Berlin was sunny and warm this past weekend.  65 degrees on Saturday and 70 on Sunday.  The warm weather didn’t clean the broken bottles on the streets but it filled  the parks and gave a everyone here a taste of spring.  The crocus are coming out and the bike riders seem to be traveling down the avenues with a bit more speed.  There are tons of bike riders here. They have dedicated paths on the wide streets and travel along at quite a clip.  The boys sometimes need to leap out of their way as the riders pedal and smoke and talk on their mobile phones simultaneously.

There are also tons of dogs that the Germans seem to take everywhere. On the metro, on the bus, into restaurants – everywhere, about half are leashed and the other half (mostly the larger ones) tend to roam free or follow their humans on bikes.  They seem to be well behaved for the most part. No jumping up, no unauthorized sniffing.  Every sighting makes the boys squeal with desire and repeat the mantra, “ Mom, can we have a dooooogggg?”

Blake had a great birthday.  After a AM in the Zoo on Saturday, our friend Veronika had a gathering at her house. Her birthday was the day before so they celebrated together.  Most of the cast from “Summer and Smoke” came along with a couple of Veronika’s friends.  And there were other children for the boys to play with.  Hurrah!  Cal built a fort with Anthony and Declan taught the mostly younger kids the intricacies of “Tiny Wings” (an iphone app).  They were thrilled at having peers around and a couple of play dates may come our way now that we have met.

Sunday was even warmer and we got a sitter so that we could go see the new Wim Wenders movie about Pina Bausch.  Fantastic.  Pina was a German modern dance choreographer who died last year after learning that she had cancer only 5 days before.  Her dance theatre was composed of an international dancers who stayed and worked with her for long stretches of time– some had been dancing with her company for over 25 years.   Imagine working with the same director or boss for 25 years.   It’s coming to the US in April – I imagine it will play only art houses, but it was shot in 3D and if you get a chance to see it its is really quite moving and leaves an impression.

Monday was our first German lesson. The boys and I trekked over to a small German language school and had a tutoring session that lasted about 45 minutes.  We learned how to say our names and “ I have a Knut Backpack” in German.  Cal spilled his tea and almost ruined her computer projector.  Declan liked her dog.  Hopefully she’ll have us back.

 To explain the Knut Backpack, there was a polar bear named Knut who lived in the Berlin Zoo that was world famous  He was rejected by his mother so a Berlin zookeeper raised him and therefore Knut was very friendly towards humans.  He became a celebrity and there were cute Knut pictures everywhere when he was first put on display.  Google “Knut the polar bear” if you want a little taste. Anyways Knut died a week before we got here.  And everyone at the theatre figured that we would be sad about Knut.  We’ve never heard of Knut. We have no attachment to Knut.  We care that other people care, but personally Knut means nothing to us.  “Knut is taking a dirt nap,” we joked.  Even the boys who normally love animals joined in the gallows humor about Knut.  Long live Knut.  But now Cal has a Knut Backpack.  And I admit that it is cute.  And we can say it in German. “ Ich haben eisen Knut ruksak.” So maybe Knut will grow on us now that he is gone.