Finally made it out to IKEA today to pick up a few necessities - a better pillow (more appropriately, an actual pillow), a desk lamp, and I had intended to get some better curtains (again, I think perhaps “actual” works better here instead of “better,” since what attempts to cover my window could hardly be considered a curtain) before deciding that I didn’t want to deal with the hassle. Exciting, I know, but actually the IKEA itself was pretty impressive, a veritable hodgepodge of every home decoration and necessity you can think of crammed into a massive building that puts the Super WalMarts to absolute shame. I don’t think you can walk out of WalMart with a stack of plywood and a 5′x8′ framed map of the world.

My Irish friends dutifully informed me of the upcoming “Arthur Guinness Day,” celebrating the life and legacy of the man who gave us Guinness beer this very Thursday, 24 September. This amounts to something of a national holiday for my Irish cohorts, and they’ve been talking about it every day for the past week as though it were Christmas or the Irish equivalent of Thanksgiving (actually that works pretty well).

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depends) for me I’m committed to saving my energy for Munich on Friday. I believe I wrote about this before, but I’ll mention once more that this Friday I’m headed off to Munich for the famed Oktoberfest. The Germans, and probably Europeans in general, have really perfected the art of cheap travel; we’re traveling by way of “Mitfahr,” roughly translating quite simply to “drive with.” I’m sure the same option exists in the U.S. too, but here many people are quite dedicated to it; you simply post a listing if you’re going somewhere and have extra seats in your car, and people call you and offer to go with you in exchange for a little bit of money. My flatmate Sofía and I are driving 6 or 7 hours with someone who posted on the site for €30, a much better alternative to the €110 (minimum, at this point) to get a train. Not a bad deal.

Of course I’ll take my camera with me and write about the festival and post pictures when I get back. For the moment I have very little to write about; not much changes in the course of a regular class week and I haven’t found anything particularly amazing or perplexing to write about. Check back on Sunday or Monday for a full account of Oktoberfest.

Yup, missed the Thursday deadline already. Oh well, at least I’m still writing.

Not much has happened in the past few days. The weather has kept at a nice ~72 degrees all week, and looks like it’ll stay that way for a little while longer, which is good. I have continued to notice, however, that Berlin, perhaps just Germans in general, really enjoy doing things together. Or perhaps I should reword that: they do the same things we do in America, just on a much larger scale. When there’s a protest, it’s like the whole damn city out there marching through the street. When they have some kind of party in the outdoor area of a restaurant, there’s a huge multi-colored tent, waitresses in full Fräulein garb and the Backstreet Boys on the radio. When they have a flea market, it takes up an entire street. The scope of everything here just seems to be much greater.

This holds true as well for the cleaning and recycling initiatives they have in place here. By that I mean, no matter where you are, you’ll find at least two bins, sometimes as many as four, and everyone actually pays attention to them as well. On more than one occasion I have been holding an empty plastic bottle that I have brought all the way back with me to my house because I couldn’t find the right bin otherwise. Also, much like our own recycling system, everything that is able to be recycled (excluding glass) has a “Grünpunkt” (”green point”) symbol on it, which means it can be tossed in any Grünpunkt-friendly bin, and those are almost everywhere.

The other thing that I wish had caught on more in the states is the idea of “Pfand,” which means “collateral” normally, but in this case it’s the name given to money you get in return for returning glass bottles. At most bars, if you buy a drink, they will give you the drink and some kind of pin or button or cap or something. When you’re done with the drink, you bring back the bottle and the object, give them both back to the person behind the counter and usually you’ll get €1 back or so, and they put the bottle in a rack with other empty ones to be recycled. Outside of bars, most bottles can be traded in at almost any convenience store for about €0,15 (in contrast to the $0.05 you get for plastic bottles back home, and not even in every state). All of these things combined means you can actually make a lot of money picking up and returning bottles, which in turn means the streets are a great deal cleaner between the recycling and the idea of Pfand.

The weird side-effect of this is that you can alternatively leave a glass bottle pretty much anywhere that can easily be seen, and a bum or even anyone who just wants to get some extra money will pick it up and return it. This is actually the most viable alternative to bringing it in yourself or finding a proper recycling bin, and people literally do it all the time. So I guess I was lying before when I said the streets are a great deal cleaner; perhaps they’re just as messy but in a more organized way. People tend to leave bottles in clusters, and I always imagine someone looking for bottles happening upon these clusters as though they were treasure.

That’s about it for now. Going to go make use of the rest of the day, it’s a lovely 73 degrees and sunny and there’s no reason to be in here any longer.

At last, I think it’s time to officially start writing in this. It’s Monday, 14 September 2009, at about 18:02 in whatever timezone Berlin is, and I’ve double-tasked in writing that last sentence by also debating how frequently to write in this. Because both nothing and a lot happens during the week, I think each Monday and Thursday sounds like a pretty good deal; Monday because they suck otherwise anyway (which is actually a worldwide phenomenon) and Thursdays because they’re not Fridays, thus eliminating the potential and quite probable conflict of interest between writing a blog and exploring Berlin. This first post will be rather lengthy, as it will attempt to encompass the past couple weeks that I’ve been here in the least-boring way possible.

I flew out of Logan Airport somewhere around 5:30pm on 26 August, waving goodbye to my parents and knowing that my mother would be counting the seconds between my arrival in Berlin and the first e-mail sent to her. I spent the next 6 hours traveling 12 hours into the future, zipping through space and time alongside two large Italians. At the end of the flight their son leaned over from the seat in front of us and mentioned to them that “American food is crap,” referring (sadly) to the airplane food, which I was tempted to call him out on, before I realized “American food” doesn’t actually mean a whole lot by itself…so maybe he had a point.

I had a short layover in Amsterdam and then it was a hop, skip, jump, short walk down the ramp and an hour-long plane ride to Tegel Airport in Berlin. It was at this point that my previous worries that Carmen Banciu, soon-to-be host and owner of the apartment, may not be real at all started to kick in, and that I might be the butt end of an elaborate German joke. Thankfully these fears were quelled by my parents’ words of wisdom (”The Germans don’t have a sense of humor”) and my spirits were high as the Israeli-German taxi driver gave me a whirlwind tour of the city.

That was two weeks ago. Since then, I’ve moved into my apartment, met both of my housemates (Sofia from Spain and Liana from Bochum, Germany), and started my intensive language course, the so-called “Vorkurs Deutsch,” which has been a relatively positive experience so far. We were placed via an electronic test in a language level, starting from A2 (where probably about 50% of people ended up) and going all the way up to either C1 or C2, although as far as I’m concerned, if one ends up in C2 they probably don’t need an intensive language course. I was placed in A2 at first, but after a week of almost falling asleep, I asked to be moved up to B1, taught by Ingo Fehrmann, a gangly guy full of life and energy.

I’ve met a bunch of people here, the majority being European and hailing from such exotic places as: Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, England, Turkey, Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some already. They’re all doing the “Erasmus” program, ostensibly the inter-European exchange program. As an American I’ve felt relatively well-received, no obvious animosity, although a friend Aziz from Amsterdam gave me a hard time about American ideology before telling me he was just testing me (followed immediately by him admitting he’s a psyche major, at which point everything started making sense), and everyone seems to get along with each other very well. The French seem to be very clique-y though; there’s always a table or two of purely French people every time I go to eat lunch.

I’ve explored a great deal of the city as well, something which is actually quite impossible not to do, what with people living pretty much everywhere. I’m in the very center of the very center of the city (you can look me up on Google maps by simply typing in “Leipziger Straße 61, 10117 Berlin”), which gives me the convenience of being fairly equidistant from everything, but also is kind of a bummer because I’m pretty much equidistant from everything. Two of my good friends, Nate and Cormac (both of Ireland) live way out in Schlachtensee, which is mostly a student area on the far far outskirts of Berlin. To get there requires me taking two trains and a bus, so needless to say I haven’t gone out there very much. Anyway, each district of Berlin is in itself a unique city, and each has their own reputation. For instance, Kreuzberg and Freidrichshein are two of the more popular destinations for good food and a good evening, while Mitte (where I live) is very much a financial and general living district with not much more than big buildings and some grocery stores. The train system is very easy to navigate and is extremely punctual, however, so getting to other places usually doesn’t take more than 20 minutes, with most of that time being spent in the station waiting.

Well, I think that about covers the very general experience thus far. Beginning Thursday I will write more about individual experiences, recent or ones that I feel are important, and I’ll see about putting some pictures on here as well. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and unlike my California blog I’ve actually found some semblance of comfort in writing about everything that’s happening here, as it’s a unique experience that I enjoy relaying. In moments I’m heading out to watch a brief film experiment as directed by Carmen’s son, so we’ll see how that goes.

As they say in Germany, tschüß!

Finding housing in Berlin is simultaneously one of the easiest and most difficult things I’ve ever done. It is easy in the sense that there are a large number of websites dedicated to helping students and, well, everyone else alike find “Wohnungsgemeinschaften,” or simply WGs. These WGs are apartment shares, normal students and adults renting out their houses generally on a first-come, first-serve basis. Unfortunately there are a number of stipulations that turn this innocent house hunt into a race against time. The primary one is whether or not you’re actually in the country at the time of application. For many this is a make-or-break thing; if you’re not there to actually meet the tenants, your chances are slim. Therein lay my first problem, nullifying a couple of otherwise pretty good deals. Secondly, there are a lot of reposted ads, leading to a lot of “sorry, we filled the spot(s)” e-mails. Third, if you’re a smoker, forget it; and actually, if you’re a non-smoker, forget it as well, unless you can handle the smell of cigarette smoke all the time. Whichever side you make your allegiance with effectively alienates the other side, unless you’re the rare breed of human being that can happily operate in a second-hand smoke environment.

All that said, I think I’ve finally found a place to live. It’s an admittedly unorthodox living situation, even without my actually being there yet. A traveling journalist/mother of two students is renting out her 6-bedroom apartment to three students coming from just about anywhere (the list she gave me of the origins of other potential tenants was quite extraordinary). There’s also no television, which I’m fine with (not like I watch that much TV anyway). These things taken into account, the deal sounds pretty sweet. The best part is the proximity to my university, TU-Berlin: about 10 minutes by train.

Still waiting on the official confirmation, as well as which of the three rooms I’ll be getting (they vary in size), but I may have just found myself a place to live.

Thank goodness.

Ah! Life! The stale air of this abandoned haven of thoughts is stirred once again. I’ve returned to raise this long-forgotten blog from the briny depths of neglect and to give it a renewed sense of purpose, or maybe just a sense of purpose in the first place. Does the blog know the difference? I hope not.

First, a little back story for anyone who wants to read this from the new beginning (which is this). This blog has existed in one form or another since 2005 (that’s as far back as I can find, anyway), but it’s evolved at least visually a great deal since then. The name “Altered-Screens” is just an abstract title that doesn’t really have a whole lot of meaning to it, but I’ve grown to like it over the years so I’ll keep it. I tried a lot of themes for this site that I could never motivate myself to maintain: a web comic (by yourself this is a very daunting and miserable thing to do; props to xkcd), movie reviews, game reviews, guitar stuff, pointless stuff, pointful stuff, and so on. A year has passed since I last added anything to this site, during which time I let it sit here and sort of fester, letting the maggots dig in and nibble away at what was for all intents and purposes a dead blog. Lucky for me, the blog was biodegradable and so I’ve planted what amounts to a new one in the same place and called it the same thing.

So here it is, with a new banner I made tonight to boot. It may give you a hint as to what it’s going to be about. Hopefully it will give you more than a hint, and if it doesn’t, well, that’s not a good sign. Yes, I am going to Germany. Berlin, to be precise. I will be studying at the Technical University of Berlin, from August of 2009 to July of 2010, pursuing my physics major and my German language minor. The second of these two things is admittedly the easier one: when learning a language is essential to one’s survival, one tends to buck up and git ‘er done, as they say. Learning physics, however, in another language will be a test of many things, including patience, determination, and the tensile strength of my hair.

Of course, the question burning in your mind through all of this is why Germany? Good question. To date I haven’t come up with a good answer. Fact: I enjoy the German language. This throws most people for a loop right off the bat; it is not the most beautiful language, and I am aware of this. It appeals to me for whatever ungodly reason and I’m not sorry about it. I guess this fact, plus my having never been to Europe before, combined like two pieces of a two-piece jigsaw puzzle to spell out “GO TO GERMANY,” and having never doubted puzzles like these before, took the advice to heart.

I’m not leaving until the end of August - probably around August 28th or so - so for the time being this blog will detail events related to this upcoming expedition and whatever else I think is worthy of your time. Keep checking back for more updates.

-Sam

Well, with the extensive coding I’ve been doing in Art 22, it’s given me the motivation to begin this blog anew, but with yet another different direction. What that direction is, I’ve yet to decide, but I can imagine this site will cease to be (just) a blog in the coming weeks, and instead become something much more interesting to the general public. Stay tuned.

I’m typing this on an iPhone. That means that it’s possible to do such a thing. Will this mean updates? Let’s hope so. Still struggling to find purpose to this site. Some day (hopefully soon).

Ok, so I sort of screwed up with trying to update the look of my blog and ended up having to upgrade the whole darn thing (which I’m not complaining about, I’m now upgraded, but sometimes things just have to be difficult).

A mere…21 days, if I do my math correctly, including weekends until my last day of finals. Then, the next day it’s home for the summer. A lot to get done these next two weeks, we’ll see how it goes.

For some instant gratification, however, I’m going to see the new Indiana Jones TOMORROW. Yes, TOMORROW. I’ll get to see Harrison Ford light up the screen in perhaps my favorite role of his (surpassing Han Solo? I’m not sure, I’ll have to grapple with this one internally for a while) once more, and I know I’m going to love it. This may sound like I’m getting my hopes up, and it probably is, but I don’t care. It’s going to be great.

My dad made an interesting point. There aren’t many tales of frustration on this site (perhaps remaining untold). I think I’ll change that bit to “previously untold tales of frustration,” as he suggested. Seems more fitting. And then perhaps I’ll add some of those tales. Nothing too frustrating though, want to keep the mood of this blog light.

Nothing else terribly interesting to add at the moment. I suppose I’ll leave it at this, fancy new theme and some plans for the future of this blog and the rest of this school year.

I’m out.

Later.

Yep, did a count with mum recently, 23 days until I’m home. Hardly three and a half weeks! I can’t wait. Midterms are done, the anxiety I’ve been suffering through all quarter is pretty much gone…man, life is pretty good.

If I had any interest at all in being a movie critic I’d write about my recent viewing of Iron Man. I don’t, however, so I will just leave it at saying the movie is definitely worth seeing. It was funny, had some great action bits (but don’t expect over-the-top action), and had a pretty engaging storyline.

I really should pick a theme one of these days for this site. I don’t think this blog generates a whole heck of a lot of traffic right now because it’s so aimless, nevermind my updating habits.

…Maybe music.
I’m out.

Later.

The past few weeks haven’t been good to me - please excuse me. Some serious anxiety following my return to school, and more recently a cold of some kind, have provided some rather unusual hurdles for me to overcome. Getting there though.

However, having felt so unmotivated to write anything in those past few weeks, I feel like it’s time to get back into the game. And what better way to kick off my return than with some good old literary controversy:

J.K. Rowling, Lexicon and Oz

The above link is a short article written by the famous Orson Scott Card. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps one of the most famous science fiction/fantasy books ever, Ender’s Game, will. Card starts the article with a laugh about Rowling’s latest move, suing a small publishing company for distributing 10,000 copies of “The Harry Potter Lexicon,” essentially a field guide to the Harry Potter novels. Rowling feels as though the Lexicon is just a rearrangement of her own material.

Card then goes on to point out the massive irony in that last statement - an irony that I, and many others I’m sure, completely missed until Mr. Card spelled it out for us quite clearly. Card presents the following plot synopsis:

“A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader. He trains other kids in unauthorized extra sessions, which enrages his enemies, who attack him with the intention of killing him; but he is protected by his loyal, brilliant friends and gains strength from the love of some of his family members. He is given special guidance by an older man of legendary accomplishments who previously kept the enemy at bay. He goes on to become the crucial figure in a struggle against an unseen enemy who threatens the whole world.”

Does that synopsis apply to Ender’s Game, or Harry Potter?

…Exactly.

In other news, life’s pretty good, despite the anxiety (which I will delve into further detail about at a later date). 5 more weeks until I come home, but I know they’re going to fly by. A quick rundown:

Week 6 (this coming week): Physics midterm Friday. Cue me studying fervently all week.
Week 7-8: Another math midterm somewhere in there. Still haven’t gotten the first one back, I’ll get that this coming Monday - I only hope no matter what I got on it that I can come away with something decent in the class. I’ll simultaneously be searching for storage solutions for the summer, as well as packing things up.
Week 9: Dead week. Study like crazy for finals, although perhaps not since I only have 3 classes this quarter, and German’s easy.
Week 10: Finals week. More like a half week; last finals (Math and Physics in the same day, go figure) are on Wednesday, June 11th. Flying home the following Thursday.

I wonder now if the anxiety I’ve been feeling over these past few weeks has really been caused at least in part by the difficulty of the classes I’m taking. German’s not terribly hard, but I had a dream where I got back a quiz that I failed, and on it was written “C-”, and when I asked what that meant, my TA told me that was the highest grade I could get in the class. I’m not worried though - I’m more or less on par with last quarter’s performance and I came away with an A- last time. Math is pretty hard, but very randomly. I know I didn’t do hot on the first midterm, which I have to get back Monday, but this week’s homework is startlingly easy, so we’ll see how things go. My professor seems fair. Again, though, I had a dream where I got a 0 on the midterm. No Physics-related dreams (yet?), interestingly enough. My professors this quarter all seem very fair, but nevertheless I’m still going to have to work extra hard to get some good grades.

Well, I’ve got my next few weeks’ work cut out for me. Time to get to it.

I’m out.

Later.