Acculturalization

Where am I when I can listen to NPR, conduct work everyday in English, stay in touch with old friends from my childhood? Can I be in Berlin, living abroad?

Why, asks my Polish hausmeister in German, am I living in Berlin? Why indeed.

Things I must do:
1) learn German. Sure, I can joke around with my hausmeister and debrouiller at Ikea, but I am not very good at the simple stuff. I speak shitty pigeon German. Its funny, but stupid.
2) Make more German friends (outside of work)
3) Get a German boyfriend (which will help me with point 1)
4) join a club (Muay Thai?) or gym to build community

To be fair, I have a really nice community here. There are the dog friends, the cafe friends, the work friends the old friends. I feel more a part of Berlin than I ever did in Amsterdam (or Moscow or Shanghai...)

I am really happy here in Berlin. It's the right place for right now.

So maybe the 'why are you here' question can wait on its answer. I'm figuring that out.

The Village

Berlin is small. Mitte is smaller.

It is really nice to live in such a cosmopolitan city where you see so many familiar faces everyday; the regulars at the (dog) park, the guy who makes my coffee, my neighbors. I love how Mitte feels like a little village, and I especially love my part of Mitte.

I wonder when/if it will ever feel too small?

Already people tell me 'oh I saw you at x' once. I think I will always have to be on my best behavior when I am out and about.

This is not LA, NYC or SF. This is a little big city. Are there any others?

Home suss home

I am happy to be home in Berlin.

Ikea delivered the wrong shranks, my apartment is a mess, I can't access my clothes or cooking things, but I am thrilled to be home.

I think LA and I might have broken up during this last trip.

We can still be friends, right?

Celebrity Citing

Is it stalking when you are too nervous to even acknowledge a celebrity?

Today I was riding my bike down Torstrasse with Diegito running beside me during working hours. Usually I ride my bike down the street once business hours are over, since I tend to work later. So this was a unique experience in itself.

I was daydreaming and staring in the shops when who should I see in the window of that repurposed kimono shop-- Suri!

Flabbergasted, I looked around-- no paparazzi-- and went in the shop. I always wanted to go inside, but it was always closed when I rode by before.

Upon entering, a gentle-ish German man spoke to me in German and pointed at Diego. What? I said. Was my dog friendly? he asked. Yes, why? I nervously responded as a handsome black man approached me (did this place have guards??) For the baby to grab, and pointed at Suri who was approaching Diego with Katie's kind-looking midwestern parents.

I was so surprised that the guards had directed my attention so suddenly to the child. She had a cookie in her hand, and I said yes Diego is very friendly and he likes cookies. Katie quickly came by and smiled and picked up the child. The parents smiled too. Smiles everyone, smiles!

I looked around and admired the dresses and didn't look at Katie and family much. She smiled a hello and I snuck out.

Is it stalking if you are too nervous to talk to a celebrity (even though you are in a foreign country and you usually blab to any/all foreigners you meet)?

Were those 'handlers' in the store S-gists?

Berlin- Los Angeles

Work has gotten very busy so I have not been able to update this blog as much as I had hoped. And now it has sent me back to LA so I will not be writing about Berlin.

I feel like I never left Los Angeles. But I am feeling kind of ambivalent about being here. I have been enjoying settling into Berlin and I really wanted to continue setting up my apartment, discovering new bars/restos, making new friends, and learning German.

I do love LA, a controversial sentiment I know, but I really love where I am living now. That feels great.

Good boy

Here is a picture of Diego on the S-Bahn.

(it is several days after his coif at the Hundesalon so you can see that his hair de-froed a bit).

Vast East Berlin

This is the only major city I know that has massive open spaces, overgrown and neglected.

This is a huge block near Nordbahnhof which has been adopted by some dog owners as a makeshift dog park. Prime real estate, smack dab in the middle of Mitte. The 'park' has a chain link fence around it to keep people out; conveniently, it also keeps dogs in.

Diego stares at his favorite thing: a squeaky rubber ball with legs.

Self Portrait

In front of Checkpoint Charlie before a delicious Italian meal at Sale e Tabbachi with Romy and her German boyfriend Martin who were visiting from Los Angeles. Diego moved and we got this blurry picture.

We didn't visit the museum.

Am waiting for the summer to end and for Berlin to quiet down before I visit the big tourist sites. In the meantime, I am trying to socialize more and get things sorted out with my apartment on weekends.

Fahrkarten, bitte- or breaking the law

Public transportation is too easy to cheat here in Germany. There are no turnstiles like in London, Paris and NYC. It's based on the honor system.

You buy a ticket for 2,10 euros, you stamp it, you keep it with you. Simple.

But sometimes you are walking up the stairs with your computer, dog and bike, and your train arrives. And so you run as fast as you can onto the train. Oops, you forget to buy (or stamp) your ticket.

And sometimes you make it to your destination without and trouble.

And sometimes, plain clothed (!) policemen catch you. And they have no mercy. They make you pay the ticket violation right there. And if you don't have cash on you, they have been known to take you to the ATM (EC Card) to get cashola. Or they ask for your address if all else fails.

Claiming ignorance because you are a foreigner works rarely, if ever. Most of us really just didn't know how to pay for a ticket. But honestly, you do kind of know that there must be a system to pay for public transport, there always is.

I have experienced the dreaded 'farhkarten, bitte' inspectors on the S-Bahn. I really had no idea what they were doing. All of a sudden, people started flashing these cards to these guys; I just thought they were strange. They asked for my ticket in English and then I looked, and looked, and looked in my pockets and bag and everywhere, stalling just enough for us to reach the Hautbahnhof and to jump out with Diego. They were distracted by another person with a dog who also did not have a ticket, so I went downstairs to the bank, got some money (from my US account) and bought the 2,10 ticket.

That anxious interaction with the Inspectors is not worth it. Now, I try and buy a ticket each time I get on public transport.

That's my contribution to the German public transport system. It's the least I can do.

Ordnungsamt

I have never felt like someone who breaks the laws, or who fears the police. In the US, I usually felt that the police were here to 'protect and serve.' The meter maids are just pains in the asses, but I don't fear them.

But here in Berlin, I am scared.

There are fine ladies and men who rule the parking meters in Germany, and they are called Ordnungsamt. These are the people that get you if you violate order or rules on the German streets. And as you guessed it, there are a lot of rules on the German streets. And everday, I violate a couple.

I am still a newbie here, so I will cover just one area where I come in contact with the Ordnungsamt, and where I seem to constantly break the laws: in the context of my dog.

- All dog owners must pay a Hundesteuer which is an (annual?) dog tax. This can be anything from 75- 120 euros for your first dog. I have been convinced by Harald, a guy from my office who has Daly the Jack Russell Terrier, not to bother with this tax. They fine you 10 euros for not paying the tax on your dog; it makes more sense to avoid paying it and to get a fine every so often I am assured.

- Dogs in Berlin can be off leash but must be within 1 meter of owner. I'm not sure if this is a real law because the friendly Ordnungsamt can give you a ticket for having your dog off leash period, I think. Once I had Diego off leash and was walking down the street talking to my friend Richard in English. Richard turned to me and said that an Ordnungsamt had just tried to approach me to give me a ticket but when he heard me speaking English he turned the other way. I looked over to see him crossing the street.

- Dogs cannot be off- leash in a park. They give you tickets for this too. Today when I got to the park, on my bike with Diego running beside me, this guy Marvin told me that I just missed the O's who would've certainly slapped a ticket on me. I think the off leash ticket might be 20 euros.

- There is a list of dogs that are considered dangerous in Germany and therefore get special laws. A pit bull or a staffordshire terrier must wear a muzzle in public after the age of 7 months. The dog can also take a strict obedience test and be exempted from wearing the muzzle. Then does the owner have to walk around with a certificate or something?

- You must pick up your dogs shit. I do this religiously, so I feel self righteous and law-abiding.

Still, I am a rule breaker and I am not proud.

But I also want a nice life for my dog, so I will put him on a leash in the city, but I will continue to let him run wild in the park where there are no people.

The Skinny

I just don't like skinny jeans on guys. You see a lot of German dudes wearing them here. I hate when they wear them to the office.

I remember seeing a lot of dudes in Australia wearing them too. That shocked me. They are so macho, those Aussies, and then they put on the super slim fit jean and their machismo goes straight out the window.

I just wanted to set things straight on the skinny jean.

Yuck

On Wednesday I ate dinner at the hotel-restaurant on the corner. The resto is really charming, and has a great outdoor terrace during the summer. Since I have nothing in my kitchen besides cabinets, a stove and a fridge (no utensils, no plates, no pots) I end up eating out a lot.

I've had bulletten which are really delicious Berlin specialty. They are simple fried meatballs often served with simple potatoes and a salad; they are really tasty.

But this time, I ordered Konigsberger Klopse thinking it was bulletten and was surprised to receive a boiled meatball in a creamy caper sauce with overcooked potatoes.

Needless to say, my stomach has still not recovered.

Brad and Ange in Berlin

So apparently it's confirmed: Brad and Angelina are moving to Berlin. I read that they bought a house on a little peninsula island called Schwanenwerder near Potsdam. They want to move to Berlin because it is quiet and devoid of paparazzi...for now.

Rumor has it that they also bought a house designed by their architect friends in Berlin Mitte. Apparently it sits atop an anonymous building and is speculated to be located right around the corner from where I live. I checked on the address that someone gossiped to me and found this horrible east German building. To protect their privacy and mine, I will not publish the street name & number.

Could it be true? Brad and Ange and the brood in the neighborhood? I will invite them over for drinks. Their kids can play with Diego while we talk about learning German and the terrible food at the restaurant around the corner.

herzliches Willkommen!

I moved to Berlin on June 11, 2007, or should I say 11 Juni 2007. And if you think that I speak German, ha! I've got you fooled. I don't speak a lick of Deutsch-- although I truly plan to.

Right now however, the prospect of learning the language is seriously overwhelming; first I've got to get through the baby steps of moving to a new country: get my visas (check), find an apartment (check), settle into working at a German agency (kind of check), figure out where to get my groceries, get a bank account, set up a blog (check, check, check)...

But there are a myriad of things I still haven't accomplished here, and you dear reader are invited to come along with me on the journey into my new life in Berlin.

A warm welcome to you!