I know I got a bad reputation, walking-round-always-mad reputation

During the days - after coming back from uni - I blast up the radio only to find the same songs playing over and over and over again. What's worse - I like it. Sigmas remix of Bound follows me to the bathroom and when I'm done with business I dance down the hallway accompanied by Robin Schulz's Prayer in C. The dishes are done with the soundtrack of Calvin Harris' Blame, then they turn it down a notch - enters does Sam Smith with his Stay with me. 'Round about here they mix the list up with some classics like Eminem's Slim Shady or Backstreet Black's No Diggity and as I do my about-to-crawl-into-bed-routine All about the bass comes sprinting through the speakers and my body starts to shake. Of course it all culminates into Shake it off with Taylor Swift. Then it ends abruptly with me switching the damn radio off. 

Last weekend I happened to meet up with my dear, oh-so-lovely ms. N in the presence of some dumplings and an organic beer. Her former job offered an excursion to Berlin with them and she gladly accepted, leaving the cold north behind. It was as if we had never parted on that warm summer day more than two years ago. After the lunch we strolled down Schönhauser Alle and I got to meet her cousin who is an artist based here in Berlin - own shop and all. 

All in all, the week has been good on me. I´ve started to talk German, and with started I mean I sometimes order my coffee in German. Better than nothing. 

No sugar for the monkey

Spent the night with a fun gang of people at Twinpigs Neukölln - where masters of drink making have their operation.

Yikes. We sat from 10am until 7pm listening to the presentations of all the courses, studios and projects that are available to choose from this Winter semester… all oral presentations… all in German… nothing to be found on the grand Internet or on a trustworthy piece of paper... oh how my head hurt at the end of that day. The key for us students from abroad is to find courses, seminars, projects that fit the programs back home, we also need to have the same amount of credits at the end of the term as we would have had back home. Here in Berlin though, they do not give a rats as about that and all their courses and seminars have way less amount of credits that we are used to. This all means that we, to get enough credit, need to take a lot, lot of different courses. After a bit of smooth talking though they were more than willing to raise the amount of credits given in each course. So I guess we are saved. We had to choose the studios we intended to be in right there and then after hearing the presentations - not much to analyse or proscratinate, just pick the one that seemed right enough. We had to rank three studios that we could consider being involved in. I got my second choice - which was very disappointing. I mean not getting my first choice - epic fail. At least at first. My second choice of studio was not and is not a bad choice - far from it. I really think I'll have fun there, in Mr. Sauerbruchs studio. This term we are going to have cooking classes together. While the other studio is off to France for a week…

That day I also got my Mensa card and ate at the Mensa student cafeteria for the first time - awful food, but nice place. It was the first time I see anything automized in this country. You actually received a card there on site, which you then filled with money at an ATM-sort-of-thing. Then when you picked your food, choosing from a vast range of different things, you get up to the cashier and place your card on a thingy, without the need of speaking or greeting anyone, and you food is payed. Voila! 

Took the U-bahn home after that. Ahh this U-bahn. Filled with people. Live music for one stop. Street musicians always hop on for one stop. Always performing the same songs - First Hit the road Jack - which I would like to say to them as well and then Ai se eu te pego… although I am fed up, I see how the tourists immediately shine up when the see the show and a large smile awakens in their faces. At least they think its nice.

Who peed in your cornflakes?

The whole thing with the School of Arts being unstructured and 'free', with a do-it-yourself attitude, is making everything a lot, lot more difficult than we anticipated. On our first information meeting, where we were supposed to get an introduction to the Architecture department, we were told - after no questions of ours were being answered - that it kind of was our own fault choosing the school… words delivered by an engineer. Bravo. I guess we will figure it all out eventually. Next week the school starts of with a Projektbörse, a word I hadn't heard before, where we will be given an introduction to all courses and projects we can choose from and then we have to chose them. So stay tuned.

I wrapped up the day by meeting up with L at Alexanderplatz. We took the U5 to Astra Kulturhaus in Friedrichshain where First Aid Kit was booked to share some tunes with us. It was a cozy night with great people and great atmosphere. There were songs being played unplugged and there were singalongs. There were jokes delivered, about cheese(!!), and a song by Jack White being sung. The girls played both old and new stuff and it was all done with a golden backdrop and sparkling light. 

the moose's name was Ron.

On the day of registration I met S, since then we have been following each other around. As students of the University of the Arts we were welcomed by the head master, on a wednesday morning, in the Georg Neumann Saal at the Jazz Institute where all newcomers were gathered. And as I sat there with musicians, artists, designers and dancers beside me and the grand piano on the stage in front of me I felt excitement and great expectations. This would be fun. 

After the welcoming, our herd of students walked down to the Spree and positioned ourselves on a boat that would take us around the city. With a beer in our hand and a view of Berlin in front of us, we were kept busy for the next 2.5 hours. We ended up in Kreuzberg. S took me and a bunch of others to a local pizza bar that serves heavenly pizza slices - very thin dough combined with unusual toppings just as they do in Toronto where the owner once worked, hence the name Ron Telesky Canadian Pizza. The place is guarded by a giant moose head, bigger than the joint itself. There they got some interesting pizza on offer, like the Couchpotato with sweet potato, rosemary and cheddar, the Wayne Gretzky with caramelized garlic and Herman the German with sauerkraut, potatoes and kasseler. And then you may add additional topping like hot maple sauce, sweet mustard (which was yum) and homemade tabasco sauce. Great stuff! After that, as the rain entered into our lives, I headed back home. 

suicide sue and morning blues

We tried and tried and finally made it - to get a seat at Suicide Sue. One great coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice later (and a promise to be back) we made our way to the Jewish Cemetery where we walked around among ivy and fallen headstones. 

Later that evening we were invited to some friends house for pizza and wine. They were all German and as I nodded along, playing a master of pretender, occasionally throwing in a Ah Mann!, a Doch! and Genau!, they had a fruitful and rewarding conversation. It was nice though, listening to chatters in German. And actually, I did understand, a lot.  

I´m walking, I´m walking, I´m walking

I spend the upcoming days walking around alone, strolling around alone, sauntering around alone. I am alone, in Berlin. L is working late hours and school has not yet started, so the sum of it all is me being alone. Oh the irony. I have always told myself - one day, one day when I have the time I will spend my days writing, writing, writing. Now that I do have time I instead acquaintance myself with Lidl, Penny and the shopping mall down the road - ploughing through them for food and drinks. Summer is in town so people are horizontally scattered in parks, including myself - until a strange dude places himself way to close to me, waiting. I am pretty sure he wants to rob me of something. But since I do not have something, he stands up and continues down the road.  

As I walk towards Wedding for the very first time, thinking it is just a working-class neighborhood  (it was known as "Red Wedding" for its largely Communist working class after the World War I) I suddenly pass the famous Mauerpark - apparently not at all far from where I live - and, further down the road, I stumble upon the wall(!!) The Wall! There it is - die Mauer - and I just happened to pass by it. I have been totally obsessed with the Berlin Wall since 1961 (minus some 35 years) and was mentally preparing myself for a day long excursion of me finally meeting it. And then I just head down the road, without a map, and am suddenly confronted with this concrete wall, DDR and its history. Bernauer Strasse is on my way to Wedding. When the Berlin Wall was being built in August 1961, many who lived in these buildings frantically jumped from their windows before the buildings could be evacuated and their windows bricked up. 

Anyways, me and L end the weekend in Neukölln with a view of a sun soaked Berlin sitting on the rooftop of a parking house which houses the bar Klunkerkranich. 

I got racks, racks, racks, 'til the ATM jam

As soon as L picks me up at Alexanderplatz, on the day of arrival, and we step out onto the buzzing streets of Berlin I am greeted by a band playing under the viaduct. I had left Schönefeld airport dragging along 30 kg of overstuffed suitcases with sweat pouring down on me. No signs to be seen. No information on which platform the damn express train would depart from. And no connection with L. So when I arrive to Alexanderplatz, exhausted, disorientated and thirsty, the music from underneath the viaduct is well needed. The first evening in Berlin is spent in an Asian joint just around the corner from the apartment where beers mixed with Sprite are drunk and big plates of tofu are being eaten. Ah Berlin!

Since school is not on the agenda for another week or two, the first days of me being in the new capitol I stroll around Prenzlauer Berg, walk down Kastanienalee and Schönhauser Allee, end up in Mitte, pay visits to shops, find myself in front of the Berliner Dom and continue around the Museuminsel. As night falls, music from the street musicians fill the air and peoples chatter is all around me as I made the long walk back home.  

Then the sun went up again and it was once again out and about. This time L was with me and we took the U-Bahn to Charlottenburg, watched the city marathon as we flew passed high above, walked to Kurfürstendamm (Ku'damm) with ice cream cones in our hands and enjoyed the tall green trees in Tiergarten. As tiredness and fatigue took a hold on us we headed for Clärchens Ballhaus and ate Käsespätzle with Röstzwiebeln and Apfelkompott and got a taxi to drive us back home to Prenzlauer Berg.

Facts about Berlin. The taxi is super cheap - it cost us almost the same as a U-Bahn ticket to get home from Mitte.  

The whole thing with not paying with card. It is amazing how cash is king in this country. They actually charge you extra if you want to pay with card - in the taxi and at the restaurant. So befriend an ATM, treat it well and all will be good.

I could move to a small town and say my name was stacy

And so I arrive in Berlin. 

A year ago I would never have guessed that I would be able to scribble down Berlin as my hometown. A year ago I would never have thought these streets would lead me to the red door with the golden door knob that needs a pull whilst turning the key and then a push to open and reveal the white painted apartment which I now call home. I wake up staring through the window at the ivy coated wall, listening to the floor boards as they moan when L pass by the room. When people ask for my address, I now say Prenzlauer Berg - Berlin.

Walking around, hours after hours, was my main occupation during those first days upon arriving to the capital of Germany.