daily life in Berlin

26 June, 2006

Hallo all,
Berlin is an amazing city. I have been here for three weeks now about I have only one left. I am living in Prenzlauerberg in the former East Berlin. My apartment is about a 30 minute walk or a 15 minute tram ride from the Goethe Institut where I take my German class. Being the good New Yorker that I am, I generally walk. I first pass an ashtanga yoga studio (one of the two studios I've tried here. Yoga auf Deutsch. Whoa. Thank goodness the sankskirt names don't change!) I pass a pizza joint where the clock always reads 12:00. I pass a large pork butcher shop that has lots of very cute piggy banks in the window. It seems a little bit morbid
to me... I pass lots of BioMärkte/Organic markets. I pass tons of German people riding their bicycles. All without helmets. I guess German people don't worry about smashing their brains out on the sidewalk. I try my best to wait for the jolly little traffic light man to turn green before I cross the street. It's hard. New York conditioning. But some Berliners cross when it's red too. Really they do!
I also pass tons of people with little kids. I found this very odd at first. One can hardly have a conversation about Germany without talking about the birthrate crisis. But apparently in Prenzlauerberg, and only Prenzlauerberg, there is actually a baby boom. And auf gutes Deutsch, in case you were wondering, that's "Babyboom". As I continued to walk I pass White Trash Fast Food. I saw this place last summer, when it was in a different location, and had no clue what it was. Apparently it's a dance club. And apparently it's very trendy and very popular. Not really my scene though, you know? I am curious as what the German interpretation of "white trash" is though... As I near the Goethe Institut I enter Mitte, Berlin's very young, post-wall, new heart. There are shops, galleries and pleasant courtyards around ever corner in Mitte.
Often in the morning before my class I take part in the Goethe Intitut arranged culture program events. Lots of interesting walking tours (along the former the wall site, through the galleries in Mitte, or through Prenzlauerberg for example). There are also museum visits and lectures. Alles auf Deutsch of course. And at this point I understand pretty much everything which is really a good feeling. I'd like to do even more of the events but I have a lot of homework. And I'm sure no one will be surprised that I have a hard time not doing all of my homework, despite all the other amazing things to do around here.
Speaking of homework, my class is going well. I was intimidated the first few days but I think the level is actually just right. My teacher is quite a character. Up until a few day ago I could have written that she has exactly two colors in her wardrobe: black and red. This includes makeup, very red lipstick and very black eyeliner. And hats. Lots of red hats. But this week she wore some blue! Egad! She speaks realllllly fast and makes no accommodations vocabulary-wise for us. All of this is very good as it forces you to figure out how to function in native level German. And she is an amazing teacher, despite the fact that we seem to be the only class with a substantial amount of homework. She gives us projects that get us out in the city to explore. We had a walking our/scavenger hunt in groups through Mitte. Mine included finding a absinthe shop, a few very cool cafes, several galleries and some thought provoking memorials. She also gave us a project where we had to go out to cafes around Berlin and write reviews. And a project where we had to buy all sorts of different newspapers and then report back about what sort of papers they were, how hard to read, etc. In class we read tons of very current and very interesting articles from Die Zeit and other not easy German papers. We also have some incredibly difficult grammar exercises.
For example:
Nominalize as many verbs as possible in the following sentence:
"The most important reason why a foreign word would be borrowed lies in understanding in the area where the newly named thing is going to take over."
Ummm yeah. It's hard even in English. But thankfully it's hard for everyone in the class, not just for me.
My classmates are by and large quite enjoyable people. There are far too many of us Americans here, but then I'm part of that problem. We'll not talk much about how I'm becoming good friends with two New Yorkers. One of whom is a grad student at Columbia. Opps. Well I didn't know! We were speaking German! It took a while to figure it out. There is also a woman from Nebraska in my class. And Lincoln at that. But there are also people from Norway and Japan and Spain and Switzerland and Canada and Korea. After class we often all go out to eat. And to drink. I've been drinking a lot of beer here. But hey, I'm in Germany. And there's this little thing going on that you might have heard of. The World Cup!
Being in Germany for the World Cup is like nothing I've ever experienced. Even Lincoln on Cornhusker gameday doesn't come close. All of Berlin has Fußballfieber (football/soccer fever). People walk around wearing flags as capes, decked out in very silly hats, faces painted, flags flying from car windows, grown men wearing soccer ball costumes, well you get the picture. And when Germany scores a goal you know, whether or not you yourself can see a TV. The city explodes with yelling and horn honking. And postgame it gets even louder. It's pretty nuts. This is all quite new for Germany, or so I've been told and so I've read
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/world/europe/18germany.html?ex=1308283200&en=c077835a3e53b9ad&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)
There are tons of fans from other countries here too. One night a group of quite drunk middle aged Swedes decided they wanted to have a conversation with my friend and I on the tram. That was interesting. One night a group of us were watching in a very pleasant Biergarten and when Germany won the restaurant bought everyone in the place a round!

So then a final question, eh? How's my German. Well, getting better I think. I understand most everything. People don't answer me in English anymore. I can say what I want to say and people understand me. I just make a looooot of grammatical errors. Stupid prepositions. They make no sense!
As this has gotten awfully long I will stop writing. I hope the summer is going well for all!
Viele Grüße,
Molly