Berlinian bliss

Yay to having roomies! Ok I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's great living with other people. How else would I have been able to put my curtains up? We've tried two times already and yesterday we finally managed to put them up, but it sure wasn't a pick-nick. Firstly because of the sheer height, the ceiling's about 5 metres up. Also, the walls are made of some kind of porous material which crumbles as soon as you put anything sharp in there. In spite of all this, we managed. Anika got all frustrated from watching the rest of us struggling so she rolled her sleeves up, shoved us aside and five minutes later I had curtains! She's one crafty woman.



We also put our pretty paintings of Amsterdam and Paris up in the livingroom. Wow, we're so handy.



Project of today was putting the bathroom light up, I did it in like ten minutes. Don't want to brag or anything but I am indeed very handy. Nah, just kidding. It was simply very easy to put up, a monkey could have done it. Later today we might even put curtains up in the kitchen! Have to wait for roomie to come home to do that though, it is a tad trickier...

Tomorrow's project will be calling my French bank and yell at them for stealing my money. Yes they are still the tool of Satan. And they still won't give me a break. Usually I don't like using the H-word but I really do hate them. I do, and I won't deny it. Stay tuned for updates on that one. Might ever try opening a German bank account tomorrow, it's scary though! If I had problems opening an account when everything was in French, how will I cope with everything being in German? Interesting indeed.

Other than being stalked and harassed by French bankpeople, life is good. I'm still very poor and unemployed but on the case. Luckily children are still being born out there with parents who are willing to pay me to watch the little ones. Phew! My ambition to acquire the TEFL certificate and work as an English teacher is still priority number one though, however it costs about 125£ which I don't have. Tried to get some money from CSN to cover that but they haven't gotten back to me yet. Any day now...

In short my days are filled with: marathon-watching House MD, going out for coffees, having a run in the park, philosophising. Chillaxed!

And was has she achieved? Well, the arrival of La Suédoise hasn't exactly caused a stir in the city, but I am still keeping a low profile (yes it is intentional). No job yet, not counting the babysits (sorry Mary Poppins, in my book nannying is still considered as a gig on the side), and assets are lower than low. Tomorrow I'll head over to Friedrichshain and watch a little Swedish/Icelandic 2 year old boy, fun! I've never heard Icelandic being spoken I think, quite fascinating!

One good thing about having all this time on my hands is that I have started running again. One hour four times a week, it's starting to feel quite alright! Don't know if I mentioned this earlier but I won a spot on the Gothenburg halfmarathon for next year (22nd of May, 2010), so I better get going! Ran yesterday and today, the park is fricking kick-ass for running, however it is slightly cold. I fear that the winter is going to be long and freezing...

Pluses about living with the Damias: having lovley dinners made for me every night, playing (and learning how to play) chess, beers, cuddles, hugs, deep discussions (I mostly participate with my silence and the occasional nod), movies, House MD, Weeds, tequila, dancing, running, strolling, coffeeees, Charleeey, coming up with stupid internal jokes that noone'll get, reading the Economist and feeling smart, complain about France, complain about Germany, being nostalgic about our home-countries and so on and so forth.

Minuses about living with the Damias: drinking maybe a tad too many beers, eating too much pizza, going to bed a tad too late, sleeping slightly too long in the morning. But all of these aren't really bad though, just frowned upon perhaps...

There, I'm all blogged out for tonight. Zzzzzzz....

Everywhere you turn in our neighbourhood (Prenzlauer Berg), or more precisely, on our street (Bötzowstrasse), there are babies and puppies as far as the eye can see. Seriously, the place is practically crawling with them. And they're cute as hell too! We've managed to make some new friends:

First we have Benno.



And then lovely Sokrates.



So yes, many puppies. And babies. Adorable babies. Kind of makes me want to get one. Puppy that is, not baby. Or, maybe....?

Dilemma: "If you work for a living, then why do you kill yourself working?" vs "Why do you never enjoy being unemployed, even though you have all this free time on your hands?"

As soon as I do have a job, I'll go: "Man, I wish I could get some time off." But right now I can't wait to get a job, however I do enjoy being able to sleep in and going for coffees all day every day. It's also quite cool to have an unemployed buddy to do all this with, otherwise it sure would have been hell.

At this point though it's getting a bit old. I sure would like to work, atleast for a little bit. Have to be patient, I knew this would take some time. Guess I just have to keep up the Mary Poppins act for a little while longer...

Last weekend I finally got a bit of Berlinian club feel, we went to CCCP, a Russian (!) club. The decor was outrageous and random but cool, in a way. At first we were a bit sceptical but then the DJ (an extremely sexy German with porn mustasch and suspenders) hyped up the music and the shots started flowing = instant success. We scrambled home at 6am, filled with love and laughter.



Can you see the vadge hidden somewhere? Random!!

Ok I'll go do some groceries now, at Rewe, best store ever!!

I've never been big on carrying lots of cash around, but little did I know that Germany is equally unhappy about handling credit cards. When shopping it's all about the cash! Quite shocking when you're standing at the IKEA check out with shopping for 600 euros and the clerk goes "Visa? No no no!" with a little horrified frown. As if we're in Katmandu or something. Unfortunately at this point it was ten past 9 (IKEA closes at 9pm) and the cash machine was way over at the other end of the store. But this is still Germany and not France, they ended up waiting for me to get money out so I could pay for it all. In France they would have totally cut me.



Life in Germany is quite easy still. Compared to previous experiences... My French bank is still giving me grief, they just love punishing me with taking money off my account without warning or reason. It's annoying to say the least.

But enough about that! Tonight: running, dinner, drinks, more drinks, dancing, funsies - bliss!