Biking as transportation- who knew!

I have been getting more confident on my small green bike lately.  And I have given her a name.  Deena.  Deena and I have gotten tired of only riding around the bike training course in Görlitzer park.  I have started taking her places!  Today, I rode across the canal to the Turkischmarkt.

I wrote about the Turkischmarkt two years ago, when I was first discovering Berlin.  I'll revisit that now.

White canopies dot the canal at Maybachufer.  On a rainy day, there is space enough to move about, from seller to seller, but when the weather is nice the cobblestone pathway resembles the N-Judah at rush hour, people shouldering past each other, always with too much stuff, sometimes someone in a lost state of oblivion, weaving too and fro, indecisive, slow.  You try not to get to irritated by this, because sometimes the person in the state of oblivion is you.
Today is rainy, but you would never know that business was slow from the call of the produce sellers, brown men who speak three languages and know how to be pushy in German.  I stop at the cantaloupe and pineapple.  "Zwei stuck, ein Euro!  Zwei stuck Ananas!  Zwei stuck Melon, ein Euro! Ein Euro! Hallo! Hallo!"  The man bellows relentlessly, a clarion voice over the rest.  I try to ignore him while choosing my fruit.  When I hand him a Euro, the lyrics of his song momentarily change to , "Bitte schon! Bitte schon!" But the melody remains the same, seamlessly picking up it's original refrain.
Then there is the chicken man, whom I positively hate giving my business, but I do because he has a sweet deal on whole birds, 1 small bird for 2,50€ or 3 for 6,95€.  He bags my purchase and takes my money, never making I contact with my.  I hold out my hand to collect my change.  He ignores my hand, instead putting my purchase and my change on the counter, still never looking at me.  No eye contact through out the entire transaction.

I pack my backpack full of carrots, beetroot, apples, tomatoes and carry my cloth bag full of ripe figs back to my bike. Putting the bag on the back, I straddle the seat, putting one foot on the peddle and pushing off with the other.  I bike all the way home.  The center of balance seems different now that I am carrying things.  I lose control of the steering a few times, but I regain it, mostly without stopping.  On Sunday, Robert and I might go biking in Grunewald, something I have wanted to do for two years, if the weather is nice.

Fahrrad fahren (Bike riding)

It has been many months since I posted here in this blog.  The reasons for this are many.  In March, shortly after I posted my disappointment about the 10 minute play festival, I had some major health problems.  I went into the hospital for a hernia surgery and a two day stay only to find out that I had an advanced case of pelvic inflammatory disease (which they discovered when they started surgery and couldn't find a hernia) and was in the hospital for six days, then had to go back to the hospital two weeks later for a bigger surgery where they removed my fallopian tubes, which were filled with pus, and I had another six day hospital stay.  There are several funny and horrible stories inside this experience, but I will not write them now.  It was a long recovery and I have been restored to my full health and strength, minus my fallopian tubes.  For me, the  outcome of this is PERMANENT BIRTH CONTROL!!! I am extremely happy to not have to worry about my eggs anymore.  The irony is that the whole problem was caused by my IUD, which I had so I would not get pregnant.  Also, it really sucked that a month after I got married, my vagina fell off.  But she's back now, and she is once again a happy and healthy girl.
Robert was incredibly supprtoive to me throughout this time.  He made healing much easier.  I am lucky to have him.

In July I was in Liz Erber's play, "Tip of the Iceberg," as part of English Theater Berlin's Lab series.  We sold out and got a sparkling review on ZDF (which is like the German PBS) and are discussing doing the show again.  I had an amazing time working with Liz Erber and Rob Rodgers, two incredibly talented artists.

I am hosting a monthly cabaret which is beginning this month!  I think I am almost done booking it and then I have to try to get people to show up so I can pay the wonderful artists!  If you are in Berlin and have an act, please contact me.  I am especially looking for things that push up against the boundaries of gender, sexuality, race and class while having entertainment value!

Possibly the largest thing going on in my life right now is something that most other adults can do and take for granted.  I am learning to ride a bicycle.  I started this process four years ago in San Francisco, but never practiced much.  It seemed too daunting and a bit pointless.  Only the daring use their bikes in that city as a reliable mode of transportation.  In Berlin, everyone rides a bike.  The city is very bike friendly.  It's flat, for the most part, and drivers are used to sharing the road with cyclists.  Last week, Robert helped me choose a small, green women's cruiser and lowered the seat so that me feet could rest flat on the ground.  My new apartment in Kreuzberg (a short walk to Robert's flat in Neukölln) is across the street from the bike learning area, a small little "traffic park" for children to go ride their bikes in.  Well, children and me.  It's free to use and the people there loan me a helmet.  On Wednesday afternoon, there is a class for adult women who are learning to ride bikes.  This class is geared toward the Turkish community, where the family structure is more patriarchal, but it is for me also.  I am a grown woman who never learned to ride a bike.  I am really looking forward to this class.  I go everyday to practice on my small, green bicycle.  It is frustrating, but I notice a slow progress.  Stopping smoothly continues to be an issue, but I can now get started well, which I could not two days ago.  Today it had rained, so I was alone there, which was nice.  On Friday, a 9 year old boy wanted to help me and gave me all kinds of encouraging words until his mother (thankfully) asked him to leave me alone and go play.  It's hard to practice when someone is trying to engage you in conversation.  This kid had the right idea though.  Let's ride bikes.  Let's have fun.  Who cares if you are good at it.
I will try to adopt this attitude.
I will also try to write in this blog once a week.  Thanks for reading!