Wow, so it’s been a long time, I’m sorry about that. Internet has gotten progressively worse since the start of the program. And ever since I had that odd encounter with hijacked AIM at the internet café, I’ve been wary of going down there too much. Also, Steve was here last weekend, finals this week, London last last weekend… it’s been busy.
So, I’ll start with some things that I’ve done since I last posted.
I went to the (in)famous Checkpoint Charlie with Julie awhile back. It was extremely kitschy and very pro-American. Which obviously meant I liked it. There’s the actual reconstruction (or it’s the same thing, I forget) of the checkpoint outside with a big American flag, a big sign warning us we were leaving the American Sector (why would you want to do that?) and even believe it or not, fake soldiers in like 1960s uniform from the US, the SU, and Great Britain (they might have had French ones there, but I didn’t see any when I happened to be there). The soldiers were lackluster to say the least, clearly annoyed with the lot they had been dealt as their part-time College job, but they were there, which was a nice touch. You had to pay to get your picture taken with them, but when I finally decided it was so painfully tacky and touristy to be worth 1 Euro, the American soldier when off-duty and I no longer felt it was worth it.
The House am Checkpoint Charlie was the big museum attached to it. It was mediocre (full of translation typos), but the point was there: people didn’t like Communism and did whatever they possibly could to escape. A few of my favourites: hollow out two surfboards, put someone in them on the top of your roof, and drive through; hot air balloon over the border (this worked in the 1970s with 8 people); and last but not least, armour plating basically all of your car and just driving it through the wall. This didn’t work too often, but I appreciate people’s efforts.
There was a big wall display (no, not the wall) full of information about the whole Cold War, and reading it made me realize how repetitive all of Berlin’s Cold War history monuments, museums, etc are. Sure, a lot happened, but let’s face it, there’s only so many classes and places you can visit before you just know what it is they have to say about it.
Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before or not, so I’ll just do it again. Whenever you’re around really touristy areas where they tend to congregate, you will inevitably run across the “Kosovo Refugees.” These are usually women and children who will go up to you and say “speak English?” If you make the mistake of thinking the little boy in the Holocaust memorial actually just needs your help, and you say yes, you will be handed a piece of paper explaining how he was born in Kosovo and is now a refugee and English speaking people (namely, Americans and British) had their hand in his country’s demise (why don’t they ask Serbs?) and how you need to give them money. They are everywhere. I have been asked at least 14 times. It’s gotten to a point where they come up to me when I’m clearly speaking English with someone and ask and I said “no, I don’t” with my American accent. Then they say “speak Deutsch?” And I reply “nein.” If they really push after this about me clearly speaking one of those languages, I give some Spanish reply. This tactic works well.
Berlin seems to have a lot of people constantly asking for your charity and no one seems to mind this. On the subway, you will be regularly confronted with people giving you some spiel about why you need to buy their newspaper and who it helps, etc etc. There’s lots of different instances of things like these, and I have to wonder how profitable such ventures are. People are so inundated here with helping random people that I have to imagine they get tired of it and probably have some tight purse strings. But I don’t know, they keep doing it, so perhaps Berliners are just generous people (although I’ve never seen anyone give money).
Anyway, real issues. I went to Weimar, known to some as the home of Goethe and Schiller, others as the home of the Weimar Republic. And it was like any other small town in Europe. Surprise surprise. They’re all starting to blend together. We did see the Bauhaus campus (no, not the band, the architectural movement!), the building where they had Parliament, Goethe’s house, and all that good stuff. Weimar was quite pretty, as you can see from my pictures, and Corina and I even got some nice cheap and good pizza for lunch. Weimar wins for least expensive place in Germany so far. (I think Manchester wins overall) As I’m not a huge Goethe buff, and there’s not a whole lot of history involved in the Weimar Republic (you know, all 14 years of it), it was ok. It was a fun day out, and the weather was nice. On the bus back, Alfredo Franco (one of the professors) got a little microphone happy and decided to have a music concert (he’s really into Bauhaus…. Like really into Bauhaus, and I think seeing it all day long excited him in ways I’d rather not write about). Him and Professor Donahue bought a bunch of desserts (likes cookies and things) and told people if they sung hits from the ‘70s they would get some. I didn’t have the balls to go by myself (I am one of the worst singers I know), but Corina went with me and we did a “we don’t really know the lyrics” version of I got you Babe. That was good, and we got the cookies. Other people did funny stuff. This has nothing to do with Germany at all, but it was enjoyable.
OK, now, the good stuff. Deutschland Fussball. Yes, so no idea who’s been following, but the Euro Cup 2008 is on now. And of course, Germany is in it. Not only is Germany in it, they are about to go to the final. The first game they played was against Poland and it was big. I don’t know if you’re aware, but for reasons I can’t entirely understand (note: oozing sarcasm), Germany and Poland don’t particularly get along. When they play each other, shit goes down. Before they even played, there was a Polish newspaper that had on the front cover a picture of the Polish coach holding the Captain (Ballack) and Coach’s (Löw) heads on a platter. Nice. He later apologized. This was probably tinder for the fights that broke out between the two fan groups in Austria (Where the cup is being help) the night before the game. But Germany crushed them. We went to a fan set up with lots of benches and TVs and lots of fans in Alexanderplatz (see pictures) and it was definitely good fun.
As you may remember from the pictures, there is a picture of me drinking on the U-bahn. This is a very strange phenomenon to me. It was allowed in London while I lived there (thanks to new mayor Boris Johnson, that is no longer the case), but I never did it. Here is just seems more natural. If you’re en route to something like a Football game (note, I almost never call it soccer anymore, c’mon America, let’s get on that party train… we’re unique enough as it is), you just have to. So yeah, just an aside.
Anyway, Germany won that one and I happened to miss the game they played against Croatia (which they lost) because I was in London and got the times wrong, but oh well. Anyway, they then played again Portugal, which I don’t think many people really expected them to win. We went to a bar / concert hall type place (sort of like TT the Bears if you have any idea what I’m talking about…, only bigger) where many a German fan congregated. This was kind of annoying because they perhaps packed too many people in and everyone not sitting in chairs insisted on sitting on the floor and if you stood up because you couldn’t see beyond the chairs in front of you, you got roundly yelled at by angry German fans. They are dedicated, but apparently lazy. This just got annoying so we left at half time. But it was an amazing game. The score was 3-2, but the playing did not reflect that at all. The two Portugal goals were lucky, Germany was phenomenal. They totally deserved to win. Sorry Ronaldo, you may be beautiful, but Man Utd won the Champions league, you don’t also get to win the Euro Cup. Now go, go deflect to Real Madrid.
So, this meant Germany was in the semi-finals. And better yet, they were playing against Turkey. Turkey has had some amazing come from behind wins and basically shocked all of Europe by getting so far. Are Turks even European? That’s a discussion left for the EU, but believe me people have been wondering. More importantly, Germany has the highest population of Turkish people outside of Turkey. And more importantly, I live essentially in a neighbourhood called Kreuzburg, which has the highest population of Turks in Berlin which has the highest population of Turks in Germany. Basically, you can see Doner Kebap and Baklava everywhere you go. Everyone was expecting shit to go down last night when they played. Fortunately for me, it did not. It was a really good game, 3-2 (Which left everyone, even the losers, which a sense of Pride, they did not get hosed) and I got uber pro-Germany. Watched it here because I didn’t want to get caught up in anything out and about and we had an excellent time. Pictures to follow soon. You can be sure I will be watching the final (against either Russia or Spain, that is to be decided tonight) on Sunday from the good old USA.
I just wanted to share a random and gross observation. On the day I went to London, my milk expired. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I was just like, ohh, I’ll deal with it later. Then when I got back, knowing what awaited me, I just let it go a little longer. When I finally did deal with it, it was chunky. But, it didn’t smell. Yes, apparently, rotten German milk does not smell bad. They are very clearly onto something here!
Anyway…
Weird story. Yesterday Julie and I were on our way to class and went to the U-bahn stop as normal at like 8:15 and we were walking down the station, and halfway down between the two sets of stairs where there is like a bigger open space, we saw someone sitting in the corner doing drugs. And not just smoking a joint, like, getting his syringe ready. This was one of the least pleasant things I’ve encountered thus far in Berlin. I can’t be entirely sure, I’m fairly ignorant about that kind of stuff, but I think I’ve seen enough Requiem for a Dream (not to mention Trainspotting) to know what the hell was going on. Poor Julie didn’t, and I had to break the bad news to her. Perhaps this is something you would encounter in any city, I have just been lucky so far as to not; however, I feel like it’s probably less surprising in Berlin than places like London and Boston.
Onto something less serious. There is something different about bottles here. Furthermore, soda bottles are made of much harder plastic than in other places. I do not understand that. And pepsi is even harder to find. But there’s something about bottle caps I just can’t stand. You know when you open a bottle cap and there’s that little ring that’s left behind on the bottle? Well, in Germany, on every single bottle, the ring stays connected to the cap. Ok, that’s fine. But, the whole thing doesn’t stay connected, only by like 2 little sections. So you end up with these semi circles of plastic peeling off the bottle cap and being a weird nuisance in general. And you can’t peel them off, they are stuck fast. Anyway, you notice weird differences when you live away long enough. They no longer become novel and turn into “but, why?”
I usually talk about finances, so I’ll do a little bit of that now. I’ve definitely spent less here than I think I might have in 6 weeks of London. Food is more expensive here (I love you Sainsburys), but everything else is cheaper. Especially laundry. And I would like to note that I have become so economical I actually took only dirty clothes to London and washed them for free at Steve’s. Brilliant. I made sure to take no dirty clothes home and what was still dirty he did for me and brought to me later (awwww!) I still steal toilet paper and make sure to save all my bottles to take them back to the deposit place. I eat more noodles now and make my own iced tea in lieu of Pepsi or buying anything. Gummy bears are mad cheap, so don’t worry about that. I also go out wayyyy less here (I’ve only been out clubbing once since I’ve been here.. how lame is that?) which saves tons of money. Anyway, Berlin in general is cheaper and of course the exchange rate is getting better* so overall I’m doing alright. I also survive on a lot less here ( I don’t even have a microwave or toaster) probably because of the 6 weeks mentality so it’s nice to know I can do it.
*I would like to take this opportunity to express my frustrations with the fact that the dollar has just now started to get stronger again against the Euro. Every time I see the stock reports on the little news stuff they play on the U-Bahn TVs, I see that the Euro is sinking. Of course. I leave Saturday. How much does that suck. Unbelievable.
I never used to like carbonated water. I never saw the point and firmly believed it tasted differently and not as good. Even in London, where carbonated water is far more prevalent than the US, it still did not appeal to me. Something has happened to me here. I can’t get enough of the stuff anymore. I love carbonated water. I will miss it intensely when I go back. It’s even started to replace gummy bears as the thing I treat myself with. I cannot explain why this is happening. It’s just so delightfully refreshing. How can you go wrong with water with bubbles? You can’t.
I bought strawberries the other day from the stand in Alexanderplatz that I walk by every single day with the best smelling strawberries ever of all time and they were the best tasting strawberries ever of all time as well. They grow them nearby and they are just, oh, soo good. I wish I could share them with you all. Take my word for it. Wow.
We went out to lunch the other day for German class on the last day (with the intention of having it be speaking and ordering in German, but that degraded quickly) and as we sat in the restaurant I heard a Wolfsheim song come on. I was of course the only one who knew it and since you probably haven’t heard of them, the first time I heard them was a Goth club (although, they are more EBM) and it was neat to hear them in their home country. It’s sort of nice to be in a country where alternative music is more accepted and people have heard of it. I’ve discovered a lot of cool music here (thanks mostly to MTV being one of the only semi-English channels) and I will take it to America to share. Anyway, it was just a neat “oh right, I’m in the country where some of my favourite groups are from!” moment.
I’ll split the entries now to make this not entirely monotonous.
London adventures next!
-Kate
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