The First Bratwurst

Today was the second day of GLS - the language school my parents were so kind to give me money for while I was here. I find that the seeds of what this project "is" are somehow getting slowly sown as I write these updates. I am preparing for my theaterfest which will be nearly 12 straight productions one day after the other.

GLS is a nice break from all of that, and really gets me into german. The professors speak nearly no english and sort of talk at you and you have to figure out real quick what theyre telling you and answer those questions. Rosetta actually helped me skip about drei wochen (3 weeks) of classes, so I might even be able to upgrade to A2. My classmates are all roughly my age and from all over the world. Two girls are from England, a 20 year old pilot from Dubai, a Spanish flight attendant, a belgian student, and theyre all quite fun and a good group to go to class with. Making friends in Berlin is far easier than I thought. That evening me and my new friend Becky decided to catch the epic Germany Austria game, we tried a few venues but they were all packed with fervent soccer fans. Finally we found a place in Mauerpark (spelling it wrong probably) which is the old site of the wall that has now become a very pretty park, though I always feel such a strong energy around the area where the wall usedto stand. Berlin can be a very powerful place.

the highlight of the match was the bratwurst.

That is to say, the match was borrrrrring. Germany played terribly but thankfully got away with an amazing free kick by michael ballack. The place was packed though and the screams were epic when the goal was scored.

I had my first Bratwurst - delicious german fried sausage, it was lukewarm on the inside but extremely filling, on the side i had pommes frittes and a hefeweissen (wheat beer) to wash it all down. What a delight. A few other GLS friends joined us, and then me and the pilot from Dubai, Aynman went back to GLS for what is calle stammtisch. Basically everyone gets together and socializes at the center until 23;30 or so at which point they move to this hip cafe in Mitte called kaffee burger until, Im not kidding you, four or five in the morning. And remember this is a monday.

I met many different people at the gathering, let me see - Maria a swiss girl who had lived a year or so in Riverdale (random I know), then a Kansan business school student in South Carolina, a bunch of Colorodeans from the Air Force School - I became good friends with a crazy Swedish girl named Sofia (though she made us call her So-fila) and a Danish girl who had spent quite some time in London. We discussed my love of Kierkegaard and Sofila's absolute disdain from Strindberg, not because of his work or his misogyny, she didnt seem to have a problem with that, rather all these people who claim to read Strindberg and dont understand anything. Marie meanwhile expounded on her love of Beck and her time spent in nearly 20 countries, including a brief year in Luxembourg (her parents work for the EU). Her commentary on Luxembourg? 'Everything is small'.

Who else, Leo, a brazilian who Maria claimed spoke like an argentine, which was a lie, but was quite charming and was about to begin a masters in history of ideas in Humboldt and had to get up to a level C2 (which is native speaker level) in about a year. A spanish girl who was about to begin her doctorate in linguistics in England in a matter of months. Another one whose only memory I can recall now is a fan that she would wave around and walk around with provocatively. A surreal night indeed, but a lovely one. I mostly talked with my scandinavian friends, while the played california dreaming, it's raining men, shout, dancing queen, choice 80s hits and even early 90s hip hop. Eclectic fare indeed.

The amount of people was almost overwhelming, I soaked it all in, going from place to place, I spoke about 4 languages in constant rotation, my broken french with the swiss, my spanish with all the latinamericans and brazilians and spaniards, my english with most europeans, and my deutsch with the rest. It was exhilarating and the conversations and dancing and partying went on until about 430 when I was walking home, wondering where the night went, certainly not expecting to be getting to know my neighborhood at 53 am on a tuesday. Old people in carts went from house to house, dropping letters.

Sun rises early in berlin. At 4 it is already light out. It is one of my favorite times to be in a city. Everything exists held up in time it seems, before the city breathes, you can see its structures purely as structures, its facades without th emovement, the purposes behind them. it is surreal as no cars are in the street and you only find every now and then young people walking back as well, probably having similar nights as you. I approach my street and it seems different in this light. These are the moments I came for, these moments when one really takes the city personally, where one starts to bond with it not merely in the haze of tourism but the individual finding his way. What made me happiest about the monday was discovering the varieties of experiences that brought these individuals to berlin, and though they came as individuals, as I did, they also found friends and built experiences. As I find myself doing the same, I also find myself really looking forward to my personal mission here - I feel so drawn to this place, as if I want to return for longer, as if I want to learn and speak the language and go into a theatre and understand every word. So much so that I may be adding german to my schedule next year.


In other news I bought my (very) expensive tickets to Avignon today, I have Bartis, Ostermeier's hamlet and thsi other french director that seemed highly freoand I am nearly up to my theatrebudget but not quite. The theatre in berlin thankfully is fährpreis (but I wouldnt call it billig since it is high quality, not to be confused, eh).


The next step will be my theaterfest, and meeting germans, which will requirea bit more time an d abit more deutsch. But so far this experience has been invaluable. I am keeping a theatre log to keep the shows from meshing into one. I feel i have gotten so much from going to the theatre, I will have plenty to think about, and plenty to start working on.

I havent written anything creative yet, that comes in the time after the storm. I am figuring after theaterfest. The ideas are festering in my head. I am trying to thin k of what content this project i have will contain. I want to crystallize for people exactly what about the theatre I am looking at is so essential, and why it is missing in the states - i want to think about why the theatre I am seeing makes me feel the way I do. And what this theatre tells me about Berlin -

for now, I am reclaiming myself as an individual in a city I am just beginning to know but already learning to love.

Tschüss!

- J


p.s. go roumania!!