Back from Paris

Yay! Back in Berlin. Not that I was happy to leave Paris necessarily, but after a week of running around Paris in a panic, trying to find an apartment, I’m really looking forward to a weekend of partying / research in Berlin. This is the last weekend I have where I can allow myself days to recover (next weekend I leave town on the Monday, Sep 1), so the plan is to party like there’s no tomorrow.

Having said that, I decided to take tonight off, since I had gotten up far too early to catch my plane, and I hadn’t quite gotten over the exhaustion of the Paris trip. Also, Paris is expensive and my wallet could use a break tonight.

So, after dragging myself home from Tegel airport, I got out at Hermannplatz and headed home. On the way home, I stopped by my favorite Güney Grill for a döner kebab. I overheard the woman at the counter speaking in Turkish to someone about “Sose beyaz” (“white sauce,” using a combination of German and Turkish words) being “içinde” (“inside”) something, which inspired me to try out my Turkish. So when she asked me what sauce I wanted, I said “kırmızı” (“red”); I had to repeat it twice before she realized that I was speaking Turkish, and then she got all excited and asked me how much Turkish I knew. I said that I knew virtually nothing, but she nonetheless continued to pepper our exchange with Türkish words, most of which I could sort of make out. I probably should’ve tried this when I had more sleep.

Anyway, I made it home, made a bit of food and then decided to take a nap, just in case I was inspired to go out later that day. When I woke up later that evening, I took care of some more email, especially of the sort related to an apartment contract (in an effort not to jinx it, I’m not talking about it quite yet), and then I amused myself on the internet for a few hours and went to bed.

Mmmmm. Tranquility and low-intensity affect.