Some things are irritating. Smokers everywhere. The tap water cannot compare to Australia and NZ-- it's chalky and weird. German bureauracracy and paperwork, ugghhhh. Our neighbours are loud. But...! Those things feel minor, really.
There are simply too many good things to mention! Our friends and family are here! Public transport works! The groceries are cheaper, and there are lots of parks! I feel OK being queer here! There's an endless stream of things to do!
Actually, I went to a comedy show with my love, and the family that he and I have here in Berlin.
Before the show, we walked through Potsdamer Platz, past remnants of the Berlin Wall. I didn't expect to learn that night, but there were plaques about the Nazi regime, and pictures of parades. Soldiers dressed in Nazi regalia.
I went, and Berlin taught me.
We walked through Tiergarten too, admiring the space-- so lush, so green! We found a memorial statue for Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. I studied them in school, so I had to see it.
It's stereotypically European, and beautiful.
"Crazy how sculptors can make stone look like fabric," said my love. I agreed.
Though, for me, the remarkable thing about it was how it bore wounds from WWII. Bulletholes remained, deliberately kept there even through it's restoration after the war, and everything in Germany that came after it.
It was like seeing an apparition slink down your hallway. Haunting, and unnerving.
I went, and Berlin scared the shit out of me.
Anyway.
The comedian was funny, and cracked some clever and pretty original jokes about awful men, goose-stepping in those Designer uniforms. We laughed, despite it all.
Afterwards, we took the train home with our family, and I got to thinking that I should try stand up comedy or improvisation again. It's been a long time since I did Drama Class at my old private school.
(I think I've recovered from what Mr. Kripner put me through. Can't even remember what he did, truth be told.)
I went, and Berlin taught me.
All the poetic fluff aside, what I'm trying to get at is if an entire fucking city!!!! that has been through so much through it's (uhhh let me google this) almost 800 year old history can survive, and change, and adapt, then I can too. I will learn to love the tap water, and to tolerate the smokers. I'll become a much less scared person, and work with everything Berlin has to offer me.
That's all for now! Next time, I will talk about sleeping in the park, and That Canadian Queer Animal Documentary. Tschüssie!