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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