Berlin: Germany’s Chicago (and we liked it just as much)

As Kate mentioned, we were just in Berlin for a three-day conference I had to go to. And although the conference bored me to tears at times, Kate and I managed to have a good time before and after, shopping, riding the U-Bahn, playing in the Tiergarten, and noticing many, many similarities between this city and our previous home of Chicago.

But before I get to my thesis on the similarities between the cities, here are a few pictures:

Here's pregnant Kate at the Brandenburger Gate.

Here’s Pecos enjoying the Tiergarten. Here’s Pecos testifying his love for the city in a cute and undersized Berlin shirt (which is really for Elizabeth).
And here’s Pecos and I enjoying Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great.
OK, now on to my treatise on the parallel correspondence of Berlin and Chicago. They’re similar in:

• Size (about 3.4 million)
• Metropolitan location (very far away from other similarly-sized metropolises)
• Climate (temperate and wet – and cold in the winter)
• Terrain (flat and grassy)
• Reason for commercial growth (inland harbor / shipping)
• Agricultural land use (cereals production)
• Dominant architectural style (Bauhaus)

Oh, and their flags have similar layouts.

Chicago

Berlin

To belabor the point and make you all completely aware of how much excess thought I’ve given this, here are some more similarities, with Berlin listed first and Chicago listed second. (Please let me know if you found this interesting or insanely dorky - or both).

• Mascot/icon: Bear/ Cubs
• Secret organization: Stasi / Mafia
• Significant amount of immigrants with the largest population in the country: Turks / Poles
• Popular cuisines influenced by these large ethnic minorities: Currywurst / Polish dog
• Historical damage: World War II (destroyed 60 percent of the city) / Great fire of 1871 (destroyed a third of the city)
• Significant division: East-West (divided by a wall) and North-South (divided by Madison St.)
• Nuclear physicists who practiced there: Einstein (Humboldt) / Fermi (U of Chicago)
• Politicians who started here that changed the world: Hitler / Obama (ok, give it a few months)

And here we are at Madison St. ... oops. Or The Wall. I'm not sure.

Baby on the Brain

As you've probably noticed, my posts of late have been baby-centric. There still are other things going on in our lives (work, Pecos, socializing, traveling), but preparing for Elizabeth's arrival certainly dominates my thoughts. It's also dominated our past few weekends. So, I am here to present to you a few of the things we've accomplished.

1) We have sold the KA and bought a new car, kind of. Specifically, we have a buyer and we've picked a car to buy, though there won't be any exchange of autos or cash until the middle of September. Our new car is a 2005 Ford Focus Wagon that looks something like this. We're happy with the deal we got and to have the extra space. Driving a station wagon is going to really make me feel like a grown-up.

2) We have started putting together the nursery/guest bedroom. We've spent a lot of time in the past two weekends rearranging our two bedrooms, building a crib, and putting together a dresser. The whole apartment is in a bit of a transition with boxes in the hallway and furniture strewn about. Eventually we'll have order again, but right now it feels a bit like chaos. Pecos has spent a fair amount of time hiding out, but he seems to be fine with all of the changes and hasn't acted out at all . . . well, except for that time he tried to bite Elizabeth!

Actually, he's yawning, but he certainly looks ferocious.

3) Speaking of Pecos, today we took him out for a crash course in walking with a stroller. He did a lot better than expected and was able to walk on a loose leash next to the stroller. I'm sure we'll make him practice a few more times before Elizabeth arrives.

4) I have grown even bigger. The picture below is from when I was 28 weeks, which was last week. I can't believe that at the end of this week, I'll hit 30-weeks. The time is going by so quickly.

I'm still feeling pretty good. I've been a bit more tired than usual, and I am now taking an iron supplement that has occasional wars with my breakfast cereal, but all-in-all, I've got nothing to complain about.

For those of you not-so-baby-minded, you are in luck. Soon there will be some non-baby posts for you to read. We have trips to Berlin and Copenhagen in the next two weeks. We're taking advantage of our last few-weeks of kid-free travel.

And of course, here's Pecos looking cute on a hike last weekend.