The day I fought in public (again)

I am not a person who seeks confrontation. No. I hide from it. Especially if it's in public. I find arguing in public embarrassing - but sometimes, people are acting like royal assholes and I can't control my feelings. Let me tell you about it in a little bit.

First: happy things!

I don't even know why I haven't talked about this on here yet, because it's not even a real secret. In fact, a few months ago, we distributed a good number of letters to announce it:
Nick and I are getting married in Germany! We've been married for 4.5 years, but back then, my parents were unable to come. (Maybe because we gave them 3 weeks notice and we got married thousands of miles away?!)
Anyways, we had a beautiful wedding at Nick's parents' house and in my mind it couldn't have been more perfect. My parents and brothers attended via Skype and my brothers even played a song for us. (They even dressed up in fancy clothes and had a celebratory dinner!)

Still, we've been planning on having a bigger church wedding in Germany ever since - one where everyone from this side of the pond will be there, too. This is going to happen in just six weeks. And guess what!? There are a number of people from the U.S. coming to be there with us - including my parents in law! It is going to be so great to have them here!

While I love to plan, I have been so busy with school, the beginning-of-the-year-chaos, my trip to Baltimore, etc that this even just snuck up on us without warning.

That's exactly how I feel about it.
Source.

Now the serious matter:

We received a wedding related package from the U.S. the other day and were notified that there was something waiting at customs for us. 

While I want to spare you the details: picking it up was much less enjoyable as expected. The lady was just plain rude - not just because the things in the package were handled with the least possible care, but also because the value of the gifts were picked at random by the officer. The receipt I was sent via email didn't even count and the office just accused me of making it up. - The value that she found online was 4 times higher than the actual cost. 

Source.

I'm happy to pay what I owe. Even if my receipts don't count and you want to go with your higher prices, it's all fine. You say what I have to pay and I'll do it. But don't treat me like that in public, don't throw around my property this carelessly and make snarky comments about them, don't call me or the sender a liar after I made them jump through hoops to send me receipts, don't act like I broke a law - it's not illegal to have things sent to you, and most of all: don't be that disrespectful just because you are on the other side of the counter and are wearing a uniform. That's not right. 

Source.

I have been truly thrown off by the way people think it's okay to talk to others. What is wrong with you?! Why can't you at least try to treat everyone with the same respect that you'd expect from others? Don't be an asshole. It's not that hard.

I don't know if I told you, but just a few days ago, I went to the pharmacy across the street. I needed cough syrup and asked the lady, why the one she wanted to sell me was better than the one I had been taking. I was then lectured that I wouldn't understand the names on the box anyways so there was no point in answering my question. (What?!) How do you still have a business?

Almost every day, I come home and greet Nick with something like "You wouldn't believe what someone just said to me". Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm too easily irritated. (Of course, we all know this is purely rhetorical.)

On the bright side, it really sticks out if someone is nice to you. Maybe that's what this is all about. That you appreciate nice (non-rude) people even more now. 

The golden ticket

Today was a good day.
Not because I am feeling better - no, I'm still sporting my nasty cough -, but because I received a special letter in the mail this morning!

I got my semester ticket!! I am taking the train again, people! :o) For the past 8 days, I was forced to walk everywhere (or pay for the train, but I'm much more cheap than lazy), because my old ticket expired on March 31. It took a little while to get all the paperwork done to apply for a new one at school, but the wait is over and the golden ticket is in my hand. So I took a celebratory trip to the university library this afternoon and restocked my book-pile at home. 

Yay. Work.
(Yes, the pen is supposed to be on the ground.)

No worries. The library here is more of an archive than a libraryand you can't take out more books than nine. It always makes for really hard decisions when I'm there. Still, the person at the front desk didn't fail to count the books out loud. And ask me, if I was sure I wanted to take out all nine books. And if I was going to use all of them. And if I was going to read all of them. - I'm sorry. If work at a library, you should not ask such questions. 

Source.

Then I wanted to go home and this happened:

Hail?!

 We have truly been experiencing the wildest weather over the past couple of weeks. Today, it went from warm, to cold, then we had a thunderstorm, then sun, then a hailstorm, then terrible wind... and I actually kind of like it. With all the climate changes and extreme weathers, this feels like the appropriate weather for once.

I'm actually lucky that my running break falls into this weather period. While I'd still pick hail over wind when running, I'm not upset if I can avoid both of those things.

Do you regularly take public transportation? In Berlin, yes, every day. In Baltimore, no, not at all.

What's your favorite running weather/ temperature? 

We bring sickness and hair!

I've been sick.
Since the Half on the 30th, I could already feel it coming. Nick had it first and then I followed his lead one day after.

I am certain that my family was thrilled to have us there while I coughed all day and was an overall useless guest. Not that I'm particularly useful on otherwise, but I took it to a new level this time. On top of it, Lucy is currently shedding like there is no tomorrow and managed to leave at least half of her coat on my parents' kitchen floor, living room floor, dining room floor, hallway floor... it was just everywhere. Gotta love having us as guests! We bring sickness and hair.

Source.

I called the doctor today and they told me their office is packed with coughing people. So I stayed home. Who wants to go sit in all that mess?!

I've been working on my (next) overdue paper and wrote the first sentence today. One sentence. This is going to be awesome. I can feel it already.

Source.

As far as running is concerned, I took 3 rest days after the Half, due to unbearable soreness in my legs. Seriously people, that was just out of control.  Then I planned to do 3 miles on Thursday, did 5, and haven't run since, because I've just been sick and gross. I am hoping to be back in my running shoes by the weekend, but we will see. At this point, I'm just glad I didn't get sick earlier.

And what do you do when you can't run? - You sign up for a race :o)
Yesterday, I registered for a 10k on May 10. It is the annual Womens' Run and the route goes from from the Brandenburg gate to the Siegessäule and then in loops through the beautiful big park that I've been running in for my long runs. It will be terrific!

Source.

So much excitement for tomorrow!

Today was an awesome day, because we picked up a rental car to go on a Road Trip!!!

It's a Road Trip!
Source.

We are headed towards my parents' house for the weekend and I can. not. wait!

Nick and I both love being in the car together and traveling longer distances. I think the longest we have ever driven was a 26hr trip from Western New York to Florida. It was terrific! (Especially the time when I got lost and drove us right through D.C. on the way back... but let's not go there.)

Tomorrow will be significantly quicker though and only take us 3-4hrs. Maybe even only 2, because our rental is a new Audi sport edition!

Source.

Either way, the drive it just long enough for us to work up an appetite for coffee and cake (Mama, I hope you are reading?!).

It has been almost two months since I went to see them and the last time Nick and I went together was for Christmas (?!).

Having the car here already also meant that I could go to the store to pick up water. In Germany, we drink mostly sparkling water, so Nick and I always have to buy 6packs of 1.5liter bottles and haul them from the store to our apartment on the 4th floor.
So whenever we have access to a car, we stock up on water as much as we can. (Be prepared if you ever come visit us by car - we will make you go to the store with us to get water.)

Source.

Because of our plans for tomorrow and the following days, I spent most of the day cleaning the apartment and packing for the weekend. This means I'm terribly behind on my schedule for work and have to get to that now. This is going to be a long (short) night.

Source.

I think at this point, I'd prefer sleep. 

What are you up to today? 

When was the last time you went on a road trip?

Do you clean the house before you leave for a few days? Always. I can't help it. Coming back home to a dirty house/ apartment is a nightmare for me.

Playing catch up

As I am a useless sloth right now and my only habitat ist the couch, I am going to play a bit of catch up for a day and share a few pictures from my trip to Baltimore. Remember, I promised you those blue-sky-cloud-wing-pictures and here they come :o)

It's no secret that I am deathly afraid of flying. It terrifies me to a point where I am trying to prepare myself for the case that I won't return from my trip. If you are wondering, yes, I am a delight to travel with when there is a plane involved. The terrible part about this: I have never had a truly scary experience and I can't blame it on being PTSD. It's all in my head. Where in face most of my greatest ideas come from...

Source.

As usual, when I am leaving on a morning morning, I don't sleep the night before. It's not that I can't, you know, because death is near. It is strategical sleep deprivation so that I just don't care anymore about anything thats going on and just want to sleep. (Yes, this has actually helped before. Once. Five years ago. But it helped!)

Source.

I had two flights to get to Newark (Berlin - Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf - Newark) and had booked a train to go to Baltimore the night of my arrival. Because it's always hard to tell in advance if all the planes will be on time and if immigration will be quick (or packed with about 5000 people like last time), and because I am generally an extreme planner, I chose the last train, which left at 8pm - 5hrs after my arrival.

Little did I know ... BOTH of my planes ended up landing early. As much as I hate flying, I am a big fan of Lufthansa. (Lets not talk about flights being canceled these days, due to a strike.) We boarded within minutes on both planes and both flights must have flown really fast.

The best part was: on my flight from Düsseldorf to Newark, the plane wasn't full. There were plenty of seats available, so I ended up with a 2seat bench just to myself. Perfect to sleep. Unfortunately, I had to watch out if there was anything weird going on with the plane, so I didn't sleep for one minute.

What a waste of an awesome little bed.

Now this is going to make you jealous. Usually, the food on the plane isn't really what one would call delicious - but this was just unbelievable. I had steamed salmon on basmati rice with green asparagus for dinner (lunch?) and it was amazing!

definitely worth two pictures

It seems as if planning ahead and making sure there is enough time to get from A to B, doesn't always end up working out the way you had in mind. My planes were early and immigration, baggage claim, customs, and walking to the train station took less than an hour! (!!??) They let me reschedule my train ticket and I arrived in Baltimore 4 hrs before I was supposed to be there.

Don't let the blue sky fool you... it was COLD!

All in all: my flights were not only smooth, but empty, we were fed amazing food and wine, we landed early, and I arrived while it was still light out! (Plus, I was still alive.) I felt as if I won the lottery.

Like last time, I stayed with our good friends and again, the days just flew by too quickly.

I ran a lot, met with a lot of professors, took care of a bunch of administrative things, and looked for an apartment for August, when we move back. Everything ended up really successful. We are so happy to have already found a place to live, because Baltimore is truly not the easiest place to find a nice, affordable apartment in a good neighborhood. Our new home will be close to campus and very close to the friends I stayed with. We just signed the lease a few days ago and can cross it from our things-to-do-before-we-move-back-to-Baltimore-list.

Some other random things from my trip:

Have you ever tried these?! I bought them at Trader Joe's and
am now completely hooked.

The Aldi in Baltimore now carries Müsli.
I am convinced they did this just for me.

Baltimore had a rough winter and not only did I get a taste of it when I was running my 11 miles around campus, but also the day I left. Sure enough, we woke up to about 10 inches of snow the morning of my departure. So convenient!

It wasn't the only moment of shock for me. I also didn't expect my first flight to be on a plane that's just a bit bigger than our car...

This time, I went from Baltimore to Toronto, from Toronto to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt to Berlin.

As I got on the plane to Frankfurt, you know the one that carries you over the ocean for about 8 hrs, I found my neighbor to be a lady, who had caught my eye at the airport before. Lets just say that the first thing she shared with me was that she had a terrible rash as she was itching her arms, face, and legs without stopping. Ugh.

I know that this doesn't normally happen, but the plane was once again not full. While I was feeling bad to leave the lady and relocate to an empty 2-seater, she shrieked in excitement. Maybe she was happier than me?

I watched 2 movies: 12 Years a Slave (great movie!!), Amadeus (one of my favorites) as well as all the episodes of TV shows they had available. I also had a very, very strong gin and tonic, wine, and food that was similarly tasty as the salmon from my previous flight.

The best thing was that Nick picked me up with my favorite thermos mug, filled with coffee.

We will see. Maybe having wonderful travel experiences like this will help me not to freak out before getting on a plane one day?

Are you a frequent traveler?

Do you like flying? 

Have you ever had a "favorite arrival"? Mine was on January 8, 2009 at the Buffalo airport in NY. We were the first plane landing after a terrible snow storm and I was greeted with a dozen red roses. Those roses are now in storage in Baltimore, waiting to be hung up again.

So Angry.

(This is a very long post...)

My legs are so angry at me. I can't even tell you. For the past two days I've been limping around the apartment. I can't get up without help and I walk as if someone has tied my legs together - which makes it really difficult not to fall.

Source.

After none of my long runs, I've experienced such pain. At least, I know why this is. I usually stretch for at least 15 mins after my runs. On Sunday, I didn't. But we'll get to that later.

Lets talk about the run.

In case I hadn't mentioned it before, race day happened the night after the clocks were turned one hour ahead. Now seriously, who in their right mind does that?! I am convinced this was some cruel joke, because clearly, this time change was planned by someone who didn't run the Berlin Half.

Miraculously, we woke up in time, got all packed up, and hopped on the train. Lucy was the most confused pissed off dog that morning. She hates being woken up before 9am. I'm not sure she has forgiven me for dragging her outside at 7.30am that day (6.30am, if she doesn't participate in daylight savings). She has been giving me looks ever since.

When we got to the station, there were only a few runners who went on the train with us, but then there were more and more with each stop. By the time we got off to hop on the light rail, you could already tell this was going to be a packed race.

We got to the start just in time for me to get in line for the bathrooms. There were a gazillion porta potties, which was great, because the lines were still incredibly long. With my race package, I also received a bag for my clothes and a name sticker. I didn't end up dropping off my bag, but from what I saw, the drop off (and later the pick up) worked like clockwork.

We started in three waves. I was at the beginning of the third and before we even started running, we were told that the runners from Kenya had already finished more than half of the course. (Wait. What?!?!)

Leonard Komon, the runner in blue, won.
It was his very first half marathon and he finished in 59:14 - the world's fastest
debut half ever (beating Mosop's time from four years ago by 6 seconds).

They also announced that from the time of us lining up to the start of the first wave, the temperature rose by 8 degrees. So glad I chose the longer pants. So glad!

After we got moving and crossed the actual starting line, the first person I saw was Nick! He had fought his way through the crowd, climbed up on a fence or something, and was waving at me. It was the greatest feeling to see him there, cheering me on.

3 seconds after the start.

By mile 3, I had the suspicion this wasn't going to be easy. I was dying from 65F heat warm, only had half of my water left, was tired, and just wanted to go back to sleep. I was incredibly happy that there were thousands of strangers who were yelling at me to suck it up and keep going... Seriously, there were so many bands and drums set up on the sides that the whole atmosphere was just wonderful.

Nick had said he was going to come to the 4 mile marker, yet I never expected that I'd actually be able to see him - but there he was, waving and shouting and taking pictures. It was awesome!

right after the first water station (around mile 4)

Nick took these pictures from the train.

Over 30.000 runners!
I'm the one in the pink shirt.

The best thing was yet to come though. He knew that I was worried about running out of water. So at mile 8, he called me on my cell phone to let me know where he was standing and that he had a bottle of cold water for me!! He saved my life.

It even worked out that he handed me the water, I poured it into my hand bottle, and gave him the empty bottle back. (Nick was running next to me for that stretch.)

"Please recycle this bottle properly."
(It looks like I'm walking, doesn't it?!)

Many runners were carrying flags or were dressed up in costumes.

I knew that the finish was right where we started, by Alexanderplatz. There is a tall tower that you can see from afar, so I kept looking out for it... and couldn't find it. Maybe that's why the last 5 miles were just plain painful. 

When I finally spotted something tall, my heart dropped, because it was (in the distance) Potsdamer Platz, which was still about 2-3 miles away from the finish line.

I can't tell you how great it was to finally see the finish line in the distance, knowing that I was going to survive it, and then eventually crossing it. I ended up running the distance in 2:13:03 (coming in right after Komon...). It took me about 5 minutes longer than last weekend. So that was a bummer. But it was also 25 degrees warmer on race day.

As I had read before, there really wasn't any space for the runners to walk after they finished. (Not sure if this is normal, though.) We came to a full stop immediately and just stood behind everyone who was waiting for their medals.

Usually, I walk for at least half a mile after running anything beyond 10 miles. My body just doesn't do well with running for 2 hrs and then suddenly not move anymore.

Thankfully, they had really cold (alcohol free) wheat beer for us. Every runner was handed a half liter and a bunch of bananas. Before I even knew what was happening, Nick had already found me and led us out of the fenced in area. There was no place for me to stretch until about 30-45 mins after finishing.
By that time, my legs felt like they were made of concrete.

Aside from having no room to walk or stretch after the finish line, everything was incredibly well organized. Especially if you are like me and have never run a big race like this before, it really helped  that everything was perfectly planned.

As far as I can tell, there was no shortage on anything, the helpers were incredibly friendly and knowledgable, I already knew exactly where to find what along the entire course weeks before the race, and on race day, it really was to be found in the exact spot. The route was well marked and the crowd was terrific. I don't know how many high fives from 5year olds I got that day. Lots of families were out, lots of bands, lots of people holding up signs, clapping, shouting, taking pictures and videos. Around 300.000 people came out to cheer for over 30.000 runners.

I have a beer and a banana. What else do you need?!

For me, it was the best thing to know that Nick was there and the moments when I spotted him in the crowd, seeing he is my biggest fan, was the greatest feeling.

Of course there is only one way to properly celebrate surviving: with a ton of sushi, ice cream, and wine.

All in all, it was a terrific experience. Except for the pain. The pain really sucks.

Finished.

It's done! 

As you might suspect, I have a lot of feelings to share about the event (and in general). 

Stay tuned for a longer post tomorrow. 

For today, just one thing:

Yes. That's my thumb all over the picture. Let's just focus on the tower on Alexanderplatz, the blue sky, and the many, many runners that were all eager to get going.

One of the greatest views I've ever had.