das Tobuwabohu

Also (spoken with a German accent). I just recently got back to my apartment to do my homework for the day. I was originally going to actually make it to the 9am tour of the Berlin “wall” (now more like a line on the pavement) but I missed my U-Bahn stop last night and ended up at Sheila and Brandon’s hostel – but that was the end of the day. Let’s start at the beginning.

I woke up late. Like I flew out of bed, ran around like a chicken that had just gotten its head chopped off, but then still managed to get all my homework done, do my laundry and even learn tons of vocabulary on the train ride over.

I started out the day with much more energy than most of my classmates – it might have been the caffeine in the tea or something. The Serbian guy, Mario, spent a while apologizing for having gotten pretty drunk last night and wondering what sort of magic powder they had sprinkled into his drink. By the afternoon he headed home as he did not look good at all. As is a pale, almost green face. He claims it was the cheese he ate for breakfast, but we all know the real reason.

Class was super interesting as we discussed the influx of English words into the German language. I learned that in Italy and France, jogging is referred to as “footing” – and of course pronounced with a very adorable French or Italian accent. Oh and in Spain, the language isn’t as affected by English basically because they have problems with English pronunciation, which I think is awesome. Here in Deutschland, in Dormund, there’s a group that has been formed to fight off the Anglizismen. But they’re “hitting the sack instead of the ass” (I love German idioms) and speaking about linguistics rather than the real fear of rapid development and globalization and of losing their identity.

We had an amazing conversation over steaming cups of coffee during our break about languages in general, the five different languages and alphabets in the chaotic Caucasus, Catalan, differences between Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. For the last part it was just the Norwegian dude changing his voice every time he changed languages thus making some of them sound beautiful and others god awful. Interestingly enough he finds Norwegian to be the ugliest one. And, by the way, he “only speaks three languages – Norwergian, English and German” according to him. He’s so full of shit, but in an adorable way. Plus he just looks like a large cuddly bear and has some amazing dance moves.

We also planned our group project that we’ll be presenting at the end of the four weeks. I ended up in a group of all women whom I hadn’t really talked to before, but they turned out to be super cool too. A Germanistics student at UPenn (like doctoral student) originally from Russia, a teacher from Catalonia, and two women from Japan and India who don’t talk very much. But that will change, and I’m sure they’re just as interesting. As our project, we’re going to investigate a neighborhood of Berlin and look into it’s history, present, people, culture, ethnic composition, etc. We’re planning on taking it full force, conducting interviews, maybe even making a short video. I’m super excited, especially about also drawing up a map of the hood. ; )

After class I headed to Potsdamer Platz to meet up with the Sheila. Thursday night is free night at the city museums and we were going to make a little Rundgang through at least the Musical Instrument museum if not many others. I was pretty mude (tired) though, and after finally hunting down each other I proposed that we just go see this supposedly cinematographically amazing German movie that came out last year. As we were talking the elevator down to the ticket counter, we were also trying to figure out where the dance club that we were going to hit up later was located and ended up asking the guy in the elevator with us about it. Rather than getting the info we wanted, we got roped into seeing his show.

I don’t even know what to call it – video improvisation? It consisted of us sitting in rows at the window, facing the street with headphones on. The action was literally talking place outside, among the people, but was also videoed. A general story line was already in place, but the actor on the street also stopped random people walking by and asked them questions. The topic was Heimat (homeland). I don’t know if it was the fact that the topic was relevant for me – the finding of ones own identity in a foreign place and what it really means to be from somewhere, what role languages play, integration – the piece was excellent. And unconventional, experimental, new and of course in German.

Still in the German mindset and speaking auf Deutsch, Sheila and I headed to Prenzlauerberg where we were to meet up with a number of other Harvard people who’re in Berlin at the moment. A bunch of ex-Let’s Go people (well three of us), a couple of guys from my German lit class showed up at one point, and then just other random people, one of who claimed to know me from somewhere, but I swear I’ve never seen him before.

We started at the Erdbeer (strawberry) which was in one word – red. Sat around made “small talk.” Then we headed over to Kaffe Burger – a very eclectic, eastern European type place with also red lighting, but a lot more character. After a couple of drinks and the rolling in of ten more Harvard people, we hit the dance floor. Sadly the S-Bahn stops running at a certain point (yet to be figured out when exactly, but I sort of don’t want to learn from first hand experience) so sadly the crazy dancing had to be cut short a bit. But another night out awaits tonight – tango!

And now onto my Deutsch homework. Ausgezeichnet.