Monday, June 1, 2015

Small Details - To Be Continuously Updated


  • Jerk of the U-Bahn/S-Bahn/tram/bus as it starts to pull away from the station
  • Slowly roasting döner in the window of many a restaurant
  • Seeing the TV tower everywhere in the city no matter how far from the center you are
  • Feeling the wind whipping through your hair at Tempelhof
  • Bright yellow of the BVG transport
  • Beginning to prefer sparkling to still water
  • Learning as much as possible about your new city, its history and its secrets. 
  • Forming a friendly but language-limited friendship with the man who runs the sandwich shop next door, as you try and both communicate in German.
  • The whoosh of the trains as they pass through stations
  • Eleven flights of stairs between the U-Bahn station and your apartment. 
  • Laughing at various aspects of the city that make it Berlin
  • Adjusting your public transport route to get around issues such as strikes, police action removing a half-naked man from the roof of a major station, and other hindrances
  • Frequenting the bakery around the corner for cheap but delicious pastries and always being the recipient of the baker's constant patience and friendliness despite the language barrier
  • Loving public transportation and the everyday commute, for the people-watching, the time to think, and the constant sense of adventure and movement
  • Becoming close with your host mom over regular chats over cups of jasmine tea
  • Learning to navigate around the city without any hesitation
  • Traveling on your own for the first time and experiencing how wonderful it is
  • Making fast friends with strangers or friends of friends who restore your faith in humanity. 
  • Becoming addicted to German candy.
  • Random conversations with strangers who you will never see again but cause you to see the world in a different view.
  • Improving in German everyday just by hearing it
  • Morning crepes with host family
  • Being so homesick you think you might just completely give up. 
  • Regularly going to a local bar/cafe that is quiet but wonderful atmospherically. 
  • Playing with your host brother after his initial hesitance regarding you wears off.
  • Knowing what to pack for nearly four months in a single suitcase and backpack. 
  • Transforming a strange new place into a city that you love fiercely
  • Adapting so quickly to life abroad, you're not quite sure how it happened
  • Fostering an appreciation for new food and drink
  • Passing three doner shops on the way home
  • Eating food from different cultures every day
  • The smell of fresh flower shops everywhere
  • Cheap street vendors at the city center
  • Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten, Reichstag, and the TV tower at at night
  • Variety of street art - from basic to masterpiece
  • Picking up pieces of conversations from street corners and signs