Finally a phone

Knut, the polar bear and the Berlin Zoo--and the Berlinale Zooplast theater--note the tchotchke shop next door, and the fab red carpet!

While walking through the lion house, actually while watching a tiger threaten everyone with the side of a cow hanging out of his mouth, my phone finally rang! It was Matt who had worked the cellular company over and it looks like I am no longer off the communication grid! We finally connected with Uncle David and may actually see him here in this country (although I have been looking very closely at all the men in Potsdamer Platz seeking a familiar face--Matt always runs into people he knows in completely odd places) After going to a Berlinale Soiree until the wee hours last night, I slept in this morning. What a party--and let me tell you that you just have not LIVED until you experience a Goulash Canon with a swarthy lad atop the cart scooping hot goulash into your bowl! Remember to eat it with a big chunk of German bread. And its good with Berliner beer. So off I went to a concert at the Philharmonie. They deserve their reputation, I tell you. It was a free concert in the foyer of the supermod hall. The audience, including a class full of little kids, was the best behaved, most polite group I have yet experienced at a free show. Despite the fact that it was cold and gray, I decided to head to the zoo. It has more species than any other zoo, and it started because the Prussian Emperor got talked into giving his personal pet collection to a public zoo. It has Knut, a polar bear born here and quite a celebrity. They also have a panda celebrity, but my favorites were the Bonobo monkeys. The most surprising thing was watching one of the keepers feed a gorilla --he stood right next to her and talked and it was like they were intimate old friends. Then I got a call from my host, who is a guest relations specialist for the festival. Apparently Mayas host sister is sick and they needed me to take over. My incredible host extended her hospitality to my girl, so I swooped in to pick her up from her movie assignment and take her for dinner and retail therapy. We had fish and chips which Maya had been craving because she walked by the stand outside the cinema each day, found some gifts and a toothbrush for her at the 1€ Store--just like our dollar stores!! then headed to the largest department store in Germany where we reveled in the largest selection of German toys we have ever experienced!!! all our favorite brands: Haba and Schliech and Kathe Kruse and Gotz and Erna Meyer and Steiff. We discovered new brands we could love. We then wandered their food halls. Nowhere else in the world could you find so many kinds of mustard--but they had everything under the sun and they don't let you take pictures, so just take my word for it that it was a visual feast. Now home and to bed at a reasonable hour, with my firstborn tucked snug in the futon beside me, passed out already.....