Summer in the City

Another month, another milestone.  June had been the only month in which I’d not spent any time in Berlin, so that situation has now been rectified.   I’m now well and truly settled in the new flat.  I had been reluctant to move here initially but we had no choice – our rental contract on the other flat couldn’t be extended as the owner was coming back to Berlin and wanted to move back in.  However, I did quickly grow to prefer this one.  I think my concerns were that it was smaller than the other flat and open-plan.  I don’t have a problem with open-plan – I’m mildly claustrophobic so I like big spaces.  But I was concerned that it wouldn’t be practical if one of us wanted to work.  In the other flat I spent a lot of time in the kitchen where I’d made a desk out of the dining table and could get on with things without disturbing Alan or without him disturbing me.  It’s not been a problem though as we have a desk area and a kitchen dining area to work at, and also the sofa’s quite a useful workspace being large and L-shaped.  My other concern was a purely cosmetic one.  The flat was styled in a very masculine way with lots of black and red.  I looked around after we got the keys and thought we had made a mistake.  We’d rented the flat for nine months, until the end of January 2015, extending the duration of our intended stay by three months.  However, once left on my own – Alan very conveniently had a football match to go to that night – I set about rearranging things to make it more agreeable to me.  I removed the pictures – luridly-coloured photographs of a floodlit Brandenburger Tor and Fernsehturm – and put them in the hall.  Then I got rid of the red.  I removed a red throw, cushions and rug to the bedroom replacing the rug with the bedroom’s more neutral-coloured one.  I then found a couple of oatmeal-coloured throws in a drawer which I used to drape over a red chair.  The final challenge was the bedroom.  The bedding was a garishly-patterned purple, red, yellow and orange.  Luckily we’d bought some plain white bedding at the other flat because the dark brown and navy bedding there was depressing.  I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a German foible to sleep in ghastly-coloured bedding.  I know that all of our tastes are different and the flat is lovely and modern but it was just a bit too sterile and, as I say ‘bachelor-pad’ for me. 

I’ve been making acquaintance with the neighbours here too.  They seem very friendly in this house in comparison to the previous one.  I think the problem there was that a few of the flats were holiday lets so there was a constant turnover of new faces.  However, I think we had lived there long enough to be recognised and acknowledged by the neighbours when we passed them in the hof.  Some people were friendly but by no means all.  A couple of weeks ago I got talking to Franziska, who lives three floors up from us and that weekend she invited us to a barbecue in her garden.  The garden – attached to an old DDR-era datscha – was a ten minute bike ride away in the direction of Pankow.  It was a lovely, serene place to be at the end of a hot and dusty day in the city.  A table was set up under a vine-entangled porch, and beers cooled in a tub of water while Franziska prepared salads and picked strawberries and Tilo, her partner, took charge of the barbecue.  We sat talking until late into the night, Tegel-bound planes gliding overhead, before cycling back through the still hot but by then fairly quiet streets. 

On the subject of new acquaintances, I’ve acquired a tandem-speaking partner and last Thursday I met up with her at Messe Nord ICC.  From there we walked down to the Leitzensee where we had a drink and sat looking over the lake towards the Funkturm until sundown.  We chatted about all sorts of things and I’m not sure we got a lot of tandem-speaking done but I’m preparing some things I’d like to go over at our next meeting.

It’s been a month so far of  baking-hot temperatures and practically non-stop work.  I’ve taken another couple of sessions at the language exchange which I’m really enjoying doing.  I’m also revising hard for my TEFL exam.  I’ve now completed all of the work but, as I’ve got about eight weeks left I’m taking my time to go over the material again and practice getting my lesson plans done within a time frame.  I’ve also landed my first job.  It’s only a few hours here and there of freelance copywriting but It's a real job and I'm so pleased to be doing it.

Right now the city is firmly in the grip of World Cup mania – it seems as though every single bar, restaurant, café and even takeaway has installed screens especially for the matches.  We watched the Spain-Netherlands match at our local amongst a healthy sprinkling of fans from both countries and the atmosphere was fantastic.  Later, we're off to meet a bunch of friends to watch the England match.  I might even do a World Cup post before long. 

I already have a few posts in the pipeline, one on the literary scene in Berlin and a ‘favourite places’ post but finding the time to get them completed is proving to be quite a challenge!