FOOOD

(Thankfully) I have yet to eat traditional German food! The city is so international that you could find whatever your heart desires. It is harder to find food without beef, pork, or ham (chicken is not as widespread as in NY) though and I have been resorting to Asian food (sushi, thai, vietnamese) and falafel (there are a ton of Turkish people here). So far I have had delicious food and for pretty cheap too. Falafel would run you about 2 euro (from a legit restaurant, not a street vendor) and the average is probably around 6 euro. 

I CANNOT FIND GOOD COFFEE HERE AND ITS PROBABLY WHAT I MISS MOST ABOUT THE STATES (second to all of you reading this of course). Even Starbucks is different.  They simply do not have coffee like us. And they use so much milk! I have resorted to espressos, which aren't bad...but I look forward to days of Venti Americanos and large DD iced coffee. 

In order to save some money, I have been food shopping and I am hoping to learn how to cook while here. Let me just say that food shopping in a country with a language foreign to your own (and when you don't even really know how to food shop in the first place) is one of the most daunting and overwhelming things I have ever done. I won't bore you with all the details but just to give you some understanding of my struggle....no exaggeration, I stood in the dairy isle looking at all the Yogurt for 20 minutes. That was the first time I went....I finally got enough courage to go back yesterday, but I went in with a list and all went well (it still took forever). A few of my friends also offered to teach me how to cook so thursday nights have become "wine and dine" nights which has been a lot of fun. 

Interesting side note: Berlin and Germany at large, is very conscious of the environment. At the grocer, you have to be prepared with your own bags . There are also no dryers (I'm hang drying clothes!), and they use minimal lighting.