RCMCT: It's not Quite Breakfast, Not Quite Lunch, and it Comes with a Slice of Melon at the End

As a good alumn of St. Almost (for you Tens, it's the St. Regis of elementary schools)I grew up with a healthy respect for the cool older girls, the ones who were secure and aware of how to undermine authority (little did 4th grade Katie know that 12 year olds are the least confident of any demographic, but REGARDLESS), so I was immediately a memeber of the Marina Fan Club. I changed her name for internet purposes, but you probbly know of her if you know me. She was a Dane in my orientation in Tuebingen some while back, and she was just cool. She was a smart "punker" girl with a lot of humor and a great attitude, and we all wanted to be her in some way. When she wouldn't be seen in town for a while, people would ask where she was, make up stories to excuse where she had been. Everyone had a Marina story, and they would all end in "she is so...wow."

So imagine my shock when she friended me on Facebook, when Marina wanted to know what I was up to! What an honor! We got to chatting; I told her I was in Berlin, and she told me that she'd lived here for quite a few years (imagine What to do in Case of Fire), and she returns often. In turn I told her of my plans to visit Copenhagen, and we'd tentatively set up a coffee. She, being so insanely busy, then changed it to brunch at her place. I was curious about it, since really only a building as cool as Pee Wee's would be worthy of her, and it didn't really disappoint. She lives in a great quarter, has a nice courtyard, and keeps a tidy if not East-Germany-Small place.

Trivia Fact: did you know that it was standard for a long time for Danish apartments to not have baths? Thus the popularity of the sauna.

She threw together an AMAZING spread for someone who didn't even have time for our visit: beer-spice break, rolls with melting chocolate, scrambled eggs. It was great. I felt bad that we just brought some sweets from an albeit fancy bakery. As we talked, it felt like we had seen each other just last week and not a year and a half ago, but I did keep learning mind-blowing things about her like she had been a semi-pro gymnast (makes sense, the girl is in shape like whoa), she too is vexed by the problems of a long distance relationship, but appreciates "Le Skype," she is almost done with her PhD, and she is still not entirely giving up on the idea of taking the state exam for being a pastor after her work is done--OH--and she can read ancient Hebrew, which she and Phil could talk about. Isn't that COOL?!!

I kept alternating between bieng a casual conversationalist (schmoozing) and being that elementary schooler, looking up to the older girl and being amazed that she would even talk to me. That girl has an amazing life story, and I'm so happy that I got to hear some of it, especially the charming but hard to understand Jutland accent.