Couchsurfer wants me to go to Iran.

Sometimes I get weird messages on couchsurfing from men mostly. That write long about them self and how much they all ready respect me or so on. Or wants to invite me to their country. I usually don't respond to these but find them both weird and funny to read. It could be nice people but I just feel very skeptical when they write that they want to invite me somewhere or just compliment me without meeting me.

Today was yet a day to get a message like that. From a couchsurfer that I apparently said no to, to stay at my place in Stockholm last year, or two years ago, that I can't remember this at all.

After reading this message below, you tell me if it Is time for me to go to Iran. This is, as you can read, the best time to travel to Iran, Persian new year and all.

The only thing you missing in this message is the name of the person and an airline that he recommends.

Hello Jenny,

How are you doing?

Although we did not meet in Sweden but I invite you to Iran.

after a long journey finally I am at home.

I am in Iran now and spending time with my family.

It was a bit cold previous week but this week It is really spring weather.

I go sometimes hiking and I see how nature wakes up from winter sleep. Snow melt and green blanket cowers the mountain. Birds are singing and natural music surrounding environment trees smile to the world having flowers.

It is now time to hike to enjoy the mountain fresh weather and take some herbs and plants to make teas and spices and nice vege foods.

I recommend you now to visit Iran because of nice weather and beautiful season, spring time is the Persian new year time too.

[...]

I will be more than happy to meet, host and guide you because I just received kindness and very welcomed by CS community everywhere I traveled.

Regards

How is your German?

A normal conversation you easily get into here, meeting people from all over the world who are traveling or moved here is how the other ones German is.

The question How is your German? is usually answered in a scale from A1 to C2.

These are the levels of German you can take in class, A1 being complete beginner and C2 being the highest level. The higher lever you're at, the more impressive it is.

Everyone knows this so conversations can go like this:

- How is your German?

- I'm C1. How about you?

- Oh, C1 that's good. I'm at B1.

I think this is kind of funny that you count you're language skills in this scale. It does tell you something but not at all what the other persons language skills are. It also sounds a bit stupid, this scale.

I would probably been a B1 when I came here, talking like a B2, writing like a A2 and reading in a B1 level.

I tend to get into these situations with native English speakers, so we are all ready speaking English and not switching over to German when we know if we have levels that are about the same.

It feels like a standard question that you have to ask when you meet new people, but usually you(/I) don't switch to German. That's a shame and I'm going to be get better at speaking more German to people I know or find out, speak it.

The question How long have you been taking German? is not better to answer.

I just feel weird saying that I've been taking German since 6th grade. That is a lot of years ago. Of course it has been a bit on and of since I finished high school. I didn't really use the language for three years until I moved to Germany in 2008. When I got back to Sweden I had a lot of German speakers couchsurfers coming to me to keep the language active, but that faded to, so when I got here in September last year, I was really out of practice.

The easiest is Do you know German? because it's a yes or no question.

Yes, I do know German. This doesn't say how good I am at it or make me think about how long I have been in a relationship with this language.

I like that the best. Maybe it's just me.

Other things people here say, for those of you that missed it.

Last day of class.

Two month can go by really fast when you're having fun. It feels like no time at all.

Two month in German class has just been a blast. I have had so much fun and also learned so much German. So many new word and things in grammar I will not use in daily life but that I'm glad that I know. Great class mates and teachers. Going to school these two month was one of the best choices I have made. Learning is awesome but today was my last day.

Every day waking up, maybe not always feeling like talking German the first thing in the morning and going to class, I still did it. Every day. I missed two days in two month.

Just coming to class, playing games, learning grammar, talking a lot and laughing even more makes me just so motivated to learn this language even better.

German is, since I stated to take it seriously around 2008 when I lived in Germany last, a language I don't want to be without. Even all the hard things in the that I never seem to get right, grammar-wise, doesn't matter when I realize that I can basically talk about anything I like in German.

Since I'm getting money from the Swedish government to study, I had to do a test so they will know that I have learned something. I did this test yesterday. I was really nervous about it before and studied a lot, but on the day of the test I woke up and though "It can't go that bad". All nervousness I had felt the days before was gone.

My confidence got even better after my first class that morning when I got so many things right while talking and my teacher goes "tolles Deutsch!" (I'm translating that to "awesome German" even though it might be a bit strong). This is also the same teacher that the day before told me I speak "slutty" German, which I'm still not sure what it means, but I don't mind it.

So when I go and take the test that afternoon I feel ready. I start doing the test and am surprised that I find it easier than I though it would be. Some things where so obvious because it was just the kind of examples we've been going though in class.

After the written part I talked with a teacher in the school. We talked about bi-lingual schools, segregation, different cultures and so on. I did not find it hard to express anything I wanted to say during this I remember sometime in 2008 when I tried to have these kind of conversations in German and couldn't find a single word or just express parts of all I wanted to say. I learned a lot and I really recognized it then and there.

I got the result today. 75% bestanden!

I'm a bit mad at myself for not getting more points at the grammar part and that I missed eight points in the reading part that I thought went really well. According to this test, I'm as good in speaking and writing, which I know is so not true normally. I seldom write in German, which is a shame, but speak I do all the time.

I showed the result to Anika and Benjamin (the mum and dad that I work for) and Anika was surprised that I didn't get full score in speaking, since she thinks I speak good and all the time so I couldn't get that much wrong.

Anyhow, I zufrieden, happy with it and I might go back to study after a week or a couple of break.

I think I will miss it to much if I don't like the learning nerd I am.

"Love Kills" by Robyn.

Last night having to wait 10 minutes for the U-bahn Robyn grabs my mp3-player and headphones and this happened.

Robyn sings "Love Kills" with the Swedish singer with the same name, Robyn. Enjoy.

When do I sleep?

The last week (weeks maybe. Time flies and I keep losing track of it) has been busy.

I have my routine:

I wake up around six-seven and get ready for school that stars at nine.

Getting up in the morning isn't really hard when I wake hearing children runing around screaming of either joy or sadness.

I spend a couple of hours learning German, and then go home for lunch.

At three I pick up Jonas from daycare and after that Oskar from the Kindergarten.

We walk home or to a playground and play for a couple hours.

I put both children in bed and around eight both are in bed sleeping and Anika or/and Benjamin comes home and I can do whatever I want.

And I do.

I head to somewhere to meet up with friends. This can be either a couchsurfing meeting, a bar hang out, just chitchatting somewhere, go to a concert, going to the movies and so on

The life that I had here when I just moved here in September is back, the night life. I do stuff at night like I did every night before also, but that was back in the time I didn't study or work, and it's a lot easier to keep up that kind of life.

I usually don't get home until midnight or later. This week I don't think I gotten home before one a clock. Hit the sack, sleep like a rock and it all starts over again.

I'm tried around six-seven when me and Oskar are watching children TV but then when I go out I pop some good music in my headphones and feel alive again.

Yesterday I just feel a sleep sitting still. Feels like sleep is catching on to me and I'mlooking forward to being able to sleep more than four to six hours every night.

On an other note I'm sorry for being so bad at updating this blog.

Time just keeps being taken up by other things. I stat on many posts but then I feel like I over share all my emotions/feeling to you guys reading this (I wrote in my diary that I want to remember every feeling and write it down. Remember this time, but that just seems impossible to do.) or just don't know how to finish them so they all end up as drafts.

I will try get better at posting stuff. Any request about what to write about is welcome.

Time to run to the u-bahn and get to school. Tschüss for now.

St. Patrick's Day in Berlin.

Last Saturday, 17.03.12, was St. Patrick's Day so of course we celebrated.

I know that it might sound weird that I as a Swede has celebrated this day every year since 2007, but I like it. The wearing green, drinking ales or green beer and singing Irish with a stupid hat on your head as become tradition.

We walked the St. Patrick's Parade and hung out in a Irish bar. Drank Guinness in the U-bahn. Laughed. Kissed all that is included in a day like that.

I can't really put in word how it was so I'm sharing some pictures and this video that I think will make you get a picture of how it was.

The Drums.

Yesterdays concert with The Drums was good.

I got to Fritz Club at Postbahnhof, somewhere I've never been before, around the time the opening act stated to play. I went there alone, because I had no energy to drag someone along and I didn't want to miss it. It was a good choice when I later found out that it was they're last show in Berlin this year.

When I'm headed to the bar for the obligatory pre concert beer and run into two friends that I haven't seen in a long time, Anni and Timo.

Anni lived in the room where me and Smooth lived in when we moved here on Friedrichstrasse after we moved out so we got to know her and her boyfriend Tomi though the apartment more or less.

They moved and have been busy, like I and running into them was just great.

The Drums started to play and I sang along to the songs. Danced. Enjoyed the music and the singers nice dance moves. He has the groove, that guy. If you want to see how he dances, there is probably many videos of it on youtube or just ask me to demonstrate if you run into me.

Let's be honest. You paid for a ticket so we need to have fun. Because everybody is broke now and that is what the next song is about - Money.

One of the songs that got the crowed going the most. I was a bit disappointed with the crowed. The Drums play a such dance friendly music and I felt it wasn't that many people dancing or feeling it.

I had fun though and was surprised that I know all the song they played by heart. It was a short show though, just about an hour with encore. It left more to be desired to say the least. The Drums might just have two albums but I would have liked them to have played Hard to Love, In the Cold and I Don't Know How to Love also. That would have made me happier and more pleased with the concert. Specially if they played In the Cold, a song I've been listing so much to during the last months.

I took the train from there happy though and feel a sleep with Let's Go Surfing in a mix with I Need a Doctor stuck in my head and probably dreamt that I was still in concert mode since I woke up exhausted this morning. It was a good Tuesday activity and I'm already planing the next concert I want to see...

Concert.

I'm going to see The Drums live tonight and I leave in a couple of minutes.

The Drums is a band strongly related to Berlin for me. Not just because they are played on the radio all the time, also because I stated to listen to them when I moved here. I walked/danced many streets of Berlin with The Drums playing in my headphones.

It was a kind of last minute decision to go tonight. I found out on Sunday that they are playing and that there still where tickets. I couldn't decide if I should go or not, but today I bought my ticket and I'm so excited, as you can see on the picture below.

A normal Saturday at the u-bahn.

Tempelhof.

The part of Berlin where I live is called Tempelhof, where there is an old airport where people know go rollerskating, kite-flying, running and hanging out in. It isn't a part of Berlin I would have chosen myself, but now that I live here I really like it. It's close to a lot of parks (one that has deer!) the airport area is great. I can take Oskar to several playgrounds around here. It's close to everything with the u-bahn or the s-bahn.

I have lived here three weeks now. All good (in the hood) and I'm still exploring the area. Exploring stories follows.

Jake, a friend, also lives here and we had a nice walk around our part of town some weeks ago. We went to feed the deer, walk though the allotment gardens, looked at kites flying and talking on the start tracks in the airport area singing songs from Mary Poppins. Jake taught me a couple songs and I taught him a Swedish song. It was a nice walk.

Oskar then took me to another park after kindergarten one day. I asked him if he wanted to go to the playground, now that it is begin to be spring in this city, and he said yes and started to walk to the playground he wanted to go to, somewhere I hadn't been before. He, with his 2,5 years, knows this part of town so much better then I do so letting him lead the way is a good choose.

Be looked the ducks in the pond. We talked about spring. He found the playground and we played for a while. He laughed at me when I got on a swing that is made for children because I looked so over-sized to it, but I still did swing. Then the wind started blow cold and we walked home.

Robyn (the bobyn) was staying a night at my place and we went to take a beer in the near by area to check out was is here. We ended up at a bar called L.A, yes Los Angeles. A bar that had paintings of celebrity on the walls, cheep cocktails and played a lot of 90's music. I missed LA for a second there, but of course it was nothing like the real deal. It was fun though that we found it. It's not awesome though.

I'm heading out now. Might try to get some falafel by the u-bahn and then head to the movies.

I have a besti movie date with Mark. It's Friday, Friday, Friday...