Apparently there is one. A huge one. This is so surprising to me: “Vietnamese people in Germany form the country’s largest group of resident foreigners from Asia, with Federal Statistical Office figures showing 83,446 Vietnamese nationals residing in Germany at the end of 2005.” (from Wikipedia)
This post has two parts.
Part 1: I wish that big sites like ebay or Amazon that have German sites would allow you to view the German site but still choose English in your language. What about all us expats? Even craigslist has this function.
Part 2: As I’ve occasionally tried to make my way through the German on one of these sites, I notice the word “Hilfe” always in the upper corner. Eventually I figured out that it means “Help” but still every time I see it the letters do funny things and I think “The High Life”. Yeah I want to click on that!
Not sure if this is also common elsewhere in Germany, but Berlin has this cool concept that perhaps was borne out of the vacation apartment swapping that has been made easy by the advent of craigslist. It’s called Tauschangebot, or exchange offer, but it should be called contract swapping. The idea is your apartment contract is not up but for whatever reason you want or need to change apts: you and your significant other decide to move in together, you and your significant other were living together but then break up, your roommate is leaving berlin and you decide you’re ready to live alone, you want a bigger apt and are ready to pay more for it, you don’t have work and want to find a cheaper place you want to move neighborhoods, etc etc. What do you do? In Berlin you can simply post an ad on the apartment sites for Tauschangebot. In it you describe your apartment and what you’re looking for. You find someone looking for a place like yours, or they find you. You meet, you agree, you swap. Easy!
I’d love to get this type of thing set up in New York…
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The XX at Astra, Berlin: A great show despite the warnings I had heard that it would be otherwise. It’s true they’re young and didn’t stray from the CD, but their voices are a brilliant combination. You can’t tell here, but the way the guy plays the guitar is extremely seductive, bordering on pornographic.
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Treats from the German hinterland: Schnapps from MV’s hometown, the Black Forest, and spicy lamb sausage homemade by TM’s dad. Yum!!!
oops… this is today’s snapshot from Swantje in Berlin. I hope it’ll be warmer by may.
whoa. that’s all i have to say.
German:
- jiha!: their version of our yeehaw i assume. pretty awesome.
- hihihi: this i thought were people saying “hi” in English three times really fast, which is funny, especially because i know people who do that in English (yen). But actually I figured out it means heeheehee. HAHA.
- jipp!: i believe this is meant to be like yippee! or it could be yep, not sure.
Portuguese:
- iupi: no idea. yippee?
- chuac/xuac: kiss?
It’s a relief to know that my grasp of German onomatopoeia is way better than that of the Portuguese.
New Yorkers pride themselves on getting places in one smooth walk, without ever having to break their stride. At first, being the New Yorker that I am, I found it difficult to get used to the fact that for many people here, a don’t walk sign means don’t walk. Berliners take it very seriously, often waiting steadfastly for the walk sign even when the roads are deserted. And if there are children about, one should most certainly observe the signs or risk being scolded by the parents of said children, or by the children themselves!
Despite that, like many people our age here, I mostly still walk when there are no cars coming and no children are in plain sight. But I’ve discovered that occasionally I like to stand and wait for the walk sign, finding that it makes for a nice little forced break from the constant rushing around. How about it, New Yorkers, willing to give it a try?
Pleasantly surprised to find Ethiopian food in Berlin. Not the best injera I’ve had but the dishes seemed pretty authentic and were flavorful. Also I’m not really in a position to be picky, considering I heard that another Ethiopian place here serves pita bread instead of injera. What.
Getting to know the Berliner sense of style has been fun, and for that reason I’m especially excited about some recent purchases I made. So when I wanted to find something “very Berlin” for my sisters, I looked up the designers of the pieces I liked most. One by one I discovered that each and every one is from a Danish designer. Interesting! Who knew Denmark was turning out such inspiring fashion? My favorites so far: Just Female, Blond Accessories, Minimum, Gestuz
But by the way, where are all the Berlin designers??
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A very Berlin art opening at Temporäre Kunsthalle at which there are no visual pieces. The exhibit is called Zeigen: An Audio Tour through Berlin by Karin Sander, and the concept is as it sounds, literally. There were over 500 artists who were invited to participate, each one asked to express their work in sound. Some people just spoke about it, some recorded sounds of making art, and some people actually created music. These were the most successful in my opinion, but of course I couldn’t understand many of the speaking ones so I might be biased.
My favorite was #126.
OK not to sound melodramatic, but I really can’t get over what my friend told me the other day. IKEA IN GERMANY DOES NOT TAKE CREDIT CARDS OF ANY KIND. Truly every time I think about it, I am shocked speechless all over again.
At a dinner for TEDxBerlin speakers after the event on Monday, they served everyone a main dish with a side mashed potatoes. As I was eating (and talking to the guy who started betterplace.org — a pretty kick-ass version of almost exactly my idea from a few years back), I noticed bowls of two different foodstuffs scattered around the table. One looked cheesy/creamy so I avoided it. The other one looked like a fresh chunky red skin potato salad. I suppose looking back it seemed odd that they would have potato salad as a side to a dish with mashed potatoes, but Germans love their kartoffeln. In the middle of a conversation, I distractedly forked a big chunk into my mouth. Only to discover that it is NOT AT ALL potato salad. It’s schmalz. That’s right, I got a big ole mouthful of rendered fat.
Thanks to the fast acting and sweet betterplace.org guy who ran to get me a napkin to the spit the stuff out. Next time I will remember to spread it thinly on a slice of bread, not stuff my face with it.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Ah, my family — like a flower in my hair. Missing Yen from LA though. Skype, you need to get video conferencing!
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Forgot to post this. A few weeks ago, MS reserved a spot for us to tour the Boros Collection at a 3,000 square meter, 5 floor bunker which at one point was used by Hitler. The tour was entirely in German, which is to say I didn’t understand any of it, except when the guide turned to me and MH and said “Please leave your coffees behind.” Naturally the two Americans had to-go coffees, totally unacceptable, but a habit I haven’t been able to leave behind just yet.
The art was mixed, a lot of site-specific pieces which didn’t impress me all that much. But there were a few gems by new artists, like the hilarious Sarah Lucas. Also, apparently Boros was one of the first to discover Olafur Eliasson, a favorite artist of mine in recent years. His talk on TED about Playing with space and light is understated but quite lovely. He works out of a studio in Berlin, and I sure hope to run into him one of these days!
