Ikea!

S Friedenau

I have a home in Berlin.  Finally.  And after almost 6 months, I have my own bed, too.  Something I really never thought about (because I've had the same blankets and pillows since college) was having to buy bedding.  Sure, I would buy a new sheet every once in a while when one of mine got too stained with the monthly or too threadbare and full of holes, but I never really thought I'd be without blankets and pillows.
Well, when you think you are just going away for a few months and then you end up moving to another country, you end up with needs such as these. 
I recently had a small sun of cash from an experimental film I did.  (UDK Student's thesis work.)  So I decided to go to Ikea and get myself some bedding.  Dear readers, I pride myself on being anti-consumerist, on finding things on the street and in the trash, on buying used instead of new, on living with less rather than more.  But when I got off the train at Sudkreuz yesterday to go to Ikea, I am ashamed to admit that as I walked the short distance from the station to the store entrance, my pulse quickened.  I developed an extra spring in my step.  An involuntary, dopey grin arrived on my face and wouldn't leave.  I started to sing little snippets of songs.  The excitement I felt upon entering the home-making superstore was damn near erotic.  I had only one thing on my mind: Swedish meatballs.
As I made a beeline for the cafe, I began to think about my mother, the biggest Ikea lover of them all.  She's coming to visit me in Berlin in April, and I am making lists of inexpensive and fun things for us to do.  Through my mind flashed, "Ikea cafe and looking at all the pretty Ikea arrangements."
THIS IS A HORRIBLE IDEA!  ONE DOES NOT FLY ACROSS THE OCEAN TO GO TO IKEA!
Forgive me mother.  It was just my delirious excitement at my mass-produced, Swedish-style meal on a tray.
After eating one of those shrimp-and-egg open-face sandwiches and drinking a cup of coffee, I ventured into the children's section, where I gazed longingly at the stuffed animals, the creative and colorful lighting, the heart-shaped mirrors.  I grabbed a pack of acrylic paint and a stuffed red-heart with arms, then remembered I was on a budget and put them back.
In the closet/storage section, I fell into a deep trance with the collapsible boxes.  When I came to, I had a set of hanging cubbies (SKUBB: Black) and a hanging wardrobe (SKUBB: white) under my arm.  Since my closet situation was basicly a suitcase full of stuff on the floor of a wardrobe, I decided to keep both of these things.  I'd take the doors off the wardrobe when I got home and have an exposed closet, making my tiny (less that 10 sq. m) room seem bigger. 

My bed.  Mine.  I own it!  Exciting stuff, this having a home.

I did not allow myself to go to the kitchen section but instead went straight to the marketplace where, using more self-control then an addict in a pharmacy, I bypassed the many colorful and oddly shaped containers for things like laundry, the shower, etc, and went directly to the bedding.  I bought a comforter, two fitted sheets (one red, one black), a duvet and pillowcase set (Blue polka dots), two pillows (80cm x 80 cm, standard European size) one more soft and expensive for sleeping and one a little lower quality for leaning against, a set of 80cm x 80 cm pillowcases (red) and a set of 40cm x 80cm pillowcases (black) because I have not changed my pillowcase for the pillow I brough from the States (40cm x 80cm) since September.  Possibly disgusting but hey, we don't have dryers on this side of the pond, so if you want to do your laundry, you must wait until at least the next day to wear your freshly cleaned clothes again.
I spent 140€ which was almost within the budget I gave myself for spending and definitely within the "if you want to eat next week you can't spend more than this" number.  And it feels wonderful to have my own bed, to not sleep in my sleeping bag or use someone else's stuff.  I am no longer travelling and wandering.  I live here.  In Berlin.  I have a home.
Yes.

Trike! Bed! Oh, that damned Cream Sauce!

Boddinstraße U-Bahn

Where to begin?  So much is happening!  I finally feel alive!  I have a home again!  I am aware that I make an impact, that folks care about me.  I am getting closer to achieving my goals.  I had an hour long conversation in German!!!  It was slow.  My conversation partner was very patient and had to repeat herself a lot, but when I landed here almost 6 months ago (has it been that long?) I NEVER thought I would be able to say more than a few sentences.  Practicing a language is a little like yoga, where at first you think, "Man, I will NEVER get the hang of this."  But then you just practice over and over again and soon you can touch your toes.  

I'm not making any money right now, but I'm flexing my creative muscles and making connections.  Not only do I perform improv regularly at the Space Station but I have been hired as a performance coach by Trike, a Canadian duo with a very unique sound.  We're all a bunch of broke-ass-artists living on a dream and barely squeaking by, so at the moment, there's no money, but so far Trike has fed me, kept me full of coffee or wine, and given me a pair of free tickets to their show tonight.  I really like working with them on the more theatrical portions of their show.  It feeds something important inside me.  Also, my network of artists is growing and diversifying as I try to figure out exactly where I fit into this crazy city.

Stephen (Trike) and I have a headphones party as I listen to his song and he listens to mine.

 I am moving for the 4th time in 6 months and after this one, I only have one more until I get my permanent home!  I moved a suitcase and my monster army backpack as well as a bag of groceries over to Rubensstraße today.  I take the rest of my things over gradually, the three bags of odds, ends and toiletries I still have at the temporary horror-sublet on Schillerpromenade go tomorrow and I hope to have the rest of my stuff out of Robert's place by the end of next week.  And on Tuesday, I get a BED!  It's a fairly thin and cheap futon, but it is the size of a full bed and it is FREE!  I now get to enlist a few other folks to help my move it via public transit on Tuesday.  Oh, boy, this is going to be interesting!  Maybe I can find someone with a car...

I've been pondering the idea of home and what the hell is it, and I have come up with this simple list of what it takes to make me feel like I have a home:
1) A bed that is large enough for me and one other person
2) Easy access to internet.  Doesn't have to be wireless, but I have to be able to access it from my laptop.
3) A roommate (at least 1) who enjoys sharing meals together occasionally.

And this I will have! I have a very small room with a loft bed for the next 1 or 2 months near Friedenau (there is NOTHING special about this neighborhood.  Boring and quiet and with transit nearby.  Sounds good to me.)  In April or May, we move to Wedding, on the U-8 line, right in between Pankstraße and Osloerstraße U-Bahn.  So cool!  Wedding is a still ungentrified area with a lot of Turkish and Arabic influence, and only 15 or 20 minutes away from Neukölln with public transit.  This area of Wedding was in my top three districts I was hoping to live in in Berlin, and now it's happening.  Woo!

Walking down Weserstraße past Silver Future in Neukölln I found this.  Disturbing really!  Doesn't it look like snow?  Now look at the close-up below

Spring is here early and it's lovely!  I am finally wearing my summer jacket again!  Know longer do I need to wear cotton tights under my pants!  I can't wait for the flowers to start blooming.  I hear the winter was extremely mild, but for my California blood, oh, it was hard!

I have been feeling good lately.  Alive!  So good and alive that I decided to make Robert dinner the other night.  I made pasta with chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce.  I should have used cream, or sour cream.  But milk was easily at hand, so I used that.  A lot of it.
Um, a word to the wise:  even if you are not lactose intolerant, don't do this unless you want to have serious stomach issues for about 3 days.  Really.  It's still not over, but I'm through the worst of it.  Damn, there is nothing to make one feel vulnerable and helpless in this world like feeling ill in a foreign country.  I have health insurance, but am unsure of how to use it, plus, if I go to the Apotheke, how do I ask for what I need?  I did learn a new word though: Verstopft, as in "Ich bin verstopft."  Look it up.  Then hope it never happens to you.
I'm happy to say that thanks to the natural remedy of good quality (and sort of pricey) apple juice, I am feeling MUCH better. Although now there is the opposite problem.  Hmm.
Enough poop talk.  Here are a few more pictures.  Enjoy!

Neukölln

Neukölln