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