Screw you, Google Adsense and Street Art, Street Art, Street Art!

Kreuzberg

Well, my ploy to make money with my blog has been stifled.  Google AdSense caught on that I was asking people to click on my ads and they said, "No more!"  I appealed and they still said no, so I don't get my $100 you all helped my make.  Oh, well.  No worse off then I was.  It's just that, damn, I've got to figure out how to have a little money coming in.  Just a little.  But this will happen.  I just have to keep doing what I'm doing.
My new living situation is awesome.  I have free rent and community! I get along very well with the kids (Younis-2, Juliet-8, Josh-12) and Sybille and Ebrahim (the parents) are really lovely people with a stellar parenting style.  My privacy and space is respected.  I often eat dinner with them.  I trade my childcare skills for a room that reminds me a little bit of this painting:
 
The tub in the bathroom is small and tiled blue, with a window and blue tile shelf to the rear of it.  I feel extremely lucky.
I am happy to have an 8 year old back in my life.  Juliet is a whirlwind of energy.  Latte-skin and dark, curly hair, her English is remarkable.  We are going to make a stop-motion film.  We start building our small set next week.
My German is much better than it was when I landed here four months ago.  It's a fun language, with words like velleicht, abscheulich, and genau.  My pronunciation is often bad, but I am beginning to write better in German and my vocabulary is slowly increasing.  Instead of taking another possibly bad Deutschkurs, I have sent out requests for more tandem speaking partners.  It looks like I will have between 3 and 5 partners with which to speak.  I will help them with their English and they will help me with my German.  Like evolution, learning a language is about slow change over time.
But enough text for now.  I have emails from even more people who are looking for tandem partners, so I'll post some photos and then spend a long time with my German-English dictionary, trying to answer the emails in German.
Lately I've been paying special attention to street art, murals, stencils and wheat-pastes.  This is not even a drop in the bucket of the public art that delights my eyes everyday.  I hope you like it.

Neukölln, Military out of Afghanistan

Neukölln

Neukölln, I am trying to find this balance, and BOY is it tough!

Neukölln, Fight German War Politics

Clowns in the window on Reuterstraße, Neukölln

Paving stones.  Some workers were repaving part of the sidewalk. 

Neukölln

Neukölln, Lieb1614 stays!  You often see this type of graffiti on buildings where the tenants are having landlord problems.  Most common is "Wir Alles Bleiban" (We all stay)  Unfortunately, the people who lived here were evicted by a new owner so he could raise the rent.

Neukölln

Neukölln

Along the canal.  See the woman's body in the tree?

Neukölln

Charlie Chaplin in Kreuzberg!

Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Mauerpark Flohmarkt- Lots of Pictures!

I have been walking more.  I live on Wienerstraße in Kreuzberg, about a 20 minute walk from Robert's house on Reuterstraße in Neukölln and a 10 to 15 minute walk along the canal to Kottbusser Tor.  Sometimes I get lost and end up in neighborhoods like Treptower Park.  But I end up seeing a lot of stuff!

On Friday night I met my tandem speaking partner, Simone at a kneipe on Ohlauerstaße called Sofabar.  I was able to speak in German for the better part of an hour!  This isn't fluency.  It sometimes takes about 5 to 10 minutes for me to get across a simple idea.  But I do it!  I don't give up.  I don't resort to English.  My progress is slow, but it is there! 
I will call Schokofabrik, a Frauenzentrum near my house tomorrow to inquire about a free German language course.  I hope to be able to have a superficial conversation about movies or music by the end of March. 

On Sunday, Robert and I went to the Mauerpark Flohmarkt.  We walked from his place in Neukölln to Kottbusser Tor, then took the train to Prenzlauerberg, walked around, ate french fries and then walked to Mitte.  That's about 4 hours of walking!  I took a lot of pictures, which I will share with you now!

After you are done looking at the photos, be sure to click on the ads to the right and at the bottom of this blog post.  You click, I get paid!

Aids Memorial- Schönberg, Berlin

Across from Görlitzer Banhof in Kreuzberg, A mobile cafe.

Stencil along canal in Kreuzberg/Neukölln

Window display at a Fahrschule (Driving school) in Neukölln.

Creepy window display at Kid's Clothing store, Kottbusser Tor

Robert and the mouth, Kottbusser Tor

Mauerpark Flohmarkt

Mauerpark Flohmarkt

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Pommes Frittes und Rotwein, Prenzlauerberg

Grafitti, Prenzlauerberg

This photo was taken only seconds before the photo below.  The flash was on and somehow distorted the image, making it appear as if through smoke.

Dock 11 on Kastanianalle in Prenzlauerberg a space for the arts with Fabrik (Factory) architecture.  A lot of the construction in Berlin is like this.  The facade on the street is a tall and impenetrable block with large double doors that, when opened, reveal a hallway with high ceilings and stairs going off to the right or left, a large, open air courtyard and with another building in back.
There are some Dance Studios, Artist Workspaces, and a Performance space at Dock 11.

Dock 11

Statue in Park between Prenzlauerberg and Mitte

Mitte

A Kneipe in Mitte I must check out.  The sign says (in English) "No Bex, no latte, no bullshit, and self-service, too."

Volksbühne, Mitte.  This is a popular Avant-Garde Theater in Berlin.

Kreuzberg has amazing murals and stencils EVERYWHERE.

Kreuzberg

Kreuzberg

Kreuzberg, note the giant astronaut just through the trees.

Kreuzberg

And it's official

Der Friedhof, Hermanstraße

The Dezember blues are here.  I thought I could leave them in America, but no, they have followed me, sleeping monsters in my luggage on the plane, they've finally woken up, these blues.  Now they sit heavy on my chest. 
Really, there is no good reason for these Blues to be here.  I have obtained my 1-year Visa.  In January, I will exchange my stellar version of childcare for a rent-free flat.  I have a beautiful, intelligent, supportive partner.  I have been making friends and connections.  I will co-teach a 2.5 hour clowning and movement workshop with Daniel Alon Rahmano sometime in January, and I am beginning to work on a curriculum for teaching English as a Foreign Language.  No good reason to be depressed.
And yet...
I am beginning to miss having a home and wondering if and when I will again have a place to call my own, a dresser in which to put my clothes, a wall on which to hang a poster.  Right now, I have a small section of living room cordoned off.  It's rather cozy, but I have been in the common space for almost 3 weeks, and it is beginning to make me feel a little displaced.  This has nothing to do with the folks I am living with, two fabulous artists.  I really love being around the both of them.  One is a mischevious trickster, the other witty and sharp as a tack, with a hint of mama-like nurturer underneath. 
I hope that before I return to the states for a few months, I find a place to call home here that is mine, where I can leave a few things and have somewhere to return to.  But I try to take things one month at a time.  Breathe.  One step, then the next.

I have been walking lately.  My favorite stroll is along the Canal between Neukölln and Kreuzberg.  I walk along Maybuchufer until I come to a small bridge.  It takes me to Paul-Lincke-Ufer.  I stop and look at the swans, huge, white beasts, graceful and vicious, asking for crumbs.  I always choose the path away from the street, through a small park with a playground.  At the edge of the park is a village of caravans.  They captivate me, old gypsy wagons and train cars converted into living quarters.  I dream of living in one of these, building it up from nothing.  A woodburning stove to keep me warm, solar-powered lights or possible piped-in electricity.  I could learn how to do the electrical myself or find someone to help.  Doing laundry by hand does not seem like such a burden in exchange for one's own caravan dream home.  But who knows, by the time I am ready to buy one, maybe I will be able to figure a water hookup for a waschmaschine as well.  Oh, dreams of home, dreams of home, not a physical place, but an idea in my mind...  and now, photo-time.

Train Cars, Nölderplatz

Neukölln

Along the canal, Neukölln

Caravan Village, Neukölln

Winter

Der Spielplatz.  Playgrounds here are not rubberized like the are in America

Tons of Drunk Santas were on the train at Alexanderplatz last night

Rotating Nativity Tower at Alexanderplatz.  Bizarre!