Thanksgiving was a success. My roommate Dan bought a loaf of bread the size of a small child - and we have pictures to prove it. Vanessa made a lovingly crafted green bean casserole, and even made the crispy fried onions herself because we couldn't find any at the store. Jörge, our German roommate, bought cheesecake and wine, and Dan actually bought a tiny turkey about the size of one-and-a-half chickens. Which was a good size, actually, because I came home at 4:30 and found him trying to thaw it in the oven in order to pull the liver and neck out of its, um... opening. I pointed out that warm water would probably work a lot more efficiently; and, although Dan is the argumentative type, he finally agreed to try it. We got the poor bird de-gutted and in the oven by 5:00, and it was actually done by 7:30, which gave me enough time to finish the apple pie. I have pictures of the kitchen during all this preparation. It's hilarious - food, flour, and utensils scattered everywhere, and at one point we had the turkey thawing in a pan of water on a speaker in the hallway, because we ran out of counter space.

Our oven, by the way, doesn't have a thermostat. You can adjust the heat, but you pretty much just have to stick your hand in there and say "Hmmm, that feels about right" and then check on it every five minutes to make sure whatever you're cooking hasn't started turning black. Taking that in to consideration, I didn't actually make apple pie. I just cooked the apples in a pan with all the usual seasonings, put them in a pie pan, and added a streusal topping. It actually held together better than some double-crusted apple pies I've had. I was pretty happy with it.

We hauled all the food and most of our dishes and silverware down to our friend Marcus' art gallery down the street. He had the place set up with the food layed out in the windows, and a big table in the center. Of course, being an art gallery, there are large windows looking in from the street, so we got some curious stares from passers-by. There was also a mysterious chocolate cake that was left at the doorstep. We didn't find out until the next day that a friend, who was supposed to have dinner with us, had dropped it off with the (unfulfilled) intent of coming back later. There were about 12 or 15 people there for dinner. Three or four Germans, three Danes, and several Americans. The Danish kids brought some kind of boiled, carmelized baby potatoes that are a traditional Danish Christmas dish. They were sort of weird at first, but I went back for seconds. I can't say the same for the yams. I'm not sure who brought them, but I would have killed for five minutes alone with those yams, a bag of marshmallows, a box of brown sugar, and an oven.

In other news, I have a camera again. I picked up a used Nikon film camera with a decent lens, and I'm just shooting black and white. There's a photo store in town that does darkroom rentals, so I just plan to go there to make prints.

My latest pet peeve about Berlin: You can't buy things on the weekend. All the stores (seriously - all of them except the ones in the train stations) are closed all day on Sundays, and most close at 3 or 4 on Saturday. Some close earlier than that. About 3:30 this afternoon I remembered that I need to buy note cards to make flash cards with, and now I can't, because there just isn't anywhere to buy them. Grrr.