Berlin: 10 Little Things

I've been here just over a month, so what I have noticed about Berlin so far?

1) Sparkling water

When I first arrived, I was horrified by it's popularity, and accidentally bought it more than once. On my first day of work, my boss brought me a glass and I kinda just had to suck it up. Since then it's not too bad, I still prefer still water, but my face doesn't contort as much. 

2) U-Bahn 

The U-Bahn is so much cleaner and friendlier than the Paris metro, and I haven't smelt human waste yet. Touch wood. There are beggars and buskers, yes, but not hundreds, and most of the ones I've seen have been quite delightful (the buskers, that is). If Paris was about looking out of the metro at the Eiffel Tower while a bloke played the accordion, then Berlin is about looking at graffiti while a man plays a guitar. The Berliners also seem to understand train etiquette- they always stand aside to let people off the train before piling on. It's a miracle! Saying that, they seem to have no concept of standing on the right hand side on escalators. I still do though, and hope to God I don't pick up the habit of not, otherwise I might just be lynched in England.

No Navigo-style pass here, just a paper ticket!

3) Jaywalking

You're really not supposed to cross on a red man, but I forgot this a few times at the beginning. It's a bit painful sometimes, but if you leg it, you're more than likely going to get very disapproving looks and mutters. Cars will show no mercy. I feel I am obliged to mention the Ampelmann here, as he is very famous and even has his own shop on Unter den Linden (you can even buy Ampelman soaps...)

4) Bikes

GET A BELL. The amount of times I have nearly been knocked over by a cyclist, who then swears at me. Oh, well, I do apologise for not having eyes in the back of my head.

5) Bakeries

The bakeries are out of this world. I recently discovered the Nougat Croissant which was gorgeous. Cherry filled Pfannkuchen, Rosinenschnecke, Brezel, a ridiculous array of doughnuts, and Quark filled pastries...whatever that is. I have cheese and bell pepper bread sometimes for lunch and most mornings I find myself in the bakery for a coffee and something tasty. This is a habit I should probably kick.

Also, in Berlin Pfannkuchen means doughnut (the filled ones, ring ones are just Donuts). Everywhere else it means pancake. I know right.

6) Berlinerisch

Before I got here, I looked up the Berlin dialect and panicked a bit, as it looked utterly incomprehensible. It turns out that I probably don't hang around with proper Berliners, as I haven't heard that much of it and the accent is usually clear, if a little harsh sometimes. People say 'icK' more than 'iCH' which upsets me a bit. I have noticed though, that Tschüssi is very common as a goodbye and I've also heard 'was' pronounced as 'wat'. 'Kiez' means like, district or borough e.g. Kreuzberg is a Kiez. Then there's the nicknames- Kottbusser Tor is known as Kotti, Görlitzer Bahnhof as Görly, Ku'damm is Kurfurstendamm and Alexanderplatz is just Alex. I hope Jean teaches me more!

Edit: I've since learnt that 'Kiez' is a lot smaller than a neighbourhood. People use it to describe the streets where they live, do their food shopping, drink etc. In that sense, it's more of a community thing.

7) The Cinema

I've been to the cinema twice now and I love it, mainly because they do sell salty popcorn, you can drink a beer during the film and the particular cinema I like doesn't show dubbed films, rather the originals with subtitles. I find dubbing really hard to get on with- most of the time, the speech is too fast, monotonous and I find myself watching the actor's mouths trying to work out what they are actually saying or is that just me? It's 9 euros even with a student discount, which is cheaper than Paris, but I really miss The Savoy in Nottingham! 

8) Recycling
They LOVE it. They really do. You think it's stressful having a green box and a black bin? Pah. It was one of the first things my flatmate explained to me, and when I accidentally forgot and put a milk carton in the bin, she literally got it right out again and put it in the correct bag. Now I know.

9) Smoking
I nearly fell over when I first bought 38g of Pall Mall. It cost 5 euros! Insane. You can also buy cigarettes from little machines in the supermarket by the conveyor belts, I'm yet to try. There are quite a lot of bars where smoking is allowed inside, which I find a little gross, and by the time you get outside you've forgotten what oxygen feels like. Though, when they are separate smoking lounges in a bar it reminds me of like, 1995 and pub lunches with the fam. A lot of people smoke in the U-Bahn stations as well and flick the butts onto the tracks, which sets my nerves off!

10) Gesundheit
Okay, so I have sneezed about 1000 times in the office and neither my boss or Marit have EVER said Gesundheit to me. I was bristling at this rudeness, until I asked the other day about it and they said that Germans don't really say it....really? OK. I don't say it to them now either. Small talk doesn't really work here either- I said to my boss 'Oh it's a really nice day isn't it!' and he just looked at me a bit quizzically before saying 'Ja...stimmt'.

I'll leave it here, with this advert which is a real Ohrwurm (song that gets stuck in your head)

tschüssi!
xx

Fabulous? Er, it just means sehr, sehr gut...

Hallo! 

I've been in Berlin for over a week now but it feels so much longer. Not in a bad way though, I just feel very comfortable here. I haven't felt very homesick yet but I think that's because I have such a structured routine here already and from the moment I got here had two very friendly flatmates to keep me entertained and distracted. I also feel like this is a more secure move in a way, because when I got to Paris I KNEW I was away from home, because I was in a student residence but here everything just feels very different. That's not to say I don't miss people back home, because I do, it just isn't getting me down. Give it a few more weeks eh.

Anyway, it's been a very good first week. My bank card arrived and I also have my monthly U-Bahn pass. Apart from working, I've had a couple of touristy days- Checkpoint Charlie, Berliner Dom, St. Hedwigs' Cathedral (what a superb name), the Stasi Museum (which I took ages to find and didn't realise I was outside it till I ate lunch. In my defence, the whole old Ministry of State Security complex has now got doctor's surgeries in it), the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, I went shopping on Ku'damm yesterday (thank you Sia, for introducing me to Pull and Bear, new fave) and checked out Potsdamer Platz, where the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) is happening right now. No celebrity sightings, I am sad to report, but I did get asked for directions by a very hip looking lady with a dog.

Berliner Dom

Lunch outside what turned out to be the Stasi Museum. 

Dusky 

9/10

shopping like a rich Berlinerin

I'm just gonna have to accept it

Anyway, WORK.  

I was so nervous sitting outside on my first day, mainly because I was confused by the location. I knew it was on a quiet street, but I didn't expect the office to actually be in a ground floor apartment! Anyway, my boss is really nice although he reminds me a bit of my Grandad, in that he is really encouraging but has this really piercing stare when he's waiting for a response which is scary.  He didn't mess around and I was immediately shown the ropes and given work to do!  So far, I've proofread a website, a job advertisement, a cosmetics press release, translated some info about some sort of technical product and made a database of English advertising and communication companies. I feel like I'm learning every day, and having to explain English grammar rules in German keeps me on my toes; it's challenging having to justify why you've chosen a certain word instead of another. We also don't speak English in the office, so even if I am reading in English all day, I am still speaking and listening in German.  

Another girl called Marit works in the same room as me, on the desk opposite, and she seems lovely so far, even though when she speaks I nearly break my ears listening because her accent is really difficult so by the time I've processed the meaning, she's onto the next part and waiting for my answer. 

As for the flatmates, it's been great so far. Last Friday we went for ramen in Kreuzberg (I'm so cool I might do myself an injury) and we just chill watching tv together. Last night, Kat and I watched Winnetou dubbed in German and ate chocolates. That's my idea of chilled home life.

Have any strange things happened? Of course they have. A man offered me one of his muffins (he had three) while I was sitting outside a bakery, a very old woman with platinum blonde hair and drawn on eyebrows like, in her hairline, stared at me on the U-Bahn for an uncomfortable period of time and I saw a man in Aldi pushing around his dog in the trolley, just piling food around it. There's been others, but I found these particularly memorable. 

I'm actually quite excited for the week ahead, just eager to get back to work and see what more interesting things I'll be doing. For the moment, I'm very very keen, whether that'll change after a month or so, we'll see...

Also, Joe is coming to visit at the weekend which will be great and hopefully we're gonna see a film at the Berlinale (fingers crossed!)

Bis bald xx