It's the little things

The thought struck me again in Hamburg last weekend as I was looking at a plug socket.

I'll expand a little - I've been out of the UK now for over six months. Two months in Patagonia and four here in Berlin. And in all that time I don't really think I've really suffered from culture shock. Well, there was one point about two months ago when I was in Germany but seemed to be spending all my time looking for job adverts in Britain. Until Tina pointed out that I really should try and give this country a bit of a chance. Well said that woman. Now I'm much more immersed in life here - I'm working here in a bilingual English/German firm. Still, it doesn't seem to be the big things that trigger off heimweh in me: language, culture etc.: it's the little things. Like plug sockets: they're different. I've spent my entire life not even seeing these things until now - the mundane has become glowingly present, and this then forces me to see everything in a new light. It feels like such a gift.

Beer & Python

A somewhat cryptic title - I'll expand a bit on it.

I'm sat behind my trusty laptop doing some coding work at the moment using the Python programming language. I managed to finally secure a permanent job here in Berlin and I'll be using the language in my day-to-day role as a developer. Seeing as it's waaaay past home time though it seems as if a bottle of Becks is order of the day. I can only wait and see what transpires in the hour ahead...

Google maps - going by foot

Got an invite to a dance performance on Saturday - Silvia is a dancer from Sardinia. Being sat behind my laptop (as ever) I thought I'd have a look where we needed to get to - pulled up Google Maps. I was very happy to see that they now have a "walking" option when you specify an origin and destination. Then I saw this disclaimer.

Walking directions are in beta.
Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.

This really does bring home to me more than just how dependent people are on cars (I've always found it odd that this was never an option before). The thing I find sad though is the thought that not using anything other than a car to get anywhere is some kind of exotic, dangerous act. I should state that I'm making this statement from the perspective of a someone who's lived in Berlin for three months now and who has also spent the last three years living in London - keeping a car in either city is expensive and pretty unnecessary. I would love it if Google would integrate its map functionality with local transport companies and cycle routes.

Pfingsten

Monday was the Pfingsten holiday in Germany. Whitsun in the UK. It meant another day off in May which is something I'm all for. It happened also to coincide with Tina's dad's birthday and we got ourselves on a bus from Berlin to Hamburg on Friday morning to join in the celebrations. My German is seemingly flawless after five bottles of Pils: must bring some with me to class tomorrow ;-) We also managed to get to meet up with Tina's newest niece, Enid. All of six weeks old so still incredibly new to the world and looking incredibly delicate and pickled the way that new babies tend to do. I can't deny feeling broody over the little thing and I get the feeling that Tina was clucking away too. I must be getting old.

Back to school again yesterday then - I really can't believe that I've only been there a week so far. I've been thrown in so deep that every day really has been stretched out so much, and whilst I find myself struggling to keep up with what is seemingly fundamental information (vocabulary, verb prepositions etc.) I don't feel so crippled that I hyperventilate. I've basically got my sights set high and just need to spend another two or three hours on top of the class every day trying to assimilate new information. Incredibly tiring.

Luckily enough though, Tina has a niece and nephew living nearby so it's hard to get too serious with all of my language worries - a couple of hours with them and everything finds a nice level. My only problem is taking their language with me to class the next day: I swear I'm going to ask the teacher if I can "go pee pee" some time soon.

Dropout?

Woke up this morning feeling slightly guilty about having now been wilfully out of work for over three months. Granted, over two of these months were spent preparing for the move to Berlin and trecking around Patagonia, but I still can't help feeling that I'm having an easy ride here and one which for some reason I don't deserve.

Thing is, I spent a long time saving the money to travel and to move to spottbillig Berlin. I get the feeling that there's more to the discomfort than this. Perhaps the teutonic work ethic is rubbing off as me in the same way that the language is. Or perhaps I have some need to feel that unless I'm stressed to death that I'm not living a "proper" life (whatever that may mean!). In any case, I know I need to get this sorted but I guess it'll take longer than three months to get the insanity of London out of my veins. And spending the best part of seven hours a day learning German isn't exactly kicking back on the Spree with a few jugs of Hefeweiß.

For what it's worth, I am actively looking for work as a ColdFusion web developer :-)

Back to school

Today will be day 3 of my German language course. Somehow or other I've dropped into level B1 at the Tandem language school. I completed an online assessment and they got back to me pretty quickly giving me their opinion on where they though I should start. I must say that at the time I was rather chuffed, especially given the fact that I still have a very limited vocabulary. Then again, I have enough French language knowledge to be aware that absorbing the principles of a language is different from having a fully-kitted toolbox as it were.

I went straight into relative pronouns and how they change depending on the prepositions connected to the nouns within the relative sentence and to what the noun refers to in the main sentence(?!). I guess it all sounds a bit scary when it's defined like this. A practical example in English would be as follows:

That is my teacher, with whom I am learning German.
I love the Cameo cinema in Edinburgh, within which there are some comfy red seats.

I have plenty more to be getting my teeth into, but for now I'm feeling happy swimming in the deep end.

Asparagus

Thex have this fantastic white asparagus here in Germany. Not something I'd really ever have wanted to ever get to know if it wasn't for the fact that people go potty for the stuff over here. Like the French to truffles or the Scots to anything battered. Had a plateful today with some Black Forest ham and sauce. Lecker.

Wir haben eine Wohnung!

Looks like we've finally got a flat sorted out in Berlin. I say "we" but Tina's been the engine with this, having all the necessary requirements (such as speaking the language and knowing about the finer aspects of German etiquette). This is all obviously fantastic news and makes everything so much easier from this point on. Saying all of this, I can't help but feel a little sad about the fact that after ten weeks of nomadic existence in Argentina, Chile, London and Berlin that we are now about to put roots down.