A return to civilization...

No offense Italy, but now I know why my parents only go there for vacation and only every few years now. Talk about a love-hate relationship! (I have another post that, in and through my eyes, perfectly describes the pendulous nature of a typical day in Italy, from elation to frustration and everything in between.

Well, I've been in Berlin for 2 weeks now, officially. Time to get writing a bit! It took me a while to get settled in, which even included a day trip back to Milan last Wednesday where I had to get up at 4:30am to catch a 7:45am flight from Schönefeld Airport (which I not-so-affectionately call Shittyfeld, due to a) its highly undesirable location, nearly an hour south of central Berlin and 2) it being crappily organized, which is saying a lot, since we are after all in Germany. Only the Swiss might know how to organize things better. Might. (But shh, make like I didn't even mention that!) and then I came back at 12 midnight. Went to bed at 3am and got up at 7:30 to make it to my intensive German course, which runs 4 days a week, 3 hours per day. (I love it!) Anyway, the weather here reminds me of London. No, not always raining but rather unpredictable. www.wetter.de ain't got nothing on real-time weather here. For example, this morning around 7:30 it was partly cloudy, nice mix of sun and clouds. Then at noon I saw 3 or 4 clouds (if that) and now (about 4pm) it's completely cloudy, no sun at all, and it's drizzling on and off. Very confusing and slightly obnoxious, if one may say that about nature. Layering your clothing is key, especially when you're traveling by bike, as I am. The BVG (public transportation company in Berlin, who control the subway, buses, and trams) have been on strike since last Monday (March 3rd) so there are only the S-Bahn (Strasse Bahn or Street Trains) which are basically just like the subway, but above ground, since the S-Bahn is controlled by Deutsche Bahn (DB is the German equivalent of Amtrak.) There were scares of DB also striking, leaving the city completely paralyzed (only about 30% of Berliners own cars), but luckily that hasn't happened. I told my mom about this the other day and we both laughed at the fact that I just came from a country that loooves to strike, and naturally they strike often (it's really sometimes a manifestation of their restlessness, because usually nothing gets accomplished when Italians strike), but their strikes last one day. Here in Berlin, the BVG hasn't striked in 10 years. So it's like they're making up for lost time. The strike apparently is "unbefristet" which means open-ended, until they meet an agreement with the labor union. They have announced that during Easter week (next week), they will be fully functioning again, but will again go on strike the day after Easter Sunday. I actually haven't heard that much complaining from the Germans, strangely enough.

But let's backtrack a bit, to the week before I left Italy....

Of course, to celebrate my farewell, I had to get a new haircut! (And I laugh at anyone who thought I could/would go more than 3 months with one style!)


The "autoscatto" revealed.




Rodney Dangerfield tribute.



I've been wanting to embrace the baby-bangs look for a while now and apparently the bob is back in. *shrugs* But I was carefully avoiding that, mostly because I was afraid that it might somehow trigger a tornado of insecure childhood memories from my first 16 years of life with bangs. It didn't, and I'm liking this whole blond Amelie look a whole lot, but nonetheless I'm really insecure for other reasons, which I'll get into later. I even got to go on a photoshoot for my hairdresser, which sounds like a lot of fun, but unfortunately, his makeup artist (and girlfriend) Laura made me up to look like a clown, with blue and green eyeshadow, only one coat of mascara on my stubbly, uncurled eyelashes, and dark, mauve-violet lipstick. Needless to say, I will not be posting pictures of me looking like a Romanian prostitute.

I also hosted a "Viva La Tua Vita" Farewell Party at my cosy lil place, with American, Italian, and German friends... and even an Australian! As you can see in the background in the hair pics above, I was in the midst of setting up for the festa. Incidentally, that's also when my computer died. Well, sort of. I had been having trouble with my ac adapter for a while, having to twist and turn it in intricate ways for the power to reach my laptop (since the battery has no juice left in it to last more than 5 minutes-- hey, it is from 2001-- I always have to rely on it being plugged in.) So as I was moving some furniture around for the party, I moved my computer to another corner of the apartment and whatever filaments inside the ac adapter were reaching my computer, weren't reaching it anymore, so my computer was as good as dead. Until I got another ac adapter from German Ebay. It's alive now (and still kicking!)

Anyway, here are some pics from the international buffet-style spaghettata. The word "buffet" naturally sort of scared everyone, but really, it was just to have some options to suit everyone's likings. So we had 3 different types of pasta with lots of different topping options: clams & roasted garlic, pesto, tomato sauce with eggplant and mozzarella (my personal favorite and oddly enough, also a dish which my mom usually makes me when I come home from some various adventure abroad) and of course, the obligatory grated cheese with a side of Michael Jackson's best hits:


Setting up...


Paige, Johanna (from Hamburg), Giovanni and myself getting the party started on my balcony.


Daniele baked a chocolate cake and brought delicious sparkly homemade dessert wine!


Jackie and me. She's an exchange student from Gold Coast, down unda.


No talking, mangia! Masa (from LA) and Paige (Montana.)


So that was the end of February. On February 27th I left Italy (for the first time, then going back last Wednesday to get the rest of my stuff, as previously mentioned) and I really haven't looked back. I did leave the internship early but with good reason. It wasn't what I originally signed up for in the first place (contract issues) so I didn't feel like I was curtailing and simply abandoning the job, (if I can even call it a job since the pay was understatingly measly.) The learning curve for me as a teacher and as a student (ie, perfecting my Italian) was really plateauing, and without living in a major city or having a car, it wasn't really possible to live a normal life there. Plus I figured, if I'm this close to my boyfriend, why not just spend a few months in Berlin with him, work as an English or Italian teacher, and get better at Deutsch before I have to leave in August, right? Seems logical to me. I was nervous about how the whole living together thing would go, but we're like bread and butter, perfect together. I'm still nervous since I'm still on the job prowl and my money is drying up quicker than [insert witty analogy here, plzkthx], but things will work out somehow, or so my boyfriend says (and I believe him.)

P.S. I joined a gym in Legnano in January and was obliged to enroll with a 3 month minimum, so I thought that I would basically have to eat the last month of my membership but found that the same company owns a sister gym in the center of Berlin and my membership applies there as well, yippee! (How's that for a run-on sentence?!)