I will live here one day. After my bizarre morning map ritual (blank stare, drool, highlight desirable course, write hints on my hand in black pen, write out more hints on a small sticky note that I shove in my bra for easy access...) I rode to Universitat Der Kunst's Music School to check out my future grad school (I have just decided). Birgit put me in contact with a Berlin opera singer who studied there and is now working and teaching around Europe... I feel this is enough of a connection to base the decision of my ultimate destiny...
The campus is spread all over Berlin, so I spent today at one campus. There is no "information center" (universities here are not all for profit. its amazing. and affordable. and perfect...just, perfect) so I walked around the building, popping my head in practice rooms and rehearsal halls and grabbing every free pamphlet with something music related on it. I figured I could go back home, decode them all and become musically enlightened. Which I will do, in a bit. My stack of decodables is now 7 inches high...
Anyhow, the ride to the campus took a significant amount of time as I am still figuring out the street system here. It doesn't help that every few blocks streets change names... If the street veers slightly to the left in some places, it might become a different street not related to the name change, or lead you in a circle.. or continue on some out-of-sight cobblestone side road that looks like a dead end but isn't. Its fine. I memorize bizarre things all the time; I will just add the streets of Berlin to my list.
Whenever I get too confused I stop for an espresso. it's a brilliant system. I lock my bike and walk into all the nooks and crannies of bizarre side roads until I find a cafe whose vibe I like. Today I met an Angel of a Turkish woman named Deniz (meaning "sea" in Turkish. She tells me she was named after the Baltic sea-where she was born) who, when I accidentally asked for "thong water" instead of "tap water" (leistungwasser vs. leitungswasser) immediately befriended me, told me she also had a hard time with that word when she moved here 10 years ago and spent the next 2.5 hours showing me places to visit in Berlin on google maps on her laptop. She also put me in contact with a group of musicians that meet at her cafe for open mikes etc and invited me to a concert of the songwriter who heads the group. I will be at his concert this Saturday and I am pretty stoked to hear him live (he sounds sweet on is website
http://www.reverbnation.com/chrisglen) and to get acquainted with my very first group of friends made entirely on my own. I mean, without the help of my host family.
Long after my brain had been resisting information for fear of spillage I left to continue my journey. I found an epic music store and pawed through copious amounts of artful sheet music from the early 1900s, bought 2 books that I thought my hostess and I could use for our end of summer concert and stopped next door in a "bio" (organic food store- they are everywhere here) bought two bars of chocolate with words like "Himbeersaft+ztrone" and "zartebitter"on them and rode to meet Jane in her neighborhood...Where all the hip kids live in Berlin.
She made me dinner and ate on the most romantic balcony scene you could imagine. Straight out of...not even movies are that romantic.... After dinner she showed me a walk along the canal where everyone sits and drinks and plays weird ball games that I have never seen or heard of. I am blown away by how friendly and open people are with each other. Not as clique oriented as the US. Everyone is in a huge community circle hanging out. I don't get it. Its too good. There is racism here FOR SURE (people were surprised when I told them I befriended a Turkish woman....? wtf) but theres also an incredible brotherhood. The finale was a chill session on the stairs of a beautiful castle/tower that sits on what they call a hill here (20-30ft?) and overlooks Berlin. By this point my butt and feet hurt so much from biking and walking all day (about 7 hours of biking and the rest walking) that I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked to.
I got back home around 12:30 and Birgit, God bless her, made me a second dinner and played through the German songbooks I bought earlier that day while I sightread.
WHAT IS THIS LIFE??
I am blown away by the magic in my life right now. Straight out of "The Alchemist" or some equally evoking reference...
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| selection of German beverages from a quickie mart downstairs. I recommend "bionade" an organic sparkling juice/soda thingy coming in "ginger-orange" flavors etc. |
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| Jane's room in hipsterville. So beautiful. |
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| Jane's bathroom art. "Fuck Forever". |
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| view from Jane's terrace. |
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| I have lost my ability to make "photo face".nonetheless. |
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| chillage and drinkage along the canal in hipsterville. |
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| Jane with the dog. |
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| street art in hipsterville. |
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| sunset along the canal |
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| strange ball game...along the canal.. |
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| more views of sunset at the park on the canal near Jane's house |
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| jane. I like this photo :) |
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| Angst auf Yuppies in hipsterville. |
oh... I am eating one of my unknown "bio" chocolate bars. it is out of this world...i just looked up the website and found a English translation for the product. Please go do yourself a favor and buy everything they have in stock. (
http://www.zotter.at/en/choco-online/hand-scooped-chocolates/fruity/detail/v/raspberry-lemonspan-classkuvertuerewhite-couverturespan.html) They have taken the chocolate bar to a whole other level. Good God.
PS. I might be getting a job (through Birgit) being a prep cook for a chef here in Berlin. 8 euros an hour to peel potatoes and watch a genius cook? I'll take it.
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