Well, it's been some time since my last entry. So much has happened in the last 4 days. I've had a few interesting experiences with cultural issues but I think I have gotten to know my fellow students here at the IES Metropolitan program a good deal better.
It's really been amazing. Not just the fact that I've spent 3 nights straight out on the town, but one point I could extend to you is that Berlin is a city that never sleeps. Of course they say that about New York, but few and far between are the deafening parties in the Big Apple that extend so late into the night that all those who attend bring ray-bans to watch the sunrise. Artists are relocating here from New York due to a cheaper lifestyle and numerous opportunities to try out their skills in a society that, following the collapse of the wall in 1989, has come to appreciate graffiti instead of condemning it. I also am beginning to get the feeling that a privacy bubble worn around each person here is a bit thicker than in the US, so if you want to begin a conversation with a local, you need to have a good purpose. This also means that the Berliners who have become close friends are perhaps far closer in terms of how well they know each other and their mutual backgrounds, et cetera. There are no trivial or superficial acquaintances here in Berlin, because it takes so much time for another person to become dear.
Living in Berlin requires you to be smart. If you want to think on your feet and be spontaneous, you have to be prepared with a great deal of background information about where you are, where you want to go, and how you can get there. The city seems to be fighting against my inclination to ride by the seat of my pants (so to speak) and make plans 5 minutes before I act. I suppose that up until now, I have been quite lucky with the outcome of my travels. I have relied on others to make calls for me, because I have no handy (European term for cell phone). Thus I deny most responsibility for making plans about where we should go next. Each night has been something new to me, basically because I have been following the leader. But a couple of days ago, I ordered myself a handy, and so I will have to be smarter still.
My feet were really hurting me after the first night, and all that walking. I decided to find myself a new pace. Casual, conversational, relaxed. I would only speedwalk or jog when I had to catch the next subway or a bus. One member of the IES staff who carried a pedometer around with her assured me that it was most healthy to change your shoes after a certain number of miles had been walked through. I was quick to respond that the square mileage of the UNH campus could by no means be compared to that of Berlin, and most of the walking I had done there had been trod through mucky rainbow flip-flops. Last night, I was walking around with a friend who carried with him a compass. Back to basics. He wanted to lead himself, so this timeless instrument was his navigational device. Of course he had a map, too.
I took my quick German test on friday, which reviewed a great deal of vocabulary and gender identification, along with some genitive case. To any of those reading this post who have ever studied in the romance or germanic languages, you know that your practice must be keen and fluent leading up to an exam for any understanding to remain fluent. I didn't perform as well as my high standards would have set me out for, but I feel that a semester studying German in Berlin will be good enough to improve my skills to a rate of proficiency.
I have remained capable of asking Berliners around me for directions, asking clerks for assistance in retail stores, and of course, understanding most of the menus at restaurants I happen to stop by. Yesterday, as I held my Berlin travel guide and glanced at a street sign a few blocks away from my apartment, a couple that was seated at a nearby outdoor restaurant table spotted my momentary confusion and the man asked of me, "Entschuldigung, kann ich Ihnen helfen?" This question translates almost directly to, "Excuse me, can I help you?"
This did not exactly shock me, but I was for the moment taken aback. Throughout the week, I had been asking others for assistance unless it had been offered to me preamptively in English. I found at this point that the bubble of privacy in the life of each individual Berliner always has a door. If you want to find your way in and greet them, or compliment them, or just ask a simple question, all that you have to do is be courageous and try. Of course, make sure that you understand the response, as well. It is a very simple process, and I cannot believe that it took me an entire week to figure it out.
As far as travels go, yesterday most members of our group traveled to Potsdam, a suburb located to the southwest of Berlin, and had a look around the marvelous Schlossen (or palaces). Inside the first location where we were given a guided tour, called the Neue Palais, there were incredible works of architecture that we were forbidden to capture by camera. I know my words will fail to do them justice. Within the same few kilometers, all inhabited by a glorious garden made so by enormous beech trees, was a secondary palace, called Sans-Souci. This was the burial location of King Friedrich the Great of Prussia, and for any of you anthropological buffs, it was his individual efforts that contributed the potato to the German diet. This tuber plant is not native to Germany, but today it is practically a staple of central European meals.
Tomorrow, intensive German courses begin. 8:30am (Berlin time of course). I'm looking forward to getting up early, and it feels good. Berlin already feels like a second home to me, what with some of the people I've met here thus far, and the locations I've come to know.
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value;
Rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival."
C. S. Lewis
