street art. one in the head, one in the gut. Life in the big city.
I woke up around 11am this afternoon, sore
from yesterday's biking and in a funk. I wasted about 3 hours in bizarre
angst and self hatred, mad that I wasn't fluent in German yet, that I
didn't know the city as well as I wanted to and that I wasn't friends
with every person who has ever lived here. dead or alive. When I came to
my senses (I will assume this is a normal feeling for travelers in
similar situations to my own) I pawed through my stack of pamphlets
collected the day before, was frustrated with the amount of money I
could not spend on cultural activities and searched for choirs in Berlin
that I could join. tomorrow. and start singing in Deutsch with
Deutschen Sängerin. Take that bad mood! (It is worth noting that nearly
all of the 15 people I contacted wrote back within a matter of hours.
Ich liebe Musikerin pünktlich.) Then with only a small ember of self
hatred remaining and a heavy sense of cabin fever, I jumped on my bike
and rode in the direction of the Berlin Philharmonic. After failing to
convince them to take me in as a volunteer so I can see free shows (this
is not San Francisco after all...) I rode around Potsdamer Platz.
Finding Potsdamer Platz rather commercial and devoid of juicy morsels of
culture/discoverables... I got lost in the surrounding neighborhood
and found myself at the Berlin Wall, across the street from Hitler's old
headquarters. I spent about an hour and a half reading historical
tidbits surrounding the history of the wall. Once my heart was buried
5438759487589347 feet underground I decided to retrace my steps and buy
an espresso and eat the croissant I had packed in my bag. I have
discovered that I can sit at a cafe forEVER, without dirty looks from
the waitress, if I buy coffee and eat whatever I have thrown in my
backpack from breakfast. Genau. I had dinner with my hosts, Birgit
always sets such an elegant/romantisch table, and spoke mostly German
until meine Gehirn was kaputt. After copious complaints on my part that
live music is too expensive I was encouraged by a source to just enter
with the smokers at intermission for all the live shows I want to see
but cannot afford. This is brilliant. I will do this.
