Alright, so I live in Berlin. I mean I really live here now. No hotel, sadly no more maid service, but on the bright side, I have an oven again.
I would love to say that I searched out the perfect place to spend my year in Berlin, that I carefully researched, visited tons of places, and that my selection was the result of a mature consideration of my needs and wants.
But, that would be a lie. Finding a place to live was a little harder than I thought, so when a decent seeming apartment became available, I jumped at the opportunity. The fact that it involves something like a tree house, was really just a bonus.
To call it a tree house is not completely accurate, although it is made of wood. It is a free standing loft inside a room with high ceilings. There are no railings. I sleep up there. It is very high. Every morning when I awake still in one piece, I feel like I have earned the right to walk among mankind for at least one more day. Some of my friends are worried. There are threats of installing railings when I am not looking. For now I just sleep as close as possible to the wall. I will keep you posted.
I should probably mention that I have two roommates, which technically classifies my apartment as a Wohngemeinschaft, or a shared apartment. Thanks to said roommates, I didn´t have to worry about setting up most things in my apartment, all I had to take care of was my room. That being said, I maybe could have worked a little harder. It took me more than a week to buy a pillow and blankets. I am not proud of this. I am just stating facts. Now however, I can definitely say I feel pretty settled here, and have managed to avoid making a trip to IKEA (note: I have just accepted lack of furniture as a lifestyle choice).
As for my neighborhood, I should probably admit it was completely by happy accident that I found a place to live that is actually relatively convenient to work. It only takes me about 25 minutes for my entire commute, which is pretty great considering how massive Berlin is.
Sadly, I still get to work about 15 minutes late every day. It turns out that even if your commute only takes 25 minutes, you must still leave 25 minutes before work starts to arrive on time. In case you are wondering, yes, everything you think you have heard about the importance of punctuality in Germany is totally true. My coworkers keep saying, "Americaner sind so Locker!", which means, "Americans are so chilled out!", which I think is code for, "Please try to show up on time."
But back to my neighborhood. It is called Friedrichshain (pronounced Freed-ricks-hine). The part I live in is called Boxhagener Platz, or Boxi, for short. It is sort of a lively mess in the heart of former East Berlin. Founded as a working class neighborhood in the 1920s, Friedrichshain was one of the worst damaged parts of the city during second world war bombing. In fact, after the war, the city took lots of the rubble from destroyed buildings, trucked it over to the 1840s era Volkspark in Friedrichshain, and made two gigantic mountains out of it that are now just part of the park (creative!). The soviets left their mark too, building the grand Stalinallee Boulevard (later renamed Karl-Marx-Allee). After the fall of the wall, part of which was located just a few blocks from my apartment, the neighborhood became a low rent, young, student and (graffiti) artist haven on the (slow) road to gentrification. I live right in the heart of it all on Boxi, where a weekly farmers market and flea market take place. I also live right next door to arguably the best falafel in the city (but please, let´s not argue).
And, as promised, some things I think are pretty around my ´hood.
(it looks like a smiley face)
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