Sleep deprived in Berlin

Phew, as I mentioned when presenting myself, I have the tendency to always have a crammed calendar. I don’t quite understand how, but the feeling is ever present also here in Berlin, despite the fact that I have a lot less work to do.

I point my blaming finger at the German course, which starts at an unholy hour in the morning (at least when one has to take into account the time it takes to get to the FU situated in the middle of nowhere, also known as Dahlem), and thus makes me adapt to a completely crooked rhythm of life. Or well, tries to make me, as I am unable to. Of course, the nice little schoolgirl I am, I do get up at an abnormal time in the morning, and even go to bed unnaturally early to avoid being ready the next morning to give up three-quarters of my kingdom and my left leg just to be allowed to sleep. But it just doesn’t make any difference whether I have a good 8-hour sleep every goddamn night or not.

No. I’m not adapting, I won’t be adapting, and I doubt I ever will be able to adapt, if "adapt" is understood as an odd habit being assimilated into/as the norm. I’m. just. not. a. morning. person. To my defence, I’m not the kind of non-morning person who’ll always be grumpy, bitchy and/or mute until the day is way passed noon. I am able to communicate in a civilised manner, get stuff done and so, but I’m just TIRED. Know what I mean?

I wouldn’t be so worked up with having to flip my rhythm of life, if it didn’t feel so frustratingly pointless. Our course starts at 9:30 and ends at 13:15 every day until mid-October. That’s all the regular programme I have! Why, for the loving mother of god and all that is holy, cannot the time of the whole course just be moved a few hours forward? Say, 12:30–16:15? And of course excursions with their own exceptional timetables.

Speaking of which, we had our first excursion today with the theme architecture. We didn’t have any lecture yesterday (which we found out around 10:30, make a wild guess who muttered a few words about the lost possibility of sleeping in...), and we were given no information on the excursion beforehand, relying entirely on Wednesday’s lesson. Great. Well, our teacher did show up in the afternoon, as there is a film shown at the FU every Wednesday afternoon (not anything mandatory, more like a film club), and she was the only one with the DVD. There she informed some students, who for their part informed others – Chinese whispers, the basic method of information in the 21st century. E-mail is so 1993. The rumours said Thursday 10 AM at U-Bahnhof Tiergarten, which doesn’t exist: there’s either the Bahnhof (station) for S-Bahns in Tiergarten in Western Berlin, or the Station for U-Bahn in Tierpark in the East. I asked whether it was the U- or the S-Bahnhof, got a reply “U”, and as I didn’t exactly know what the programme or route was, I assumed then it was U-Tierpark.

*BEEEEP* Wrong answer! It actually would have been quite interesting to hear about the architectural and infrastructural history in the West, as I am quite unfamiliar with it, but instead ended up spending the morning in U- and S-Bahns making my way through to West. (I don’t need to mention the lost sleep, do I?) I caught up with the others in the cafeteria in Akademie der Künste, where we spent an hour or so (at the cafeteria, I mean), then we travelled back East to Friedrichshain for the last hour or so :D Oh well, next time I know to double-check with our info-challenged teacher instead of making my own assumptions.

Hm... I actually was going to write about the bureaucracy of Berlin and its universities, and not froth about morning wake-ups like a madwoman, but I guess I’ll have to get to that in the next post. Hopefully by then I’ll have some flat news, too! Keep your fingers crossed :)

Spreche nicht Deutsch

It's Thursday and the first week at Freie Universität has almost reached its end. The actual courses won't start until mid-October (thank goodness, I haven't yet had the slightest glimpse of any course programmes, I guess I should do something about that here in the near future), but I'm participating in an intensive course in German, which will last until the beginning of the semester.

We met on Monday morning at 8 AM, something I think should be prohibited by international law on the grounds of human rights and world peace, and first there was this basic "Welcome to the FU, we hope you'll enjoy your stay here and in Berlin" yadda yadda yadda. After that, all the participants were to take a placement test, according to which the actual groups were formed starting Tuesday.

I "scored" the CEFR level B2, which was the highest level among the participants, but I really feel I belong in an A2 group or something. Everyone in my group speaks at least a gazillion times better German than I do, I feel really tongue-tied and can't seem to get it round anything I'm trying to say. My head just goes completely blank from all the pathetic vocabulary I've managed to gather in my tiny head, not to mention my complete inability to pronounce anything properly. Or at least so it feels, and I'm really having trouble imagining that I could ever manage this language fluently, Swedish-speaker or not. (For those readers who don't know, Swedish is my mother tongue. Apparently it should be very helpful in the learning of German, Germanic languages as they both are. So it does in theory, but I'm proving practice to be something completely different.)

Oh well... We have a proverb in Finnish saying "Siberia will teach" (meaning one will eventually learn the hard way), I guess Berlin will be my Siberia. [Does this make me the 21st-century Zakrevsky, who called Finland "his Siberia", and, thus, Berlin the 21st-century Grand Duchy of Finland?! Oh goodness, that was such a crappy history nerd joke that everyone should just ignore it, and it shouldn't even be published – but let it be my punishment as public humiliation.] Enough of this whine now, it's almost past my bedtime and tomorrow it's Friday, meaning parteey!

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.

Introduction

Oops, I just realised I haven't introduced myself or explained what on earth it is I'm doing in Berlin. So let's get that sorted out.

I'm Sophy, 26 years old, from Helsinki, Finland. I study political history as main subject at the University of Helsinki and social policy and gender studies as additional subjects.

I always seem to book my calendar completely full with school and/or work, but in my theoretical spare time I enjoy the usual palette: cycling, cooking, reading, films, music in all sorts of genres. I don't mean "all sorts of genres" as in "I like ALL sorts of music, like, from Rihanna to Amy Winehouse", but really many sorts of things make me tick. In music, from lazy ambient to violent d&b, with the exceptions of reggae and rap. Meta exceptions: dub and (some) Swedish rap and reggae. Right now the hottest thing on earth for me (at least on the party front) is disco, but I'll settle for pretty much anything as long as the vibes are good.

In literature I must state that surrealism > everything else. Gabriel García Márquez, Mikhail Bulgakov, Daniil Kharms... ah <3 I also like John Irving, Milan Kundera, George Orwell, Dostoevsky, Väinö Linna, and Peter Høeg, among others. I guess my list of favourite films/directors could be quite easily deducted from the presentation above :) The list includes Jan Svankmajer, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, the Coen bros, Monty Python, Lars von Trier, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Roy Anderson etc. etc.

So now to the part "what on earth am I doing in Berlin?".

I first visited Berlin in 2003 when I was interrailing in Central Europe. Naturally I didn't know the city very well (= at all), but nevertheless it conquered my heart. Since then I've been to Berlin several times, for 2–4 weeks at a time, and visit by visit it became clearer to me that I wanted to live in Berlin. If not forever, at least for a period long enough to really call living somewhere. The most practical way would of course be through an exchange programme or internship, and so I applied for various programmes and to my bitter disappointment wasn't admitted to any of them.

Until in 2010! I applied for East Central European, Balkan and Baltic Studies's (ECEBB) (a programme at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki) one-year exchange programme at the Freie Universität Berlin, and was chosen as their exchange student! As you might expect, I accepted with fierce enthusiasm (I must have set a new world record in exlamation mark usage when I announced my admittance on Facebook), and here I am now! Here at the FU, I'll be studying at the Osteuropa-Institut, although I guess time will tell what – and how much – I really will be studying :) "Life", "in excess"...? Grade: A+?

Shopping Spree (?)

My mum enjoys wandering in shops just looking around, even if she doesn't need to (or, alternatively, can't afford to) buy anything. I'm not especially fond of shopping and definitely don't like spending my time in shops just for the heck of it, but given the humongous favour my parents did me, the least I could do was to take her (window-)shopping. And after all, it would be nice to see some familiar neighbourhoods for the first time since last fall.

Despite the topic, we weren't especially close to the Spree (the river flowing through the city), but headed North towards the borough of Prenzlauer Berg. First we thought of going to the big flea market at the famous Mauerpark (Bernauer Straße 63–64), which is a park located on the former death strip (the no-man's land area between or/in the middle of the Berlin wall), but it didn't occur to us until at the gates that the flea market is open only on Sundays.

Oh well, shopping possibilities in Berlin aren't limited to one (huge) flea market, so we turned left to Oderberger Straße, where Coeur au ciel (Oderberger Straße 37) pretty much immediately caught our eye. They are selling the most adorable bags, wallets and charms of the brand Ipa Nima. Very cute and yet stylish!

We continued toward Mitte along Kastanienallee, which is full of various kinds of shops, bars and restaurants. I bought a pair of sandals from Giga Berlin (Kastanienallee 27), which I've visited on previous stays in Berlin and bought a jacket and a hoodie. It sells, among others, clothes designed AND manufactured in Berlin (I can't remember the brand but will get back to that), some Skunkfunk clothes, Aces of London shoes etc.

At some point we had turned around and crossed Schönhauser Allee heading back towards Danziger Straße. We walked along Lychener Straße, where besserdresser is selling a bit drippy fifties(ish) dresses, skirts and such, FLY London shoes and Portugese shoes I completely fell in love with but luckily didn't have much cash on me. Once again I can't remember the brand, but something tells me it won't take long until I get my facts updated...

Speaking of shoes, I forgot to mention Ricardo Cartillone, who sell really cute and stylish Italian shoes in several stores here in Berlin. I didn't even know they had a store in Prenzlauer Berg/Mitte (Kastanienallee 101) :) I have one pair of RC shoes and their quality is just excellent, you can really tell that they're hand made in Italy (which doesn't show in the price! I bought mine for <100€ on sale, I think their normal price is around 120–130€)! Picture this, they have padded heel seams; that's what I call design with thought.

On Lychener Straße we also found Encore (?), a really cute and stylish shop with women's clothes. Quite a simple and elegant style (not equalling posh) and a very charming, Hungarian young saleswoman. I didn't find a web site for them, I guess I'll have to step by and pick up their visiting card (and drool at a wonderful coat I laid my eyes on...)

One final mention before I end this marathon post: Erfinderladen (Lychener Straße 8), literal translation is inventor shop. So for a change something else than women's shoes and clothing! As the name suggests, the store sells all kinds of diverse inventions from packets looking like batteries, tins or sealed soda cans to design(ish) cable holders. Kinda kitsch, sort of, but in a good way. The soda cans btw had a plummet so that they also felt unopened! I felt a bit dissipated, when the first thought that occurred to me when I saw the can, was that it would suit perfectly as festival equipment – mum had thought of it as a humorous place to store spices or something...

Phew, enough of blogging for today! There's still more to come, among others a short introduction to the bureaucracy in Berlin (which I've yet had just a small taste of), bike shops, some words about flats etc. and of course restaurants. But for now: gute Nacht, schlaf gut!

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...