On the map

Berlin finally has a central station and not only a station but the biggest main station in any city in Europe. It opened last night with millenium type fireworks. Next week sees the opening of the World cup here so it looks like Berlin is at last a cool place to be. The Kittens have arrived in big storms with suitcases full of Yorkshire tea, crisps and apricot facial scrub so I am very happy. Berlin has a great station but crap tea and crisps........( Note to anyone visiting in the near future:)

The class

Into the third week of, yes, yet another German course and yes, I should probably be fluent by now but with recent words like damit, womit and woruber I feel I am going backwards rather than forwards.
The one and only communal language that we all know in class is German so the breaks are, as you can imagine full of scintillating conversation.
The class;
Valina: Polish, maximum 20, 6ft, blonde, tanned, beautiful and also lovely. The typical opair but think any hausfrau would run a mile before employing her unless she wanted to leave her husband.

Sandro: Italian, hair like Dali, chain smoker, laughs alot and introduced me to the world of the.Tandem partner. He has seven Tandem partners on the go at the moment which perhaps explains his late arrivals and daily vitamin drinks.

Tadashi: Japanese, eats an apple a day and manages to crack jokes in German. Impressive.

Na: Vietnamese, pregnant, smiley, cooks vietnamese snacks for the breaks. Seems to speak alot of German but no one seems to understand her.

Cami: Romanian. Never stops talking in whatever language that comes out first. Favourite words" Zum Beispiel".Owns lots of shoes and likes old cars. Did a PHD about cement.

Jose: French. Understands what the teacher said five minutes after everyone else and then screams" cool".

Paulo: Mexican. Very clever.

Maria: Spanish.. Nods alot.

Ny-yung: Korean. Small. Perfect face. Likes chocolate. Fights with the fat? ( Her words). Dreams of opening an original chocolate shop.

to be continued....

Where have all the people gone?

Yesterday evening I got free tickets to see the wonderfulMr Rattle in action with 200 singers, 200 dancers and an audience of 3000 performing Carmina Burana. It was quite something. Last time I saw him was when The Shark was playing in Birmingham? ( correct me if I'm wrong) and I remember thinking this Mr Rattle man had gorgeous hair and behaved like a dancer with over excited arms. His hair is still as curly but grey and he still has the same way of creating amazing music with his arms. The last time I heard the whole of Carmina was when I attempted the Gong solo and managed ( luckily for the dress rehearsal only to play it in every pause as opposed to after every pause). Thank goodness Mr Rattle wasn't there then. So yesterday evening was definitely a trip to the past and made me appreciate what a huge amount of work goes into an event like that. I enjoyed being a spectator and no longer a performer.
Yesterday 3000 people got together for one performance and today as I wandered around three different empty, huge museums, I wondered where all the people in Berlin are? How sad is a musical instrument museum with the biggest collection of instruments I have ever seen sitting in silence. No people except for the over vigilant security guards desperate to tell you not to touch and to keep quiet. Something feels wrong here and I can't quite work it out............

And here is the proof!

Dogs

The Year of the course

I am now into the third day of my third language course. This means I have already spent twelve weeks out of the last 8 months here studying, and only now am I beginning to enjoy it and understand how to form a complete sentence in this unusual, complicated language. Sandra, the teacher has a faraway quality which normally would drive me mad in an ordinary situation. However, her lengthy pauses and gazing into the distance allows me just enough time to understand what's going on and to find the correct page in my workbook. I am happy even though Sandra says I shouldn't keep looking in my dictionary. Phew, it only took me 8 months to find the right language course. How long will it take me to find the right job?? Actually my obsession of the week is to take part in as many courses as possible because it seems that The F is offered an extra job each week so I am perhaps free to self develop for a little while longer! I have discovered many courses. However this is more than a little worrying that anyone can learn these particular subjects over the web. A yoga qualification without ever taking a class? I thought I'd try out some animal healing and start a campaign to hypnotize dogs to stop them shitting everywhere. In Berlin this is a HUGE problem. Failing this I might follow in the footsteps of The lovely Ivor Cutler and spray paint around all the shit and turn it into an artwork. Anything goes here and I feel many a mission calling.
Phrase of the week: Ist das hier dein Hund?