Klimaanlage

One week from today, I will be boarding a plane for London, to begin the second part of my European adventure. Again, I don't know where the time has gone, and I feel not quite ready to say goodbye to Berlin.

I had my last German class on Tuesday and yesterday I wrote the exam. The exam was optional, and cost extra (seriously, the Goethe Institut must be rolling in it with their ridiculous tuition and on top of that these test fees), but I decided to do it mostly just to get some kind of closure from this course, and, hopefully, assuming I pass, a sense of accomplishment that I actually did learn some German here. I also decided to take the test because one never knows when an official certificate proving my successful completion of beginner's level German will come in useful. I hope to continue to take German courses back in Toronto. What's kind of crazy is that the next level, B1 (I completed level A2), is the minimum level of fluency that employers require here. Personally, I don't feel like another level would leave me with enough German to hold down a job here, but it's a bit comforting that Germans believe that!

Don't worry, Mom and Dad--I'm not planning on seeking out a job here in Germany. At least, not now. :)

Speaking of parents, mine are coming to visit me tomorrow! I'm in the midst of cleaning my apartment right now, haha, and am writing this post as a bit of a break. I tell you, I'm going to miss this little apartment a lot. It's served me very well over these last two months. If I could somehow transplant this place to Toronto, I'd sign a lease in a heartbeat.

The last couple of weeks here in Berlin have been busy, with the course winding down and what not. Last week, Berlin suffered a really gross heatwave, seeing the kinds of temperatures I thought I was escaping this summer by leaving Toronto behind. It got up to 40 degrees and was all kinds of nasty. Klimaanlage (this post's title) means "air conditioning." Frankly, it's surprising the Germans have a word for air conditioning, considering that most of them seem to really, really hate it. I think this is a European thing in general, and to be sure for the most part Northern Europe doesn't usually get so humid and hot in the summers so as to really need air conditioning. At any rate, I can only speak about Germans when I say that they are actually quite afraid of air conditioning. It has to do with some kind of old wive's tale about how fans and air conditioning can make you sick. It's proven to be a tenacious little superstition, and it's really quite ludicrous in a country that has nurtured some of the greatest minds and intellects in human history.

Most buildings don't have air conditioning here, but fortunately the Goethe Institut did install individual room units in each classroom (with all their money, it's the least they could do). Perhaps they were thinking of the sensibilities of their entirely non-German student body when they installed them. Certainly they weren't doing it for the teachers. Our teacher, Sandra, only reluctantly agreed to turn the Klimaanlage on, and even then, she asked us every ten minutes or so if she could turn it off. I started to sneeze because of my allergies, and she took it as a sign that I was getting sick. It freaked her out. In the end it was easier to just let her turn the thing off!

Germans are a funny people.

Because it was so hot, I didn't do much for that entire week except seek out places with air conditioning--these places included the mall at Alexanderplatz and the movie theatre at Potsdamer Platz, where we watched the new Superman movie.

Cooling off in the mall with some frozen yogurt with rhubarb sauce.

One day when it had finally cooled off a bit, I went for a Spaziergang (walk) in the Tiergarten, a huge park in the middle of Berlin. Its name means "animal park" because back in the day it was in fact outside of the city and served as the hunting grounds for the Prussian king. There are statues of hunting scenes and exotic animals that the Prussians shipped over from Africa for the king's hunting pleasure. Today, it's a pretty park with ponds and walking and running trails.

The Tiergarten, on a Sunday afternoon.

Fox hunting.

Some goddess of...victory? hunting?...giving some fierce side-eye.

Water lilies.

Detail from a monument honouring famous German composers, in the Tiergarten.

Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate finishing the German course. I have no pictures of dinner, but I did take a couple on my way. I decided to walk from my apartment to the restaurant, which was in Kreuzberg. It was about an hour's walk, and it led me through my old neighbourhood in Kreuzberg where I lived during my first Berlin sojourn! I got a little sentimental.

Adalbertstrasse 64! My old, communist apartment!

This park lies in what used to the be the no-man's land between the Wall. Just footsteps from my old apartment on Adalbertstrasse (located just on the east side of the Wall).

Kreuzberg buildings.

Oh, and on a completely random and unrelated note, this is for Luciana and my old co-workers who might be reading this blog, and who will appreciate this and understand what this is all about:

Esprit stores don't really exist in Canada anymore, but they're still quite popular over here! And look what I got!! :)

This post was a bit of a jumble, I'm sorry. I also need to write about my trip to Hamburg last weekend with Amy and Alex, but that's going to have to wait a while, I'm afraid. As mentioned, my parents are arriving tomorrow, and I'll be spending the next 10 days with them. We'll be flying off for London together next week and then they're spending a few days in England with me before returning to Toronto. Me, I'll stay in England for part two of my trip! Anyway, basically that all means that I'll be busy and likely won't be able to post anything for a couple weeks...

So! Let's finish off for now with a pretzel update:

From my favourite pretzel chain, Ditsch!

And another one!

BREZELN COUNT: 16