Eine neue Regel

Deutsch…Oh Deutsch… Deutsch ist sehr schwer. Jetzt, wir lernen über Adjektiven. Jede Wort hat einen Artikel, und jeden Artikel in jede Situation hat eine andere Regel. Ich bin frustriert. Also, ich spreche sowie ein Kind und für mich, dass ist nicht so gut. Ich spreche langsam und mit vielen Fehler. Ich übe mit andere Leute und ich spreche in meine Schule jede Tag, aber ich möchte besser sein.

So, Jack und ich haben eine neue Regel angefangen. In der Woche, kein Englisch bevor Abendessen. Am Wochenende wir sprechen kein Englisch bevor vielleicht Mittagsessen aber es ist abhängig von unser (ok...meiner) Stimmung. Ich hoffe diese Regel hilft mir.

Man kann Google Translate benutzen zu lesen diese Post. Aber, ich habe kein Google Translate benutzt :)

Chicken

At some point in your life, you have played the game of "Chicken". I played it often on top of the monkey bars, on a balance beam, or Camp Half Moon on a small dock on the lake. Chicken is the game where two people are walking, crawling, swimming, etc... towards each other. Eventually, one person has to move aside, or else you both will crash. The person who moves is the "Chicken".

Every time that I venture out into the streets of Berlin, I play the game of Chicken with Berliners. More often than not, I am the Chicken. The sidewalks here are rather wide, yet oncoming Berliners find a way directly in my path, even when I am clearly on the right side. No matter how many obstacles I have (bike lanes, dog poop, the side of a building) or how close to the street I am, Berliners do not move over, and it is I that must move, else we crash. This is not an exaggeration. It happens on a daily basis.

Often times, Berliners walk in groups of 3 or 4 people. Rather than form a line or walk 2x2 so that people can walk beside and pass one another, these groups of 3 or 4 people walk in a horizontal line, Charlotte, Miranda, Carrie, and Samantha style. Somehow, these ladies never crash into oncoming people and are able to hold a conversation about their latest sexcapades. However, this is not Sex and the City, and the groups of 3 or 4 people take up the entire sidewalk, whilst I crash into the row of bikes parked on the side of the sidewalk, or the tables from the outdoor seatings of the cafe that I am passing. I'm not invisible...these people can clearly see me, and yet they do not move. I have started to frown at them, saying "Seriously?!" in a rude voice. This has not proved to be effective. One day, I hope to win this game of "Chicken."

Give me a High Five #5: East Side Gallery

Brother Kyle came to visit for a very short but lovely weekend. We took him around Berlin, showed him some of the touristy sites, as well as some of the non-touristy sites. One place that we visited was the East Side Gallery, a long 1-ish mile long stretch of the original Berlin Wall in what was once East Berlin, complete with some Street Art and Graffiti. It is known as the largest "open air art gallery." After walking the Wall, I looked back on my pictures, and really looked at how magnificent some of this art is. If it was on a canvas, it could be in a museum. Here are my top 5 favorite "pieces" from the East Side Gallery. As always, they are in no particular order.

1.

2.

3.

So sad how this picture has been degraded. However, minus the graffiti, it is still pretty impressive.

4. 

5.

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Caption This #4

So the bro is visiting this weekend, and of course, we had to visit the Roman Family Berlin Bear. I made my own captions, but feel free to make your own!

Has he aged at all?

Annoying then, pain in the @$$ now :)

Wie gehts?

Wie gehts? = How are you? What's up? How's it hanging?

Hi everyone! So, it's been a while...Wie gehts? I started my intensive German classes, so class along with homework have been taking a lot of my time. Plus, the weather has been so wonderful, that Jack and I have been taking long walks every day. High 40s, sun, it's sehr toll (very awesome!). For all of you back in Antarctica (aka USA) who made fun of how cold I would be in Berlin, HA! Who's laughing now?

The other day, my friend Stef back in the US asked me two questions that I have been asked a lot, so I thought that I would share the answers. Her first question was "What was the most difficult thing to adjust to when moving to Germany." Eine gute Frage (A good question). Here's a list of a few things that I can think of at the top of my head:

1. I don't know if you know this, but everyone in Germany speaks German. Shocker, I know. Unfortunately, I don't. Major issue. It was very hard to get around by myself while Jack was at the archives every day and I had very little Deutsch to get around. Luckily, classes and hard work have improved my German, but it is something that I still struggle with pretty much on a daily basis.
2. Remember those micro-fridges that you had in college? They were big enough in college because you went to the food halls for every meal. Now, imagine that two people have to live out of that, because those micro-fridges that you had in college are the size of our fridge. While I used to have a big fridge and do once a week grocery shopping, now I find that I have to go to the grocery store almost every other day. While this makes all of our ingredients fresh, the last thing that I want to do every other day is go grocery shopping because our fridge can only handle so much. 
3. My most favorite concealer is not sold in Germany. Major bummer. Neither is my most favorite brand of peanut butter. Or canned pumpkin. Or my favorite gum brand. Or Target. Or Sephora. Or Nordstroms. The list goes on...
4. The sun. It went away for a while. In fact, my solar powered watch stopped working because it wasn't getting any rays. That was very hard to adjust to this winter, and the lack of sun made both Jack and I kinda depressed. Now, as the seasons are changing, we're slowly getting a ton of sun. Come April/May, we'll have the sun until around 9-10pm. That will be hard to fall asleep with!

Stef also asked another question: How tricky is it to find work here in Berlin? To be honest, somewhat hard. I have been lucky with meeting people who need babysitters, but you really have to stand out because there are thousands of other people in your position, looking for the same kind of jobs. Don't worry, Stef, I'll hook you up!

I am loving your questions. Don't worry, I will eventually get to them all! Hope you are all doing well, and have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Berlin Street Art

One very noticeable aspect about Berlin is that there is graffiti...everywhere. For those of you who have been to Italy where there is also a lot of graffiti, double what you remember about Italy, add 2, and there you have an idea about how much graffiti there is in Berlin. One reader asked the following questions: Why is there so much graffiti in Berlin? Why has it been accepted and not removed? Who is doing it? Well, reader (Hi, Sandy!), I've done some researching and found out the answer to your questions. Hope you're ready for a history lesson!

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As we all know, the Berlin wall split Germany into two sides; the East and West; The West was given freedoms that the East did not have, such as the freedom of expression. When the wall came up on the West side, it became a concrete canvas for artists who wanted to express themselves. Tons of artists, both local and international, came to Berlin's West side to paint on the wall. At first, their art was wiped away, but they kept coming back and painting again. What they were painting was not just graffiti, it was something more. Tourists traveled to West Berlin to see the "Berlin Wall Art", and tourists bring money. So, West Berlin saw that they were making money off of this art, and decided to stop removing it. 

East Berlin's side of the wall, however, was kept grey, until the wall came down. There was a whole side of the wall that wasn't painted on. When the wall fell, East German artists and other new artists decided to paint on their concrete canvas. To this day, artists still come to Berlin to find undiscovered areas, buildings, fire hydrants, etc... to showcase their art. Some artists have really made a name for themselves and use the streets of Berlin as their exhibit in a museum. This whole artistic "movement", if you could call it, is called "Street Art"

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Technically, it is not legal. Graffiti that is not street art (ie. the penises, boobs, and swears) are wiped away when they can. However, there are always going to be idiots in the world who enjoy spray painting these inappropriate features on walls, and not all can be caught. The street art is another story. It is pretty obvious as to what is considered graffiti and what is considered street art. Back in 2005, UNESCO named Berlin a City of Design. This status was given partially due to the street art, and Berlin has embraced this as a unique part of their culture. 

Here's a link to Google Images to see some of the street art. Take a look! Google Images Some more info on the history, UNESCO, and current art/artists (an interesting read!): The Heritage of Berlin Street Art and Graffiti Scene