And now for news from Berlin! Every month, I’m reporting on what we’ve been up to, both to preserve my own memories and also to keep in touch with loved ones afar.
COVID-19 Update
Germany continues to be largely locked down. It’s been a frustrating month for vaccine updates. While all our friends and family in the US have exciting news every time we talk to them, the updates we get from the German government are a bit tangled and confused. It’s obvious that politicians are trying to find a way to allow people to slowly get back to some semblance of normalcy while balancing continually-spiking case counts.
Cases started rising at the beginning of March, right as the government put kids back in schools and enacted a way for customers to make appointments at nonessential retail. Those rules were in place for a couple of weeks before cases began exceeding the threshold for keeping that structure in place. Currently, there is widespread availability of free rapid tests, and many retail locations will let in a limited amount of customers with a same-day negative rapid test.
As for vaccines, it’s slow going. Germany still doesn’t have enough supply to vaccinate the country’s population. But starting this week, doctor’s offices will be able to distribute a limited number of vaccines, with hopes of increasing the supply at the end of the month. The government is adamant that anybody who wants a vaccine will be able to get their first dose by the end of June, but current distribution rates puts our first dose sometime next April, by my math.
Regardless, we’re finding ways to keep our lives interesting!
Baking
As always, increasingly intricate cooking is filling our evenings. We celebrated Pi Day with mushroom pot pie and pumpkin pie. I also made some biscuits for a cocktail evening with a friend!
Savory, bubbly goodness. 
Claire Saffitz’s caramelized honey pumpkin pie is BOMB. 
Look at those layers!
Terrace
I mentioned in this post that we’re starting to work on our outdoor space. I’ll update more soon, but I’ve been finding ways to safely get into the hardware store to buy wood. We also bought a variety of plants from the garden center, including a cherry tree!
Social Time
Most of our socializing is digital these days. Since the beginning of all this COVID madness, a group of Seattle friends have been gathering on the first Saturday of every month to play DUI Mario Kart. March marked our first anniversary of the tradition, so we dressed up for the occasion!
Ultimately, March was a pretty quiet month, but it usually is for us. Especially for me – I have a habit of going into full hibernation for a few weeks every March, and this year was no exception. I crushed the Netflix show Anne with an ‘E’ and read the entire Anne of Green Gables book series.
But April will hopefully bring better weather and therefore, some bike adventures! Stay tuned!
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