Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

I'm moving to Berlin TOMORROW. I got my tickets just about as soon as they announced that USians could get in for tourist purposes.

I shipped a 50 cu ft pallet, which is at a port in Charleston awaiting a ship, and it should reach me in 6-8 weeks. Even with that, I'm checking four bags (which is costing me over $500, thanks Air France).

I also really hope they don't weigh my carry-ons, because they list a maximum of 26 lbs TOTAL for carry-on and personal item. Like... some of the things in my carry-on can't legally go into the hold (my laptop, for example). So I guess tomorrow will involve reshuffling my luggage AGAIN. (I estimate 35 lbs total: laptop, tablet, Switch, portable speaker w/Li-ion battery; change of clothes; food; jewelry; medications; cords to charge things with; necessary documents, etc.)

I need to get myself to sleep so I can get started quickly tomorrow. My flight isn't until 6:30 pm, but we're probably leaving around 2:30 (an hour's drive, then lord knows how crazy baggage check and all that will be. I got the Global Entry thing, so I can do the fast line through security, at least.) And if I need to re-shuffle a lot (which may mean putting some things in a box and mailing it), I'll need time. I also have to gather all the loose items floating around and put them into some sort of container (ideally sorted by priority to pick up when I'm next here; we'll see how time goes).

More later!

I've decided I don't want to do a PhD. I want to write about language and linguistics for the general public, and I have a Really Cool Idea that I'll write up as an outline/proposal after I finish my thesis. Then I'll either submit it to a small press or send it to some agents. I could also potentially write it up as a pitch for a blog series at tor.com (which, somehow, strikes me as even more of a long-shot than selling the book proposal). I can do this without a PhD, so I will.

I still, however, want to move to Berlin. Not being a student means I can't just get a student visa, so I need to figure out how to get a work/residence permit. Berlin has an artist visa option, which I think is under the umbrella of Freiberufler (sort of like freelance but not quite, and is different from being self-employed, because, of course, TSCHÖRMANY). The criteria are rather picky. But I have 2 skills (one with certification) that fall under the umbrella: writer and language teacher. I can translate, but I don't have any certification, and Germany really likes people to have certification for their jobs.

What I don't know is whether being there on a Freiberufler permit would allow me to pick up a part-time job at, like, a bookstore or something. Because writing income isn't steady (especially if you haven't got a book contract and all) and I'd really like to have some sort of income so I don't just burn through my savings. There's a line in the details about wanting to work on an Honorarbasis, but I'm not entirely sure what that means. German bureaucracy is legendary for a reason.

There doesn't seem to be a "contact us with questions" email address on the page I'm looking at.

So. Anyway. Here is my current plan with timeline.

May 2019: finish my MA.

summer 2019: finish the novel I started before grad school AND write a proposal/pitch for the nonfiction, then send it out

academic year 2019-20: teach at UGA; continue to work on book(s); save money

May 2020: look for WG-Zimmer, apartments, and condos online; contact sellers/renters

late May 2020: go to Berlin for 10-14 days to view apartments (somehow have proof of financial security to show them because I don't think Schufa works on foreign accounts); hopefully sign a contract; open a bank account.

June-July 2020: pack up my shit & start selling furniture; start getting all the Unterlagen I can together; send boxes of small things over (maybe some books via international flat rate)

August 2020: off to Deutschland

September 2020: appointment with the foreigner office? It takes time to get through bureaucracy. (Though the site says they can give you your Stempel during the appointment...)

October 2020: pop over to Norway for a few days in case I need to keep staying on a tourist visa (it's outside the Schengen area); repeat as needed and with other non-Schengen countries that US citizens don't need visas for

Other things I don't know: whether I can do multiple freiberufliche Tätigkeiten (e.g. be a writer AND a language teacher); whether I can earn income from US sources while in Germany and how that affects taxes.

Also need to think about getting my cat over there (if I still have her).

What things have I /not/ thought about?

Updates: I googled Honorarbasis, and a quick skim of this page sounds like it's akin to contract work/freelancing here, where you are responsible for your own insurance and you have different tax rules to follow. But there seem to be language teacher jobs available on an Honorarbasis, so that could be a possibility.

And this looks fascinating. It's a co-op, and I have no idea how I'd even buy one, but I really like the plan. Coworking space!

Our flight was entirely uneventful, and we spent yesterday shopping (groceries, looking at sport jerseys) and resting. Thanks to the early flight departure time (we were awakened for breakfast at the time we usually go to bed), we were super exhausted, so we took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Then we hung out with kriski and dirtyzucchini until it was time to collapse in exhaustion.

Today Ben and I wandered around the Hauptbahnhof until we found the Hertha fan shop, where I bought a scarf (ARGYLE!), a pin, and an old t-shirt (5€!). Then there was something going on at the platz outside, which turned out to be something to do with volleyball. After that, we were going to take the train down to the area near our hotel to get intel on the surroundings, but I wanted to get out at Hackescher Markt and walk, since that's at the top of the Museum Island and our hotel is just at the bottom. We discovered a market going on, with some handmade stuff for sale (and food), but the only thing we got was orange juice. (Fresh pressed, yum)

Thanks to the construction zone for the castle reconstruction, the plan to just walk down the center of the island didn't work, but we eventually made it. We found a few restaurants and cafes in the area, so getting breakfast won't be too bad for people who eat bread products. (Ben's brother is mildly allergic to gluten, so he only eats a minimal amount of them. Yes, it's a documented IgE response. Skin test.)

After that we took the train toward the Zoo, but I said Oh right, I wanted to stop at the Anhalter Bahnhof, so we got off the train early and walked around there some, then got back on the train to the zoo. We went there because there's a Karstadt (a German department store) Sport there, and they sell the jerseys cheaper. So I got a jersey with Klose on it for 75€ instead of €90+ (I even got a women's jersey, which I've never seen for sale in the US.)

Then we got mango lemonade because we were really thirsty, then we went to meet Kriski and Dirtyzucchini for a street food fair in Kreuzberg. I got empanadas yuuuum, and an ice cream sandwich (with cookies). Then we came home.

I walked 13000 steps today, according to my phone. Up next: internet, then sleeeeeep. Tomorrow we need to leave at 8:15 to meet Ben's parents at the airport.

It's the first day of the World Cup, and I am perpetually without cable. Most of the matches will be on ESPN or ESPN2 (cable), but some will be on ABC. I guess I'll be befriending the folks at Italian Pizzeria III (super sketchy storefront, decent NY-style pizza) and/or Fitzgerald's (Irish pub) when I get back from Germany. Or doing what I usually do for the Bundesliga.

I leave for Berlin in 5 days. I have a packing list, and I'm working on a shopping list. I have most everything I need, but I'm almost out of protein bars (excellent airplane/travel snacks/emergency food), and my bathing suit doesn't fit anymore. (It never quite fit, but it was good enough. Not so much anymore.) But I hate buying bathing suits (because ones that fit my top are $75 wtf), and I'm not entirely sure I'd use it (while there are swimming areas in Berlin, I don't know if we'd have time to go to them, though our hotel has a sauna).

I'm worried that Luna will get sick while we're gone. The last 2 times we've been away, she's gotten stress-sick. So we started her on Prozac (which won't have built up enough to be effective before we leave), got a new Feliway plug-in, and have some xanax for her. We also have anti-nausea medication and antibiotics which theoretically will prevent diarrhea.

I really don't want to get a phone call from the cat sitter 3 days into an 11-day trip telling me the cat is sick as hell, you know? Argh. So we're doping her to the gills and hoping.

Lucky for me, it's been fairly good weather.

Friday after class I went to a lecture on Nazi-era history, which was rather interesting. If I ever need to come up with propaganda for a story, I'm going to steal from Goebbels' playbook. Their propaganda machine was very effective. Terrifyingly.

After that, I went out to dinner with a couple people from my class who were also at the lecture. It was Indian food, and it was tasty. Then we went home.

Saturday I went to the Karneval der Kulturen, a huge street fair in Kreuzberg, which is basically a celebration of multi-kulti Berlin (which is concentrated in Kreuzberg.) They had several stages, and lots of food and tschotchke stands. And beer. Can't have a German street fair without beer. Anyway, I met up with a couple guys from my class, and we hung out a bit, wandered and such, then one had to go, and the other had to go check his email to see what his friend was up to. I hung out with him, his friend, his friend's friend, and his friend's friend's friend (ha), chatting and drinking beer until it turned cold and threatened rain around 8. Then I went home and checked mail and whatnot.

I think drinking a couple beers outside in the warm sun without any water made me dehydrated and icky, so I drank a bunch of water while I chatted with Ben a bit. Then I took a nap, because I was going to meet some folks around midnight to go to a dance club and I wasn't sure I'd be awake long enough. Then I woke up around 11 and said, yeah, I'm too tired.

Yesterday I went to the flea market at the Mauerpark again, where I bought a bike lock for 2,50, so I can lock my suitcase to the train. The weather was so changeable yesterday. I wore my cardigan and carried my hoody, because it was cool when I left. Then the sun came out, and I didn't need my sweater, then the sun went away and I wanted it again. Pain in the butt. Anyway. There was this dude standing out on the sidewalk with some DJ equipment on an ironing board. His beats weren't too bad. I took a short video, but my camera battery was close to out, and I wanted to save my battery for the important picture.

After that I went into the Museumsinsel, where the Marx-Engels-Forum is located. It's a big green park with a statue of Karl and Fred, in full socialist realism "glory", in the middle. (One of the pictures I took is from the same angle as the one on top of wikipedia there.) I was alone, so I couldn't get my picture on Karl's knee. According to the German version of that entry, the statue is going to be moved to the Karl-Liebknecht-Bridge while the U5 is built and archaeological surveys are performed.

(The current administration in Berlin is a red-red coalition, that is, the SPD (social democrats/socialists) and the Left Party (democratic socialists/communists). Out of the 149 seats in the local government, only 13 are FDP, interesting for the fast facts box on the right: the party is 78% male and averages 51 years old (data not available in the English version.) The Free Democrats, aka the free market party, took 15% in the national parliamentary election last year but are steadily losing popularity. Far less popular here in Red Berlin than in the rest of the country. Footnote: I am entirely unsurprised that a former Count (Graf) was party leader for a time.)

Away from that sidetrack... I went shopping at Fassbender & Rausch, a fine chocolatier. (Click the US/UK flag for English.) They had various Berlin landmarks made of chocolate on display. Unfortunately my camera ran totally out of battery as I took a picture of the Brandenburg Gate. I got a decorative souvenir tin full of chocolate, which I haven't opened yet. They had some cute mini lunchboxes and pencil cases with teddy bear designs on them (full of chocolate) but I opted against those. Less useful later.

Then I came home, ate some dinner-like substance (couscous and a slice of cheese) and chatted with A a bit while trying to figure out what to do. My options included going to Matrix, a club which plays R&B, or finding some other people to come to Kaffee Burger with me. I eventually got one person to come with, and another (and her friends) joined us around midnight.

Kaffee Burger is the home of the Russendisko, founded by Wladimir Kaminer, a Russian migrant to East Berlin, in the 70s. Sadly, Russendisko was Saturday night, so we got a soul/funk night instead. The music was hard to dance to. But there was another room with ambient techno playing, and we went over there. Unfortunately, it was the smoking room, and there wasn't really a dance floor. So we sat around and drank some beer and talked and did the seat-dancing thing. Around 2, the others decided they wanted to go dancing over at Dante (where they went Saturday night), so we left. I kind of wanted to join them, but it was late, I was getting tired, and the admission was 10 Euro, and I didn't want to get there and pay my 10 Euro and leave in less than an hour because I was bored/too sober to dance/falling asleep. So I went home, which was probably the better decision, because I dozed off on the train.

Then I came home, hung up my stinky clothes on the laundry thing and went to sleep a little after 3. Not nearly long enough, of course. I woke up at 5, partly because I had to pee, partly because the sun was up. Then I spent the next 4 hours alternatively sleeping or wishing I were asleep. So I got up around 9:15, showered, and put my clothes out on the balcony to air out. I wish I had my sweater, because it's a bit cool, and my arms are cold.

Today, if the weather is nice, I might meet a girl from class in a park for a picnic and some studying, or if it isn't, I'll stay home and be lazy. Read, study some German... clean my room a bit? I need to figure out how to fit all my crap back into my suitcase. -_- (Today's a public holiday, see, so we don't have school.)

I just checked my sweater, and it still smells. Boo. I'll put on a long-sleeve shirt, instead. The sun comes out on occasion, but it's mostly being cloudy.

I'd love to be able to spend a month here every year (I think June or July, though!). You can rent furnished apartments for a month (or two or three...) via the internet, so that's one way to do it. Some can hold multiple people, so splitting a 3-room apartment with a couple people could save cash. Though I don't think I'll be able to afford taking a class again; it's really expensive.

Time to go wash my breakfast dishes, since I have a cup of coffee grounds here.

So. Today was the day selected weeks ago for a trip to Potsdam. The forecast for the day, when I got up this morning, was 11C (ca 50F) and rainy. When I got back, they'd changed the forecast: 8C (45F) and rainy.

So I have a few pictures of Potsdam and Sans Souci, but not many because a) it was windy, b) it was rainy, and c) it was too fucking cold to take my hands out of my pockets. I bought a leporello (those booklets of mini postcards) of the castle, and a couple postcards, which have better pictures than I could have gotten today. Also, for 4,50, I picked up a map of Prussian Berlin, which has a guide to the buildings in the city that stem from Prussian times. Much smaller and more easily packed than the book I saw at Dussmann.

The hems of my jeans are soaked, and I can't really take them off, because my other pants I brought are rather thin, and it's forty three fucking degrees outside, and maybe 60 inside. Germans don't believe in heating.

I need to work on some homework, and Ben wanted to chat some tonight I think. And tonight is the DFB championship game between Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen, which starts at 8 pm I believe. I'd be interested in seeing it, and there's a sports bar up the street (though it's a smoking bar, ugh), but I'm not going back out there unless I have to. Which I don't.

The weather is currently forecast to improve by the end of this coming week. I hope it doesn't change in the meantime.

Last night I went out, originally to Kreuzberg to meet a gal from class, but she said the bar they were at was in OranienBURGERstrasse, instead of Oranienstrasse, so I ended up going to the other damn end of the city. It's certainly easy to mix them up. I'd been planning to go to a bar called Aufsturz, which has a whole bunch of different beers, and that's where I ended up. I hate going out alone, but I enjoyed my beer (St Bernardus Tripel. Recommended if you like tripels.)

I went to the Berliner Unterwelten tour today, just in time for the noon trip thanks to a quick check of BVG and a dash to the Bahnhof to make a train in 5 minutes. It was really interesting, though you're not allowed to photograph inside. The area was built as an air raid shelter during WW2, then the S-bahn line was built above it. They knew the structure wasn't sound enough to withstand a bomb impact (the ground wasn't very far above it, and the concrete wasn't super thick), but they built it anyway. They put in some impact wave break walls to decrease the force as it traveled from the impact site, though I have no idea how successful it would be.

During the Cold War, it was used as a storage facility for canned goods and such, because they learned during the Blockade of 48-49 that they could suffer easily from a lack of goods. They also stored TP and other such things. The Allies expanded it a bit and firmed up the structure for use during a nuclear attack.

Then we took a short train ride to a neighboring station, which had a very well-planned bomb shelter, with doors to flight tunnels that lined up precisely to the BVG U-bahn-train doors, and airlocks into the shelter itself and decontamination rooms and stored bunk beds ... very well planned, except that people would have nothing to do for two weeks (which is how long they could stay there) except worry about the outside world.

I should write a story about something like that.

Then after that, since I was sort of in the area, I took the U8 up to Bernauer Strasse and walked to the Mauerpark, where I ran into a huge flea market. I wandered through the aisles, and there were so many things, but all I bought were some photo prints of abandoned or ruined buildings (6 for 5 E.) Well, and a veggie burger and a 0,4L cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice. (I really only like OJ if it's fresh. Its taste changes somehow when it's packed.)

I ran into Carlos, a guy from Venezuela who I met at the Stammtisch on Wednesday, and he was with a friend from Venezuela, Anabel. I talked with her a bit while he went off to buy a guitar (?). They were going to the Dali exhibit, and they invited me along, but I had vague other plans, so I declined. (I like Dali. He's very surreal. Maybe I'll go later.)

My other plans involved going to some of the Geisterbahnhoefe and the Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer. They're expanding the Gedenkstaette, and it's going to take up most of that section of street. I want to see it when they finish. Then I walked up Bernauer Strasse to Nordbahnhof, where there's an exhibition on the Geisterbahnhoefe (that I didn't know about until I got there, actually.) I took some pictures into the station, and they turned out delightfully creepy with the flash (and bad without it).

My main goal for Nordbahnhof had been to take pictures of the stripes with name placards that represent the stations of the trains that used to stop there (back when it was the Stettiner Bahnhof (trains went from there to Stettin/Sczecin), but there's this bloede Neubauten there which destroyed some of them. But some still exist, so I took pictures of them.

Then I walked back to the U6 station by where Ben & I stayed 2 years ago (they changed the name from Zinnowiter Strasse to Naturkundemuseum), took it a few stations, changed to U2, and came home. My feet, ankles, and knees ache, so I'm going to not walk for a while, I think.

Going places alone is kind of melancholy, I think, especially if you're visiting melancholy places. Sometimes that's the feeling I want, though.

I should eat some dinner, too. Thankfully I have some stuff I can cook.

Took a guided tour of some sections of the Wall today. I bought some postcards, so I'll be working on those in the next few days and sending them out. av3rnus, I found something very ... special for you. XD

Anyway, it's about time to head to class.

Iron Man 2 was AWESOME, though the dub voice for RDJ is Wrong.

As expected, I was placed in the C1.1 course, which is the highest level they're offering in this session. It's probably a mixture of all the C-level people. There are 9 of us, and 10-15 people in the other sections, so probably like 40 or 50 people total? I'm terrible at that sort of thing.

In my class, there's me, another American, two Swiss guys, a kid (he's 17) from Mexico, a guy from Israel, a woman from Brazil, a woman from Sweden, a woman whose home country I didn't catch, and a couple I'm forgetting. Ah well. Our teacher decided not to give us a textbook (yay), so we're doing most of our work from newspaper articles and that sort of thing. Tonight's homework was to write a letter in response to a classmate's wish using conditional sentences. I got to write a letter to a guy who wants to be successful at university. (The point is to use a variety of conditional constructions, rather than just if you X, then Y.)

Afterward I went over to Alexa, this huge shopping mall on Alexanderplatz, to look for shoes, since I found some cute ones on sale at Galeria, but they weren't in my size :P I found a pair that fit! And was comfortable! And will be less likely to make me turn my ankle on the cobblestones and uneven pavement! (My wooden-soled shoes are really problematic on cobbles. They also hurt after a while. I was hoping it wouldn't be so damn cold all the time. It's also never going to stop raining.) They weren't the first pair I tried, which were also cute, but they were either too tight (in 38) or too long (in 39).

Anyway. I came home eventually, and I met the other gal who's staying here, an Italian named Lily. She's also taking classes at Goethe. We talked a bit, then she got a phone call to go out to a club right now. She invited me along, but I hadn't done my homework yet (heh), so I declined. Maybe next time. I gave her my number, so she can call or text.

Iron Man 2 opens tomorrow, and I'm totally going to catch a showing. You buy tickets for a reserved place, which is kinda weird. But I can swing by there and buy tickets in person, during the break maybe, since the ticket stand only opens 15 minutes before the first show, which is at 2:30. I can do it if I hurry.

Tomorrow I'm taking a boat trip on the Spree, and we meet at 10:00, so I'll leave from here around 9:15, which means I should get up at 7:30 or so.

So I just spent a good bit of time talking to Andrea about when to get up in the morning and how to share the bathroom and looking at old cat pictures. Now I really need to sleep...

I arrived! So far I've found the apartment -- it's really nice, actually! The building is really old, and I have no idea what it used to be, but I'm guessing something fancy. There are a lot of creaky stairs to get up here. And I met both cats. Ginger is sweet, and Atilla is HUGE. He sniffed all my stuff and loafed up on the bed. I had a very nice shower.

The cats have an enclosed balcony to sit on, and it's just off my room.The door stays open during the day so they can go in and out.

There's an international supermarket just at the corner, and a Middle Eastern deli between here and the U-bahn station (a falafel wrap for 2,50!) I haven't gone grocery shopping yet, because I don't know where to put my stuff, because my flatmate hasn't come back yet. She won't be here till 6 or 7.

I did manage to sleep on the plane, with the assistance of benadryl. I slept about 3 or 4 hours, I think. I hope I can stay awake until my flatmate gets back! I don't want to nap, because that'll only make my jet lag worse.

The weather keeps changing its mind between sunny and cloudy. At least it's fairly pleasant.

The forecast for Berlin Sunday is 68 and a 20% chance of rain. Monday is 68 and a 50% chance of rain. Tuesday and Wednesday are 60 with a 20% chance of rain. (Tuesday night it may get cold enough to snow, wtf.)

I should pack my raincoat, I think. I hope my hoody is warm enough for these lows in the 30s and 40s... I have a cardigan I'm taking as well. That's the problem with going for such a long time and at the cusp of two seasons.

I also need to figure out what shoes I'm going to take. Good walking shoes, of course (or my Tevas, which I wear every damn where anyway), and my rain shoes. I'd like to take some fun/ky shoes if I go out to a club or something, but I may just settle for "shoes I won't get my toes broken in if someone steps on me." Should I take my cute wedge-heeled sandals? I don't know how often I'd wear them, but I love them so. I'm not taking any of my Vogs, because they're sort of bulky.

I just don't want to get stuck without the right pair of shoes, you know? (Well, maybe you don't.)

So far, I have my clothes packed. I need to get my shoes together and start collecting the various things I need for my carry on (and put some phone numbers into my other phone). I just started charging my new battery, and it makes a noise, which is kind of weird, I guess. I'll take the old battery as a spare, even though I fully expect it to be out of charge when I try to use it later.

Oh, right, I need to buy a plane ticket from Berlin to Vienna...