Nearly time to greet Britain

I'm writing a quick little post, before I get caught up in plans with travels and such and forget all other things. This week is getting progressively Chrismassy/end-of-term/holiday-goodbyes, and less academic. I'm trying to still get a bit of work done before I fly back!

The snow here is lyrical. Its like God is a child with a pot of icing sugar, shaking and shaking until at some point the lid comes off and it all falls out in a rush, and the pot needs to be refilled again. I returned to a neat cone of the stuff swept up prettily to our front door last night, and if you touch it its like candyfloss, sticking to your your hands but then condensing to a solid ball, then the soaking wetness of melted icicles chills your hands and washes them fresh. Last night felt particularly like a glittery snowball, the snow particles were so tiny and like ice - like what you get from scraping a freezer out. Very pretty indeed, and hopefully not too much of a hinderance (not yet).

I've pretty much got my Christmas shopping done, almost, and hopefully it will all fit! Come on, I have check-in luggage as well as hand luggage, it has to. Events like a friend's English-practice Love Actually evening, breakfast out with my flatmate (thank you mum and dad!), "how to write Hausarbeit" talk with Gluehwein and Stollen, and a language course outing to a cute trendy russian bar, all have helped me feel I'm entering holiday season. Last few days! Shopping, wrapping, work, season's greetings and goodbyes, boyfriend's birthday (and a friend's for that matter), boarding passes, packing... pray the Sunday travels will be complication free.
Jesus, I look forward to celebrating your birthday!

Weinachtenzeit in Deutschland// Christmas time in Germany

Frohliche Advent!
(Picture below: Gendarmen(weinachts//christmas)markt luxury)

So, first advent Sunday was almost a week ago, turned on the radio to find the first advent weekend was the hot topic. It also means the offical opening of Christmas markets here, as well as the traditional lighting of a candle each Sunday, and lots of families put up a start latntern at their window or porch. Its still almost as much part of the culture as a 'happy chiristmas' is in Britain. Its really nice :)


Last weekend I took the oppourtunity to see the christmas markets, and was amazed at how big they could be. There are big central ones at Alexanderplatz, at Potsdamer Platz, Gendarmenmarkt (more upmarket, pay a euro to go in and they have whole restaurants set up... so not for me - yet?), and more.... however, these have been overshadowed by my visit to my the market in my Kiez (means your area, more the central hubub streets of a certain area, where everyone meets up). Its only on Friday to Sunday. Helena's (in in her room) brother came by to pick up post, so we wandered round.. its all the local church groups and charities and such, and they put on an impressive display. including 3 CAMELS walking through. However, Mauritz had never seen that happen before either, so its not your standard German market feature. (No, I did not take a picture, just enjoyed the moment, and also for the sake of not cramping Mauritz's style). (Photo on right:Richardplatz :) )

And yes, its finally snowed here. It started Wednesday night, as I had dinner with a friend, and I left her house to find my feet crunching through the soft white blanket that had fallen. Bliss. The cold is allright-ish, though I have a policy of layering until you can't imagine more. Walking back Thursday evening home, my assessment of clothing was thus: so, you have layers of tights, socks, thermal top under long top, woolen fleece lined hoodie, large khaki eskimo coat also with hood, huge mittens, bobble hat with ear flaps.. are you warm enough? Yes, but I could do with my woolen socks actually, can't feel my toes.. Mother, have no fear, your daughter will not catch hypothermia. I have actually started easing up on the layering! Never thought I'd see the day. And its getting milder, -5c not -10c. My hands are the usual elastic bands white-finger story 5 minutes after I remove a mitten. Oh, for ultra warm gloves you can still operate a camera/sort small change with.

After having told you more than you need to know on my dressing habits, I'll tell you about the coming weeks. Its actually only... (checks).. two more weeks before christmas break! (Note this is not end of term, that is March time). A presentation each week, one for each of my English classes, so no complex German to learn, but decent themes to get to know. Development of languages in Scotland, and the theme of Linguistic typology. Hopefully they'll be ok.

Fail moment of the week was last Monday in German linguistics: Me: "it's funny how he asked us to read Semiotics, isn't it? We did that in week two, I got to read it properly this time." Coursemate: "No, he wanted us to read SEMANTICS, not Semiotics" Me: "Oh."
You can laugh/sympathise as much as you like there. I try, I do! Its going ok in Uni.

Christmas plans.. I'll be flying back to the well loved home town on the 19th (well, nearby airport), and a weekish at home, see bro and sisinlaw boxing day(s), then Scotland for Hogmanay! Looking forward to possibly catch ups with a few friends as well as time with Luke, when he is free (so new year def). Then back to Berlin on 3rd! I'll enjoy the Britain-time with friends and family :)

Thats plenty for now, so till next time, some nice weekend plans coming up.. love to all. God bless a happy advent time! Kt

A bi-monthly post..?

Picture right: Mauerpark Flohmarkt

Visitation number two has been and gone, an
d a week of uni wrapping up. I've managed to enjoy the city with mum and dad and practice my fairly rough-shod hosting skills, and I once more possess a camera, and love using it. Early christmas pressie! Uni this week was a bit aaargmaraghahh, but its going steady at the mo. It sometimes feels a little like a never-ending hamster wheel by the end of the day, but I can remind myself of a bigger aim than reading wordy linguistic texts in German.

You always have to be shown a bit of the centre if you come to Berlin. At least one or two of the well known spots - Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag, Museumsinsel, Unter den Linden, Gedaechtniskirche.. we went for Unter den Linden area on the first day, in which I realised I had no clue where to eat out, because I just don't really. I was very glad to have discovered with Luke that the little unnassuming organic place over the road is actually brilliant (a little like Victor Hugo's of Edinburgh, last year's nice deli below me, but more relaxed and friendly). To make it even better, I discovered they give 5% Kiezrabbat (discount for locals).


Picture: Fernsehrturm from Zionskirche.
Sunday with mum and dad panned out quite well. Germany, particularly Berlin, particularly Prenzlauerberg, does weekend breakfast very well. They generally serve buffet breakfasts 10-16Uhr, German style bread and cheese and hams and cereals and joghurts and fruits.... so of course we started with one of them. Then off to the Mauerpark Flohmarkt, which was typically crammed with both goods and people. We took a wander along to Zionskirche (near the foody street Kastanienallee), where we were (as time has moved on) unexpectedly met with a lovely late sun view of Berlin, from the top of the tower. I had no clue that was there, so an unexpected delight.

University, is ok, German is the hardest bit I think. Its quite a slog to get thorough all the vocab even before I get to the subject matter of semiotics or methodology. Otherwise..I chatted to one of my leturers about Hausarbeit topics, which was a brilliant help - despite not being loads closer to a topic, he said to to my presentation work first, so, thats going.. God knows what he is doing, I'll make sure I give it a go. Met up with the church plant bunch on Wednesday evening, which was great to see them again and have a bit of time praying together.

Maybe a quick trip to some German Weinachtsmaerkte tomorrow, see whats on offer there, the first weekend of opening (though they started Monday). Well, I kind of know, stollen and crepes and fruit in chocolate and christmas decorations, but you know what I mean!
The terrorist alert means theres plenty of police about, and the parliament is closed, and it might have had something to do with the disruption of the ring line, but I'm not too fussed. I'll let the government do its job, and I'm still just doing normal stuff. Hopefully Weinachtsmarkt events won't be ruined for all the stall people! Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will look after itself.
Oh, and I have to talk about THE WEATHER, as its changing and so has to be mentioned. I am British. There is a graph that shows me nicely how the min and max temperatures trundle happily to well below zero over the next couple of weeks (see picture). My weather widget learnt the new sign of an igloo probably signifying the -7c to -10c temperature range for Sunday. Its reconsidered its estimate now to -3 to -8, which apparently doesn't deserve such a sign. I'm very happy to have a heating inclusive rent :) The first snow has settled very faintly today! Walked home in crisp cold with this through my earphone (thank you dad!). Till later, take care.

I'm still around, things have been a little busy...

Picture: us in the kitchen, from Luke's nice camera
Hello after possibly three weeks.
I've taken various approaches to my uni work, tried to work out what I should be doing, and how to learn all this academic German, and (tried to) work extra before Luke came to visit. We saw a few tourist things possibly of interest to you... As he's just left, theres no pesky person to distract from writing this blog (though he was possibly going to co-write an edition).

University life has been a little blurred, but taking it a step at a time. I visited an exhibition by Stefan Koppelkamm in the Muesum for Communication for my cultural language course (called Ortzeit/Localtime) which was good. He took pictures of East Germany post reunification, and about 12 years later re-photographed the same places. We did a short presentation on this in German, which wasn't too pressured as that class is all German-as-foreign-language learners.
I've chosen my presentations for my English language courses: aspects of language in Scotland for one , and linguistic typology in my other. These areas will probably become the area I do my two Hausarbeits in. The other assesments are German exams (essay style) on lingustics, so I really need to develop my academic vocab and writing. The texts are a good challenge to read.

VISITORS
I met Rachel on Monday eve, which was great. We went to a recommended italian, which wasn't particularly pretty, but did do very good and very cheap italian. A good post-food walk and chat too. My official first visitor!

Having Luke here was brilliant, he stayed a week. I did some stuff in uni and he got to explore whatever he fancied at points, and we had a good chunk of time together too. We went to the Weinerei with coursemates one eve, and celebrated bonfire night with Claire and some friends, as well as going to the JKB church. The latter two were principally in German, which tested my translation skills, and Luke had an impressive go at following conversation/participating!

We also cycled round Tempelhof park/old airport grounds. The fact I'd never been before was particularly evident at the point we we cycled down past muddy allotments with two Westie type dogs snapping at our jeans, to find a dead end with a fence, with Tempelhof joggers passing by on the other side. We got there eventually! And it was very beautiful.

We also went to Potsdam, the place of important international conferences, which is quite tourist geared but pretty, lots of shops and cafes and very impressive gardens and stately homes to wander round. Unfortunately I can't upload pictures as I managed to leave my camera at the Potsdam train station - I won't see it again, but I'll move on from that. I live and learn. I'd just told Luke how my brother had managed to miss a train or two in his time, I think I needed a comeuppance. Luke had his SLR so we've got a few pics. Oh, and from the SLR I learnt I might need reading glasses - I couldn't read the numbers on the screen.
Luke left safe yesterday, and I'll be seeing him for the new year. Thank God for Skype.

Mum and dad are here in a week, so not too long till my next visitors!

This is probably enough for one entry. Till later.

Jumbled start to the term

(Picture: sunday city tour, approaching the Museum Island)
Last time I wrote my timetable was all sorted, and was ready to have my first run through a university week... how wrong I was. This week has involved quickly joining in what I've heard termed 'course shopping' - visting every course you might concievably want to do, and then decide if its right. I've had a taste for the levels that the German courses are at, and what I might be able to do, so I've now realised what might work out. Hopefully this week will be confirmation of this.

For those interested about academic systems...
I'm doing a German language course, linguistic introdution auf Deutsch, then language change, and language variation. The biggest difference from Edinburgh is the inclusion of presentations in assessment, and 'Hausarbeit'. While an essay simply represents other people's information, a Hausarbeit is a question of your choice, which explores a new issue or new data. The whole idea is that you contribute something new to the academic community. I can really appreciate how the whole set up of classes and assessment encourages you to do more than just churn out info, but research things to a deeper level and learn about things for your own interest (a point to university study that can sometimes be lost in ticking boxes).

Otherwise this week....

Last Sunday was a particularly lovely wind up to the pre-semester time. A few of us coursemates went for brunch, and then on the free city tour, unfortunately only available in English on that day, but quite glad that I knew I could understand it all. It was very very good. The guides work for tips, so only the true entertainers can last long in the job. I recommend it very very much, various times in the day from outside Brandenburger tour Starbucks.

I've been to my first aerobics class last Thursday! Not nearly as tiring as me or the other girls there thought it might be, but a good muscle stretch. Thank goodness for finally doing something active. Especially good to remedy my shock from the German lingustics seminar which was above my head - I'm taking an easier course, so long as they let me in on the uni system.

I've also been on a 'freizeit' (time away) this weekend, with a church community called 'Junge Kirche Berlin', which was really good. It was in Gussow, which is by a lake 30km south of Berlin. It was a great time of being away from city bustle, getting to really spend time reading the Bible, praying with God and worship, and of course getting to know people in the community. I have decided to get stuck in to JKB, not only to have a community of faith (etc), but also its quite good for making me speak more German. I nearly joined the new church 'plant' in Berlin by an English family I know, which is brilliant too, but meets less often, and I knew I'd not use so much German. I will definitely be staying in touch with that brilliant bunch of people too though.

I am rather ashamed at my occasional near-vandalism of the German language this weekend. Wanting to communicate sometimes resulted in a jumble of assorted verbs and nouns merely related to the point I was trying to make, and then asking 'do you know what I'm trying to say?' (auf Deutsch). Sorry deutschsprachige Leute. I definitely want to learn more German, and this is exactly the kind of situation that gives you motivation for going over and over irregular verb conjugations and vocab and grammar. I will need to keep reminding myself that!

I am now getting very excited about a week Wednesday. Luke comes to visit - need I say more? Yes, my boyfriend! Ok now I don't need to say any more. I'll be testing my tourist knowledge... In addition, miss Rachel will be in the city too in that week, with her architectural friends! And theres a few birthdays to boot. All this calls for a week of particularly earnest academic endeavours. Hopefully I can then have a bit of space for manouvre the following week.

With that, bye for now.

My third home and starting a new section

My Saturday seems to have dissappeared today, mainly because I approached my street last night as the sky was tinged with deep blue and dusky pink of the morning, post Abschied(farewell)party. We have just finished our language course this week before the start of the winter semester next week. So one chapter is ending, and another is starting here. The trees are most definitely autumnal and there is icy mist in the mornings (the picture on the left is in the nice southern area of Dahlem, at the university)

Pre-party we were in a Weinerei - you pay 2euro entrance for a glass, drink what wine you fancy, and pay your estimation of wine cost on your way out (and for any food they might have put on and you ate). It was a pretty quirky place, decor was lots of trinkets old and new - see the picture on the right (Maybe like Nacy's bordello in Newcastle, though I've never been) and I liked it, and the system seems to work well overall. You get so many little places like that in Berlin. You need to get to know the streets a bit, something I'm not so speedy with.

I've started to feel way more at home now, the culture shock is wearing off. My brain doesn't recognise new unfamiliar faces and attire and attitudes like it did at first - I wasn't used to hearing so much turkish, seeing so many spikes and black leather on one person, so many bottles of beer in the hands of people on the UBahn (its legal here), being told things in such a blunt way (the Berliner schnauzer - 'harsh but not harshly meant', theres even a campaign about it - not just German directness), so many unkown food items in the supermarket, and so on.
I'm noticing myself finding all the strange and new things are now the things I am fond of, that I belong to just a little more, as I get to know the routines and patterns of the area, of the city. Home number three, if only for a year.

I now have my timetable pretty much sorted, and am quite happy with it. A bit in uni each day, apart from Friday, and hopefully the courses should be good too. 'Kulturelles Leben in Berlin' (German language learning topic, naturally in German), English historical syntax + Chaucer (in Eng), German orthography (in German). I finally knew when I was free for sport, and of course so many courses had filled up by then, meaning rather than intended dance I'm doing beginner's aerobics! We'll see what that is like, and well, the semester in general. Sunday still to come, then the first week of Wintersemester 2010/11...

Kish.

University in sight

This week has involved more stuff with university, namely two days of language course replaced by 'orientation days', which informed all exchange students about stuff we'd been told on the language course already, plus a bit. And application for courses opened on Monday. Its been a little quieter, in a nice way. The picture is from last Sunday...




Out and about...
Today is a crisp clear day, autumn freshness, its beautiful. I have been sorting my room and checking out more course info (nearly there with course applying), so less of note to say about the city (oh yes, still need to apply for sport.. and I'm not doing the choir, decided).
Last Sunday was 'tag der Deutschen Einheit' - when the governments rejoined post DDR and Mauer (I think?!). There was a big street festival in the day by Brandenburger Tor, which I quickly whizzed through. Crepes-hats-Wurst-Schnitzel-jazz stage-Bier-Crepes-Wurst-Cocktails-bags-Bier-Wurst-sweets.. It was incredibly tourist packed, and talking to my flatmate it appears that Germans don't pay much attention to the day generally. It seemed so odd, to see 'sponsored by Coca cola' on the banner, makes you think of the anti-capitalism stance in the old east that has struggled to remain.
As last weekend was similarly gorgeous weather, I discovered Treptower Park on Saturday, one stop away from me, which has a few monuments and an island and boating. As I went en route to shopping, no camera, ah well. I savoured it. It was good to be a bit more active too! So much U bahn travel. I actually now have the loan of my flatmate's bike, which is quite cool. I have to fix the reflector and bell first, and work out the cycle codes, but still.

Britishness...
An English coursemate cooked cottage pie for American/Hungarian/Spanish/German bunch of us, to celebrate her birthday, and they were all impressed and left praising British food, so the national pride has been firmly reinforced. A rare treasure of squeezy golden syrup was one of our pressies, and similarly was tasted with rave reviews. Side note: thank you Abbey, who returned from her trip to England with a box of sainsbury's fairtrade tea and yes, a tin of golden syrup! I was excessively excited about that. I have even now taken a picture. Anyway... The rest of the evening heavily involved American-English comparisons, including this website (click here, nabbed from friend who found it, though its definite slang ie v senstive don't bother looking!), and also some points of serious confusion - Americans use a very misleading term for the Biritsh 'bum bags'. Apparently 'bum bag' is wierd to them too though.

Flat...
I'm now in my semester 1 room, as my until now flatmate has left for her apprenticeship in Spain. Other flatmate returns from France tomorrow morning, so I've made sure I've moved out my stuff from her room, and given it a clean. I'm really enjoying having a more cosy room, and I've decorated it a bit too. I rattle around in big rooms (sorry yawn for some, its my new thought of the moment). I'm very grateful to be able to have things like a stereo and sellotape and towels and bedding, from my flatmate who left. We'll see how mystery residence in semester 2 works out for such things. Film night tonight with a few, auf Deutsch and English subtitles :)

Thats all for now.

Rythms in Berlin

Its all starting to blur, the days are going quicker - must mean I'm getting used to a tiny corner of life here in Berlin.

At the weekend, me and a couple of friends were going to see jazz... and ended up dancing away to Jewish folk music in the Kutlurbrauerei. Such is Berlin. I was able to see the Ritter sport mini museum/cafe, and wandered around a flohmarkt on Sunday (had my obligatory currywurst now, and enjoyed it well enough!), before skypes and church service (another church visited). Inclusive in this was walking past a storm trooper queueing for his ticket at the UBahn Brandenburger Tor (see picture). It was busy there this weekend, as the marathon was on (rollerskates on Sat, running Sunday). Its one of the five biggest marathons in the world, I chatted to two competitiors on the S-Bahn post event. It was a miserably wet day for it, unfortunately, but you can't be put off by rain if you're serious enough to do a marathon!

This week, classes as usual, went to the choir again (unsure), visited my friend at the student halls in the south of the city. I had a lovely curry meal last night with my flatmate and some of her friends, it was brilliant to just have an easy going food and chat evening, getting to know my flatmate and her friends a bit, especially in German. Its really good to be able to get a spell of pure German language, which can so easily be interrupted here in an international city and language course (and by myself, like now!). Not a great week in wellbeing, but that passes. Found I needed some space in my diary, so Saturday has purposefully been made less empty. This sunday is the 20th anniversary of the mauerfall, and I had no idea until i had already filled it with non-mauer-celebration events! I'll try find a space to celebrate in some way, and I'm looking forward to the meet ups and skypes that I'll be doing anyway :)

We had a brilliant tour of Kreuzberg by one of the tutors this afternoon. I learnt some bits about Berlin at the time of the Mauer. Apparently, there was a strip of the wall, where actually some DDR land was on the west side of the wall, so west berliners out of favour with the police set up their make shift abodes on this few hundred metres of land. Similarly, the DDR owned the SBahn, and West Berlin the Ubahn - hence, the Zoo/something station, split into Sbahn above and Ubahn below, was perfect for drug dealers to zip up the stairs to DDR turf when the west berlin police came. The turkish markets in Kreuzberg are pretty well known too, great to see, despite having to do the whole shoulder-to-shoulder thing most of the way down. I have been most informed about my food options here by reading the wikipedia article on turkish cuisine. Its pretty tasty, hot and greasy, as well as special breads, from what I can tell.. I've only tried lahmacun so far, and a taste of, um a boereck maybe? Wikipedia has the answers.

The University introduction days for (only exchange?) students are this next Wed and Thursday, and course options are open for application as of next week (need to work that out). I have to retake the language test too, to show i can do the next level German as foreign language course. Oh, and sport course applications too. Maybe a dance class?

I think that might actually be all. God bless!

Half way through learning to talk

Hallo Alle,
(picture: Museum Insel)

ENGLISH
Every time I speak English I know its not helping my German. This is a little frustrating, as keeping you informed auf Deutsch would be very inefficient - like both of us using really dodgy telephone lines. I'm no native German, and neither are you (well maybe, and if so then that would mean wincing at the errors). I think its something a few of on the language course find too. We want to keep speaking German, but as the most flexible language we have is English, this has to take over sometimes. I'm glad to be living in a German speaking flat at least! My blog title refers to the fact i'm in week 3 of 6 on the Sprachkurs.. going fast!

NEW THINGS
So, whats new. I've bought pumps for three euros (immer leibe ein Snaeppchen!), sang acapella Les Mis in a choir (maybe a regular thing), been to the Musuem Insel (impressive and beautiful), and started to once more try and untangle what I can/can't/should do for courses online.
We have to choose our courses from the beginning of October, and I'm eager not to miss any more paperwork after such an incident before coming to Germany. Its all a bit mushy, what courses are on and how they might fit, but its slowly coming together.
I've met a family/new church(?!) from England I've been in touch with, who are planting a church here. It has been great to keep in touch with them as I've been searching for flats, so Nigel (and Clare), it was great to finally meet the family and have Sunday bible study and meet all the/you(?) people there (if you ever read this!). I'm still contemplating what I'll be doing in terms of a church community here. Lots of prayer darueber.

LIVING
Being in the new flat is brilliant. I got to learn a bit about German politics the other night, while Helena learnt a bit about English-Scots relations! I'm starting to connect up places a little, walked 10/15mins to the busy street of Karl-Marx Strasse the other day. My initial feelings of moving into this area were of feeling so alien, and just reminded me how narrowly I have lived, still live, might still live! I keep getting split reactions when I say Neukoelln to people, but I'm quickly warming to this little area I live at least. Every morning I walk out past the post box (check), out through the courtyard, round the corner past the shuttered student pub and little obilgatory bakery over the other side, down to the station, framed by the alley of trees down the little street (currently emrald green with the morning sun), passing a mum and child or two, maybe the hard drinkers on a corner or by the station (possible at any time of day/night, but maybe not quite then), and a jogger or office person, or a dog walker. I'll join the couple of students on the platform, and the not-sure-where-to-place-in-my-simple-occupation-category-system couples discussing something, often in Turkish (I think). I managed to get too comfy on the S bahn and go two stops too far the other day, so hopefully got that out of my system. I'll stop boring you with routine, it kind of mixes up and gets to free fun/chore/to do time post-language-class in the afternoon/eve. Who knows what uni routine will be like.

NOTED
Oh and pitures before I forget - I've put quite a few on facebook, not sure if I should attempt a more open source way of sharing them. If you want, go look there, and I'll try put a couple up here now and again.
I'm yet to see so much of the city, and really enjoyed our course trip to the Alte National Gallery. Its a beautiful Gebaude, and has some georgeous paintings and statues too, in their element on show. Its a great sight-seeing spot, and free to all museums there every Thursday 4pm onwards. I'll be back...
The choir on Wed was good, though its a while since I've sung for so long! Hopefully I can keep up the commitment. Its where uni is, so will probably try and stay down there on Wed for the eve rehersal. Otherwise its an extra 1h20 journey time.
Other than that, yes I've put a tiny bit of Denglish here on this blog, only because that is another taste of what its like living in a foreign country, with a foreign language. Maybe you recognise the tugging of two tongues in your mind, maybe you know what its like later. I don't think this year will be a total immersion in German by any means, but I can try wherever possible to use my German. It reminds me of a poem we did at GCSE by Sujata Bhatt about your mother tongue. I'm nowhere near as mother tonuge in German etc, or in danger of forgetting English from disuse, but it makes more sense now than as my 15 year old self sitting in the English classroom. I'll finish by sharing it.

You ask me what I meanby saying I have lost my tongue.

I ask you, what would you do

if you had two tongues in your mouth,

and lost the first one, the mother tongue,

and could not really know the other,

the foreign tongue.

You could not use them both together

even if you thought that way.

And if you lived in a place you had to

speak a foreign tongue,

your mother tongue would rot,

rot and die in your mouthuntil you had to spit it out.

I thought I spit it outbut overnight while I dream,

મને હુતું કે આબ્બી જીભ આબ્બી ભાષા(munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha)

મેં થૂંકી નાબી છે(may thoonky nakhi chay)

પરંતુ રાત્રે સ્વપ્નાંમાં મારી ભાષા પાછી આવે છે(parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay)

ફુલની જેમ મારી ભાષા મારી જીભ(foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh)

મોઢામાં બીલે છે(modhama kheelay chay)

ફુલની જેમ મારી ભાષા મારી જીભ(fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh)

મોઢામાં પાકે છે(modhama pakay chay)

it grows back,

a stump of a shootgrows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,

it ties the other tongue in knots,

the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,

it pushes the other tongue aside.

Everytime I think I've forgotten,

I think I've lost the mother tongue,

it blossoms out of my mouth.

Sujata Bhatt, 'Search for my tongue'

Rather too much to write

Alot of things have once more piled up, shuffled themselves round, been shaken out and so on since the last blog. I now have somewhere to live for the first 6 months, ie the end of Semester 1 in March! This is the biggest change. A 2er WG (flat) 2 minutes from the Sonnenalle ringline, Neukoelln. One girl is letting me her room for September, and when she returns her other flatmate leaves for Spain for the semester. I get on with them both quite well, so should all be fine. The flat is lovely too, cosy kitchen and bathroom, and just the bedrooms then, but its good! That was quite a hard decision, which I had to make quite quickly. Despite having an appointment to view a place for a year, its not everyday you click fairly well with people – so I am here.

NEUKOELLN

The area of Neukoelln is changed and still changing, like so much of Berlin. Its coming out of a worse reputation – the girls said they’ve noticed improvement over 3 years, though they hadn’t had any problems to start with. The idea of gentrification has been a topic in our classes, its happened in Prezlauerberg which is now an up-town-chic area.

Initially Neukoelln was where alot of the Turkish immigrants/more right wing Germans live, but now its getting more mixed, a bit less polarised. More students are starting to live here, just as neighbouring Kreuzberg has started doing over a good several years, so I hear. I feel a little bit out of place at first, now and again. It’s funny to talk about it, because its so easy to start sounding like you are prejudiced, but I mean the feeling that there isn't very much you have in common to share or appreciate, ethnicity, culture, income, beliefs, whatever. But we’re all people, you just need to keep your eyes open, and I'm glad to have found this place. Its important to say, too, this is all from just a few trips round a couple of streets, in a couple of days - and Neukoelln isn’t just the backyard outside my window.

The street I'm on has a little veg shop and deli, and I have 2 supermarkets within 5 minutes walk (the giants Lidl and Netto). Its quite quiet in this quarter, it is not the main shopping street, more houses.buildings. Having said that, I haven't ventured far.I look out into a small courtyard, in what I would say was a traditional European/German kind of building (Rach I will consult you on finer architectural details), um, its painted yellow. Its good. Thank you God.

OTHER NEWS

I’ve also got to retract the no-pulses statement – Netto here does stock the stuff, and Neukoelln’s Turkish shops are amazing! In particular a supermarket next to one of the stations. All manner of things that I want to try, not necessarily always knowing exactly what it is. If you visit and I have to go to the shops, you might be going there.

The beurocracy continues. I have registered as a resident, and now have an appointment for the bank, as well as wrapping up things with the previous place I stayed, and then the fun of a Thursday afternoon in the Erasmus office. Its all getting there, I just have to remember to get everything together for the right people at the right time. In fact, this week is steadily paced with paperwork, as well as a few social events with course friends, and homework.

THE LANUGAGE COURSE & RELATED ACTIVITIES

I’m really enjoying the course, despite wading through freshers flu-cold-symptoms. The teaching is going great, and out teacher introduced us to a song by Kleingeldprinzessin/Dota & die Stadtpiraten, which we should supposedly understand (try it). I love it! However, I only got a few snippets on first hear, about the underground and him turning round, but most of us bar one were pretty hazy. We then got the order the lines on paper, and we’ve talked about the story/use of tenses and stuff. To give you a snippet of class. The band are playing in Kreuzberg soon...

This weekend involved several outside course things. We went canoeing at Griebnitzsee – perfect weather, 80cent Eiskugel... Its next to Potsdam, so beautiful, with lots of grand houses and castles. On Sunday we had a group project down Friedrichstrasse (think Checkpoint Charlie and Unter den Linden). We(well just me in the end) had to interview a couple of residents. Poor people. One or two humoured me, and that was enough! A few pictures are below (I'm not doing well with moving them round the page, sorry), you'll guess which is canoeing/the walk. Thats all for now (phew).

I hope I haven't written anything I'll cringe at...

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Nearly a week in, the course started.

I was itching to write more on this blog every day, but that would be a rather inconvenient way of updating a blog, and rather unreadable. I've put the picture up from One of the S Bahn stations, Warschauer Strasse, with the Fernsehenturn.

Much has changed from day to day, with a will-I-won't I up and down with various WGs (shared flats), to no particular conclusive home for the year as of yet. In Germany, you often advertise for a flatmate when there is a spare place, and this is WG life (Wohngemeinschaft). I've visited one to find I'd be living with an older landlady, and one who said a bit vaguely they wanted people for longer than a year when I decided to say I'd definitely like the room. Many others don't reply, as they find someone and forget the advert/are snowed under with applications. I have a meeting for a year WG in the pipeline for Sunday, and just today found a 2 person place until the start of October to tide me over. I'm not going to be completely homeless!
Life has consisted alot of WG searching and related activities. I have wandered round alot, finding out the feel of different districts and the like. I've also been to a church last Sunday, who were a really friendly open community. I might be back there this week.Lots of paperwork/contact to sort out too, with the authorities and the uni with my courses.

The Vorkurs (langauge course) has started up, we've had a test and shuffled into groups. Its great to have similar abilities to learn with. We've had a Biergarten social, and other social events to come include Kayaking on Saturday as well as some personally organised events. Its all kicking off now! English is the language that includes the most people (varying German levels), but German is used when possible.

Other snippets include a memorable U-Bahn trip, where the whole train was one long tunnel. It was like you were in a supermarket aisle, but you were under some infulence and it kept curving before you. German words being crammed into English worship - sometimes fine, but 'Unser Gott ist ein maechtiges Gott' (put in awesome for maechtiges) has too many syllables for its tune. Seeing the Fernsehenturn at sunset. The amazing technology that is Skype. Missing people, naturally. Meeting new people. Finding that though I knew baked beans did not exist here, pulses in general are a rarity. I had forgotten golden syrup does not exist (no flapjack). I have really wanted a cup of tea and not had a standard teabaag to hand. 'The tide is high' (original ska-calypso ish) being struck up on the tube by two guys with dreadlocks, a guitar and German accents. Seeing allsorts of people on the tube. A Flohmarkt on Sunday selling lots of old treasures outside the station.

Thats all for now. Kish.

In Berlin

I nearly wrote my first blog on critical battery in an internet cafe near Alexanderplatz.. and decided against it. So I'm now writing this blog sitting on the floor of my first temporary flat in Berlin, having bought a cable to sort out my wireless internet problem. I'm on the floor, because as a stingy student, I don't want to uncoil the cable until I'm sure this really works, and then I can take it back if this is just a blip. Anyway...
I am in Berlin! As planned. And I have got round to doing this blog for my year abroad - I want to keep in touch with lots of people all at once. (at this point I have established faith in my cable, and move to a comfier seat.. yes, the cable just reaches my room. Skype a possibility! Still not trusting this though.)
The first 24hours have been quite an adjustment. I arrived to my temporary home quite tired, about 8pm here time (an hour ahead of the Brits). I met the girl-im-renting-from's boyfriend, who was a really friendly guy in a beard and a cap (I won't try harder to describe him), who showed me the layout and shops. One flatmate has gone on holiday for a week this morning, and the last one is around. Today I've been scouting out the area/uni route (an hour from here, Freidrichschain), buying important items like maps and travel tickets (and internet cables). I found a cafe with free internet, and did some flat hunting (getting there).
And I discovered you have to be registered at an address to have a German mobile number. I have heard that beurocracy is rife here and in uni.
When there is alot before you, its easy to shut down. But its been manageable, though really noticeable sometimes, when you have to tell yourself what you are doing here. Have a bigger perspective. Having internet is winding up the day well.
I will hopefully not bore you with so many trivial things when life settles into more of a predictable pattern. Everything is new!
Bis bald, much love to all on the island of GB (and elsewhere too!) .k.