sunnuntai 2. tammikuuta 2011

Berlin means business

Herzliche grüsse aus Berlin! That is one of the few sentences I can make in German. I'm staying in Neukölln in an apartment shared by one of my old high school friends and a couple of nice Berliners. I have set up shop onto the windowsill of the apartment kitchen because it's close to a functioning radiator and the fridge. And it's the only place where the internet works.

This is what my building looks like. It's the red one & my room is right above the undertaker's office.




The first leg of my journey also means that my work has kicked off. While others have been surviving their colossal New Year hangovers around the world I have interviewed a Michelin star chef, fought for hours with a non-co-operating audio editing program and sent about a dozen emails everywhere. Not that I mind. Everything has worked out and I'm getting things done. Which means I might deserve me a pretzel and some glühwein soon.

I mentioned that German isn't exactly my native language. It was actually the one language I kept as far away from as possible in school. All my German sentences pretty much consist of no more than three words and if there are, say, verbs in them, it can make a native grammatically nauseous. Here in Berlin I have come to realize that German would actually have been a useful language to learn after all. I mean, even "Hello, I'm a journalist, could you help me out with something?" today produced an answer "Sorry, I don't understand you."

All the German I know is a product of a German television series called Marienhof (yeah I watched it..) which aired in Finland sometime in the 90's. And it's not nearly enough. Nothing saddens me more than the fact that I don't understand enough German to know how to use the word "genau" in the right place. I love that word. It means you agree with someone, that you can tell them they're right... A positive word that I can't use because I can never tell if the other guy is right or not. Argh!

Like everywhere, also in Berlin the younger population is of course more fluent in English. I've met some wonderful people in my neighborhood who have helped me out enormously. My neighbors Daniel and Anna hooked me up to their internet (the reason it only works on the kitchen windowsill), my roommates invited me to their New Year's get-together and a Spätkauf kiosk salesman named Easy - seriously! - gave me all kinds of addresses for places with a free wireless network. Younger people can also tell very fast if you're not local. I thought I got the accent right in some German words, but no. The guy at the cash register figured out I'm foreign from my "ein moment" when I tried to look for some change. He replied "Just maybe a couple of euros?"

I love traveling. Even when it's difficult. It gives you such a thrill even despite - and especially when you overcome - things like language barriers, not knowing how to use the ticket vending machine or going to the store or restaurant and not having a clue which items are the things you want to eat. Difficulties are usually great opportunities to make new friends. A clichéish JFK quote from his 1962 speech came to mind when I left home: "We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things - not because they are easy but because they are hard." That's why I decided to do this trip. And that's why I hope you decide to do your adventure, whatever it is, before the chance escapes you.

Happy New Year 2011 - may it be even more kick-ass to you than 2010!


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