Deutschkurs: "Der, Die Das"

Tuesday night, we played Fussball, for a bit, sat on the stairs of a planetary with Lennart, Max & Jasch drinking and learning Deutsch. Here is a little song that they tried to teach us from German Sesame Street. Lennart takes the lead:

Today's Vocabulary Word:

Super, Richtig, Geil = Super, Really, Cool

Though Geil actually means horny, people actually use it to say cool.

The Underground Bunker.

So there was supposed to be an opening at the Hamburger Museum. We decided we would walk, but as usual the journey took much longer than expected. Finally we made it to Museum Island, but to our dismay the opening was either closed to the public or or nonexistent because the place was closed. However, at night the building in its environment is a permanent installation in itself. It's arcades glow neon green with bars of electric blue. It lights up the whole courtyard reflecting on the trees, causing this feeling that you are on drugs or being abducted by aliens because the sky appears this crazy orange in comparison, and all else is this surreal blue color.

We sort of lost faith in the evening. The friend that we were going to meet was on her way to some gallery near our school for another opening, but the Angels were all sort of indifferent as to what we should do for the rest of the night. Trying to keep in touch with Serena, I suddenly ran out of minutes on my prepaid phone, Jess's phone minuteless already days before, and Bianca--phone-less. If we wanted to figure out anything for the rest of the night, we would need to buy more minutes.

We turn our bodies, and there it was...a gigantic mall with a highway running through it. Also known as the main train station. There were very few places open inside, but finally we found one Tabac. In broken Deutsch, we finally managed to get some minutes. 15 Euro worth for Jess & 30 for me. The only problem is we don't speak quite enough Deutsch to understand the operator when we called the number to load our minutes onto our SIM cards. Camping out in front of the closing Tabac, we try pressing all different number combinations with the codes we just bought, unsuccessfully loading our minutes. We read something on the receipt that led us to believe that our code only was valid for one hour. In a craze we start freaking out about losing collectively 45 Euro because we couldn't load our minutes.

We go to this coffee shop..."Hallo, Sprechen Sie Englisch?" ....ja "Gut, can you please help us try and load these minutes onto our phone, we only have an hour....." Three crazed girls surrounding this poor Barista who wants nothing more but to finish closing shop, attempts to help us but, flustered, was unsuccessful. Great, I think, if the fluent German speaker can't figure it out, how the hell are we going to? And in an hour! In the midst of all of this uproar, Jess receives a phone-call (you can receive, but not make outgoing calls without minutes). It was Max, the Berliner she had met at Hana in Brooklyn one evening.

"Ahhh Max how are you! Thank God you called, we are frantically trying to get minutes on our phone but can't figure it out...ahhh." Of course over the phone there is really nothing he can do to help us, and remember we think that we only have an hour to do this.

"Well where are you?"

"At the main train station!"

Which really makes no sense to be at. It's like the equivalent to hanging out at Penn Station. I run downstairs trying to get this strange man working at a ticket kiosk to help me get minutes on my phone, but he was pretty unwilling to do much for me. Jess is up one floor trying to retrieve the receipt with her code on it. Bianca tells me that she threw it away. As she was on the phone with Max she threw away our empty coffee cups then went downstairs. Suddenly she realizes what else she put in that trash bin.

"Max I just realized that I threw away my receipt with the code on it!" Remember Max doesn't really know Jess at all and at this point must have thought we were crazy!

"Well that was very stupid!"

"Yeah I know!!!! I have to go dig through the garbage."

"Ohh..that's disgusting!"

After all the drama we finally found some girl to do it for us (let me add that we find out later that what we read did not mean that we only had an hour). Then comes some cartwheels in a desolate hall of an U-Bahn station, then swim upstream a sea of people through upon our exit. After some more lost moments & roundabout routes, we meet up with Max, Leonard, & Yasch, and we go to a serious Foozeballer's Bar. They take this sport pretty seriously here. I played, embarrassed myself, but played a few times, Jess too, not so good, but Bianca on the other hand was a hustler. First game, she wasn't any good, then out of nowhere, she pulled out the skills.

Bianca & Leonard Max & Yasch

Now about 3 AM, it's apparently time to get the evening started. In Berlin it is unheard of to get to a club much before 4 AM. It was the opening night of some club that was beneath this building in this basement/bunker, and we would all go.

Introducing: Max & Serena

The cab we jumped into to get to the club

So we set out: Max, Leonard, Jess, Serena (she finally met up with us), Yosh, & myself. We had to wait outside of the club for quite a while, I guess the place reached capacity...well actually I'm not really sure why we were waiting because we were being led by Germans and relying on them to take care of us getting inside. We were just standing behind some fence with a crowd of people in the dark speaking German, without really a clue or care as to what was going on.

Ok so the club: Well I think this is becoming a motif for the blog, but uh, where have all the dance moves gone? Why is it that Jess & I are constantly spectacles, and pretty much the only ones who stray from step, step, sway, step, step, sway.... I mean seriously! They don't really use their arms either. Jess and I will throw in a fist-pump here, a hand motion there, bend down, get up....having a blast! Around us people are laughing at/loving us. Once again others are trying to dance with us, but don't exactly know how to go about it. There were moments where I would notice people around us trying to take on our moves. It was amazing! In any case, somehow we managed to dance to what I'm pretty sure was the same song the entire time (really monotonous techno).

"We're used to dancing to something, a little more....musical!" I remember blurting out to one of the boys while dancing.

At least the boys we came with were willing to have fun dancing a bit ridiculous with us for the evening. You could tell that Max had spent some time in NY this summer because he and his friends were the only ones who had some sweet moves--no joke we got very lucky with the friends we made!

By 7:30 AM, I had an amazing night, but I just about had it dancing to the same song. At that point the boys were elsewhere so we went to get our coats from the Garderobe and located them.

"NOooo, you guys can't leave, it's just getting good. The best part is in 10 minutes!"

We weren't going to buy that, I think we got the gist after 3.5 hours and besides it was Morning. We go upstairs and to our dismay it is broad daylight and soo bright. And everybody looks like shit in natural light. We are covered in dirt, smeared makeup, dried sweat from dancing, messes! Yasch pats Jess down who is covered in dirt all over. When he noticed that her butt was dirty too...

"You have some on yor ass as well, but I, I am not sexism!"

We all crack up including Max who speaks excellent English. And that was our night rolling into bed by 8 AM. God I love this city!


Today's Deutsch Vocabulary Word:

Fahrrad = bicycle

Because the next day (Sunday), Jess and I went to the Flea Market & bought bikes! I got mine for only 20 Euro!
Mines in front, Jess in Back!

Baby Boomin'

Perfect German Families, Perfect, German Families, oh my lord! There is a serious baby boom in this city. I have never seen so many pregnant women in a big city as I have here. Everyone's lives here aren't pushed to the same extent as they are in New York...Career! Career! Career! (of course if your taxes actually go towards healthcare and not putting yourself in immense debt due to student loans, this lifestyle becomes much more attainable). People actually use the weekends to take a rest. The streets are virtually empty on Sundays. And it's not like we are in the country or even suburbs here. This is a major, metropolitan city! People are willing to give up working constantly just enough to be able to have a baby. But for those that don't give up their careers in their entirety, I am about to offer my services. I want to start babysitting for a German family so that I can make a few bucks, I mean Euros (note the extra 40%) and continue practicing my German. Cost of living is so much less here that I could actually get by off working only a few days a week and pay my rent, and then still have time to be an artist that makes work.

Oh and did I mention that these families are all gorgeous. I thought I loved Brooklyn hipster dad-babes, but the Berliner fathers win. And don't worry mom this is not me trying to tell you that I am starting a family in Germany. I do plan on coming home, someday.

domestic babes

Anyway I don't have too many crazy stories to tell yet. Full time school has been the major focus of this month. We make dinner together to save money - can't eat out all the time. I'm practically vegetarian because Bianca is, and I have been trying so many cool new vegetables as a result. Bianca is a really good, inventive cook, which is in turn expanding my cooking abilities.

I am utterly amazed at how well the three of us are working out as roommates/lifelines. Jess didn't know Bianca all that well, and I knew her even less, but we really have bonded into great friends, who after two weeks of spending nearly every minute together, pretty much know all there is to know about one another.

our giant monument

Last night Jess and I went out with one of our classmates Serena from Milan. We went into Kotbussertor which is a neighborhood that is comparable to Williamsburg/Bushwick - In other words, it's the place to go to if you are young and an artist. Anyway we went to grab a drink each at a couple different places, and discussed art and politics, all in broken English. She was very inspiring, and I am very excited to be her friend. On the way back since the U-Bahn does not run 24 hours like our superior subway system Jess & I had to walk halfway across Berlin back to our home. Basically a walk that probably if taken directly would have been 40 minutes became an hour & a half. We had a map and we live close to a giant monument but the monument was out of sight where we were, and a map is useless if street signs are non-existent or misnomered. We passed some crazies along the way an eventually got our booties home after many circles by 4 AM...



In any case, I love my life right now, and I am so happy that I am where I am right now. Not to mention I had the best icecream ever, a tiny slice of heaven for 4 Euro. I took a tiny break from writing this to eat in bed with Jess and listen to Patsy Cline / Rihanna.

Well anyway tomorrow is Friday, So I'm psyched for another crazy weekendd!




Today's Vocab Word:

Frauhaus = Wife

We just think this word is funny because it means literally wife.house

Jobst = Job

This is pronounced with an American pronounciation of the 'j' and not a German 'y' sound because it was imported from our language. Go figure!

Was kostet das? = How much does that cost?

I would like to believe that German is just badly spelled English, but unfortunately the language is much more complicated than that. And Germans are supposed to be very systematic and rule-oriented...then why the hell are there so many exceptions to their language rules!

One of those Neverending Nights.

It was Friday night, and we were feeling right! Wandering around our neighborhood (beer in hand...no scare of getting a summons-it's legal!), we soon realize that all the places we had been searching for all this time were actually much closer than we thought. Anyway, we were walking around drinking beers until we got to our desired destination: the oldest bier garten in Berlin, but by time we found it, it was dead. Ready to give up - it's like 2 AM, by now...let's go into White Trash Bar, even though there is a cover.

Sure enough there was this amazing, Australian/German band in nurse outfits, covered in fake blood, yeah sounds gimmicky, but the singer- such an incredible performer, the band so dancy and energetic that they totally pulled it off. They were so fun! Call Me An Ambulance


As soon as the band ended, immediately the DJ started pumping his sweet Euro mixes, and us 3 ladies got OUTRAGEOUS. The Europeans did not even know what to do with our dance moves. These girls started to emulate our moves, and a circle literally formed around us. The people loved it, we could not even handle it. Thriller, Intergalactic, some ridiculous Italian jams -- guys kept trying to dance with us, but didn't even know how to keep up. It was my crowning moment.

Things came to a halt when Bianca realized that she had put down her clutch holding her empty beer bottle (in case someone stole it she thought, they would be pissed with their unfruitful findings) and her 20 Euro pay as you go cell phone. I was having such a fun time dancing, and some mixed version of Smells Like Teen Spirit came on while we were searching for the clutch - I just wanted to dance, but alas it was time to depart.

Wallowing in our minor loss at a table outside of the club, we were making conversation and wound up looking for some other places to continue the night with Dan - the Austrian, & Handy Andy the Scotsman. We were circling the city stopping into a couple places. We got bored. Finally we decided to head to Dan's apartment (don't worry mom any of us could have kicked their asses, and they were totally harmless).

"We'll take a taxi," Dan kept saying. Bianca wouldn't have it because she knew it was walkable.
Jess & I kept thinking, well if they pay for it, I'm all for cabbing it. "They're hedge funders," Jess whispers to Bianca, "they'll pay for it." Little did Jess realize at the time was that they were actually head hunters, not hedge funders, but regardless they paid for the cab, and we arrived to this incredible top floor apartment in this old building with a modern interior, skylights insanely gigantic windows, fully equipped with 3 bottles of expensive champagne.

Dan puts on some music, and the first song on the mix (meanwhile we are all sitting around a couch) is a remixed version of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl". Then comes song after song in that genre, with intense beats, all while we are sitting in his living room. If the Austrian was in the States, you definitely would have thought he was gay. The Scot is going on and on about how the music is 'rubbish', and us ladies are just cracking up at this ridiculous scenario. We played a game of Twister. I think the boys thought they were clever, pulling out the game, but we called them out, in fact we called them out on virtually everything throughout the night. Oh did I mention that there was a small tube of concealer on Dan's counter?

Jess & I decided it was time to go up on the roof, even though there was no ladder. We put one of the chairs on the terrace on top of the outdoor table and pulled ourselves up. We watched the sunrise drinking champagne. "You're real Rock & Roll girls aren't you." The boys thought we were so bad ass the whole night, it was hysterical. I don't think we were quite like the girls they were used to hanging out with - slightly more rough around the edges. The boys fell asleep up there, and us ladies miraculously got down off the roof, I'm not quite sure how we maneuvered that, and we walked a 40 minute walk home 8:30 this morning.

Next stop: An Indie/Brit-Pop Show Tonight.

Today's Vocab Word:

die Tanzveranstaltung = dance party

I literally cried...

Right after I watched the speech, I checked my
email, and my mother sent me this photo. Cute!

This morning, being the wholesome ladies we are, we made coffee and together studied Deutsch. Bianca then looks up one of the the tv news pages, so that we can keep up with our nation's politics, and out pops up our [God help us, potential not only Vice Presidential candidate, but with McCain's health records, Presidential candidate] Pitbull/Hockey Mom (the only difference is lipstick, remember?), Sarah Palin.

Tina Fey...looks like somebody is coming in for a guest appearance on SNL...I'm out of the loop in pop culture, maybe this already happened?

I literally cried this morning as I was watching her give her speech. I am overwhelmed with hatred for this woman and the way I anticipate her to manipulate the idiots of our country - a beautiful woman who knows how to run a family, and hell she knows how to pop them babies out too (did you all catch the moment her youngest daughter licked her hand to fix her tiny baby brother's hair?)

I love how she was forced to reminisce about her days on student council & PTA because she has such little government experience. Let's give her some credit though, she does that she knew everyone in the town she was a mayor for....
...in the least densely populated state of America.

Like me, she is so wholesome! Get ready America, the Stepford Wife is coming in...let's just hope her batteries run out soon. The moral of the story: if you know ANYONE who hasn't registered, or filed for an absentee ballot (someone who has a brain anyway), tell them to go to Rock the Vote immediately. I'm very scared for our country. Must I become a permanent expat?


Today's Deutsch lesson:

das Miststück = bitch

Sun-Saturn knows!

Signing into my igoogle I glance at my horoscope being that it's one my applications and take a look at what it said:

The Sun-Saturn conjunction occurs in your 3rd House of Learning, making this an ideal time to take a new course of study. But this isn't about frivolous desires to distract yourself with trivial information. Pick a subject that is practical enough to impact your daily life in a positive way.

Seriously, are you kidding me? Today was my 2nd day of intensive Deutsche lessons. This entails 5 days a week, for 3.5 hours a day of learning German for a minimum of 2 weeks, probably [at least] 3 though.

Now for some lessons for you with some of my favorite words/phrases, some of them were words I put together on my own prior to starting classes after browsing through Deutsch-Englisch Dictionaries:

• Du bist schwanger? = Are you pregnant?

• Haben Sie baby? = Are you having a baby?

[nein, nobody thought they were pregnant, I just thought schwanger was a funny word]

• Entschuldigung! = Excuse me! But you must say it very highpitched, singing it

• Bitte, Please = Please, Please

Ok das gut for now! Auf Wiedersehen. You are aus!

Charlie's Angels

When we got off the plane, I realize I feel a bit like one of Charlie's Angels: 3 young American babes with some unseen benefactor. I later find out his name is Thorsten, and he provided us with not only an apartment, but also a chauffeur to get from point A to B: Schoenfeld Airport to mein straβe.



Bleary eyed [well pink-eyed in my case-yes I got a minor case of conjunctivitus AGAIN the morning before my flight] on the morning of August 27 or 28th (with time changes and overnight flights who knows what day it actually is at the time?), we arrive past customs like the bumbling idiots we are, no idea of the language, to a tall thin man named Carsten. He holds a sign in big, typed bold letters in a plastic envelope – BIANCA. We eventually get into his blue, pristine Volkswagen van. Oh how I missed broken english - what I call doublespeak... synonym after synonym.

Carsten’s phone rings.

“Oh dis ist Thorsten.” He presses accept and there is Thorsten’s voice blaring through the vehicle.

“Hello girls!!!"

"HI THORSTENNN!" (we sound like cheerleaders)

BLa bla bla, we sucked up a bit... "well, you are very special,” he says. Jess and I burst out laughing.

In fact we are Thorsten's Angels.

Pictures, really don't do it justice:

(did I mention we have a tub that can fit a few? ...ballers)

ummm yeah this is our courtyard