Getting Back on the Horse is Not Without It's Challenges

Had a relaxing weekend with lot of time pestering the single brothers.  Whoever said that it takes a long time for Germans to warm up to strangers is wrong with these brothers, they are great, and they quickly accepted me here.  It was otherwise a laid-back weekend, just trying to get refreshed from a very challenging week emotionally.

After church yesterday, I tried to get a few people together to go to an Oktoberfest celebration on Alexanderplatz, which apparently was also ending yesterday.  It wasn't exactly as big or impressive as the original in Munich, but it was still pretty fun.  Cynthia, Christiana, Oliver, Matthias, Christiana, Corinne and I were able to enjoy each other's company in a large beer "tent".  They served my favorite Oktoberfest beer, Paulaner, and I was able to tear into another half chicken.  Christian was in heaven with his Schweinehax'n.

Afterward, Oliver and Corinne and I went to Friedrichshain Park where we walked around for a while and chatted.  It was sunny but it wasn't very warm.  Oliver mentioned that the hill in the park is a "Trümmerberg", which means it was not a natural hill, it was built on the rubble collected after World War 2.  I've been hoping to find one of these because this is one of the things I learned about in high school while learning German.  It was a surprisingly large hill...

On the way back, we stopped to get a warm drink, then we headed home (actually I headed to the brother's place to hang out with them for their family night).

I got home and had an email from my renter in Spokane.  Apparently there is something wrong with the shower surround that I installed in March, right before I left.  I'm dreading this because I don't really have any money to fix it and not sure what to do.  An amazing brother has already said he will go out there to look at it, but I have a strange feeling that this is not going to be cheap. Ugh.  I really don't need this right now.

So, today is the first day of the rest of my life....  Getting back on the horse, so to speak.  I sent three applications today whilst dealing with system issues.  Anyway, it's 4pm and I think I'm going to go out and run some errands and enjoy the last bit of warm(ish) weather. It's sunny out and I have been inside all day long.  So, on that note, that's the update from here...  Much love from Falkenhagener Feld/Spandau, Berlin, Germany.