breakfast at the last station (I had 15 minutes until train 3 arrived). Breakfast was a pig-in-a-blanket...and for the record, the German's make it WAYYYY better than we do! It was a full-sized, warm croissant, with a ball park sized frank. OMG! :) Pathetic, but I was so happy with that find, that I didn't even let Flat Tony get close enough to take a picture.

You can see Flat Tony (and my) most interesting find of the day...this

is an elevator at the Rolls-Royce facility. My co-worker noticed it,
and suggested that it might be a good flat Tony moment. I new that
there would be language barriers...but I never suspected that there would
be counting barriers too (besides not understanding the words). :)

The other interesting tidbit I've noticed is that a large number of women, here, are still into the fashion of tights with long sweaters (covering their rears), and guy are very into skinny pants. I'm sorry folks, but skinny pants look good on NO man! I really hope that wasn't a key item on Flat Tony's Christmas list!

I'm not sure how exciting tomorrow will be, but we will definitely be going site-seeing this weekend, so I'll have some good posts for you then!

Good-night from Berlin!

Day 3 - Sept 17

Big day folks...first day in the office! I took extra care

to get ready this morning...always nervous with new things.

I do have to give a shout out to my sis-in-law, Karen, who

gave me the great idea for this blog - even though she

can't figure out how to get online to LOOK at it.

I made it to Dahlewitz in one piece (about a 30 min taxi ride). Then home via a bus and 3 trains! The trick is whe

ther or not I can recreate the same tomorrow! It actually shouldn't be too difficult as the first 2 trains run every 5 minutes. The 3rd train, however, only runs once per hour, so I have to be to that station to catch the 7:40 train to work. Good thing is that when I get there early - there are little coffee shops and food stands on the platform. So I can treat myself to a coffee. Flat Tony enjoyed the ride home tonight...probably because he got to sit next to my pretty German counterpart, Antonia.

I apologize in advance for the pictures being side-ways in this posting - but maybe Flat Tony needs a V-8? (Actually, I've taken them off and re-added no less than 10 times, and frankly, I'm tired of it!) :) If anyone wants to send me advice on that - I'd greatly appreciate it!

I hope all is well in the States - Goodnight from Berlin!

Day 2 - Sept 16

Okay, now that I've made it to Monday, I can tell the story of Saturday. My flight landed in Berlin around 12:30, and I took a taxi to my apartment. I was told to pick up my keys at the Greek restaurant below the apartment. Well, I get there around 1, and the Greek restaurant is not only closed...but doesn't open until 5pm. It's traumatic enough to leave everything you know and go to a foreign land...but then to show up with two huge suitcases, and not have anywhere to go? I have to admit, I went across the street to a little park and had myself a good cry. Once I pulled myself together, I went back across the street as a delivery man (who spoke English - praise God) was going into the restaurant. He went in and found the little lady who had the keys, and after showing her my passport, gave me mine.

Should be easy from there, right? I then come into the apartment building, and after looking around, begin to lug my not-so-small bags up the three flights of stairs to my apartment. After I get up the first two flights of stairs, I run into a girl who informs me that there is an elevator. OMG! I used it for the last flight - I don't think my arms, or my mental status, could handle another floor.

So, now that I'm all recovered, Flat Tony got to go on a little walk at lunchtime today and had his picture taken near the Ullsteinhaus. I have since looked it up, and Ullsteinhaus is one of the largest publishing houses in Germany. And to think, I just took him there because he likes water, and there is a river right there (it didn't hurt that it was next to the mall).

I worked from my apartment today, but will be in the office tomorrow - so Flat Tony will be taking a trip to Dahlewitz and, in the evening, should have his first introduction into Berlin's public transportation system. I'm sure there will be an interesting story there!

Day 1

The adventures of Leslie and Flat Tony have begun. Flat Tony was very supportive before I actually left the US as he didn't put up much of a fight when I had both Ice Cream and Starbucks in a 24 hour period. It's going to be an interesting road...especially since I have figured out how to get to the Subway (U-Bahn), but have zero idea how to get to work tomorrow! I may be working from the same kitchen table that I'm sitting at right now...hmmmmm, leaving the States could have benefits I hadn't thought of. I have toured a portion of the area I'm living in (Templehof) - unfortunately, Flat Tony is still a little jet lagged, so he skipped the first walk (we'll get him back in the game tomorrow). Not much is open on a Sunday - luckily I went to Aldi's yesterday (it's less than two blocks away) and got all of the staples - 2 bottles of wine, salami, swiss cheese, rye bread and braunchwager. This weeks goals will be to figure out the public transportation (hopefully Flat Tony will get to see some pretty cool sites next weekend - Checkpoint Charlie and the Berliner Dome for sure!), and get myself a nice German cell phone. "We" hope everyone is doing well and we will update again soon!