field work

Berlin is a very weird town.

I love to walk around with my camera just to see what I come across. Lately it's been lots of nature-y things.

Notice anything?


It may not seem like much to you, but this is the first squirrel that I've seen in Germany. It was so novel I had to take a picture; I only had to chase it around the cemetery for ten minutes before I could get a clear shot.


I also spotted a diplodocus at Hauptbahnhof.



After taking a picture of the massive dinosaur in the massive train station, I turned around to see a woman with an absolutely massive purse.


Seriously, have you ever seen anything like it?


After several days with late afternoon rain storms I came across some snails and slugs.




It's not quite as cute, though, when the creepy-crawlies follow you home. The hot weather combined with the lack of air conditioning means I keep my windows open 24/7, and because windows here don't have screens on them, I've had to deal with a lot of this:



Massive, mosquito-y-type bugs flying around my apartment. This is the third one I've had to kill. Or actually, come to think of it, it could be the second. I whacked one with a newspaper only to have the carcass disappear by the time I came back with the napkin.

Idle Thoughts

A friend recently pointed out this website to me. Just in case you're too lazy to click, it's a magazine that "campaigns against the work ethic" and attempts "to return dignity to the art of loafing, to make idling into something to aspire towards rather than reject."

I haven't invested the time to really gauge the contributors in the forum, to determine how serious they are. There seems to be plenty of irony there, but plenty also revel in the idle lifestyle, endeavoring to work just enough to get by and maximize leisure time.

While I certainly think that Americans work too much and consume too much (the two are inextricably linked, aren't they?), neither of which is good for the environment or makes us happy, I also think that work and productivity are good. And I can't shake the impression that the people writing the Idler forums are just lazy.

It seems almost anachronistic; I thought the Idler had more or less died out. He thrived in the pre-industrial days, was still around in Jane Austen's time, but his days were clearly numbered by the time Edith Wharton took up her pen. A gentlemen in the pre- and early industrial society could live on the income from their property or an annuity of some kind and have most of his hours free for reading, hunting and other idle pastimes. But he could do so only at an enormous cost to his younger siblings. Just this morning I was reading about the concept of youth in the pre-industrial age in Youth and History by John R. Gillis. (I actually study youth in the post-industrial/modern age, but I decided to be a good scholar and read the whole book, instead of just the part that covers my century.) The preference for primogeniture among the upper classes (nobility, gentry, bourgeoisie) often forced younger siblings (and, often, female siblings regardless of age) to "sacrifice for the good of all," since keeping the family property intact was often the only way to maintain settlements and annuities.

To draw an example from the book I just recently finished reading (again), Mr. Knightly (in Emma) can lead a relatively idle existence, nominally occupied with running his estate, but employing stewards to do most of the work, leaving most of his hours free for visiting, dining out, playing cards and engaging in other leisure activities. But he can do so only at the expense of his brother, who must work (in law, I think) to earn a living and support his family.

The idle existence was a privilege for the few, and I, personally, am glad that it's all but gone from society. I think we're better off without it.

Yet, somehow, I've managed to land in a city of idlers.

No one seems to work in this town. Stores, buses, trains, supermarkets, and restaurants are always full of people, regardless of the hour. When I was in Kiel the boardwalk was full of people running, walking, biking, skateboarding and rollerblading, and even on a warm, sunny Saturday there weren't that many people just sitting around. Here on every nice day, whether weekend or not, parks, beaches and lawns fill up with idlers who spend the afternoon reading, sunbathing and drinking.

I thought the leisure class was dead, so I don't know where these people come from. It really is reminiscent of an earlier era.

Take this photo I snapped a couple weeks ago:


Doesn't it remind you an awful lot of this?

Finally, the long-promised post about embassies.

For quite a while I’ve been suffering under the misconception that embassies exist largely to serve that particular foreign population who live in the country (and to do various diplomatic things, I suppose).

This is clearly not the case, since most embassies are surrounded by a ten-foot metal fence, complete with barbed wire and guardhouse. While their architecture tends to be pretty good (with the notable exception of the Swiss Embassy), the security is off-putting. However, in an emergency, you deal with it. When my passport was stolen I went to the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona and was granted entrance to the secure compound merely by showing a copy of the stolen passport. It was amazingly simple.

Somehow, I don’t think that would be the case here. See, this is the American Embassy in Berlin:


No way you’re gaining entrance to that place. Note the permanent barricades. A German wanting to get a student visa to the U.S. or an American looking to replace a stolen passport would, in fact, travel to a completely different part of town to the “Consular Section.”

The British Embassy also has heavy security:


At least their barricades are pretty (and removable; the middle two sink into the ground), and there is still pedestrian access, as far as I can tell.

Well by now you might be wondering what the point of this post is. Don’t worry, I’m coming to it.

You see, with embassies that old real estate slogan is eminently applicable, for all anyone seems to worry about is location, location, location. Most are located just south of the Tiergarten, near the Kulturforum. The Swiss probably have the best location, across the street from the Reichstag, and near the new Hauptbahnhof, but, as I’ve said, their embassy is painfully ugly, so it doesn’t really count. Plus, they’re Swiss. Boring.


See? Ugly.

The British embassy is located just a block away from the Brandenburger Tor, on a side street, and the U.S. embassy is about a block further away, also on a side street. But here comes the sticking point: the Russian embassy is located on Unter den Linden, less than a block from Pariser Platz and said Brandenburger Tor. And, well, we Americans can’t allow the Russians to have a better location, can we?

So, the Americans are building a new embassy, and, this you’ll have to file under “What the hell were the Americans thinking?”, it’s located on Pariser Platz, next door to the Brandenburg Gate:


See the cranes? That’s where they’re building the new embassy. The current embassy, with its full-time police protection and permanent cement barricades located in a good but discrete and out-of-the-way location, simply won’t cut it. Apparently, we feel the need to build a brand new embassy on what must be the single most expensive and sought-after piece of real estate in all of Germany…next to the biggest tourist attraction in the city.

You can’t get within 5 meters of the current embassy! How the hell are they going to handle the millions of tourists standing around outside the new embassy’s front door?

coolest store ever

Do you need to know where you can find a ship’s wheel, a coffin or a taxidermied ferret in Berlin?



Why, Fundusverkauf, of course. Located just across the street from the Komische Oper (comic opera), it sells their old set pieces and costumes.



It is unfortunately way out of my price range, but I stop by every so often just to gawk.



Anybody need a longboat?

The view from my window this morning

The snow continues...

The view from my window this morning

I have three words for you:

Swarovski


Christmas


Tree.


I thought I should hurry up and post this before the Christmas season ended.* I meant to do it before Christmas, but you know how it goes.

Amazing, isn't it? A massive tree covered in thousands of Swarovski crystals. It's beautiful to behold.


*Depending on which calendar you use it can still be considered Christmastide. Some churches mark more than just twelve days of Christmas, extending Christmastide until the feast of Candlemas in February. Even until the 1970s the Catholic Church celebrated Epiphany until January 13, so I think I got this in just under the wire. Besides, Jesus might very well have been born in the spring.

more reasons why I love this city

Sorry that last post was a bit boring. To make up for it I uploaded a bunch of new photos to my flickr page. Here's a preview:

In addition to buses, taxis, subways, pedi-cabs, trams and trains, you can travel with horses.


I’ve even seen dogsleds. (Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of that.)

You can get a €150 bottle of Dom Pérignon to go with your €1,70 curry sausage.


You’ll note, you can order your Currywurst with or without intestine (Darm).

The scaffolding is second-to-none. This is a life-size image of a subway train, covering the fence behind which they’re building the new subway.


(Look for more German scaffolding on my flickr page.)

Oh, and then there’s this:


That’s a man, right?

Can you imagine the controversy something like that would cause in the U.S.?

Fun Study Break

I took a break from homework this afternoon/evening to go to the official Christmas tree lighting at the Brandenburger Tor. Although slightly corny, I did get to see Berlin's fabulous mayor and the Prime Minister of Norway.

Here's a [rather amateurish] video I made:

What I've been up to lately

The seasons are changing, but I think Berlin is pretty despite the winter starkness.


I found a new heading/theme/catchphrase for my blog.


I visited East Berlin.


Anyone but me think it's kind of pretty, albeit in a bleak, depressing way?


All I want for Christmas:


I'm still trying to figure out the German fascination with Statler and Waldorf.


What I love most about shopping in Germany... the utter randomness.


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


Even Germany isn't immune to the obnoxiously large Christmas decoration phenomenon.


I have no idea what this is doing here.


I went to a pretty lame Thanksgiving dinner. The location was beautiful,...


...but there weren't any chairs. (And, no, I don't know why.)


How cool is it that I go to a university with a giant quote from Karl Marx in bright gold letters in the foyer?


I snapped this on my way to school this morning, and I think it's both beautiful and depressing at the same time. On the one hand, the sun glinting through the trees and the outline of the 19th (?) century courthouse in the background are undeniably beautiful, but it's really depressing that the sun's so low in the sky at 2:00 p.m.

So where did you go today?

Guess where I went today. Go on, guess.


The docks!

I know what you're thinking, "But, Maureen, Berlin's landlocked." Although that's true, I live about ten minutes away from one of Europe's largest inland port. Who knew?

Or were you wondering what I was doing there?

What was Maureen doing down at the docks today?
	picking up the latest cocaine shipment
	cruising for guys
	visiting a library
	wandering around, lost
pollcode.com free polls

Only Berlin

Berlin is a city like no other.




Today at the Brandenburger Tor I saw a man riding on a wheeled sled pulled by a team of six huskies.

No one else was even remotely fazed by this rather anachronistic figure.




Without realizing it I've become inured to the general craziness of Berliners, as well. I didn't even deem the dogsled riding through the Tiergarten worth the hassle of digging out the camera to take a picture. Very few things make my jaw drop anymore.

This, however, absolutely blows my mind:


Yes, that's the Berlin wall... running right through a cemetery.


This is the Invalidenfriedhof, and it's one of my favorite places in the city.


It's just mind-boggling to contemplate: a cemetery lies right on the border between East Germany and West Germany, and the only solution the authorities can think of is to "liquidate" any and all graves located in the "death strip." (Ironic choice of words, eh?).

The family of Captain Manfred von Richtofen (The Red Baron) was allowed to move his grave, but most were simply destroyed. Records indicate there were more than 3000 graves at the Invalidenfriedhof in 1960. Today there are 230. (Although creepily enough, anywhere from 18,000 to 30,000 burials have taken place there since 1748.)

This is a good view of how much of the cemetery was cleared to make way for the Wall: