Berlin

Had a chance to visit Berlin for a conference.  In terms of 'charm', it is no match to Paris, but its functional beauty and associations with historical events make it an excellent destination for tourists. 

First of all, the Subway is immaculate and easily navigable even for non-German speaking foreigners.

The Brandenberger Tor and the Reichstag are impressive monuments that witness important parts of Germany history that are not as salient as WWII or the Cold War.

Having stayed at a hotel in former East Berlin, I got to learn a bit about the divide between East/West Germany.  Germany became divided after WW2 ended in 1945, but even until the end of 1950s the Berlin Wall had not been erected, with East and West Germans moving across the border with relative ease.  1961 was when a first physical form of a 'wall' was established with barbed wires, which was reinforced with concrete in 1965.  The wall 'fell' (officially started to get dismantled) in 1989.  When it did, Rostopovich gave an impromptu concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiwXUJJjL6g&feature=fvw

Checkpoint 'C'harlie was one of the border control sites between East and West Germany before the reunification.  Guess an equivalent form in Korea would be 판문점.

It is truly sad that this beautiful city has to be associated with past as horrendous as the holocaust. A couple blocks south of Brandenberger Tor you can find the Holocaust Memorial.   Hundreds of concrete slabs are laid out like tombs in undulating formation.  Underneath this structure is a museum, which greets with you with this chilling warning, 'It happened, therefore it can happen again.'

'맛'김치 = 'delicious' kimchee

Much to my tastebuds' dismay, I am 5000 miles away from my grandmother's kimchee and I just have to settle for this store-bought brand called Tobagi 맛김치.  It looks something like this:

Google translates Tobagi (토박이) as "native"; but I think "authentic" or "original" is closer to the meaning.

맛김치is translated to mean "delicious kimchee".

... ...

Unfortunately, it's far from "authentic" or even "delicious".  Kimchee is supposed to taste sour from fermentation, but it seems the entire maturation process was skipped altogether. It tastes more like salted cabbage with pepper flakes.  People who know me well know that I like to indulge in kimchee when I am stressed.  Every time I open this jar I secretly wish that perhaps I was mistaken last time and hope that it'll taste better this time. Sadly I walk away feeling unfulfilled time and time again.    

I am sure that my grandma would shed a few tears if she knew I have to resort to this to relieve my stress... 흑흑...






*picture taken from this review, which was totally off:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011902707.html

Eavesdropping in New York I

New York subway station.

A father and his young son eagerly wait for the A train, while other trains whiz by.

"Dad, can I say a bad word?"
"Umm... please try to use other words to say it."
"Well, I can't really explain it in any other way..."
"What is it that you want to say?"
"That train was really idiotic!"

Reminds me of the time I said, "what the heck!" for the first time in 2nd grade and I felt so bad I went to my mom to confess it before she even found out.  Unfortunately, she was napping and she couldn't care less what came out of my mouth.