Friday night Mark and I went to hear the Berlin Symphony Orchestra play at the Konzerthalle. Fittingly they played Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony. (Though even better would have been the Hebrides Overture, inspired by Fingal’s Cave.) We sat in the choir loft and it was a standard nice symphony concert. The atmosphere on the square outside was nice at the end of the concert, with the Deutscher Dom and Französischer Dom on either side of the concert hall. The lights were soft and the air was nice, though very much like fall. When I was on this square a few days before, buying the concert tickets and having a snack at one of the cafés I saw a couple of musicians ride by on their bicycles. One of them had their cello strapped to their back. It would have made a great photo. And it made me think of Susan Kopulos!
Speaking of bicycles, I was feeling particularly European on Saturday. We rode bikes to get to our various destinations. I was riding one of those stereotypical rickety blackframe bikes on the cobblestones of Berlin. Very cool. Saturday was a visiting day. Mark’s friend Andreas had invited us over for lunch. He’d made a nice Saturday kind of a Borschtsuppe. It was nice to meet him after having spoken to him on the phone a few times still at home in St Catharines. And then in the evening we went to a Polterabend/Henna party.
Polterabend is a German traditional eve before the wedding party, though many I think celebrate it the week before these days in order to be in top form on the wedding day. Friends bring china to break and make a racket with. This represents luck and was once believed to protect the couple from evil. The couple cleans the mess, cooperating and working together. The henna party is the Turkish pre-wedding party where the bride has her hand painted with henna and according to tradition they sing sad songs causing the bride and her family to cry because she’s leaving them. The evening was a nice combination of the two. It was interesting to watch. I've been enjoying spending time with Mark. It's a good balance. I spend good chunks of the day out and about while he's working but we also have good chunks of time together often with good discussions, usually around religion or social problems or cultural differences. It's very interesting. I've enjoyed meeting his friends too. Their eccentricities and special quirks can be endearing and have provided some fun and laughter for all. On Monday evening we were invited to his friend Murat's place. Andrew ended up coming too after having taken me to the train station to buy a ticket for the weekend. It was a very interesting evening. Much discussion about God and religion and theology. Particularly interesting I found that there were issues that the three Muslims were at odds with, or where they disagreed with one another. Mark and Murat are both of the Sufi tradition whereas Andrew is not and they didn't always agree. There are times in fact when two Muslims and a Christian were agreeing with each other and high fiving in fact and the third Muslim was not. Interesting I find too that the root of the differences amongst them partly seems to stem from which 'approximate' translation of the Koran they read. I was impressed with Mark and later Murat too defending me as a woman of faith, warning Andrew to be careful of the way in which he expressed himself so as to still show me respect. Murat gave me one of his prayer bead chains that he made himself (similar to a rosary). I was very touched. I think he was impressed that when the three men said their prayers and he offered for me to check my email during that time, I said I'd say my prayers too. It was a very holy evening.
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