I explained the general idea of my dissertation to some English folks today. When I mentioned that James had wanted to be an artist before he switched to science, one of them burst out, “Oh, like Hitler!” Well, there you go. This is how I can explain what I’m doing to the Germans: “You know, it’s just like Hitler.” I bet they’ll really appreciate that.
Yes, it’s true what they say about Germans. By and large, they love rules, and their government loves inventing permits. So on Wednesday, I spent 2 hours getting a permit to live here, which is required for any stay over 7 days. 7 days! I suppose you can get by without one, if you want to be a naughty American rule-breaker– but only if you don’t need a bank account. Since I do need one, I had to have the permit. Let me tell you, filling out all those forms in German was a pain in my ass. I got through the name and address part, and could specify meine Staatsangehörigkeit, but after that, things got complicated. But I resisted cheating off the person next to me, and finally got my permit.
With the necessary documents in hand, I thought I’d be able to open a bank account relatively efficiently, but the first few banks I tried told me I had to speak German fluently in order to legally obtain an account. A half hour of internet research later, I walked into a DeutscheBank, confident I’d be welcomed, scheiß Deutsch and all. But this was not just any DeutscheBank, but the “DeutscheBank of the Future,” Q11. It had a bar in it, and a Flight001 store, and all kinds of crazy modern furniture. And most importantly, they had employees that would let me open a free student account.
Check out their un-bank-like interior here.
Unlike Sido’s block, mine is not full of American rap cliches. My block is pretty damn nice. DeutschlandsWohnungsKrise2007 blew over thanks to some help from fabulous L&T faculty member/fellow U-of-C grad student Bill, and I now have a very large one bedroom flat in Charlottenburg, which is in the Northwest part of Berlin. It’s not the trendiest place to live, but it’s very centrally located for my needs– just about smack in the middle of my university and the hot party areas of Berlin. I’m perfectly happy being in a quiet, tree-lined area and traveling for 15-20 minutes if I want to go out somewhere, so this has worked out well for me.
Some scenes from my area of town: Click on ‘em for a bigger view
My building’s entrance; my street; the cute logo for the Senior Citizen’s buro nearby
The cafe across the street, which is run by a rather rotund man who shuffles about barefoot and has a heavy Berlin accent
Okay, really, what is with the German interest in pirates? First there was the extremely high-end pirate accessories store in Munich, and now I live down the street from a pirate-themed restaurant. Bizarre.
Now, here’s what I’m really excited about. I live about half a block from the Schloss Charlottenburg and its gardens. The gardens are absolutely beautiful, and I’ve already spent many hours walking around in there.
This is probably my favorite part of the gardens so far: it’s a perfectly still river that’s paved with algae. It has a magical, shimmery look to it. You can only really tell it’s a river by the tiny “windows” on the surface of the algae.
The Schloss itself, and its more formal gardens.
A few bird pics for Rachel S.
Next up: Unbelievably cheap, unbelievably tasty food; the ins and outs of getting a permit to do anything and everything; bars in banks; assviolins
