The weather ...

in Berlin has been driving me crazy. This is what it looked like after the 1st snow, which was about a month ago...


















And this is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago after the 3rd snow. I was returning from Tape, where I saw Miss Kittin, at 4.30 a.m. She was good but not great...









Basically, the sun comes up sometime after 9 a.m., but only weakly, through a thick and almost permanent layer of clouds. It starts getting dark again sometime after 3 and is pitch-black by 4.30. The temperature has been hovering in the 30s most of the time. The leaves have been totally off the trees since early November.

Much of November I was in transit or ill. A week in Baltimore for a conference, during which time I caught a really nasty cold, then back here. Then to Madrid last week! (more on that soon).

Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, spoke at the Academy on the day of my return from the U.S.

















And here is a great picture of fellow Fellows Gary Shteyngart, Liz Goodstein, and me in the U-Bahn, taken by Julia during her visit here!