Here is a compiled list of places I gathered in my 6 months or so stay in berlin, and also having a berliner as a partner.
hang out places: all with loads of cafes and restaurants
Prenzlauer Berg
especially near kastanienalle/zionskirche
and lychenerstrasse
and
Kreuzberg
especially around Oranienstrasse (near SO36)
and Bergmanstrasse
Galleries and Museums
The East side gallery
for awesome graffiti and all
Museum: I liked the museum of photography (forgot the name but it is in Oranienburger strasse S bahn)
So at the corner where Oranienburger strasse meets Tucholsky Strasse
Also the hambergerbahnhof museum for modern arts is nice
Flea market sundays
Either Mauer park(trendier: nice to just hang without buying stuff) or Boxhagener Platz (cheaper and getting even more trendy)
EAT
Pizza place: il casolare: punk pizza place even the italians love
Also for proper german food try Max and Moritz on Oranienstrasse
see menu
Sunday brunch in Lychenerstrasse(this is where I lived) or Kruezberg at oranienstrasse/Paul-Linke Ufer oder Maybachufer
Also, there are loads of cheap places near Kreuzberg 36 - near Oranienstrasse which are around 5 euros for a main dish
and Kreuzberg Bergmanstrasse also offers a wide range of cuisines around 10 euros or less.
Don;t forget to check out
Spätzle express : what is spätzle??
**Lazy Caribbean bar
the YAAM - really nice in sunny days
**Drink as much as you want and then pay as much as you want wine bar
Weinerei - all near Zionskirche
even the new york times loved it
Club
Berghain: techono electornic, but the whole idea is to go there, since it's supposed to be this amazing place which opens around 00:00~ 15:00 ... peak is around 4am.
also lots of night life around Warschauerstrasse
but buy a Zitty(events etc guide for Berlin) and see what is happening.
or go to www.zitty.de
but most of all have fun and stay around in the East side...
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
my first barbie
This was my first barbie, that I got when I was in elementary school, from my best friend Leigh. Actually that was my only barbie, since I didn't get another one due to that I had one. Oh what fun we had with her, making clothes for her, and also shooting movies, which included borderlinish soft porn - harlequin romance novel types mind you! (we didn't have ken, so it ended up taking some interesting turns....)
awww good times.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
One liners
hi there.
Since it has been forever since I've posted my last entries, here is something to say.. hey this blog has not been abandoned.
Some one liners i've written in the previous months, travelling.
"You can always blame your parents for everything wrong about yourself, including the lack of respect for one's parents" - in Seoul, May 2010.
"I often wish that the cute guy I meet in an off occassion is gay.... This is how much I love my husband" - after meeting the ultra cute steward on an AirFrance flight to Nantes, June, 2010
"There is no perfect man... there is just that normal guy that comes long in your life, after a series of terrible men, who make him seem perfect in comparison" - thoughts I had right before getting married....
Since it has been forever since I've posted my last entries, here is something to say.. hey this blog has not been abandoned.
Some one liners i've written in the previous months, travelling.
"You can always blame your parents for everything wrong about yourself, including the lack of respect for one's parents" - in Seoul, May 2010.
"I often wish that the cute guy I meet in an off occassion is gay.... This is how much I love my husband" - after meeting the ultra cute steward on an AirFrance flight to Nantes, June, 2010
"There is no perfect man... there is just that normal guy that comes long in your life, after a series of terrible men, who make him seem perfect in comparison" - thoughts I had right before getting married....
Starved for Attention
"An estimated 195 million children worldwide suffer from the effects of malnutrition, with 90 percent living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In fact, malnutrition contributes to at least one-third of the eight million annual deaths of children under five years of age.Many families simply cannot afford to provide nutritious food—particularly animal source foods such as milk, meat, and eggs—that their young children need to grow and thrive. Instead, they struggle to survive—far from the media spotlight—on a diet of little more than cereal porridges of maize or rice, amounting to the equivalent of bread and water."
This video shows how much of this problem is to be accounted for by the food aid systems currently in place, which is linked to the goal of sustaining the american corn industry. (see also last entry - from Food Inc, concerning how the american corn farming has changed the way people eat, and how it is one cause of obesity and malnourishment of Americans)
Just to answer some of the questions listed in the last part - the reasons why the US is providing corn meals to malnourished African children as food, when it simply does not provide the necessary vitamins and nourishment are simple.
No world aid is given without political and economical reasons from the provider. in this case, the US government provide aid to indirectly supply government support to their (massive) corn-farm industry and other industries surrounding it. In addition, it also acts as a pacifiers to third worlds which encourages dependence on aid/foreign(us-owned) products, and provides obstacles in developing a self-sustaining economy. Overall, the foremost purpose of the aid is NOT in providing nutritious food to children in the third world, thus the double standard and the bad quality of food provided.
Join the petition
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
hours of the week
I haven't been writing much... because I have been busy with several different things.
I will write more about what exactly they were later, but for today, I want to share this idea of how exactly our time is spent.
Okay now let's calculate 24*7=148 hours a week. everyone has that much hours.
Let's take the big chunks out first.
8*7=56 hours of sleep a week
5*8=40 (officially) hours of work a week
=======
which totals up to .. = 96
that only leaves us about 52 hours
on top of that I need approximately 10 hours a week to commute time each week (half of which also can be considered my new paper reading time)
and average 1 hour each day to clean myself, and get dressed, and defecate etc. that is 7
and on average 2.5 hours a day to prepare, cook, eat food and clean up afterwards. that is 17.5 hours.. let's round it up to 18.
and I will do approximately 7 hours a week of household errands ( that is shopping for food, etc., cleaning the house, laundry and other household tasks).
that is total = 42 hours
that leaves 10 hours.
that is all the free time I have (officially) to spend to do whatever I want.
If I need to keep in shape I should to atleast 2 hours of exercise each week but 1 hour to prepare etc. thus that leaves 7.
in those 7 hours, I need to get leisure, relax and fulfil my inner self.
how does anyone manage to do this????
(this post was initially written on the 2nd of June, 2010)
I will write more about what exactly they were later, but for today, I want to share this idea of how exactly our time is spent.
Okay now let's calculate 24*7=148 hours a week. everyone has that much hours.
Let's take the big chunks out first.
8*7=56 hours of sleep a week
5*8=40 (officially) hours of work a week
=======
which totals up to .. = 96
that only leaves us about 52 hours
on top of that I need approximately 10 hours a week to commute time each week (half of which also can be considered my new paper reading time)
and average 1 hour each day to clean myself, and get dressed, and defecate etc. that is 7
and on average 2.5 hours a day to prepare, cook, eat food and clean up afterwards. that is 17.5 hours.. let's round it up to 18.
and I will do approximately 7 hours a week of household errands ( that is shopping for food, etc., cleaning the house, laundry and other household tasks).
that is total = 42 hours
that leaves 10 hours.
that is all the free time I have (officially) to spend to do whatever I want.
If I need to keep in shape I should to atleast 2 hours of exercise each week but 1 hour to prepare etc. thus that leaves 7.
in those 7 hours, I need to get leisure, relax and fulfil my inner self.
how does anyone manage to do this????
(this post was initially written on the 2nd of June, 2010)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Food Inc
This is a must see movie, which is a investigative documentary concerning the food industry. What I really like about this movie is that it doesn't stop at showing the viewers how food is produced, and how it is consumed but why this is the case. How the various national policies, and corporate lobbyist has changed what people eat, how it is made etc.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Gordon Brown and Labour Party goes for the offense.
and other posters
An article in today's Guardian reports that the British labour party is now going for the offense strategy for their election campaign, putting Gordon Brown as the alpha male character.
" Labour was "going all in", staking the election on the hope that voters will be drawn to an alpha-male personality who "is prepared to pummel, punch or even headbutt the British economy into a new era of jobs and prosperity"."
" Labour further hopes to "harness the power of internet folksourcing", the aide explained, encouraging supporters to design their own posters, which could then be showcased online. The "design your own poster" initiative has caught the imagination of Downing Street strategists, the aide said, because it is cheap, fosters engagement among voters and, above all, nothing could possibly go wrong with it."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Capitalism and greed
I know many point to morality failures as one of the key reasons for the financial crisis that was felt across the world. Some were so convinced that they argue that financial stock brokers/bankers should take an oath before starting trading, just as they do in the medical field (hippocratic oath). However, I believe as many others do, that this is not a moral issue. This is/was not something that could've been solved by moralities. Rather it is a structural issue, where the system drives individuals to act a certain way. Capitalism, by definition puts market values and accumulation of capital as it's foremost important value.
This documentary/tv show puts it also in a very clear view.
However, let me iterate my views further.
Free market economist also believe that if you let market loose, than everything will find equilibrium. In these cases, morality does not have a place. A bit simpler, banks accumulated and made money due to that that is something they could do in the current system. Although some criticize for it being immoral due to that there were very high risks involved and much of the money was made was done where it was not due, let's think about it again. In the financial sector, much like other sectors but more so, the biggest goal is to achieve financial gains. The more you gain, the better. Although some may be in the boundaries of being illegal, if that is still within the rules of the game, you do it. As noted in the documentary, others are doing it, the pressures to follow would be large, especially when born/raised in a country where competition is thought to provide the best results, and falling back is only a characteristics of a looser- in all aspects of the words.
I even see this in academia, where our drug of preference is academic publications. No longer is it that development and spread of knowledge our goal. No, our goal is to write publications, regardless of any moral misdeed this may contain, and I've seen one too many academics even throw their health away to be on top of the game. But, again, can we blame this on morals? No.. I also believe it goes way beyond that. It has more to do with the high of competition. I think many of the bankers who have done " immoral" banking had enough? money in their hands. But to be perceived as the best, they needed the extra. Although the money didn't hurt.
and this all comes about, due to that we loose conscious of what we are doing, exactly what the consequences of our choices made and why we are behaving a certain way. Which leads me to this book Momo: on which I want to write another entry. Although I must say, to be conscious of everything, would be painful in many ways, or would lead us to believing the best we can do is to go rot in some dirt. I mean there is a golden middle, and many of us, not through our own choices, have been lead/ are in a position where we are actually asleep.
This documentary/tv show puts it also in a very clear view.
However, let me iterate my views further.
Free market economist also believe that if you let market loose, than everything will find equilibrium. In these cases, morality does not have a place. A bit simpler, banks accumulated and made money due to that that is something they could do in the current system. Although some criticize for it being immoral due to that there were very high risks involved and much of the money was made was done where it was not due, let's think about it again. In the financial sector, much like other sectors but more so, the biggest goal is to achieve financial gains. The more you gain, the better. Although some may be in the boundaries of being illegal, if that is still within the rules of the game, you do it. As noted in the documentary, others are doing it, the pressures to follow would be large, especially when born/raised in a country where competition is thought to provide the best results, and falling back is only a characteristics of a looser- in all aspects of the words.
I even see this in academia, where our drug of preference is academic publications. No longer is it that development and spread of knowledge our goal. No, our goal is to write publications, regardless of any moral misdeed this may contain, and I've seen one too many academics even throw their health away to be on top of the game. But, again, can we blame this on morals? No.. I also believe it goes way beyond that. It has more to do with the high of competition. I think many of the bankers who have done " immoral" banking had enough? money in their hands. But to be perceived as the best, they needed the extra. Although the money didn't hurt.
and this all comes about, due to that we loose conscious of what we are doing, exactly what the consequences of our choices made and why we are behaving a certain way. Which leads me to this book Momo: on which I want to write another entry. Although I must say, to be conscious of everything, would be painful in many ways, or would lead us to believing the best we can do is to go rot in some dirt. I mean there is a golden middle, and many of us, not through our own choices, have been lead/ are in a position where we are actually asleep.
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