Tier = Animal

Kangaroo.  It tastes like steak.  I know this because they serve kangaroo at an Australian restaurant in the city, and I recently ordered it.  The first time, I had kangaroo on a Caesar salad, and the next time, I had a kangaroo wrap.  They also serve crocodile.  I might try it sometime, but I'm not sure.

Bulldogs.  Are headed to the Sweet Sixteen!!  Go BUTLER!!  :D

Polar Bear.  Ohh, Knut.  Berlin Zoo's famous polar bear.  Apparently they're supposed to live until, like, 30-something, but he died yesterday at the age of 4.  I never even met him.

Mice.  Can apparently haul a lot for their size.  I saw a piece of bread moving along the u-bahn tracks today, and peered closer to find a mouse of similar proportion clutching it.

I'm told that last winter, the sun was so scarce in Berlin that the news TV's in the U-bahn kept a count of Days Without Sun.  But for the past I-don't-know-how-many-days, we've been amazed to see the sun show up.

Even though temperatures have been mostly below freezing, I still catch glimpses of spring every once in a while.  I'm looking out my living room window, and I see the bright, sunlit apartment building across, a patch of cloudless, light-blue sky, and the branches of a tree that I think has begun to bud.  Sidewalks are slowly filling with people, dogs and their owners spend more time outside, and one of my teammates has a box full of flowers poking their green stems out of the soil.

My favorite season is Christmas, I think that snow is magnificent, and there's nothing better than a fire in the fireplace.  BUT, I really love spring.  And I can't wait for summer.  Hooray.  :D