Mag ins Kino gehen!

Good news for those Berliners who dislike (or even despise, hate and loathe) films dubbed in German, but love to go to the movies: nowadays, amazingly many theatres show films with the original soundtrack and German subtitles :) A fact that somewhat heals my wounds for missing Berlinale despite LIVING IN THIS GODDAMN CITY, and on top of it all, it hadn’t need to be so. Oh well, it’s a long story and next year I have a good reason to visit Berlin in February.

So far I’ve seen The Howl, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Swan, King’s Speech and yesterday I went to see 127 Hours. Every film has been surprisingly good, not one single did I think was crap or even mediocre. Can recommend each and every one! I’ll maybe write a review on them one day, or then maybe procrastination will get a hold of me again. We’ll see.

The theatres I’ve been to have mostly been small and cosy: Babylon Kreuzberg (Dresdener Straße 126), Central (Rosenthaler Straße 39), Hackesche Höfe (Rosenthaler Straße 40/41, the entrance is right next to Central’s, so make sure you’re in the right place!) and Rollberg Kino (Rollbergstraße 70). Only Hackesche Höfe I cannot recommend, at least not room 1: it’s absolutely lousily planned/built, the room doesn’t rise especially much at least at the back and the chairs are positioned in such a manner that if you get unlucky (which is quite likely, in this case), you’ll end up staring at somebody’s head instead of the screen. Money well spent and a splendid movie experience.

Going to the movies is apparently not that devout an event as it is in Helsinki. Particularly in Orion, which is specialised in classic, not-that-mainstream (argh, I hate defining anything through “mainstream”, but here we go) films, it is at worst a mortal sin to breathe too loudly, not to mention rustling with your candy bag, if you’re unsophisticated enough to bring candy to the Sacred Place. Grown-ups don’t need candy in order to enjoy their films, and most certainly do not ruin the pleasure of others due to their infant desires.

Well, believe you me, not to worry that you’ll encounter any sort of behaviour or attitude pictured above... On the contrary, you can almost be sure that you’ll get at least a dozen of kicks in the back of your chair, your fellow viewers are certainly not shy about eating or drinking (with all the appropriate noises, of course), and they’ll at the very least make commentaries on the film in not-that-lowered-a-voice, quite probably just talk about the everyday stuff you normally go through with your friends, accompanied by giggles and snorts, etc etc. Yay, it’s like going to the movies with the kindergarten shift!

Ok, I’m really not as pissed off as one could interpret, but it indeed has been somewhat of a culture shock after being used to the Finnish custom. It doesn’t have to be as Naz...uh, strict as it is in Orion at worst, but people could be a bit more considerate...

But it’s a small price considering that I have the possibility to go to the movies in the first place! I really expected this to be a more or less filmless year, which made my heart ache quite a bit. But as said, there are loads of films screened with the original soundtrack, and the theatres are nice and there are many of them :) A good search engine for films is e.g. Tip Berlin’s. Choose your day at Kalendersuche on the right, then type in your search term (“Stichwort”) or choose your other search criteria (e.g. area or time of day), and make sure you have chosen “Originalfassung mit Untertiteln” (original with German subs) or “Originalfassung” (original) in the “Fassung” (soundtrack) drop-down menu.

The prices are very affordable, from 5 to 7 Euros, with an extra charge of 0.50–1.50€ for long films (120 min.->). I assume you’d have the opportunity to pay for tickets in the Finnish price class (13€) for fancy 3D screenings at e.g. Potsdamer Platz, but I am very happy with these more moderate and homely places. They btw don't have seat tickets, so you'll want to be quite early if you want to be sure to have a good seat. However, normally there's not that huge an audience and thus there is plenty of room, so it's not the biggest stress in the world.

What I do miss, however, is an Orion-like theatre that shows (also) other than just the latest and hottest films. One possible candidate could be fsk Kino (Segitzdamm 2) at Oranienplatz (very near me, in other words!). I’ll have to familiarise myself a bit more with the programme, but it seemed promising at a quick glance. Recommendations on other similar theatres are naturally warmly welcome :)

“First” impressions of studying in Berlin

Oooh, I feel very tempted to wonder how time flies so fast, but I somehow have the feeling I’ve done that in some most posts already. So I’ll try to restrain myself and just state that the winter semester is over by next week (one exam remaining), which means that I’ve lived here for almost half a year. I.. I... uh... must... sorry. Just can’t hold it back. Wtf, where’d 6 months go?!

There, it’s out. Now I can proceed to something I intended to do some months ago already. I had planned on writing a post about first impressions of studying in Germany, but now I guess I can with a good conscience leave that ”first” out already.

Naturally, I have only my studies in Helsinki to compare with, and judging on conversations with other Finns, experiences vary quite a lot. I find studying here A LOT easier than in Finland. I really haven’t been doing much more than just slacking for the past months (save these past two weeks, but that’s still quite a nice ratio), whereas at home, I’m used to slaving my ass off. Of course, it’s partly just a matter of attitude: I really have allowed myself to be lazy as hell, which surely has done me good... but maybe I could get just a teeny-weeny grip by the time it’s time to return home in July (which will be in just a jiffy! Sorry. Just had to.).

It seems that book exams just don’t exist here, for which I am very grateful – I hate them, from the bottom of my heart. Most courses seem to be seminars for 20–30 people, with lots and lots of discussion. Depending on the ECTS score, they also include holding presentations, writing a Hausarbeit (an 15–25-page essay) and/or writing a protocol of one lecture. This is something completely unheard of in Helsinki. We mainly have anonymous mass lectures where no other voice than the lecturer’s is heard, or then these damn book exams. Never ever have I held a presentation at the university before, and seminars in which you actually engage in a discussion with other living people are definitely a rare treat.

I find the way of teaching here waaay better than that in Finland. I, at least, learn much better through discussion and writing than just reading hundreds and again hundreds of pages, of which you slightly panicked try to remember enough of to make it through the exam, and then forget 99% by the following week. I have to admit, though, that the German system makes it also very easy to slack it through the courses without doing really much anything. In principle, students are usually required to prepare for lectures by reading given articles etc., and of course you get a lot more out of the courses if you do that and are able to take part in the conversation. However, no one really checks whether you’ve read anything or not (I, as a rule, have not), nor does anyone force you to open your mouth. So being the lazy bastard I’ve turned into, I’ve mainly just been sitting there once a week without saying much and just listening to others (or, more likely, been daydreaming and surfing on Facebook), and for that I’ll score 3 ECTS. Kthxbai!

Luckily, most students seem to be very highly motivated here and take their studies seriously. They clearly do the preparatory work required, discussion is pretty much always very active, and the habit of holding presentations clearly shows. People are really relaxed with public performances, hold really coherent and clear presentations and are also quite good at conducting the following conversation. I stand in awe!

I’ve been wondering where this difference in attitudes stems from. In Finland, it’s not that unusual that people have an “oh whatevs, I just need to pass this course” attitude and accordingly don’t put that much effort to it. I believe the reason to lie partly in the demotivating teaching methods, partly in that most students work while studying and thus aren’t full-time engaged (time- or motivation-wise) with their studies.

Students do work part-time in Germany, too, but it doesn’t seem to be that common. Actually, parents are obliged by law to finance their children’s first degree, or until the children are 28 years old. Yes, you read right – welcome to a Western country in the 21st century. Germany does have study grants (BAföG), but due to this obligation, they’re tied to the parents’ incomes. Afaik, the income levels are quite high (and of course it’s only the gross incomes that count, debts etc. are disregarded) and thus not that many are entitled to a full BAföG. An option then would be to work part-time. Too bad the unemployment rate in Berlin is about 20% and even way higher for young people, and that own incomes affect the BAföG...

The solution remaining are study loans or scholarships, of which there are several different types to choose from (that is, apply for). The effective interest rate can be as high as 9% (mostly around 6%) and repayment must start according to the agreement – no matter if you’re still studying, unemployed, sick or for some other reason have low or non-existent incomes. At best, you’ll end up having huge solvency issues. Scholarships and many loans do not allow changing school or field of study, or taking a break in studies, but do require good notes and graduating in time.

All this taken into account, it maybe is not that surprising that most students (i.e., people who finally end up studying) are very motivated to carry out their studies in time and with good notes – and that only around 20% of Germans have a university-level degree (OECD average around 35%, Finland around 45%), most of them coming from better-off families...

Recipe: Fennel and celery soup with blue cheese cream

Yeeessss, my prayers have been answered: it’s snowing!! I’ve been walking around smiling like an idiot, it’s so incredibly beautiful and fresh and.. ah! I just love it!

Autumn and winter call for warm and hearty meals, which means that I’ve been consuming soups in absolutely ridiculous amounts. A few days ago I did a carrot & tarragon soup with feta cream (I’ll post the recipe later), and I got really excited about the feta cream thingy. I’d made carrot & feta soup before of course, but always had the problem that the feta just didn’t melt properly (no, I didn’t use the low-fat stuff), but stayed in rubbery lumps no matter how much you molested the blender. But as a cream it worked much better, blended in smoothly and as a bonus you had clear flavour contrasts with the sweet soup and salty cream.

I figured this cream thing could be used with all sorts of cheeses, and as my dear parents know so well, I’ve adored blue cheese ever since I was a kid. The smellier and stronger, the better. So what to match that blue cheese with? My first thought was endives or chicory, but they’re so mild in flavour that I’m not that sure how they’d work in a soup. And a big point is their mouthfeel, anyway. From somewhere between the endives and the aniseedy flavour of tarragon in the carrot soup came fennel! My newly found friend celery would go along just perfect, and with the blue cheese cream they would make a perfect threesome. It was heavenly, even if I say so myself.

Oh and one thing I’ve also just recently discovered: puréeing! I don’t mean just with a hand mixer or blender, but passing the whole thing through a sieve after that. I used to think it was just some foppish thing involving extra work phases and more dishes, not to mention throwing away whatever stays in the sieve instead of eating it, but I’ve made a full turn on this matter. The consistency is just SO much smoother and more pleasant, it’s definitely worth the effort. I often have the problem with puréed soups that after eating them for a few days (as you always end up doing, for it is simply impossible to do a soup of just 2–3 servings), they start to feel as baby food in my mouth. Then I get disgusted and feel tempted to just throw the rest away, if there’s still some left. Baby food problem: solved.

So, now finally to the recipe.

Fennel and celery soup with blue cheese cream
Serves 4–5

Soup:
3 small fennels or 2 medium sized fennels, tops trimmed, ends cut and then thinly sliced
4 sprigs celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
good-quality vegetable broth
1 glass dry white wine
100 gr sour cream
a splash of lemon juice
freshly ground salt and black pepper to taste

Cheese cream:
100 gr strong blue cheese, crumbled (I used Bergader Edelpilz)
100 gr natural organic yoghurt (a low-fat will do, but a completely fat-free version won’t mix well with the soup), or about the same amount of cream
1 tbsp (walnut) oil
water, to thin out

1. Sauté the fennels, celery and onions until tender, season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the white wine and broth, leave to simmer until the veggies are all tender and the alcohol has evaporated.
3. In the meanwhile, make the cheese cream: mix all the ingredients together with a (hand) blender, add just enough water to thin the cream out into... well, a cream. Quite runny but not watery.
4. Purée the veggies as smooth as you can with a (hand) blender. The smoother you make it, the more you can pass through the sieve and the less goes to waste. Then, as said, pass it through a sieve: use a metal sieve with small holes and push the soup through with a ladle (using a little force is allowed). Be sure to scrape the bottom of the sieve! Don’t feel to bad about what little goes unused – I tasted it and surprisingly, it tasted like nothing! Which means that the soup is even more intense in flavour :p~
5. Add the lemon juice and sour cream, and blend it once more to be sure to have a smooth and lean consistency. Check the taste and add salt/pepper/juice/whatever is needed. Bear in mind that the blue cheese cream is very salty!
6. Serve with the cheese cream and roasted walnuts.

Maybe the dullest-looking soup ever. In real life, the colour is a bit greener, though.
And what’s most important, it tastes good!

An emotional walk

On days like these, I know why I love this city.

Lately I’ve been doing loooong walks. Just walking around, listening to music, with no particular destination. It seems to be some kind of autumn thing for me. I do like taking walks all year round, but during autumn it almost gets out of hand – the shortest walk I can manage is 1,5 hours. Usually it slips to two hours or more. It’s just the most relaxing thing there is for me right now!

Last autumn, I had the exact same thing in Helsinki. And I waked, and I walked. But the problem with Helsinki is that it is quite small, despite being a “small big city”, and I soon was very familiar (i.e., bored) with all sorts of routes within a reasonable (~10 km) distance from my place. Of course I developed various favourite routes, but nevertheless it really took my imagination some exercise, or then the effort and bore of travelling someplace, to keep it varied and interesting.

Here it’s quite different. This city is SO immense, there’s always some area remotely nearby that I don’t know that well and is interesting to discover or learn to know better during walks. Everything within 2–5 km from my place is already familiar to the point of boredom, so here’s what I do: I skip the dull part and hop on the U-Bahn, and begin my walk straight away in an interesting environment. The U-Bahns and S-Bahns can take you quite far in 10 minutes, whereas the subway network is very modest in Helsinki. And trams and buses take forever to get anywhere. Did I ever mention that waiting is not one of my strengths...?

Today was again one of those days my walk slipped to nearly three hours. Despite having walked dozens of times along the Landwehrkanal, which runs just nearby my place, I’m not bored with it yet. And it leads to Puschkinallee, which for its part leads straight into Treptower Park, so there I had the beginning of my route. I don’t know Treptower Park more or less at all – I’ve been there a couple of times, but I definitely have no clear picture of it in my head. And still don’t! It’s so big and undiscovered to me that I still have many wonderful walks ahead there :) I wandered around in zigzags, according to my “oooh! what’s that over there? / what a nice trail! / I wonder what lies behind that / etc.” impulses and stumbled upon all sorts of things.

”Stumble upon” should maybe be awarded the prize for understatement of the year when it comes to the Soviet war memorial. It’s a bombastic war memorial and military cemetery honouring the memory of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin, and celebrating the victory over national socialism. The Battle of Berlin (April–May 1945) was the final big battle of WWII ending in the unconditional surrender of Germany. Check it out if you have the opportunity, it’s... big.

”The war memorial depicting a Soviet soldier holding a child that he saved and stepping on a crushed Swastika”
From: Wikipedia

There are also a few cute ponds in the park, and guess what I saw there? A stork! This was exceptionally cool, for storks aren’t common in the city, and just two days ago my friend told me with amazement how she had seen a stork in the middle of Berlin :) Or some sort of stork-y bird, I don’t know all that well the differences between storks and herons and cranes and what other kinds there might be.

As I wandered ahead, I noticed the cutest bridge ever, and to by excitement it was open. It took me to the most wonderful little island ever, in the middle of Spree. The island is called Die Insel der Jugend, which means “the island of youth”. I don’t exactly know what it was, but the whole moment was just so overwhelmingly wonderful it almost brought me to tears. I was on a beautiful small island, surrounded by glistening water in the yellow street lightning, with frozen grass and leaves rustling under my feet. Bliss.
Check out some wonderful pictures on the island’s web site: Insel der Jugend / Treptower Park.

I continued to walk along the Spree, and where did it lead me? To Spreepark! It’s an abandoned amusement park whose owner fled the country to Peru some ten years ago, leaving the bankrupt amusement park behind. I had heard of it, but all I knew was that it was somewhere in or near Treptower Park. Deserted places like that always give me the creeps. It was really weird to imagine how that particular place had once been filled with people amusing themselves in e.g. the ferris wheel, which now lay in the the gloom completely abandoned and just waiting to slowly fall apart. Creepy and sad – and yet somehow very, very fascinating.

This city is just so much more than just the bars and clubs of Kreuzberg and the cafés of Prenzlauer Berg. <3

Blogging in darkness

Whoa, sorry for the blogging break! I can’t even blame it on being busy, because I haven’t. Well, this week has actually been somewhat active (I held a presentation on the Berlin blockade for my German course and made a day trip to Leipzig, among others), but otherwise I’ve been busy procrastinating, tops. Some sort of autumn coma going on here.

The clocks were turned backwards on the last weekend in October, due to shifting to standard time, which to me means that the sun sets an hour earlier. I have to say I’ve been quite dismayed and disheartened by the early and profound darkness. Finland is so extreme with its lightning (it’s all the time light during summer and dark during winter), but in Germany it actually gets dark in the evenings during summer, so I somehow assumed that darkness during winter would also keep to a moderate level. Boy was I wrong! In addition to the standard time, things are worsened by the time zones, something I hadn’t thought about at all: when the sun sets around 5 PM in Finland, the time is only 4 PM in Germany. Ok, the sun sets around 3.30 PM in Helsinki and at 4 PM here, so the day is still longer here and basically I shouldn’t have anything to complain about. But nevertheless it just somehow feels a lot... darker here. I guess it’s due to the lack of snow and decent street lightning or something?

Well, luckily I assume that the worst part is soon over, and with a sigh of relief I’ll have to conclude that it has lasted only a short time. Even November has been nice and gentle to me, to some point: it’s been quite warm, the trees have still kept on to their beautiful leaves, it hasn’t been terribly rainy, and even when it has rained, I’ve managed to enjoy the melancholic beauty of wet streets and leaves in yellow street lightning. Only during the last two weeks or so has the novembery November been depressingly present, and now the temperature is already dropping fast. Next Wednesday it should be snowing, so I have really high hopes that winter’ll be here soon and replace the darkness with a lovely blue light! :)

Now that I think about it, it’s crazy how the weather has changed in two weeks! Now it’s maybe –3–4°C, and exactly two weeks ago it was +17°C (!!). Of course, it was exceptionally warm then, but still! That Sunday I made a day trip to Potsdam by bike and it was absolutely fabulous. It was my first visit in Potsdam, but unfortunately I still can’t tell you much about the city as it was so dark that I didn’t see much :D And Potsdam certainly hasn’t invested in city maps, so most of the time I had absolutely no clue where I was. I guess that trip was more about the journey than the destination :)

I would have liked to see the Sanssouci palace and park, but as said, it was pitch-dark, so I had to give up on that idea. Well, the main reason I wanted to see them in the first place was the name, so I guess I’m not that passionate about the whole thing :) But I wonder how French names for places always are so sympathetic? Sans souci means “without a worry” – sounds quite stress-free to me :) Then there’s Monbijou Park, where the former Monbijou Palace used to exist: mon bijou means “my jewel” or “my piece of jewellery” – how romantic ♥ The third example that comes to my mind is the park Mon Repos in Vyborg, Russia. (Apparently there is also a palace by the same name in Germany!) Mon repos translates into “my rest”. I guess the normal association would be a place where one relaxes during holidays or something, but for some reason I find that the name has a beautiful and sad tone to it: it makes me think of someone’s last residence before death – the final, yet peaceful rest on earth.

In this melancholic feel I end this post and drag myself to bed for the final rest of this week. Good night, sleep tight.

Nesting

”Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.” (– Fight Club, 1999)

Haha, nesting indeed. Well, the quote continues quite in another way than I personally think (“If I saw something clever like a coffee table in the shape of a yin and yang, I had to have it.”), because I hate shopping and having stuff I don’t feel I need, and my style is definitely quite minimalistic.

Actually, precisely the seek for minimalism was what drove me to Ikea, quite paradoxically. As I noted earlier, I like the way this flat is furnished, it’s a very well-balanced whole. However, my landlady’s style is much more decorative than mine, and very, very blue for my taste. By blue I mean the colour (not sadness), and I had a very intensive blue phase as a teen, so I’m quite over and done with that colour, probably for the rest of my life. However, the walls are and remain blue in the living/bedroom, so I thought I’d pimp up – or should I say downgrade – the textiles. As a bonus, my landlady’s replaced textiles will definitely stay intact during my stay!

Obviously I didn’t want to spend fortunes on a flat where I’m staying for half a year, so the changes would need to be quite few and budget-friendly. It was actually quite hard to try and find something that would feel “me”, but at the same time work with what’s already in the flat and play along with the existing style. All in all I think I did quite well and am quite pleased, especially considering how little I actually did: I cut down the blue replacing it with green and red, and packed away some cloths and carpets. While I normally don’t fancy those colour combinations, nor would have chosen that cushion/cloth pattern if I were furnishing a flat from scratch, I find the result being quite in harmony with the prevailing style, and yet with a touch of myself. I feel at home :) Behold:

The hallway, entrance is to the right, next to that curtain.
The curtain was a very bright blue one, that one has birds and trees. Welcome to the jungle!
I always first see that picture as the Fair Trade mark, wtf?

Hallway, pt 2. The walls are the same colour as in the previous picture, it just looks more olive-like in this picture.

Living/bed/nerding room.

Living/bedroom. The sofa was the biggest change, it had a blue-grey cover and red and orange cushions.

Living/bedroom.

View from the sofa.

Kitchen. Note the grinders and herbs! And space!

View from the balcony!

♥

Ps. Happy 20102010!

Settling down

Aaahhh, it’s mid-October and I’ve finally moved to my Kreuzberg-flat :) It’s cosy, wonderful view, great location and it’s warm with central heating! G’bye 15°C bathroom, won’t miss you.

The moving itself was somewhat arduous, phew. I didn’t want to spend my money on a taxi, since I was in any case going twice to the Kreuzberg-flat; on Thursday to pick up the keys etc., and then on Friday I could really move in. So I figured I might just as well drag along my belongings. So on Thursday, I loaded my bike with two 29″ bike wheels, two large(ish) bags and my spare bed, aka a gigantic airbed, and with my backpack fully packed I begun my journey through Berlin leading my wheeled load. Of course I didn’t walk or ride the whole 10 km, but used the S- and U-Bahns. Luckily all three stations (S-Schönhauser Allee, S/U-Gesundbrunnen and U-Kottbusser Tor) had lifts, so I didn’t have to drag the whole lot down or up stairs, that would have been a torturous experience. Though I have to admit, I almost thought about it anyway, because waiting for the lifts was very frustrating :D Patience is definitely not one of my strengths, at least not when I’m trying to get things done or get from a place to another, then I(’d) want everything to be quick and efficient!

I received quite a good deal of puzzled looks with my moving load, haha. I’d like to think they were looks of awe and admiration, but probably they were just feeling sorry for me or at least thought I was losing my mind. Very many helpful hands were offered :) But well, comparing to that I would have dragged all that stuff just with my two hands, I would have needed a second round. So I’m actually a bit proud of my bike-moving-idea! And the effort surely paid off, now I’m in my new flat and won’t have to move anywhere until May <3

Mid-October also means that the six-week German course has come to an end. I can’t quite understand how time flies so incredibly fast?! “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.” The language course really has been very, very helpful, although it has required a whole lot of work. Well, maybe these two things are related... :) But in any case, it’s really encouraging to notice I’ve actually made some progress, especially with my spoken German and vocabulary. It still is a far cry from fluent, and especially when I’m tired I still tend to freeze. But at least I am better understood than six weeks ago, and also I understand better; I can follow TV programmes or films and understand pretty much everything. But I still suck :D But I believe it does me good to really suck at something, and still have to try to cope and get better. It’s quite humbling.

A weird thing related to the process of language learning is that my French has totally degraded. It's really weird, German and French are somehow in the same category in my brain, which is strange since my French is a lot stronger than my German. Or was, at least. Now when I try to speak French, I really have no guarantees whatsoever that I'll actually speak French?! I use German words and even sentences without even noticing (or at least noticing it when I've already blurted it out, and it thus is already too late), and when trying to think of the correct French words, all I can think of are German. Wtf...

Mid-October also means that next week, the academic year starts. I’ve got quite interesting courses ahead: a seminar in social/labour market/economic policy, a couple of courses in environmental policy, a course about politics of memory (i.e., political history), and then a German course. I’ll actually be able to get quite a good deal credited in Helsinki, so also my master degree studies are advancing here :)

I guess everyone recognises the slightly frustrated longing for a change from time to time, a boredom with everything being always the same. But I must say, more than the acute change with all the new things, I like more the phase thereafter, when things aren’t all new and strange to the point of intimidation. It’s exciting but very tiring, and I do, however, need some sort of routine and familiarity in order to feel... well, I guess “safe” or “comfortable” are somewhat the right words. It’s quite a perfect balance: life is not (yet?) in a boring rut, but has a freshness along with a nice familiarity to it :) A long story short: life’s good <3

Temporary residence and music enthusiasm

Greetings from Prenzlauer Berg! I moved last weekend, as my flat in Kreuzberg won't be available until 15 October. It's a really nice place, near S/U Schönhauser Allee. What sucks is that it has coal heating, meaning it's preeetty cold. Or well, I guess I could heat it as much as I want, but I don't have the heart for it as the amount of coal needed seems so immense :F. Thank goodness for warm socks and peppermint tea!

Another downside is that there isn't any Internet connection (actually I'm writing this at the university, so the greetings from P-Berg are remote), which theoretically isn't a problem, cause I bought an Internet prepaid-stick for a month. The problem was that I didn't choose the right prepaid-mode, and it charged me by minute, so I used my whole prepaid during Monday evening :D Well, now I know better, and luckily the pack came with five free days, so I guess I'll just have to get along with them. (However, some blame I do pass on to Saturn, where I got partial and confusing instructions, to say the least. And it wasn't the first but the third time.)

I briefly expressed my satisfaction with Moderat's gig last Tuesday. It was held at Volksbühne, where I had never been before. At first it didn't seem it would have any chance of success, as we found out to our great devastation that there were only seats, no dancefloor whatsoever! During the warm-up act (Shed from Ostgut Ton) everyone was still sitting and the atmosphere was quite lame (although Shed's live was good, no complaints there).

But by golly, when Moderat started playing, it was five seconds and everyone was standing up, and eventually it was one hell of a gig! Everyone was dancing despite those stupid chair rows and we even ended up dancing on the stage :D <3 True Volksbühne (= stage of the people)!

Next Friday it's skweee day! Prkl! macht Skweeertisch #2 @ Raum20! With Mesak, Joxaren, Karl Marx Stadt, Roko and Naks. S(kw)ee you there :)

Also other sssssuper stuff coming up. Like FLYING LOTUS!!!!! at Maria am Ostbahnhof on 22 October. Like, you know, oh em geeeee, I'm maybe gonna faint. Flying Lotus was absolutely mindblowingly good at Flow Festival 2008. I'm SO gonna be there.

On 31 Oct Yeasayer is playing at Maria! The same day Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics would be playing at Volksbühne though... Hard decisions ahead, in other words. Luckily I've still got nearly a month to decide. :)

Now I've had enough of sitting in the computer lab for today, so until next time. Ta-ta!

Cutting through the red tape (part 1)

There, I did it! Finally the post I've promised to write!

But first I'll quickly tell you a bit more about my to-be flat. As I mentioned earlier, it's situated between U-Kotti and U-Prinzenstraße, which will shorten my way to the university a tiny bit. Although the neighbourhood isn't the most hip & coolest like e.g. Graefekiez in the neighbourhood of Graefestraße (also in Berlin, maybe about a km from where I'll be living), which is super popular, it's location is excellent. Public transport is near and plenty, Kottbusser Tor and Oranienstraße with their numerous Turkish markets, bars and restaurants and such are just around the corner, but far enough to keep it calm and nice. I have a lovely park view, which can also be admired from the balcony (!). Central heating, and according to the woman whose place it is, the flat is very warm even in winter, aahh! The building itself is exceptionally ugly and high, I think it's got ten storeys or something. And a lift, quite a modern one even! Practically no houses have lifts here, and if they do, they're so old and unsteady (and slow) that you'd just better take the stairs. I for my part am very glad to have a lift from the 20th century, for I'll be living on the eighth floor, and the washing machines, which are in common use, are on the attic :D It's huuuuge, 39 m², nicely furnished, and has enough place in the kitchen for a humane cooking experience! I just can't wait to move in :)

So, enough of that and let's proceed, or maybe precede? to the process of renting a flat in Berlin. University enrolment was also one hell of a bureaucracy process, but I'll dedicate a post of its own to that.

There.
Picture: DBR62 @ Flickr

Most of the people in Berlin live in rental flats, meaning that for the most part flats aren't owned or given for long-term lease by private persons. Instead that is taken care of by a Hausverwaltung, which literally translates into house administration or something. They are (numerous) companies, ranging from small family businesses to huge, posh companies on Kudamm, that at the same time are housing companies, housing agencies and house managing/maintenance agencies. They normally own numerous flats in many different houses around the city, and thus aren't like the very locally operating housing companies or house managing/maintenance agencies e.g. in Finland.

If you're renting a flat just for a fixed period as a subtenant from a private person, you'll probably get away with the whole flat renting thing relatively easily. You necessarily won't be needing more papers and certificates than a nice personality (or at least the ability to give that impression) and a sublease contract. You might find a flat thats (nicely) furnished, maybe even with a washing machine, fridge, stove, oven, sink and such.

"Yeah, okay. Furnished is luxury, washing machine isn't something necessarily found in every rental flat, fridge... stove... what?" That's right. Often flats are rented just with their walls, and all the rest is the lessees problem. Well, maybe there are a couple of windows here and there, some flats have a sink, and maybe a floor and a bathroom that need some redoing. On the lessees expense. With a contract obliging the lessee. So don't expect to walk into a ready-to-live-in flat, you'll be doing some serious shopping for very basic domestic appliances to a start.

Or well, actually that isn't the start, since you'd of course have to had gone through the rental appliance process. With Hausverwaltungs, you won't be doing anything with a pretty face, since you won't be even meeting them during the process, as it is the current lessee whose responsibility it is to find candidates to be the following lessee. But don't bother to put immense effort on impressing him/her, for he/she won't be making the decision, just shows the flat and forwards the PAPERS to the Hausverwaltung.

And the Hausverwaltung definitely does not care about anything but the papers. As a start, you'll need to fill in a form where you state that you are interested in the flat and fill in every possible information about yourself. Attached, a copy of your ID (passport or such) and evidence of your incomes for the past three months. You will also want your former landlord or -lady to fill in a form that you have no rental debts (Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung, don't you just love the language :D), you can find one e.g. here.

Then comes the tricky part. Almost without a doubt, the Hausverwaltung will want a SCHUFA-Auskunft, your German credit information certificate. To get one, you'll need a German bank account (I applied for my SCHUFA-Auskunft at the same time when I opened my bank account). To open a German bank account, you'll need to be registered as a Berlin citizen and have some sort of proof of what you're doing in Berlin (studying, working, else: what? etc.). To be registered as a citizen, you'll need an address in Berlin.

Well, the good news is that at least I wasn't asked for more papers at the Bürgeramt (the registry office) than my passport and my rental contract, and my temporary flat was just fine by them. And I didn't need to wait in some dodgy office for hours, but to my extreme surprise Berlin is totally 2058 and has an internet booking system! The first time available wasn't until in the next week, but I wasn't in a hurry so it was ok. The registration process itself took maybe 10 minutes or so, so that part wasn't especially torturous.

Summa summarum: if you're looking for a long-term flat in Berlin, I suggest you begin by renting a flat for 1–2 months. That's possible even from abroad, and you'll at least have some place to live in before you find The Flat. You'll also have the time to get all your papers in order and get to check the flats out yourself. And it's much more stress-free to be looking for a flat for e.g. a month, instead of a smothering "it would be great if I could find a flat in two-weeks-ago's time" timetable and living in a hostel.

Rents have gone up quite a bit, a couple of years ago it wasn't at all a utopian thought to find a studio flat in a nice area for 250–300 Euros, but nowadays 400 Euros isn't all that rare. There still are (unfurnished) flats for <300 Euros, but there are lot of applicants also. Well, compared to Helsinki the rents are still ridiculous (or rather it's the other way around), there rents for tiny studios start from almost 600 Euros... As probably everywhere, the bigger the flat, the cheaper it proportionally it is. Two-roomers' rents start from about 400–450. There are in theory two rental sums: the Kaltmiete ("Cold rent") is just the rent, whereas Warmmiete ("Warm rent") includes the Nebenkosten (side costs), which usually consists of heating and (warm) water costs, sometimes also gas and/or electricity. So check the Warmmiete for the actual rental costs.

A good site when looking for a flat is WG-Gesucht.de. I warmly recommend also putting in your own ad.

Phew! There you have it, a short (?) guide for flat renting in Berlin. Good luck! And, good night, and good weekend. I'll be spending the weekend moving to my temporary flat in Prenzlauer Berg and in Dresden. So until next week, ta-ta!

I can haz flat!

Quick update: I found a flat!! :) :) A nice studio in Kreuzberg, between U-Kottbusser Tor and U-Prinzenstraße, lovely view, very reasonable rent. I'll get to move in on 15 October, but I probably found a flat for the two "homeless" weeks there in between too :)

Things just have the tendency to work themselves out :)

Pics or stfu

I've been asked to post also pictures. So as I am now the proud owner of probably the cheapest and crappiest model of all Olympus compact digital cameras available (X-43, for those who are interested), I guess it's time to present my flat in pictures. It actually looks cosier photographed than it does in real life. Here you are:

The living/bedroom, view from the door.
Many flats in Berlin have idyllic wooden plank floors, but this one has an obscurely red-coloured fitted carpet.

Living/bedroom, view from the balcony.
The charming cone beside the bed (or should I say mattress) is a bedside lamp. Also note the cheerful painting above the sofa.

Corridor between the living/bedroom and the kitchen.
The bathroom is on the left and the outdoor on the right.

The above-mentioned bathroom. The shower is on the right.
This one looks just as awful as it really is.

The kitchen.
Note my desperate and subtle attempt to make it cosier by placing a basil, my darling spice grinders (yes, I dragged them along from Finland. They're good grinders!!) and some kitchen utensils on the windowsill.

Kitchen, view to the left.
Note the completely inadequate space for cooking.

View from the balcony.
This I like!

View from the balcony, pt. 2.
The street is Pücklerstraße in Kreuzberg.
Yes the houses are askew in Berlin, Pisa with its stupid "Leaning Tower" is just a joke.

It's gettin' hot in herre

Well, "hot" is somewhat of an exaggeration, but anyhow: THE HEATING IS TURNED ON IN MY FLAT!!

It's an exceptionally cold September in Berlin, it's normally well over 20 degrees Celcius (~70°F) in daytime, now it's mostly under 20 and in the night the temperature has dropped under 10 degrees (~50°F). I've been f*cking freezing my ass off in the past week (excuse my French).

Although Germany is known for its pioneering in ecological questions, many buildings at least in Berlin are still stuck in the 19th century when it comes to being ecological. The isolation is often far from adequate, double windows are largely unheard of especially in old buildings (Altbau) and quite a few flats are still heated with coal (!!). Though admittedly more and more flat-for-rent-ads mention that the heating used is central heating, gas or distant heating, so something seems to be changing on that front, but nevertheless Berlin buildings are for the most part a far cry from ecological. The reason is pretty apparent: lack of finance. Berlin is poor as hell, its state debt amounts to 60 billion Euro (around 70% of its GDP!) – nuff said? The problem seems to plague (poorer) ex-Western parts of Berlin in particular, such as Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Apparently East Berlin was more widely renovated during the Soviet era, while the Western parts were left pretty much as they were.

So I've been very selectively searching for a flat with central heating (or at least gas/distant heating), even though it narrowed the options quite a bit. One of the main things that caught my interest with this flat was precisely the central heating (the others being location: in Eastern Kreuzberg near Görlitzer Bahnhof; and price: I'm paying 350€ for a month).

But boy did I wish for a few days that I would have found a flat with gas so that I could regulate the heating myself! Despite the temperature dropping heavily in the night, the heating wasn't turned on until yesterday, and it was free-ee-eezing cold inside. I've been sleeping with warm socks, pyjamas (which I normally never wear since it's really uncomfortable), a thick blanket and a hot-water bottle. When I came home in the evening yesterday, I was downright amazed by not being met by the burst of cold air, on the contrary it felt very warm. And I had just bought a thermometer out of curiosity to know how cold it actually was, hmpf. Well, it's now 21°C (70°F) in the living/bedroom and in the kitchen, where the heating is still turned off, it was 17°C in the early evening, so I guess the temperature has been around 16–17°C (60–62°F) at its coldest... No wonder it felt a bit chilly.

Oh well, now the heat(ing) is ON! and I can sleep without trembling like a Parkinson patient.

This was my boyfriend for a while.
Then I stopped being so cold and dumped him.

Hallo Berlin!

Quick update.

I'm finally in Berlin! Feels like coming home <3 We arrived about two hours ago and now my stuff is already carried up, the rental agreement for the flat signed etc. and starting tomorrow I can begin my life in Berlin :)

I must say I have been to cosier places than my first flat here :D Though I think it could be made a lot sweeter with some easy, well-thought-out decorative solutions, but as it's just temporary, I don't think I'll bother putting that much work into it. It has a bed (well, a mattress), a washing machine and a working Internet connection – what else does a girl need :D

À propos nothing: I once again was completely surprised by the pitch-darkness at 22.00! As a Finn, I'm so used to that dusk doesn't fall in the summer months (which also August counts as) until 23–00 at its earliest. It feels like being abroad! No wait...