Die Wahlen

9PM -
My attempts to find a party to watch the election was unsuccessful; the main party at Democracy Abroad has been sold out for weeks. A woman I met over the weekend invited me to watch with her American studies class at the Kennedy center; but my attempts to get in touch with her failed. So now I’m at a very crowded, smoky bar, sitting at the butt end of two benches pressed together and surrounded by foreigners. I’m suddenly feeling very jingoistic, like somehow I deserve a to be here more than they do. I’m about two hours early from when the real fun starts, but even now the place is cramped and noisy. The fact that I haven’t eaten isn’t helping – all I want to do is read election commentary online, watch the polls (CNN is on, but the sound is off – not a problem for now, as they’re still repeating the same things over and over again, judging by the b-roll and chryons) and tear into a cheeseburger.

9.30 PM
My luck changes – apparently, the crush of people in the bar is partly due to the dinner rush, and as a couple leaves a space at their table becomes available. I sit with a man from Munich, one from Cuba, and one from Rumania, and am able to chat with them fairly well in German. They speak English, so I switch over during the more intense discussions, but I am able to explain the electoral college, auf Deutsch, to some girls one table over. (I also ordered a very delicious cheeseburger)

2AM - Holograms? Seriously? It’s like CNN just watched old movies about the future and followed their lead.

4 AM
Being in Germany for the election makes me really homesick, especially as I watch the videos of Americans celebrating in the streets. At the bar, everyone cheers when Obama was declared the winner, then quickly cleared out - off to bed! There was no real spontaneous, ongoing party. My friend James just moved to DC from Canada and is hosting an inauguration party; I think by going to that I can feel a little more a part of this momentous event.

5AM
The waitress is serving those of us who are left victory chips ahoy cookies in bowls. Thanks?
When Obama made his speech, I stood on the bench and put my hand over my heart – a very unstaged and unconscious gesture, which is ironic, as I’m usually always thinking about the photo-op. (His mention of the Berlin wall received scattered cheers from the few of us left at the bar)

6 AM
My roommate went home earlier, feeling sick, and I offered to ride her bike home. I pedal back home on the bumpy cobblestone streets just as the sun is rising and a new day begins.

New York hat mir gefalht wann…

Ich sehe der Staadt zum dehn ferhsehn
Ich will gut Chinese essen
Es ist wahlen Nacht
Ich bin alein
Ich denken zu viel uber mein arbeit

Hunden

Just for fun, a picture of the two dogs. There are so many dogs here in Berlin - I keep think that I've stumbled on a stray that I can take home for a bit, but it turns out it's master is normally just several yards away. All the dogs here are very well trained and usually go ahead of their master, off leash, and can be trusted not to jump up on anyone or run out in traffic. I think I even saw one cross the street on it's own once. The dogs trot alongside their person on a bike, and wait patiently outside a store (again with no leash) while their person goes shopping. I have yet to see any dog poo anywhere, either, though locals tell me it's just a matter of time.

Umgezogen

Last week I moved into a new apartment in Neuköln , which I like to think of as the Washington Heights of Berlin. When I told this to Lester, who actually lives in Washington Heights, his first question was, "There are Dominicans in Berlin?" Actually, there are turks, and living in this neighborhood has given me a better appreciation of the food, music, and culture of Berlin's biggest immigrant population. It's also given me INSANELY cheap rent and a much faster commute.

Prior to this, I was living in Mitte/Prenzlauerberg, which is super-hip and lovely and full of great cafes and shops. But it was about a 45 minute train-ride to class. Now it takes me about 20 minutes.

I live across the street from the Neuköln Oper (above), an old opera house that now houses a late-night cafe, an arthouse cinema, and a performance space for concerts and theater. Down the street is the Alter Post (old post office). Last night my roommate and I went to a fashion show there.

My roommate! She's fantastic. A Finnish performance artist named Mimosa, she's also a great cook and hostess, and her impropteou dinner party and rotating cast of visitors has helped both my German and my lonliness. She speaks English but lets me practice my furchtbar Deutsch with her, and is sehr gedeldung when I have to run to the dictonary for the right word.

The place itself is very big and grand, with high ceilings, floor-to-celiing windows, and plaster molding around the light fixtures. There floors are made of wide hardwood, and in my room alone I have two doors (actually 4, as they are french doors) with big gold handles that open into my room in a very dramatic fashion.

The place is light on furniture, but it does have a washing machine and a dishwasher. The neighborhood, aside from the cultural outposts I mentioned above, is full of cheap electronic/knockoff fashion/chintz gold jewelery stores. It's also, for the next month of so, home.

Die Bundeskanzlerin

I'm kind of pleased that Angela Merkel has decided to assert her personal space.

I'm less than pleased that people are attributing it to her "chilly" East German demeanor, and not the fact that she maybe just doesn't want to be fondled by other heads of state.

(So noted: the article is based on background info; not an official statement from the Chancellor. Of course, if one was an important female head of state and one wanted other world leaders to STOP TOUCHING THEM, going through nonformal communications would be the way to do it -- anything else would be seen as pushy and overreacting.)

Der Verrückte Wechselkurs

Since I've arrived, the value of the Euro has plummeted - it hit at 19-month low today. When I left on the 13th, the Euro was hovering a little under $1.36 per. Now It's at $1.285. 8 cents may not sound like a lot of money, but let's say, hypothetically, I had $10,000 to finance my trip. When the Euro was at 1.36, that was only 7,352 euros. Now, that's 7,781 euros. I would have "made" almost 450 euros in the course of a few days.

Not too much money in the grand scheme of things - but look at May-July, when I was originally planning this trip; the rate was as high as 1.60 - the money was only worth 6,250 euros.

Of course, the plummeting euro comes as the rest of the world market seems to be imploding, so while it's good news for me in the short term, it's bad news for everyone else, and for me in the long term. Still, it will be interesting to see how this affects life in Berlin. Maybe coat on sale for 175 euros will cost me even less.

PS -I had to do A LOT of very basic math for this post, but it totally flummoxed me. I hope you all appreciate it. Who says I'm not having fun?

Der Zug

The trains in Berlin are just I’d been told – clean, efficient, easy to navigate. Today, I was able to help a man (who asked in German!) find his station with the help of a map. Before I left, Matt gave me a really amazing moleskin journal with a pullout subway map and several small maps of the city. The journal is filled with handy features – a temperature conversion chart, a place to write down restaurants and museums that seem interesting, tracing paper and small tear away pages for notes – but the maps have saved me several times. I like that the book is small and innocent looking; I can be a lost tourist without looking like one, and it fits in my purse.
To enter the train, you buy a ticket at a platform kiosk, then randomly the guards check the cars to make sure all passengers have tickets. It’s basically the honor system, and it seems to work well. What happens when you don’t have a ticket? A friend told me they confiscate your ID and you must then pay a fine at the central station, where the ID is returned. The first few times I rode the train, I didn’t realize you had to validate the ticket at a small machine next to the ticket kiosk; when the patrolman saw that, he asked me to leave the train at the next stop and do so. This week, I bought a 7-day pass for the U-Bahn (subway), which means I can just hop on when a car arrives.
There are electronic signs at each platform which alert you to the next train’s arrival; the stereotype about German trains running on time is true. The L train in Brooklyn has a similar sign, but where the Berlin trains run almost every 10 minutes without fail, it’s not uncommon to see the L train sign say “MANHATTAN – 23 MINUTES” only to switch to “MANHATTAN – 29 minutes” two minutes later.
I’m experimenting with different routes from my apartment to school – right now, it can take up to an hour, though I’ve yet to make it to and from class without getting lost. Today I was so engrossed in my magazine that I missed my stop and rode on for several more stations; by the time I realized and righted myself I missed my conversation class.
And if I keep writing, I’ll miss my intensive class, so I’d best be going.