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| Tim in Berlin, 2009. |
Sometimes I miss home. Or I miss my friends and family. Stockholm or Sweden I don't miss that much. One person that I miss a lot is my little brother, Tim.
The other night I was thinking a lot about him, telling my friends some stories that involved him and then I just missed him more. I took up my phone and called him.
He didn't answer and sent me a text saying Va? /What?
I call him back and this time he picks up. I tell him that I was thinking about him and that I miss him. We haven't talked in a while so I told him to call me when he can. He's the busy one going to medical school and all that.
He answered that he didn't feel so appreciated before and now that I told him he felt very appreciated. He said he would call some day soon and we hung up.
It was great to talk to him, even if it was just for a few minutes. He's the best person I know. I love him more than I can say or write.
Sometimes I just need to hear his voice so I know that he's okay. He is so big sister can chill and look forward to the next time we talk.
This has nothing to do with Berlin, but I still think people should watch Stina and Liam do Canadian dance moves on youtube. And also this song is super catchy.
I know I will swing (at least) the 'maple leave', 'the friendly tourist','the curler', 'the lumber jack', and 'skate the pond' the next time I'll go dancing. No joke.
In the song I also like:
Britain got the monarchy
The US has the money
but I know that you want to be Canadian
The French has the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
but I know you want to be Canadian.
So how do do you live in this beautiful country? Well I've got some steps for you to follow.
Step one: lose the gun.
Step two: buy a canoe.
Step three: live multi culturally.
Step four: you're ready: there is no more.
This video is the greatest. Liam and Stina does a great work and I kind of want to be Canadian or at least go to Toronto.
Sometimes I think I'm way stronger then I am and that carrying things, big things like a 800 mm x 1200 mm pallet that weighs 25kg is something me and a friend can easily take with us on the u-bahn and transport from one place to another.This is not true, but this happened today.
I helped Rose to pack before she moved the other week. We packed up her room and she wondered what she would do with her big pallet, that she's been using under her bed, now that she's moving. The new place has a bed and she didn't want to throw away the pallet either since it's still in good shape. Someone might need it.
Do you want it? she asks me.
No, I answer. What would I do with it?
She says nothing and we continue packing. This is when I start thinking that maybe I do need a pallet. I have no idea what I should do with it, but it feels like something I should have. I know, this is weird but that's kind of how my brain works when it comes to free stuff. I just think I might need it sometime or that I could probably do something with it. Somehow someway.
And then, as I pack Rose's shoes that she has in another pallet (that she has two is just her. She's a collector of stuff. She had so much to move.) it hits me - I don't have a wardrobe or somewhere to hang my dresses. I need that pallet to hang them on. This is a genius idea, I think and tell Rose that the pallet is mine.
After that I don't think about the pallet more. We move Rose from one apartment to another and all seems good. We have pizza and beer and all is good.
Then last Friday, Rose comes up to me at the British dinner party we're at. That I went to a British dinner party is a topic for a future blog post. Rose and I chit chat for a while and then she reminds me of the pallet and wonders when I can come to pick it up. I say I will pick it up on Monday, ergo today since I will have Sinead(friend that used to live in Berlin and is now visiting for a couple of days) to help me. Easy. We can do it.
Today comes. Sinead and I get up from bed, have a big breakfast and then head to Rose's (old) place. Rose lived and still lives in Wedding, as I do, and it's not that far away at all. Walking distance really, but also just two stops with the u-bahn.
We get there. We see the pallet and it's way bigger then I remembered it. I still think this is doable. And then we start to carry it.
For you who don't know me and Sinead, we're not strong. I have sticks as arms and Sinead is tiny. All of her. Somehow we make it down the three flights of stairs and regroup when we've made it. Rose laughed at us, glad that she doesn't have to deal with it I think.
Sinead and I talk about how we're going to do this. She has already started to complain about it being heavy and it being hard to carry. I stay positive. We can do it. Girlpower, independent women and all that. Who needs men anyway? Or muscles for that matter? We're strong enough to do this.
So we start carrying it again. It's hard and heavy, yes, but we still do it, thinking it's not that far to the u-bahn. We make it about one or two blocks until Sinead wants a break. I agree.
We look at each other with tired eyes. I know that Sinead hates this.
Then it happened! The best thing ever happened!
As we're standing there a man walks by and asks if we want help. Before we answer he gave Sinead his water bottle and has taken the pallet on his shoulder and started to walk to the u-bahn. I blabbed out that's the way we're going and say thanks and he walks with fast steps, the pallet doesn't seem to weigh anything for him and in a few minutes he has taken the pallet down to the platform of the u-bahn. I told him on the way that we can help or if it's to heavy we can take it - no problem. He says it's not a problem and does it himself.
I thank him a lot when we're at the u-bahn. Sinead gives his water bottle back and he leaves. I look at Sinead. She looks at me. Then we say, almost scream: Det där var det bästa - någonsin! That was the best - ever!
We are so thankful that we almost are chocked that what happened just happened. We're more then happy that we didn't had to carry the pallet there and just look happy. This man looked like a building worker and if so, maybe he's used to carry heavy things, like pallets at work. We think that this man might have the best karma ever and wonder how our karma got so good that we by chance ran into this helpful and great man.
All just feels easier after that. We make it up the stairs from the u-bahn. We have a better way of caring the pallet and it's just the a little bit left until we're home and done.
I live close the the u-bahn and three flights of stairs up. These stairs worry us on the way but when we're there it goes so well. We almost run up the stairs, pallets between us. We get the pallet into my room and lay down in the bed, tried from the mornings hard work. We're sweaty and tried. We do not carry pallets all day else. We laugh at ourselves and give each other high fives, happy that we made it.
Picture of the pallet (so you really understand how big it is) will come as soon as I get the picture from Sinead's phone.
Was this, now that it's done, a good idea?
Not really, but we made it.
Will I learn a lesson that carrying heavy stuff like this is to hard for me?
Probably not. I have carried other heavy stuff on the u-bahn before and it's always been hard but I still keep doing it. Always thinking it will be a piece of cake.
Is the pallet going to come in use?
I think so. I need to get some hangers but then my dresses will be nicely hung up. I'm thinking about painting it too so it would really be a nice piece of furniture(?) in my room.
Now I don't have to work out this week. My muscle work is done, and I would not be surprised if/when I'm sore tomorrow.
This is a long post about books I've read for work. It's going to be about Jonas Jonasson's The Hundred-Year-Old Man That Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and also (writing this a bit shameful) Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L James.
Since I started to work in the book shop I feel like I have to read more so I can do my job better. So I can recommend books and talk about popular books with my own words and not just what I've read or what I've heard from collages for example.
I looked at the top 10 list at work and thought about what I wanted to read. My collage Annika, also Swedish, was at the time reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson. This book was really popular in Sweden when it came out in 2009. Everyone was reading it or at least talking about it, but because of that I never read it even though it was in the apartment. This happens to me sometimes when a book is to popular - I get totally uninterested in it and sometimes even trash talk it without reading it but reading about it. I know, it's wrong and I'm not really a literary snob like that. People can read what ever they like, as long as they read.
The Hundred-Year-Old... has become really popular in Germany too. It's on every book top list there is to find almost. Both in English and German. In Pocket Shop, where I work, it's number four at the German top list and number two at the English.
Annika had the book in Swedish so I asked her if I could borrow it after she was done. I could and I read it.
The title says what is about. It's about a Hundred-Year-Old man who climbs out of his window on his hundred year birthday and disappeared. Easy as that. You get to follow Allan, as the hundred-year-old is called, on his journey from his home until he disappears and all the turns on the way. Since Alan is hundred he has a lot of stories to tell about his long life and what he's been up to. You get to read the most funny stories about what he has done in his life. Meeting presidents, being a prisoner in Gulag and escaping, walking for years though Asia, blowing up bridges during wars and so on. It's a very different way, and funny way to read about history. Many compare it to the movie Forrest Gump (1994) which I think is a pretty good comparison. The book is of course different but it's an easy way to compare it that people that hasn't read it yet get.
I enjoyed this book, specially at the beginning when I think the stories from Allan's life are more entertaining that they are later in the book. Also the present time story I found funnier in the beginning. I laughed a lot when I was reading it. It's a funny book and Jonasson writes it in this easy and funny way so it feel like the pages are almost turning themselves. Towards the end though I felt it got a bit to long-drawn and it was kind of hard to keep my interested up for it. Circa 500 pages is, for me, a bit to long for this kind of book. Overall I liked it though.
To the next book. Yes, I know it's kind of shameful to confess but I read Fifty Shades of Gray. Everyone is reading this book(s) at the moment. EVERYONE! From teenage girls to old men. It's the most sold book in both German and English at work, and it's super popular. People talk about it all the time and so many buy it every day at work. I never wanted to read this book, yet I did. Why? I got to curious. Really curiosity killed the cat on this one. The cat being me.
This book sells so much and people are so curious. When the second book came out in German customers just turned out of nowhere super hyped about reading part two.
I get asked almost every time I work about this book. If I've read it and why people are reading it, if it's any good and so on. I've read about this book before I read it and it really has mixed reviews. Just reading the reviews on Amazon made me laugh. Some are really hating this book, writing that if you read it - you can never unread it or just writing that Fifty Shades.. is the biggest piece of shit they ever read and can't understand the hype. Others loves it and give it 5 stars and rave about it. These reviews are of course not as fun to read for my cynical self, so I didn't know why people like it.
Anyway, I was working a day when nothing was happening. I had nothing to do really. No one literary seemed to be flying that that so I picked up Fifty Shades.. and started to read. Do you know the background story to Fifty Shades of Gray?
It's a loosely based book on Twilight and was to a beginning Twilight fan fiction. It's an erotic book with sadomasochistic and BDSM sex, that got popular because it was a cheap e-book that people could read shamelessly on their e-readers without anyone knowing what they where reading. Then it spread like wild fire and got printed and now everyone is reading it. The names of the characters are changed so it's not Bella and Edward like in Twilight but Ana and Christian.
Ana, or Anastasia Steel which is her full name, is a 22 years old, smart and apparently super hot virgin. She's been kissed like twice in her life and she hasn't really been attracted to anyone in her whole life. Possible? Really? I say no, but let's go on.
She meets Christian Gray, a 27 year old multi millionaire and owner of a big company, when she does a favor for her friend and interviews him for the university newspaper.
She's attracted to him directly and he's attracted to her.
He tries to stay away but Ana's apparently breathtaking and the most interesting woman Gray has every meet, so of course that doesn't go. Gray tells her again and again that he's no good for her, but still buys her expensive things and is totally smitten with her.
They start to have meet of course and then we come to the sex. Gray has never had vanilla sex and miss Steel has never had sex at all. They still do it, a first for both his first vanilla and her first sexual experiences every. She has, of course, never even masturbated. Yes, sure, let's just pretend that we buy that too.
Gray wants to have BDSM sex in his Red Chamber of Pain as Ana calls it and Ana wants to have a real relationship. Gray doesn't what to get to close and he never sleeps with anyone and he never makes love, he fucks hard.
So Gray sends Ana a contract for her to sigh if they are going to continue what they are doing. It's all about what she should and shouldn't do. All from eating to sex. Gray want Ana so submission(sub) to her and he being the the dominant(dom). Ana's not sure that she want to do all the things that Gray want so do, but is still curious and can't keep away from Gray and they start having (light) BDSM sex.
This is in short what the book is about. Every chapter includes sex after a while in some way. Ana being confused but blown away by Gray and Gray trying to give Ana what she needs in form of more, meaning sleeping next to each other and having an emotional relationship.
Do I get the big hype now? Not really. I now know what it's all about but the book is poorly written. It's a fast read but for me very unbelievable. I know, it's fiction but let's face it - really?
The problems I have is Ana, the whole virgin but super hot, never been kissed, never been attracted to anyone and with no sexual experience at all, become so into Gray that she, for example, gets tied to the bed while Gray has his way with her and Ana gets spanked if she rolls her eyes at Gray. Ana can't even eat when she's around Gray because he's so attractive. Come on - really? This might be what I find most unlikely.
Gray is also unreal character, this rich guy who fall for this not that special girl. He stalks her like crazy, tracking her phone and flows her when she goes away for a weekend. Okay? No, creepy I say. Gray also never have had vanilla sex is explained by him having a sub/dom relationship with one of his mother friends for several years from the age of 15. Gray always clamming that he needs to have a BDSM relationship and that this woman saved his life when he was in a dark place. Gray is also so proper in everything but the bedroom (and other places) and always calls Ana, miss Steel or Anastasia excepted when during sex and when he comes.
I don't know there are many things about this book I find unlikely. I have experiences of a BDSM so I done some things that are written in the book, but I still find it unlikely.
I still read it in a day because I got sucked into it, just like I did with Twilight, and just read the whole thing, having to know how it ends.
This is not big literature, but I have to admit it's an entertaining book if you pretend to buy all characters and the story. The language is easy and repetitive.
Do I find it erotic? Sure, but it doesn't turn me on but I can understand if others get turned on by it. When I finished the book it was kind of a jaha? moment. So? This is it?
I don't think it deserves all the hype it gets and I can't believe that it's the fastest-selling paperback of all time and sold more books then -all- the Harry Potter books done. This is an impossible thought for me. Will I read book 2, Fifty Shades Darker? I'm not sure yet. Reading Fifty Shades... has made me have more to talk about at work so I still feel like I'm getting something out if it. Time spent well reading is also something I'm not yet sure of.
I talk to my mum on the phone once a week for a weekly update. She tells me what's happening home and I tell her what I'm doing here in Berlin.
As soon as mum doesn't have anything to say or can't think of something more to say she says: Är det något annat du vill berätta? For non Swedish speakers that means Is there something else you want to tell me?
My mum trusts me that I will tell her if something is up or new, which I do. This is a way better tactic then my dads three questions he starts every phone call with.
1. Are you busy?
2. How are you?
3. Do you have a boyfriend?
When I write it it looks like a joke, and I wish it was but no, that's my dad.
Anyway, back to mum. I talked to her last week. We talked about brother Tim, about other people in my hometown, about New York and so on. Then the question comes Is there something else you want to tell me?
I could easily said no, but instead I say:
- I started to live vegan.
- Vegan? What's that?
- I don't eat anything that comes from animals, like milk and honey.
- But Jennita (I have a Spannish native speaker mum so diminutive is something she uses when it comes to me and my brother) , what if you get pregnant?
That this is the question that pops in to her mind after saying I'm vegan was the least I expected. I get it. She wants grandchildren but still. Mum is a doctor so anything, any little thing that can have to do with my health she need to say something about.
I calmly explain to her that if I got pregnant, a vegan diet would be the least of my worries.
We talked some about diets, eating habits and the environment, basically mum trying to make sure I'm healthy. I kind of felt like I had do defend myself, which is fine since I have to do that almost every time it comes up.
We hung up and I know that mum told dad and he went something like Det är väl onödigt/That's unnecessary and think that I was to extreme, which he has been thinking since I stopped eating meat.
Parents. They are a special kind of people, at least mine. Tonight is the weekly update from mum. What she says today is yet a mystery.
I've been busy lately. Reasons: moving and starting a new job.
This post will also include a visit to the Bürgeramt.
Let's start with moving to a WG (shared apartment).
I was super stressed a week or two before it was time to move, because I didn't have anywhere to live and time was running out. I went to see a lot of rooms in WGs, trying to make the best first impression I could ever make so someone would pick me. And finally someone did, for a huge furnished room in Wedding just in my price range. People that are looking for a room mate always say that they will get back to you in a couple of days to let you know if you get the room or not. Nobody those though and they leave you hanging for weeks, which for me is stressful. In the beginning I got a few rejections but continued to look for a room. I saw about eight rooms in three parts of town: Neukölln, F'hain and Wedding. Some rooms where so-so. Some where amazing, like the WG in Neukölln with 14 people living in the same apartment, everyone with their own room, and a huge living-room/kitchen area. I was there for a dinner, which was super nice, meeting people in so different ages and from all over the world.
Some where unbelievably cheap and good, that of course the ones renting it out had gotten over 40 replays on their ad.
Some I got lost trying to find. I'm apparently one to get lost in the area between Wedding and Moabit.
Anyway, I got a room in Wedding and was super happy. I didn't have to stress out about not having anywhere to live and started to pack up my room in Tempelhof.
A couple of days after that some others got back to me to tell me that I got a room in their WG too but it was to late.
I'm really happy for WG life. I don't wake up to children screaming or making other sounds every morning and sleep like a rock. I have all this space that is mine and I gotten all my stuff in order and like it a lot here.
Next part: new job.
I got a job at a book shop in the Tegel airport. Pocket shop the book shop is called and is a Swedish company. They have 70% German books and the rest 30% in English. We are eight people working there. A mix from Swedes and Germans.
My first day was last week and some days before I was pretty nervous, but on my first day I was well rested and felt good about starting there. The first day went by fast and I got a lot of praise from my new collages and my boss. I had a great time. I like working with books and on the English section I'm a good seller. I, of course, read more in the English section so it's easier for me to recommend and advice costumers there.
I helped a 14-15 year old american girl the other day. She was a big reader so we talked about books we both like, I gave here some books to chose from and she choose The Book Theif by Markus Zusak. A really great book by a great author. I like this, helping people to find a book or two to have on their way. I think this job is just perfect for me.Wedding is just eight kilometers from the airport so it's biking distant, which is just how I like it.
Now to the last part: Bügeramt.
Bürgeramt is the place you should go to to register your address in Berlin when you plan to stay, a so called Anmeldung. Then you get a piece of paper saying that you have an (permanent) address and then you can get a bank account or a library card for example.
I have never bothered with this even though I know I should have. By now I should have gone to four different Bürgeramt (ever part of Berlin has it's own) to register my address all the times I've moved. I haven't because I heard you have to be there early and wait for hours to get the piece of paper that I've never needed. Until now. Because I have a job that doesn't pay cash, I need a bank account, so I finally did it.
The Bürgeramt in Wedding opens at eight in the morning and only have open for "spontaneous" visitors on Monday. Else you need to make an appointment and there is at least two weeks waiting time to get one.
So if the Bürgeramt opens at eight, you should be there at eight right? WRONG!
You should be there before, at least an hour before they open to stand in line to the number machine, so that you will have a chance to get in and get helped.
I got up at six in the morning and was at the Bürgeramt 06:45, which was good because round 07:30 the line was so long that it went outside of the building. I heard stories about people waiting for hours and not getting helped before the Bügeramt closed and therefore had to come back several times. Also about the persons working there have been rude and not really willing to help in anyone. Specially if you don't speak German.
I was pretty scared and had two books with me, just in case I had to wait a long time. Thinking about what to say in perfect German.
At 07:45 the number machine starts to give out numbers so I stood just by the machine waiting for an hour. I got number 15 and the line never ended. There was 170(!) people waiting when the Bürgeramt opened. At 08:20 I was helped, I filled all the needed paper work before and had my lease to the apartment with me. Ready to do this. It took about five minutes and then I had this Anmeldung paper in my hand and left the other 100+ people waiting and went home.
This was so painless that I almost thought I did something wrong, but since I had the paper in my hand I was just happy to have made it.
Now I officially live in Berlin. I got a bank account and I registered myself as living abroad to Sweden. I feel very official and ready for an other year in Berlin.
Today it's one year ago I moved to Berlin. It's been mostly a great year and I hope the next one will have many adventures in it.
