Update on Candy!

Here are more pictures of Candy in her new home! Her new caretaker says she's doing great!

So classy!

She would often sleep like this!

A Stroll in Rudolph Wilde Park

Yet another daytime trip Rah and I needed to make today was to the customs office (or Zollamt) in Schöneberg. I had some medication that needed to be shipped to me, because Blue Shield was late in getting it to me before I left. (Yes, I'm naming names.) What I and the family member that shipped it to me hadn't anticipated was that we shouldn't have claimed it as 'medication' on the customs form. I hadn't really thought it through, but I figured at the most I would need to provide proof that I was legally prescribed said medication before I left. Nope. Any prescribed medication (not an over-the-counter drug) is not allowed into the country unless it is on your person when you enter. Yep. The customs agent told us that if I said there was no medication in the package, they would have to open it to check, and if medication was found, it would have to be "destroyed". However, if I told them up front that there was medication inside, they would simply return it to the sender. Obviously we chose the second option, which at least makes it possible to retrieve the meds in the future. Anywho, the lesson learned is do everything you can to bring the meds with you upon entry, don't write medication on the customs form, and if they hold it at the Zollamt- tell the truth about what's inside.

The good news about today? We stumbled across a little piece of magic called the Rudolph-Wilde-Park, which has... well... here are some pictures to tell the story...

This cool looking building houses the U-bahn station!

There are windows to look in/out of the station and steps for people to hang out and eat their lunch...

...and see this...

...and this!

Above the building were several statues. I'm not sure what the story is here.

The Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Technologie, und Forschung (Senate Department for Economics, Technology, and Research)

I took a break. Beautiful sights all around.

Now onto our brief but refreshing stroll through the park...

This park is going to be beautiful and packed during summer!

I hope it's packed with hotties like this

It was a great day. <3

I Put My Quarter In, Now Gimme My Apartment!

Dagnabbit!

Big news today - we signed the contract for our new apartment! In just over a week, we will get the keys and officially be residents of Neukölln, Berlin! Here's the story...

We saw a couple of mediocre places around town, and then we visited our future flat. We were charmed instantly - we applied for it the same day of the viewing, and even mentioned it on the blog. It was so sunny in each room, was in a fantastic location, and came in right under budget. However, we didn't pin all of our hopes on this place, and kept looking.

It's the purple and yellow one. Yeah, the one with the
inexplicable cartoon snail mascot.

Like an episode of House Hunters, we found other apartments that wooed us, and we applied for a few of them. Again, like the show, each of the places we applied to had their pros and cons. The drama was high, a few tears were shed, and we found ourselves as indecisive as the couples on the show that we mocked in the past. But this week was the final segment before the end of the episode. Cue tense music and sensational VO.

Time had run out on our apartment search (our two month sublet ends soon), and we'd only been accepted by two real estate agencies. We had heard that it was difficult for foreigners, but we were shocked when one of the companies demanded a year's rent up front to compensate for our lack of German sources of income. The choice was pretty easy. Unfortunately, we've heard from Berliners that the apartment we chose is overpriced, but in the end it doesn't matter, we really do love this place and we know we'll enjoy our time there. Especially since we may only be in Berlin for a relatively short time.

We arranged a second viewing before committing, and sure enough we were ecstatic to confirm our feelings about the apartment. We set up an appointment to sign the lease, and decided to explore the neighborhood. We had already been in the area a few times, but while we wandered we were happily surprised to find that it was even closer to the vibrant spots than we thought. Not only that, our particular neighborhood is very interesting, diverse, and a bit kooky.

Today we signed the papers and breathed a huge sigh of relief together, knowing that the stress of the hunt is over and that we have taken a big step toward actually living our life here and becoming real Berliners.

Now it's on to Ikea, which is apparently the only place that anyone here gets their furniture.

Oh, hey! There's a Forever Twenty-- wait...

One thing we'll miss about our flat in Prenzlauer Berg -
the amazing pizza here, handmade by Andre.

Ciao, bella. We'll never know why there
are green circles on your boobies.

"Find Something You Love and Let It Kill You!" - Expression in the Streets of Berlin

"Find something you Love and let it Kill you!" ... "EMO!"

So many outspoken people here, each with their own unique voice. It makes my heart smile.

We went to three apartment showings today, two in western Kreuzberg, and one in northern Neukölln. This got us out to see some parts of the city we haven't been to yet. It's hard to sacrifice so much time when we both have lots of work to do back at home, but of course it's absolutely imperative that we find an apartment before the middle of March. And it's really an education every time we travel around Berlin. It seems like we learn something around every corner.

At 3 we went to an apartment showing at this really giant, depressing apartment block right out of the 70s, probably, in a strange neighborhood that was obviously in the process of being redeveloped. This building seemed to be one of the eyesores still standing among the brand new office buildings and condo highrises. The property agent never showed up to the appointment, so we didn't even have to bother seeing the place after all. The one thing we'd miss out on by not getting this flat would be the view (although honestly, the windows were too high for any tenant shorter than 9 ft tall to enjoy it), but it was good enough to see it this once, all the while laughing alongside another couple with whom we bonded over a death-defying ride in the cramped and poorly built elevator...

Then we walked around a bit, and had lunch at a great little pizza place on a busy corner of Mehringdamm. I can't find the name of the pizza place now, because Google Maps doesn't list it, and Street View shows an image from 2008 when the location was a laundromat. An example of the fast changing face of Berlin! Then we saw another apartment near the Tempelhofer canal that was nice, but too dark for our taste. So we headed off to the final showing of the day in Neukölln, a district which is often described as up-and-coming, albeit quickly with rents raising every few months.

When we came up out of the U-Bahn station, we found ourselves suddenly in the midst of a standoff between a big crowd of demonstrators and a phalanx of riot police. It wasn't violent, but it was loud, with the crowd alternating between jeers at the police and cheers or chants. Our limited German made it impossible to figure out exactly what they were protesting at the time. However, most of the group was waving flags for the Piratenpartei, a leftist political party that has representation in a few local districts. Looking it up later online, I found some information (through the unreliable filter of Google Translate) indicating that the confrontation was between a small group of right wing demonstrators (whom we never saw because of the size of the crowd), and a much larger group of leftist counter-demonstrators, led by the Piratenpartei. Our best guess then is that the police were there to prevent violence between the two sides.

Without time to see an up-close exhibition of Berlin politics, nor the desire to fuel something that we weren't sure we wanted to encourage, we headed down the street to the apartment showing. This is a really hot neighborhood, so there were at least 20 other people there to see the same place, thus there was a competitive vibe. One woman didn't even look at the apartment, just headed straight for the property agent to be the first to grab an application. And everyone else followed suit, scribbling furiously while hunched over the kitchen counter or whatever surface they could find. Kind of funny, considering that the property guy is really chill and prefers applications by email anyway (we've met him before at previous showings).

On our way back to the U-Bahn after the showing, we again found ourselves in the midst of an off-shoot of the protest. This time a group of youth were blocking part of the street through which the police were trying to move a caravan of vehicles. An interesting observation was that, as one would expect, many people were taking video and pictures of the police action. However, the police also had an officer carrying a large professional video camera, filming everything from right behind the backs of the front line. It was an interesting scene. The police seemed to be letting it the roadblock be for a few minutes, but then they formed up and pushed the group back. For an instant, a bit of chaos broke out as a bunch of teen boys ran from the police formation. They came straight at us (and a bunch of other passers-by; the street was really crowded with people getting off work, shopping, etc.) and we had to dart out of the way. It wasn't all that frightening, though, and actually made us want to live there, if that area is indeed full of action.

You Are Leaving the American Sector

We headed out this afternoon to view an apartment in a great little corner of the city near Checkpoint Charlie. We haven't really done much of the touristy Berlin stuff yet, being so focused on life and work, but we took a few minutes to walk past the checkpoint (we'll return again to visit the museums and exhibits nearby). We were also just observing the fabric of life in this city. Here are some pics from our walk...

Like in every other major city I've been to, I saw a man hunched over and sleeping in the midst of the tourists and commuters. I also saw these "normal" people pass him by, even stepping over him just to get to their train.

You have to fit the Starbucks in somewhere.

Museum on the left, historic landmark in the middle, McDonald's on the right.

"You Are Leaving the American Sector". I was very frightened.

"You Are Entering the American Sector. Carrying Weapons Off Duty Forbidden. Obey Traffic Rules."

"The Last Kremlin Flag"

There was (were?) more than one of these...

"Checkpoint Curry". Heheh.

A tunnel between the U6 and U2 platforms