Awake by 2pm sunset at 4...not cool

Last night was long...and late.  I don't really have much more to say about it.  I got married to my friend at some shanty wedding chapel and danced for hours.  This is what my shows looked like this morning when I got home...oh and the sun was already up.  Whoops.

Seriously...NASTY.

wah wah...sundays.  God I miss chipotle.

Weather Update: Still Raining

So I've pretty much written off November as the crappiest month ever.  I think it's rained all but one day this month so far.  Today, however, has the added bonus of being just a smidge above freezing which makes it that much more unpleasant.  But enough about how das Wetter ist schiesse.

A couple of things to mention today.  So there are little personal street vendor people here all over the place.  They have these contraptions where they strap a portable grill to themselves...well here's a picture.

It's sort of awesome because they always seem to appear right when I'm really hungry and it's like 1.50 Euro for a wurst.

Well in addition to these dudes there are all these random little stands that make fresh OJ.  I've never bought any, but my new flatmate has a juicer thinger and I went to the supermarket and bought a bag of oranges and just made some fresh OJ.  WHOA is it good.  Definitely the highlight of my day so far.

Additionally today, I want to give a shout out to Mr. Marco Martinez because he is the first confirmed visitor I will have.  He's coming in March all the way from Singapore.  So you other fools best get to planning your trips!

Lastly, on my walk back from school today, while the bitter wind was cutting through my jeans (currently the warmest pants I have here) that it's okay if I "thicken up a little."  I need the added warmth.  So watch out Weihnachtsmarkt  (Christmas Markets), here I come and I've got a BIG appetite!  But seriously, Germans take Christmas real serious.  They celebrate basically for the entire month of December getting presents on December 6th and the 24th!  Totally win for kids in Germany.  Here's a website about it in English. 


http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/

Bis bald!

German Oddities #3 - Canines

Berlin is a very dog friendly city.  There are parks and grassy areas scattered all through the city which helps but these dogs are amazing.  Honestly, the things they do baffle me.  Growing up I was surrounded by dogs but they were all psychotic, tireless, beasts that usually dominated their owners.  Yea, that’s not the case here.   

There are 3 things in particular I’ve noticed.  

1.       Leashes are optional.  These dogs are amazing.  Some run 30 feet ahead of their owners and then stop and wait, then dart out again to find something else to sniff never bothering other dogs or people and THEN they get to an intersection and look for traffic.  I shit you not, it’s amazing.

2.       Going to the mall?  Well, why not bring Fido?  Dogs can go everywhere here.  In stores, on the metro, into work.  I’m kind of jealous.  In the US I always felt like I could never have a dog because it would be home alone all day…well in Germany, you have options.

3.       Teach it to do a trick and you can make some money.  It is very common for panhandlers to have dogs here.  I guess it makes sense…if you are homeless having a dog can be a great companion and they don’t mind eating scraps from a can, but some of these dogs really are being underappreciated.  I’ve seen dogs that suck on pacifiers, that walk on their hind legs, that are part of juggling fire skits, and the topper was a pup that walked up and down the metro car with a paper in his mouth while his owner gave a spiel about why you should buy one.  NOTE:  it is common for pan handlers to try to sell you free newspapers in Berlin.  This was one time where I thought the guy or at least his dog deserved a treat for this feat.   

Brithdays, Dancing, and late night Dining

It's been a few days since I've blogged but it's because I've been pretty busy.  I feel like I'm really making progress in the friends department.  I think I'm up to like 8 or 9 now.  Enough that I don't have to keep count anymore. 

This past Friday I went to a gallery opening for a friend of mine from NYC.  It was a cool show and really my first time hanging out with the artsy types in Berlin.  After the opening we went to grab some food and then to Soho House Berlin.  It's funny because I've walked by the Soho House here many times never paying it much mind.  I'm actually only familiar with Soho House because the comedian who does VMK mentions it in one of her posts.  Anyway, it was a great venue and the only way to go is of course if you know a member.  It was two floors, very cool decor that I would describe as Americana rustic (think Aspen chic ski lodge).  The second floor had an outdoor roofdeck pool that overlooked Alexanderplatz and was VERY cool.  The water was heated and I seriously considered derobing and jumping in, but it was raining and my friends weren't as enthused. Anyway, I think I'll save my 900 euros (annual price to be a member) and just keep patronizing the 4,000 other bars/clubs/lounges in Berlin. 

Saturday say was pretty low key because I knew the evening would be a long one.  A friend of mine, Christian, who I met on my first visit to Berlin turned 30 on Sunday and we celebrated Saturday night by going to this amazing show at the Chameleon Club that was like miniature Cirque du Soleil.  It was a fantastic show with a cast of 8 (4 men and 4 women).  I will be sending most of my visitors to the show...it was that good.  After that we went to a bar that was literally the size of most people's walk in closet's in the US.  Somehow they fit a good 25 people in there though.  From the bar, called Betty Ford (lol), we went to one of my favorite clubs, Schwuz.  I ran into some other friends there and ended up dancing until nearly 6 am.  After, Henrik and I, both famished, went in search of late night food.  Well unfortunately, Berlin despite having a crazy nightlife, is greatly lacking in late dining options.  We ended up going to Burger King which I don't think I've eaten in years.  I ate a disgustingly large amount and was unpleasantly reminded of it Sunday morning er afternoon when I rolled out of bed. 

Good things about Berlin's night life:

• U-Bahn (subway) runs 24 hours
• Things to do every night of the week
• Great variety of things to do (galleries, shows, live music, dancing)
• No open container laws
• Really fun, creative parties (Saturday night at Schwuz was called Popkicker and there were ping pong tables set up one of the three dance floors)

Things about Berlin's night life that take some getting used to:

• No late night diner food :(
• Going out at 1am is early
• Berlin is REALLY spread out, commuting between bars is not like going from Nellie's to the Diner.  It's more like Nellie's to College Park.
• Leaving the club before 4am is unusual
• Bakeries are open (for the next day) and selling baked goods on your commute home from the club...(I can't decide if this needs reclassified as a good thing)
• There are quite a lot of others but in order to keep this PG13, I'll let you ask me about those in private

 Anyway the bottom line is that nights out in Berlin generally render Sundays pretty much worthless.  All I have to say is thank goodness I don't have to work on Mondays because I'd be suffering from some SERIOUS P.A.D.S.

Alles Gut - for real, Germany is awesome and I keep smiling!

So I want to preface this post by stating that I have not seen the sun in nearly 10 days.  In addition to this, it's been raining and inching closer and closer to freezing every day.  That being said, I am just about as happy as I have ever been. 

I by all means do not want to use my blog as a forum to have deep philosophical conversations.  Really, despite spending a lot of my free time being intorspective, I've reserved blogging to primarily my observations about the peculiarities of Germany and the people I meet.  Today, however, I do want to write a little bit about how I've been feeling.  I guess the thing I really want to say is that this adventure of mine is quickly proving to be the best decision I've made in my life. 

A year ago, had I not seen the sun in 10 days, I'd be groveling along feeling sorry for myself.  Funny, because today I have been smiling all day.  Weather usually gets me bad!  I mean, of course the gray skies and rain have been taxing on me, but today I can't stop thinking about how freaking happy I am.  Granted, I am still faced with a lot of uncertainty.  I'm anxious about jumping through all the bureaucratic hoops ahead of me to legally ensure that I can stay here for the duration I've intended.  Additionally, I want to be successful in learning the language, continuing with my educational pursuits, and making friends.  But something that has become blatantly clear to me is that back in the states I often let negativity and doubt reign over my life.  I frequently was second guessing myself, assuming or preparing for the worst and really had no appreciation for how unbelievably fortunate I am.

So here I stand.  My 7th week in Germany and I am feeling great.  I've stripped my life of most of my material possessions--bar the two suitcases of clothing I brought over, an iPod and my new kindle (which is freaking awesome by the way)--and I'm as happy as I can ever remember being.  I don't want to say there is a moral to my story but I think I have learned a valuable lesson.  That is to remove yourself from your daily grind.  I realize not everyone will have the opportunity to move to a foreign country to reflect on what their life was, but everyone can take a chance.  Do something you've always wanted to do and do it big.  Stick it to the naysayers and live your fucking life!


To all my friends, family, and loved ones back home, I miss you all.  Your support and encouragement is as much to credit for my success and happiness here as anything.  Thank you all.

German Oddities #2 - Mayonnaise

German’s LOVE mayonnaise.   Oh so you want some French fries with your schnitzel?  How about some ketchup?  Nah…I am going to dip my fries in some delicious—genetically modified to make it as thick as molasses—mayo.   Seriously, I enjoy mayo, but mayo on French fries?  Ew

IKEA can suck it

Okay, generally I love IKEA, they make cheap shit that is functional and looks decent...however, any story I ever hear about a trip to an IKEA store is always a nightmare.  Granted the IKEA college park might be the worst in the world, my experience in Berlin was also scarring.  I'm actually so annoyed by it I don't feel like writing about it, just know that I've now made 3 trips to IKEA and have YET to procure all the necessary items to complete my room.  They are sold out of the support for my desk (which is sold as separates and I didn't realize this on my first two trips any only bought 1). 

Also, those Swedish bastards don't take effing VISA!  After spending 2 hours weaving through the maze of a store with screaming children and mildly retarded do it yourselfers, I had to pay in cash.  Picture me going to pay with a dolly full of shit already rung up, AFTER waiting in queue for 25 minutes and then having to find out without using English that they don't take VISA. What a pain in my ass.

Anyway, pictures of my room will be further delayed until further notice.  Also the sun isn't supposed to come out again until next weekend at the earliest.

In other news, I think I will begin imbibing now.

Happy Saturday.

Lastly, daylight savings was last week, as I'm sure you all know, and official sunset here is already 4:27pm!  Yes, and we're still 7 weeks from the shortest day.

Introducing..... "German Oddities" #1 - Racial Profiling?

There are a lot of peculiar things that I notice on a day to day basis.  I've started a notebook and will be posting on them one at a time for the weeks to come.  First up:  Racial Profiling in Deutschland

So profiling would not be possible here, at all.  Remember that blog stuff white people like?  They should totally visit Germany.  They’d be supplied with material for MONTHS to come.  Berlin, in particular is an immigrant town, yet just about everyone is still white. In Berlin there are large Turkish and Eastern European populations, the Turkish I think I am starting to be able to pick out, but again, still white (they are sort of like the Latin Americans in the US, but I know nothing about that...)!

Post-It Note Couture

Okay, so I was without internet for 4 days, but now I more or less have it back, although the signal is rather spotty in my bedroom....while I was away I was still blogging, I'll post the entries over the next couple of days.

I’ve now more or less moved into my new flat and FINALLY unpacked my suitcases more than a month after arriving in Berlin.  It’s a great feeling.  The moving process was relatively painless except that both of my suitcases are around 75 pounds and my temporary living situation was a 7^th floor walk up.  

Henrik, who is on a fast track to German sainthood, helped me with renting a moving van and then took me to his parents’ house to pick up his old bedroom furniture.  Fortunately for me, and out of great generosity from his parents, they just recently turned Henrik’s old bedroom into an office which left them with some rustic furniture that was no longer of use to them.   

Cue Brian, the helpless American who moved to a foreign land with nearly nothing and wallah, I have a furnished bedroom.  Now I get to begin the fun part decorating and making my new bedroom my home.  It’s sort of like being back in college.   I’m even going to ask my mom to mail my old egg crate mattress top to me.  It will go swell on my new twin bed J.

In addition to my imminent trip to IKEA, I have begun decorating my room with post-it notes.  I’ve attached a post-it to every object in my room (hoping to expand into the living areas once I get approval from Meryum) with the word of the object that it is stuck to.   Since the Germans have THREE genders (gender benders) in their lovely, romantical language, I’ve color coded each noun as to reinforce the different genders.   If any of you have ever studied Deutsch, then you know that unlike Italian and Spanish there are no rules or even helpful ways to remember what gender a word is.  This leaves one forced to learn the article for every noun in the universe.  Anyway, lots of jokes I want to make here about Bob Bell and Sarah Spears but I’ll refrain.  I think mentioning their name after a sentence about gender benders will suffice.  ;)

UPDATE:  Yesterday I went to IKEA.  What a nightmare...I'll be blogging about that later and providing pictures of my new room.

P.S. Henrik’s childhood home looked exactly like every German home I’ve ever thought in my imagination.  It almost reminded me of a gingerbread house.  I’ve provided a picture to give you some reference…think Hansel and Gretel.  This picture is not really of his house, but it illustrates my point.  

Just kidding...that's Neuschwanstein in the south.  More like this...but brick...

Homeless chic was so last month

Good News, I found a flat and it's awesome.  It took me months of searching and even a harsh rejection, BUT this one is better than any that I came across before.  First, I want to give a big thank you to Henrik.  Henrik found me the flat by way of his lesbian hairdresser who had a friend who unexpectedly had her roommate move out.  Fate has smiled on me.

Okay, so it's in Old West, the American sector.  The neighborhood is Kreuzburg.  It's an edgy, hip, multicultural neighborhood and I just happen to be on one of the most beautiful streets that lines the canal.  Yes, that's right, waterfront baby.  I'll post pictures after I remember to take some.

My new address.

Brian Legg
Planufer 92C
10967 Berlin, Germany (Deutschland)