amerikanerin in berlin

May 1 is a holiday in Germany, International Workers' Day--or in German, one of its names is Kampftag der Arbeiterbewegung, which roughly translates to "struggle day of the workers' movement". The latter is rather more indicative of the general feeling surrounding the holiday; there's been plenty of violence in the history of May 1 protests and I gather that now it's considered overall a good excuse for a little rabble rousing, particularly for punks and skinheads who specialize in that sort of thing.

Although the main organized demonstrations are today in Kreuzberg, the mischievousness started last night in Friedrichshain. So I went with Jeremy and Mario and the other Mario to see if any hooligans were setting fire to any cars or anything. We met up at Mauerpark (a park in memorial of the Berlin Wall), but there everybody was just playing soccer and holding impromptu concerts with guitars and bongo drums. The only hooligans around were the ones I came with. Mario said there's usually a bonfire, so he and Jeremy and the other Mario set out to start one. I swear, I was only there to take pictures. I managed to document the night's excitement with some of my most mediocre photography yet:

Since the police were patrolling the streets literally by the hundreds, it wasn't long before they caught wise to the plot. Two of them in green came over to talk to the Marios, and then four in black stopped by to see what was going on, and then three more in green came over to help the first ones. All in full anti-riot gear, all going out of their way to be more friendly and polite than any police I have ever, in my very limited experience, dealt with. Jeremy was taking pictures with a Polaroid camera, and the biggest policeman was giving him photographic advice.

After the Marios had been officially "advised" against starting any more fires, we decided to go back closer to Jeremy and Mario's apartment--to Boxhagener Platz, affectionately known as "the Boxi"--where more serious stuff was supposedly going down, hoping to see somebody blow something up or whatever. The closer we got, the more cops there were, and crowds of people in increasing density and belligerence. There were floodlights; there was a loudspeaker; there were water cannons at the ready. The police vans were literally lining the streets, nose to tail all around the Boxi. More of the anti-riot storm-trooper-looking types were regularly walking (not quite marching) around in ordered groups of twelve or so, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder blocking off streets they didn't want anyone else to shove their way into. We had to take a roundabout way to the guys' apartment, which another very large policeman in full anti-riot gear very politely explained.

There was plenty of broken glass on the street and groups of people periodically yelling stuff. We didn't get into the thick of it, but stayed out on the fringes where punks and regular guys and police were just kind of milling around. According to the news today, the thick of it was relatively tame: about a thousand people were on the Boxi, and the police made 61 arrests in all, but it wasn't as bad as it's been in years past. Here's a photo from the newspaper taken by someone savvier with a camera than I am:

So yeah, it was cool to be on the scene and see some of Berlin's rabble get roused. But don't worry, Mom, I finished out the night playing foosball and made it home safely to bed.

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 12:57 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

Not much to report, because I've spent the last four days almost exclusively finding, in the 70-degree weather we've been having, sunny spots all over the city in which to read. On the grass in a park for a couple hours, at an outside table at a café. I love it when the weather gets nice and all the cafés and restaurants put out tables and open their big folding glass doors so the whole front is open to the sidewalk.

Kleistpark, which is right down the road from my apartment, has a nice big lawn in front of this prestigious-looking building--

--which I only recently learned was home to Hitler's Volksgerichtshof (People's Court), established after the Reichstag burned (which event led directly to Hitler assuming dictatorial powers) to prosecute the crazy Dutchman who said he did it. Hitler's would-be assassins, who plotted to kill him in 1944, were also sentenced here, along with plenty of others.

There's another place between here and Kreuzberg that I walked by several times without knowing it was there before I read about it: it's a 12,650-ton concrete cylinder 18 meters high, situated among some apartment buildings and scrubby bushes. It was put there by Albert Speer, Hitler's favorite architect, to test the weight-bearing capability of the ground in preparation for building the Great Dome. It would be seventeen times the size of St. Peter's basilica in Rome, and it would be the hub from which Hitler would run the world. They also wanted to build a Triumphal Arch 49 times the volume of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. But they never got any further than blowing up some apartment buildings to make room, and leaving a giant concrete pillar near some train tracks. (It's still there because it's rather ungainly to dispose of; they'd have to blow it up, and that would cause problems for the people living in the apartment buildings nearby.)

I've been reading a ton of Berlin history lately (in case you couldn't tell), and it's nothing short of fascinating to live in this city where so many of its changing faces are still visible, yet it's easy to miss pretty important places like the above because it's all just kind of part of Berlin's mish mash. Which I love. Probably the most-repeated quote about Berlin belongs to Karl Scheffler, who said in 1910 that "Berlin is condemned forever to become and never to be."

Labels: Berlin history, Berlin life

by LP at 3:39 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

Last Sunday I walked over to the Kudamm to see the Karneval parade. Karneval (Carnival, or Fasching, or Fastnacht) is basically Mardi Gras, only it's not just Fat Tuesday here. It depends where you are in Germany--it's huge in the Rheinland, especially Cologne--but here it started on Sunday, and then yesterday was Rose Monday. People dress up in costume--lots of wigs and homemade outfits--mostly, I think, as an excuse for being allowed to put rum in their hot chocolate at 10:30 am.

Here's everybody milling around, waiting for the parade to start:

The little white-tented huts (set up on the same square where that giant Christmas market was, you may remember) are selling bratwurst and various other chunks of grilled meat, also beer and cocktails and the aforementioned spiked hot chocolate.

Here's how narrow the people-lined street is:

And here's how big the floats in the parade are:

There are no paltry balloon-covered pickups involved here; most of the floats are on semi trailers. Which means the people on them are up pretty high, which means the candy they throw lands not on the pavement but on the heads of the crowd. This becomes particularly entertaining when they throw full-size chocolate bars. People hold open umbrellas upside-down for optimal candy-catching, with the added benefit of the extra head protection.

I was standing in front of the EMT truck, helping the rest of the crowd to block it in because getting the most candy is more important than saving lives, and one of the emergency response volunteers, a girl probably 16 years old, was sitting in the driver's seat window taking pictures of the parade. Everyone on the floats who saw her immediately pelted her with candy, trying to make handfuls of it through the window into the truck. Since she was basically sitting just over my shoulder, I got caught in some crossfire, but at least the kids standing in front of me scored a pretty big take as a result.

There are also lots of girls in these fluffy skirts marching in the parade and sometimes forming can-can kick lines:

The weather was gorgeously sunny, and I made it out with minimal cranial damage, so I'd call it a Sunday morning well spent.

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 12:56 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

Yesterday I was interviewed for German MTV. I was hanging around in front of the Reichstag to see if I could catch the Calvin interim group after their tour, cause they're in town this week. (I didn't see them.) This guy with a microphone came running up, three guys and a camera behind him, and started asking questions. I told him about the Calvin group, how I live in Berlin now, blah blah--all in German. Then he asked me my favorite song, a question which I can never answer properly, even without the added strain of trying not to make too many grammatical mistakes on TV. Every song title I ever knew immediately vanished from my head, but he wouldn't believe that I don't have a favorite song, so finally I blurted out something by Coldplay. I have no idea where that came from; they're definitely not my favorite. But most of the stuff I listen to would never be on MTV. Later I wished I'd said my favorite song was "99 Luftballoons", but of course you never think of the clever answers on the spot. (Or maybe you're one of those people who actually does, and if that's the case, then I kind of hate you, but also want to be you.) Oh well. I don't have a TV anyway.

Internet's broken at home, but when we get it running again I'll post pics from Copenhagen.

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 11:20 AM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

I've never been all THAT into the latest and greatest in cell phone technology, but in the last 24 hours I've wished four times or more that I'd had a camera phone. In the following post, I will try to make up for the fact that I don't have one with the help of Google Images.

Yesterday I walked from Schöneberg to Kreuzberg. (Like this.) First I saw this ad on a billboard:

I've seen it plenty of times before, and every time I've remarked to myself, 1) Gee, she's wearing a lot of makeup, and 2) I wonder why she stuck a glove in the front of her dress/in her necklace? This is, however, the first time I've seen the ad and realized she's blowing a kiss. I think I might have laughed out loud at myself, shortly after anyone watching me may have seen an Ohhhh of COURSE! expression cross my face. (If the kiss-blowing was immediately evident to you...please don't disown me on account of stupidity. [And I won't tell you that in the billboard version, "Kiss me, Kindl!" is emblazoned across the top.])

As I was having my Eureka moment over this ad, I was walking across a bridge which spans several lines of train tracks down below. On one of the tree-covered banks which sloped steeply from the ends of the bridge down to the tracks were several chairs and couches. It looked like someone had pitched the entire contents of their living room down the hill, not unlike this--

--but on an incline. It struck me as funny since it was right in the middle of Berlin, instead of the middle of nowhere, as in the picture.

I also saw a sax shop. (Double check that vowel. Got it? K, good.) I've already commented to various people on the level of specialization among shopowners in Berlin (or maybe it's just all cities of a certain size), but a shop dealing in nothing but saxophones is so much better than a regular old lamp or curtain store.

I also saw a new Dolce and Gabbana ad picturing a guy apparently in despair after having accidentally put on his girlfriend's jeans, and, on a sign outside a family and relationship counseling center, a depiction in stick figures of the services offered therein, both of which really cracked me up. But Google Images is no help this time, so you'll have to wait until I walk to Kreuzberg again.

No, wait. I'll break out the MS Paint skills again... Here's a pretty great replication of the latter of the two, if I do say so myself:I may not have their positions exact, but I do believe I've captured the expressions of the two characters adequately. And the original is honestly no more complicated than that, just two stick guys at a stick table. But I absolutely love how Stick Guy A is so obviously a father in despair because he just got laid off and how is he going to support his five kids under the age of five and a new one on the way? and Stick Guy B is clearly a very empathetic, supportive, capable social worker, and a good listener to boot. All that's missing is a stick box of Kleenex.

And I guess you don't really need to see the D&G guy. He's beyond my MS Paint skills (considerable though they may be) anyway.

Hokay. So. Last night. I went with Henrike to Hotel Bar (which is neither in, near, nor associated with any actual hotels) to see a friend of hers perform. She warned me that the music would probably be "kinda weird". There are no pictures on that website, unfortunately, but I linked it anyway so you could see the kind of acts that perform at this bar. Exhibit A: Friday, Oct. 20 was "latin-soul-electropop-wildstyle." Fantastic. The bar itself is in the basement--which pretty much always raises the probability of it's being cool, I've discovered--small and mood-lit and very Euro-hip, but the underground kind of hip.

First this French girl, Ava Carrere, sang. Well..."sang" is relative. It was part pre-recorded music, which was the background for her to sing/almost rap/talk/make hissing noises while playing--wait for it--cardboard instruments. I'm totally serious. And so was she. She had an upright bass, an electric guitar, an electric bass. My favorite, though, was the cardboard piano (not the whole thing, unfortunately, just the keyboard on a table) on which she accompanied herself as she sang, all the while wearing those plastic vampire teeth you can buy anywhere for fifty cents and a pair of Blues Brothers-esque shades. It was an I've-been-broken-up-with song, and the lyrics went "This is not a sad song/ This is not a sad song..." I wish I had a picture for you. So crazy, and yet she pulled it off. She had even pre-recorded tuning the instruments, and she'd make faces and turn the cardboard pegs before starting each song.

Then Mini Death played (folky triphoppy music at it's [sic] finest). They were cool, if marginally less entertaining. Also the name really didn't seem to fit. It was a guy playing bass and one playing drums, and a girl with a terrific voice singing, and another girl (whom I really could have done without, but she looked the part of Rock Star Who Plays In A Band Called 'Mini Death' better than any of the others, so maybe the name was her idea and now they keep her for the image) playing some kind of miniature electric bass and singing backup sometimes. The songs were all in English, and the band's fan base seems to be made up primarily of Americans, cause the bar was full of them. It was kind of disorienting to hear that much American English in one place. (You know, a place other than Fulbright-appointed, I guess.)

So that's what I did on Halloween in Berlin. There was no candy involved.

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 9:47 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

Berlin has started to feel familiar. I definitely feel at home here. Even to the point of blogging effortlessly on a German keyboard. So it's a little strange that I'm leaving again already--but I certainly can't let two whole weeks of school vacation go to waste. The plans are a little vague and very last-minute, but here they are as it stands now:

This morning Lindsay and I are headed down to Munich, to stay with a family I know and see what we can see of the last weekend of Oktoberfest. (You can't be in Germany while it's going on and not at least check it out, right?) Then I'll probably head over to Switzerland and meet up with M. Horning and her folks for a lovely relaxing time on the lake at Interlaken.

It's hard not to go with my instincts, which tell me to see four or five countries in as many days...but the above will probably be more relaxing. Plus, I have months left here. Plenty of time to explore. And, oh, I'm going to. I am absolutely NOT leaving Europe this time before going to Prague.

Since I'm going to be gone (and most likely not blogging) for at least a week and a half, I'll leave you with a nice picture spread. The other day I was going to do one of those "Here's my day in pictures!" kind of things, but 1) I'm a pretty awful photographer, and 2) I hate looking like a tourist, so if I do take out my camera somewhere like the Kudamm, I take the picture as quickly as possible in order to be able to put it away again before too many people see me. Thus, an incomplete series of blurry pictures. Anyway, here's my Random Tuesday Picture Spread, such as it is...

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 8:35 AM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

This is the bread I bought today at the outdoor market about 20 minutes' walk from my apartment. Or, well, this is some of the bread. The loaf was about three or four times bigger than that before Lindsay and I attacked it, having gotten back from the market. It's farmer bread, which means it's substantial stuff. I imagine some hardy, jolly German farmer in the Middle Ages (if anyone was jolly in the Middle Ages) taking a loaf like this out of his overalls pocket and tearing off a bite while standing in the field he's been plowing, taking a little break, maybe talking to his cows over the fence... It's chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside (i.e. perfect). Mmm...

And this is the cheese I bought to go with it. Five different kinds in a sort of package deal. I don't know what they are (except for the one in the package, which calls itself Brie), but they also are very delicious.

Going to markets is a perfect Saturday thing to do, especially when the weather's as gorgeous as it has been. Someday I'll just give up on not looking touristy and take my camera to the market, so I can share the joy at least visually with all of you. The experience isn't easy to convey, though, because I can't adequately describe the progression of smells as you walk past the bread booth, the olive booth, the bakery, the leather booth, the lady selling herbs, the one selling teas... Like I said, Mmm...

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 1:43 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

...feet are the foremost thing on my mind right now. Since the first installment of my stipend recently landed in my brand spanking new German bank account, I think I may have to put some of it to use buying a comfortable pair of shoes. Comfortable, that is, in the context of the hours I put in every day walking. Flip flops don't exactly do the job. I may have to rethink my No Closed Toes Till It Snows philosophy.

The photos of Altenberg that I said were up before are up for real now. And here are the promised pics of my oh-so-urban Wohnung...














The kitchen. We have the convenience of a washing machine in the apartment. It sounds like an airplane taking off.













My bedroom. (The books belong to its former tenant. No way did I haul them on and off trains and airplanes.)

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 6:08 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

I'm using a computer at my school, and it's tricked out with all the latest Windows technology circa 1995. Haven't quite figured out the internet situation at home, thus the inactivity on the blog.

If, by the way, this blog seems less entertaining than my last...it's probably because I'm thinking half in German. English words fail me much more often when I'm on the continent, I guess. So pardon the lowered intelligence level. And the lack of pictures. Pretty soon I'll post some of my apartment, I promise.

So far I've just been sitting in on English classes for a day at my school. I introduced myself to a 10th grade class and answered questions. (Are there lots of fat people in America? Do you like Fifty Cent?) This afternoon I'll meet all the English teachers though, and we'll figure out my schedule and what exactly I'm to do here.

Mostly I just wander the city in the gorgeous fall weather we're having and occupy myself being thrilled that I live here. I bought bread on the way home from school yesterday, some really delicious wheat rolls, and one with lots of seeds in it (see? stellar descriptions, I know; my English profs at Calvin would be thrilled), and I think I'll have an awfully hard time going back to American bread, the kind that only comes in a plastic bag. There's also a wide variety of ethnic restaurants within close range of my apartment, including several döner stands, which rivals currywurst for the favorite Berliner snack. It's Turkish in origin, I believe. Lots of stores in the area around both home and school are Turkish, especially markets specializing in fruits and vegetables. Those plus all the bakeries and cafes...I could spend the whole of my time here just eating.

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 11:07 AM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments

The hardest thing about living in Germany, as opposed to just traveling here, is learning to grocery shop. It was hard enough in England where everything was unfamiliar but still in English. Here...there are just way too many different kinds of cheese and meat to get to know. And I'm so impatient to know it all already--the city, the people, the language.

I've been speaking mostly English with Henrike, my roommate, but we're easing into the German. We had a conversation last night, and I was appalled at how rusty my own pronunciation has gotten since four months or so ago, when I last had to speak German frequently. I understand most things fine, so it's disappointing when it doesn't come out of my mouth the way I hear it in my brain.

I went out last night with Henrike to an indie pop club and saw this band live. It was a small venue, really low-key and lots of fun. Just walking around, I've seen posters advertising concerts for so many bands I know. I'll have to get used to living not just in a foreign city, but a big foreign city. There's so much here, and I want to see all of it.

Yesterday I wandered around the city center, Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenberg Gate, which is mostly what I've known of Berlin until now. I actually found the first place I ever tried currywurst, a Berlin specialty, and ate lunch there.

Tomorrow I'll go to my school and meet my teacher, and then the real Fulbright stuff begins. I'm a tiny bit nervous, but looking forward to getting my brain working again.

Oh, by the way, it stopped raining in Altenberg, so there are pics on flickr of the whole compound we were staying in there. Click on the badge to the right...

Labels: Berlin life

by LP at 4:44 PM (Berlin time) | Permalink | Comments