Category: in germany

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foooood in germany

thai park

after the clouds cleared out on sunday, we made our way to the thai park. the park would be a very normal (and boring) park, if it wasn’t for the the thai community, who gathers here weekly to mingle. the whole thing reminds us so much of the filipino ladies in hong kong!

anyway, as you can probably imagine, it wouldn’t be a gathering without food! happy to feed all nationalities, the ladies there have their tiny gas cookers and thermo boxes ready, smiling at the curious passerby.

here’s what we had yesterday:



clockwise from top-left: baozi, pink lotus buns, crispy slices of banana fried in coconut flakes and amazing pad thai made on the spot!

it was all so good… and the baozi! i almost couldn’t believe my eyes (or my luck!), i’d been missing them :) all of this while laying around in a towel, enjoying the sun and the laughter of our nearby neighbours, buzzing in a language we didn’t understand… it was perfection, the perfect afternoon.

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in china in germany rants

olympics

“and so the games started and the country went wild, as expected. for some reason though, i’m not feeling it. shanghai is hot, the media seems to only focus on what they see fit… maybe all this preparation time spoiled the fun of it for me, and after the apotheosis that was the opening ceremony, things somewhat diluted themselves under the intensity at which we are daily bombarded… olympics olympics olympics. so i don’t feel like watching tv or reading tweets about it. hope the portuguese do well, and totally subscribe the idea of nationalizing michael phelps. pretty please?”

i wrote that in shanghai, four years ago, in a draft that never made it into the blog. was that really 4 years ago? funny how time flies. we’ve changed countries and jobs meanwhile, yet this indifference towards the olympics remained. plus we don’t even own a tv this time!

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in germany photography

summer light


never-ending light, from 5:30am till about 9pm. we’re soaking it all in. :)

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in germany

the modernist housing estates of berlin

the museum island is berlin’s most famous unesco site, its central location and abundance of interesting museums ensuring its place in all guidebooks. but did you know that berlin has another, less well-known unesco attraction?

spread over 6 locations around the city, the modernist housing estates are a group of buildings built between 1910 and 1933, (especially during the weimar republic) which represent the building reform movement in berlin. here’s how unesco describes them:

The housing estates reflect, with the highest degree of quality, the combination of urbanism, architecture, garden design and aesthetic research typical of early 20th century modernism, as well as the application of new hygienic and social standards.

the estates were built at the end of the first world war (when demand for housing in berlin was higher than ever), by cooperatives and non-profit organizations in the (once) outer, rural areas of the city. they were innovative in their design but especially for the open-housing concept of “garden towns and cities” – in contrast with the 19th century corridor-like streets. the main architects involved were bruno taut, martin wagner, and walter gropius (one of the founders of the bauhaus school).

the pictures on this post are from the estate closest to our house, the Hufeisensiedlung. Hufeisen means “horseshoe” – which is what it resembles when you look at it from above!

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in germany pretty things

calligraphy class


doing a calligraphy class had been on my plans (and list) for ages. i’ve always been attracted to nice penmanship, so it seemed like the next logical step. last week, i found one class by accident through gidsy and enlisted right at the last minute.

the class was great, and we learnt how to draw most letters of lowercase english copperplate script. it’s a relatively simple script, but hard work nonetheless! by the end of it, my hand was hurting from all the tension i was putting on my nib, but i felt like we were all more confident and ready to start practising on our own. i certainly intend to! :)