American Thanksgiving almost forgotten / Bizarre Soviet monuments visited / Friends seen, food cooked.

November... you've been a busy month!  I'm back in German courses full-time, and Matt's been crunching hard at work.  It's not been without fun, though...  last week we had a lovely dinner with some visiting friends, remembering at the last minute that it was Thanksgiving.  I'd say the holiday was properly celebrated in an ex-pat sort of way: French champagne, Thai curry, Italian cookies, a German nightclub.

After several bottles of wine, we assembled our new couch & guest bed

Success!

Playing tour guide was a great excuse to spend a perfect Berlin Saturday: lazy brunch at Beakers, then a trip to Treptower Park's Soviet memorial to fallen soldiers of WWII, then ambling through the dusk to the re-opening of Club der Visionaire... (the only club with a floating dancefloor that I've been to), then dinner across the river and drinks at a Big Lebowski-themed bar.

Late fall in Treptower Park

An idea of the scale of this memorial

Future Album Cover

This club runs Friday-Monday continually.

The view across the channel- a delicious cafe. 

 (I love this city!)

We've been on a quest to find the best cocktail bar in Berlin, and there are plenty of contenders so far!  Perhaps a future post will detail the places we've been and a few +/- about them.  That's all for now, however, "jetzt ich muss studieren!"

The standing desk is done!

It's an ikea hack, very nicely done, and now Mattie has a custom-built desk for about 1/10th of the price of a new one!  

A walk in the Grunewald

It's my first -true- fall, and I must say I'm in love with this season.  The crisp air, the changing leaves, the fluctuating temperatures, the excuses to stay inside and cook soup... I even like the novelty of dusk at 4pm.  But truly, my favorite part is watching the trees prepare themselves for winter.

We decided to head out of the city to the nearby Grunewald (Green Forest) for a fall nature hike.  These pictures barely do the forest justice, but begin to capture the essence of autumn in a continental climate.

Teufelsberg Monitoring Station

October around the house

I know it's November now, but as we've been doing a lot of work around the house and in life in general, I thought it would be good to post some photos of the progress.  So without further ado... The Nest in the Stars!

Our lovely maple tree, (Eastern view from the balcony).

Western view from the balcony (and our bathroom skylight)

A sunny Berlin day

Tiny door!  To the guest room.  ;-)

Kitchen!

Other side of the kitchen!

Living room, with standing desk in progress.

More to come!  It's exciting to feel this place get cozier by the day.  xoxo S