What have I been doing with my time?

People have been asking me how everything is here in Berlin, what am I getting up to? What am I doing? Who am I hanging out with? Do I like Berlin?

Answers to follow I suppose.

Let's please remember that I have been here only about two and a half weeks now. I spent one week here and then went off to Croatia for a vacation and have returned ready to crack down on the Germans, oh sorry, my German and other things. I have found a place to live, this was the most important thing, next on my list I am going to the Volkshochschule where I will hopefully talk to someone about taking a German course and which level I should enroll into. I plan on doing this tomorrow with Barbara Dee after dance class. I have also been looking for a job, I'm not quite sure how to proceed with this one as I have to register an address so I am able to work but seeing as i am subletting an apartment I don't have an address. This is a tricky one, but in the meantime, I'll be performing in a Talent Show on Tuesday night and I hope to god I'm first place talented because then I could win 200 Euros!

Other than these three annoying and slightly stressful things I have been exploring the city. Walking around, we went to Potsdam for a day, that was gorgeous. One day Martin took me for a walk through the Tier Garten but we began at the zoo because you can look into the animals' pens from the pathway beside the zoo. I think he loves animals just as much as I do! We both exclaimed and freaked every time we saw a new animal. Another day we went for a bike ride to the Hackescher Markt, browsed around and then made our way down Karl Marx Allee which is an incredibly long street with huge buildings the communists built in an effort to rebuild Berlin. It's actually got some incredible architecture, all very fifties and sixties inspired.

My birthday was this past Tuesday, I got a whole bunch of lovely notes from home and Barbie bought me a delicious pie/cake dessert. She was quite ill so she didn't make it out to the planned Birthday dinner with friends... so it ended up being Martin and I, we went out for Indian food, how I love Indian food. I went to a museum of modern art as well, some of the museums here are free on Thursdays, so I checked out one of them this past Thursday and I believe next Thursday I will go to another.

Do I like Berlin? The answer is yes. There is some really strange stuff here but this place has such an incredible history and there is so much to discover. It is colder than I wanted, however I'm told I'll be just fine because I'm from Canada! I'm not sure people really are aware that Vancouver is so mild compared to the rest of Canada.

I do think and hope my German is getting better, I have been talking in a campy voice with Barb, Marcus and Martin to make practicing more enjoyable.

Who are Marcus and Martin? Marcus is the guy that Barbie met in a laundromat last November who has actually been quite helpful and fun, and Martin is the guy I met at Lollis Homestay Hostel in Dresden for twenty minutes who has actually been quite helpful and fun.