Ich bin verloren - Wo ist das Collosseo?

The Brandenburg Gate, the only remaining

of a series between East and West Berlin,

originally built in the 1700s

My host, Nik, looking appropriately

German somber in the maze of the

holocaust memorial

Currywurst - a Berlin must

Searching the boxes at Parliament,

every Parliamentarian has a box...

Including Hitler

Taking an eagle eye peep at the workings of

the German parliament, from within

the dome

The Bundestag

Berlin's 'mascot' is a bear, in all

decorations. I tried to see if this

one shared my sense of humour

If you can't read, it says, "Now entering

the American sector"

Still arguing at Checkpoint Charlie,

the crossing between East and West Berlin

The Berliner Dom, not a dome, but

a catholic church
What better way to spend a Saturday night

at 1am than to reenact 1975 and try to escape

East Germany over the Berlin wall. Only made

better by renting bikes to get there

Almost made it

Ending my trip, appreciating one

of Germany's finest. All I wanted was

to drink a beer in a boot, so I'll have to go back

For some reason my career has always taken me into the close company of Germans (mostly because they love renewable energy and development aid), and as I've mentioned on a previous post, I find something so comforting and hilarious about them, so I decided I should finally take a visit to Deutscheland, especially while I still have a job funded by Germansy. Only seems right to use their Dmarks on a visit to their soil. When I told my Mom I was heading to Germany and I was excited, given my above statement, she said "Well it's probably cause you're German". When I told her I oft deny my German heritage in favor of my Swedish and French, she was astounded and deplored me to come clean to both my German hosts for the weekend and to myself - so fine, I'm part German. Was it not already obvious in my analness and bad jokes?

My host in Berlin was Nik, our former intern and my friend in Rome, before he left for greener pastures in the Bundestag of Germany. Nik also studied abroad in San Diego - so a little Rome, a little SD home, and little German heritage to welcome me. All I told Nik before my arrival was that I wanted sausage, German beer, and some WWII time and we didn't really plan much further. My life lately seems a bit like a series of the Amazing Race, and when I landed in Berlin and stared at the subway map, I had a brief chuckle again about how small and fast the world is. I navigated the super efficient German rail system with a big grin on my face as I practised my German (naschte station = next station).

German eats - As with anywhere I go, I was keen to eat my way through my visit. When I told Nik my list - curryworst, a beer in a boot, sauerkraut, some other type of German sausage/meat - he rolled his eyes and told me that Germans almost never eat those things. Berlin has some of the best mix of ethnic food (and granted I'm saying best coming from Rome), so I feasted on Asian fusion a la crispy duck Vietnamese. But since I'm on an episode of Beall's Amazing Race, I still felt compelled to do as a tourist would and check off my German list! He promised that we could find 2 out of the four, but that NO ONE in Germany actually drinks beer out of boot. That didn't deter me. He then called in reinforcements in the way of his friend Jan, who found us the most quintessential German restaurant where I had knödel drowned in a German beer (not in a boot). Jan was quite the tour guide, and also brought us to a bar, that he thought I would like cause it was owned by a dude from Baltimore - little did he know Baltimorians are not fans of peeps from DC, however we made up over Berlin schnapps. I also managed a street sausage with mustard and Glu wine at the flea market on Sunday. That on top of my currywurst, left me with 3 runs on the sausage front, minus two on sauerkraut and a boot.

History - While I live in one of the most historical cities in the world, Berlin's history is fascinating to me in the combination of its old and newness. Imagine royal palaces combined with eighties funk. The fact that Berlin today has only existed for the last twenty years seems surreal, especially when you walk around and see all the very real/present remnants of the Eastern/Western divide. Combined with that, the utter destruction that was Berlin post WWII and what it is now, is as breathtaking as the Colosseum. Maybe it is made more pronounced being an American, given Check Point Charlie, etc., but if you haven't been, it's like visiting a live museum - get there before the rest of the wall comes down and they run out of currywurst

Random highlights - Nik invited a friend out to join us for our Saturday and Sunday festivities, and after five minutes into meeting him, where I apologised that I couldn't speak German, he told me, "Wow, your English is so good for an Italian". So while I may not have convinced any Italians that I am Italian, tally one for convincing a German. And by the way, if I could count how many times this year someone has said my English was good, it would only be trippled by how many times I laugh about it. All in all, Berlin seems like such a liveable city, especially cause it was sunny and 'warm' while I was there.

Learning German - I would really like to learn German since my career seems to be stuck in their path of development assistance and the jobs for GIZ are much better than for USAID. In one weekend, I managed to learn - "please" (which like Italian is the same for you're welcome - prego=bitte), "thank you", "cutie", "Can I have the check please?", and "I'm lost, where is the Collosseum?". So again, a telling snapshot

And that's it for now, cause I want to tell you all about the next episode in Beall's Amazing Race, My Italian Thanksgiving. Only four episodes left until the surprise finale in a destination even I don't know

My Bologna has a First Name

Making bolognese sauce - the secret

ingredients - milk and wine

With the easy part over and left to simmer for

four hours, on to the hard part - making the

tagliatelle

It seems easy at first until you have an

Italian woman yelling at you that you're combining

too quickly or kneading without the precise motion

This kneading went on for a good hour, where

our teacher reminded us that pasta has a memory

better than an elephant, and however you mistreat

it in the beginning, will be remembered in the end.

Sound familiar
Again, it seems simple to just cut pasta, but

one centimeter in either direction and all of a sudden you

have spaghetti or pappardelle instead of tagliatelle

And finally the end result - a truly delicious

(if arduous) lunch. Absolutely the best

tagliatelle alla bolognese I've ever had

Piazza Maggiore
The view from the Torre Asinelli
Piazza Nettuno, representing the four rivers

of four continents, considered as the symbol

of Bologna. Church fathers were scandalized

by his 'proportions'
Torre Asinelli and Torre Garisenda,

you can't tell in the picture, but Garisenda

is very crooked. So I guess I can skip Pisa

Bologna

Speaking of bologna, you may have noticed that Italy has been in the news a bit lately, or maybe not, but basically Italy is threatening to take down the Euro with its debt crisis and at the helm has been Berlusconi further driving down investor confidence. For the last six months Berlusconi has had a series of setbacks politically, but like a phoenix, has always risen from the ashes. Even with last week's vote of no confidence and the emergency state of the Italian economy, no one really believed he would finally step down - until Saturday (one week ago) night when Italy won the Super Bowl. The riots in Rome around his house included a full blown party with cheering, champagne, and cries for Berlusconi to both go to jail, that he is a loser and a clown, and with an orchestra playing Allelujia. While life from here on out without Berlusconi will probably be less entertaining, it will hopefully mean a better Italy. While working at FAO is a bit of a bubble, there is much sadness and difficulty for the many Italians who can't find work. In some parts of Italy, unemployment has reached 50%. However, while Italy owes more than 125% of its national yearly output, individual Italians are some of the best savers in the world. Now if only all that money under their mattresses could help bail them out of this crisis.

And now back to the meat of this post - This weekend I decided to return to my roots and check out Bologna. For those of you that don't know, my friends in high school said I often smelled like bologna, so I had no fear that I would feel right at home. A few non-meaty facts about my weekend locale - it's home to the oldest university IN THE WORLD (NZed voice) which was started in 1088, it's been voted Italy's most liveable city time and again, and is a quick 2 hour jaunt by train from Rome. Now all that is nice, but what really drew me was the fact that it is also home to tortellini, tortelloni, lasanga, ragu alla bolognese, tagliatelle, and is in a region known for parmesan, prosciutto, butter, and mortadella (Bologna's bologna). I decided that in order to take full advantage of Bologna that I should take a cooking class while I was there - to which all of my Italian friends laughed and said I could just come home and cook with their Mom and they couldn't believe I was PAYING for a cooking class. Well sorry Italian friends but a lot of talk and no meatballs, and my days are numbered. Here are a few highlights from my weekend in my smellsake:

-Making pasta from scratch: Now you know how I've gained a love and appreciation for making things from scratch from my time in both NZed and Italia, but pasta is a beast I hadn't tackled yet, and as you know - when in Rome. It seems relatively easy, simple ingredients, simple process, until you realize how one false move can make you ball of cement. A few secrets I will share from my lesson with you - only rolling with the inside of your palms, never your fingers; never letting the rolling pin lance off the end of the dough; always keeping a perfect circle; and finally kneading it until it is thin enough to read a paper through - so the next time you have 2+ hours on your hands, I would highly recommend it because the taste really is so much better, but maybe that's just satisfaction at what your own hands created. Post pasta boiling, you should toss the pasta in butter so it doesn't greedily soak up all the sauce. And the rest I'll keep to myself, to hopefully impress you at a dinner someday soon

-Too many cooks in the kitchen?: I trolled a lot of websites to find a cooking class, and surprisingly most of them were full, even in a city avoided by tourists and in chilly November. I finally settled on one because a) it was cheaper and b) you not only made pasta and sauce but a dessert(panna cotta). I showed up to a kitchen at a B&B, where I was greeted by the friendly, if strict chef, and three others- 1 french dude and 2 Americans study abroad students. Our teacher started off by surprising us with the fact that the course would be taught in Italian thanks to our two study abroaders (from Harvard) who were eager to "Ma, dai" their way through the course. Frenchie (who bravely did his best with the Italian instruction, but unwisely told the chef he heard spaghetti was from China) was taking the course to impress his girlfriend. My young American compatriots were eager to discuss how I managed to actually land a job in Italy, and then played the name game since we all went to school in Boston. I had to sadly inform them that I graduated almost ten years ago. I was rewarded with their look of incredulity - homemade pasta and youth in one lunch, yes I'll have another serving.

-Table for one: Traveling alone, I've gotten pretty used to eating by myself, and most of the time I find it quite luxurious, except in Italy. In a country known for their food, I wish they could appreciate a simple girl just out to drown her face in the local regional delights - but instead it breaks their heart. I rarely eat out alone in Italy mostly because I know what it will do to them. But traveling to Bologna by myself, I was not going to let Italians emotional complex come in the way of me and tortelloni, or lasagna, or torellini - I came to Bologna to eat. I managed to convince a restaurant to seat me at a table for one, to their utter depression, where I enjoyed my favorite NZed pasttime of eavesdropping (Brits thinking their Italian accent was stellar, and Italians in a love quarrel over someone's second cousin) while joyously placing tortellini stuffed with prosciutto and mortadella in a broth into my grinning cheeks. I only felt bad for a second when I was making the Italians so uncomfortable that they were almost (ALMOST) making me uncomfortable with their sadness and incredulity of someone eating alone. And then I had dessert

Bologna is really an awesome city that I would like to go back to visit. Other than eating and cooking, I spent my days strolling and shopping through the galleries (all the sidewalks are covered in a curved like tunnel/gallery? not sure what the word is in English), enjoying the haunting architecture, and paying my respects to Jesus and the Madonna via a few ancient museums. Bologna has some of the best shopping in Italy, with a range of punk/urban to glamour, with a friendly mix of students and everyday Italians.

My Bologna has a first name - AGAIN

It's a Small World After All

Home in the USA

Visiting friends, babies, and baby bumps

Dropping my Mom off in Seattle

at her best friend since childhood's house.

I was a little worried until I saw their place,

couldn't imagine a better setting for her to

get her feet under her - thanks Nancy!

Exploring my Mom's new home on the

ferry after a night on Bainbridge Island, WA.

That's right, those are coffees to go

The original MUNROS

back together in NYC

Celebrating Halloween in London

with Alice and Gaga

Enjoying London's version of Halloween

So great to see so many of you on

such a short visit, thanks for all your

efforts!

And I was welcomed back to Italy with truffle season

And settled right back into testing my

Italian cooking ability. These meatballs

turned out amazeballs - they're stuffed with

fresh mozzarella to give you an idea of their

other worldliness

And one of my favos, Tuscan ribollita, with a taste

of home in the way of Schultz, the best hot sauce in

the world

Two weeks, four cities, two countries, seven flights, 22 friends, 3 family members, 3 job/networking interviews, and countless to-go coffees, and I am back in Rome. Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind and yes I do it to myself every time. Each time I venture back to the U.S. I think about how to maximize my time with people while minimizing my stress; and I'd have to say I'm probably still coming in at around a B+, but with an A for improvement from my last two visits. A few highlights from my time away and what it's been like to come back to Italy.....

Cucina Italiana - Not one but all of you tried to take me to Italian or feed me Italian. From my arrival in NYC, I had Meredith telling me I had to stop at a fabulous gelato place to Gimple telling me about the home cookin Italian in Hoboken; and then I made it to Connecticut where Brunellos were being served (yum) and no one could think of an appetizer that didn't involve prosciutto or mozzarella. Flash forward to Seattle, and the dinner my Mom's friends took us to - Italian. The perusal of the menu included questions about whether it accurately reflected Italy. Then I made it to London and every person I heard was speaking Italian and 1 out of 3 restaurants was advertising Italian. Lesson learned - Italy will find you wherever you are

Traveling lighter and smarter - After two moves around the world, and two airport debacles of nearly (okay actually) having a meltdown when my bags were too heavy - you'd hope that I've learned a thing or two. Sometimes I doubt that I have and the true test will be when I have to move again, stay tuned. But for now, I've tried to take these lessons to heart by way of a few new habits, 1) I only travel in a carry-on size suitcase, now I might not always carry it on, but I allow myself no larger; and 2) I now will always travel with a luggage scale (thanks Ulix!). Traveling in a carry on proved challenging this trip with winter approaching, shopping to be done in NYC, and gifts to disperse - but I did it. I didn't realize how fruitful it would prove until I saw my Mom's bags in Rochester. The point of this trip home was to help my Mom start her own new adventure in Seattle, ending a stay of over 20 years in Rochester, NY. At the airport, I started to have flashbacks to my own traumatic moves, but quickly realized how much easier it is when you have a helper to absorb your extra bags as their own AND a luggage scale. Laurie and I had a bit of fun wrestling with her luggage and gifting the airport staff with some leftover items, then Laurie drowned any of her packing/moving/airport woes in a Red Osier beef on 'wick sandwich to truly send off Western New York in style. I have also always been notorious for leaving items behind when I travel. I know again, you'd think that I would have this down. One weekend in NYC a few years back I left a license, a credit card, and a jean jacket in THREE separate locations, just to give you a flavour. I like to think I've gotten better at this, and of course it helps traveling with less to have less to leave behind. The one lost soldier on this adventure was my favorite hat from NZed, the sadness and the lessons continue

Impressions of America - I've now been gone almost two years and while not that long in the grand scheme of living, there's a few things that have changed/I've missed out on while away. For one, and probably most obvious to all of you, is that I have no idea about pop culture. Many of you would refer to a commercial or some new fangled Checking In idea on Facebook, or the latest media buzz, that are all now totally foreign to me. As one friend said, it's like I'm an alien. The second big thing I noticed being back was how expensive things seem to have gotten, especially food. Now this may not actually be the case in real dollars, it could be because I've decided not to convert currencies while I'm away and just live in the currency I'm in. So either prices have gone up, or I've just gotten used to seeing lower numbers.

America vs. The World - As I've said in previous posts, living abroad has made me so much prouder to be American and appreciative of so many things I previously took for granted or didn't realize. Each time I come home I'm reminded of the differences......1) I can now confirm that food in America makes you feel fatter. Again, maybe this was because I ate every meal in a restaurant for two weeks, or that I frequented mostly pub food, but I was definitely feeling the difference - even at the American italian restaurants. 2) Doing errands in the U.S. is easier than anywhere in the world (if you're American :), even in NYC. In one hour and a six block radius in NYC, I took down the post office, bank, found a halloween costume, found a camera charger, updated my cell phone at a Verizon, bought out Anthropologie's sale rack, and all while drinking a to go coffee - America the Beautiful. And all of these things were made even easier by the existence of customer service. In Italy, I'm pretty sure that those errands would take me three separate weekends to three separate distant parts of Rome, where I would be met with resistance if I raised any sort of customer inquiry or concern. Even London, where I ended my two week trip, while a lot like home, is seriously lacking in the customer service department.

Home - As I've said before, home has become a relative term for me and mostly has to do with where/when I get to see all of you. On this trip "home" I was especially reminded how important you all are to me in that definition. Getting to see friends in NY/CT/NJ, friends who journeyed from DC, say goodbye to the Roc, say hello to Seattle and my Mom's new home, experience again how London, while in Europe, feels very much like a combo between NZed and the U.S. that its hard not to feel at home; and then to arriving back to home sweet Rome and again thinking, wait "I live in Italy?". I want to thank so many of you who bring home to me wherever you and I are - the NY/CT/NJ peeps for literally opening your homes to me; to my DC/Boston peeps for making the journey to bring me home; to Carry Bradshaw's house for giving me some laughs; my cousins in the Roc who I haven't seen in ages but made me feel right at home in a tumultuous time; to my Mom's best friend from childhood for welcoming us both as my Mom makes a new home in Seattle; to Del and Les for their expert London tips; to the Queen of England and all previous royalty for showing me their home; and to the LJs for opening their new shared home to not just me, but a friend from home. So I will amend a previous post by saying, you can go home again. Thank you - you mean the world to me

Highlights - There are so many, but here's a chosen few 1) revisiting my pre-teen love of pranks and fortunes; 2) meeting and spending time with new babies and babies to be; 3) dance/karaoke party combo; 4) seeing my Mom's energy and excitement for a new life ahead; 5) and realizing how small the world is.

Eating highlights - As you know other than helping my Mom move, my main goal in my trip home was eating, here are a few of the highlights - 1) Wegmans/DiBellas/Aladdins, god I am going to miss/do miss Rochester cuisine; 2) guacamole; 3) scallops; 4) making dinner in one of the best kitchens I know in CT; 5) tater tots, 6) sake/sushi; 7) sweet potato fries; 8) bloody mary's; 9) wine sampling by do it yourself taste in London; 10) oh to-go coffees.

Fails - In every trip I mess up something. 1) one of my biggest mistakes this time was not taking enough pictures (even after buying that camera charger stated above). I hadn't met my friend Rebecca's baby yet, and was so excited to meet her after stalking her online and I somehow manage to take zero pictures with her or of her - extremely bummed.

In adjusting back to life in Italy, I'm trying to take advantage as much as I can of living here, as my days could be/are numbered. I jumped right back in with going truffle hunting (I tried to go olive harvesting, but you would be surprised how hard it is to convince someone to let you come work for free for them), and this weekend I'm off to Bologna for a cooking class, and stuffing my belly with torellini, prosciutto (when don't I), bolognese, and much much more.

When in Rome