Adventures / Abenteuer, Berlinale, & Kiezbingo

Last Friday night, all of us Hampshire kids decided that we were going to meet at Jed's apartment and cook dinner together. We made spaghetti (gluten free spaghetti for me, though) with tomato sauce and brussel sprouts, salad, and got some wine and beer to enjoy with it. Afterward, we all hung out and walked around Jed's neighborhood in Mitte a bit. We saw this awesome old squat that's famous for giving the police a hard time when they were trying to kick the squatters out - the fight included molotov cocktails, even - and is now a symbol of the squatter movement disappearing in Berlin.

Old squat in Mitte - "Wir Bleiben Alle" / "We're All Staying"

Saturday, Daniel got us tickets to a Berlinale (Europe's largest biannual film festival that just happens to be going on while we're here!) screening of Chris Eyre's movie Skins, based on the novel of the same name by Adrian C. Louis. The story is about a Native American reservation (meant to parallel the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation) in South Dakota, near the Nebraska boarder. I'd never heard of the film, and didn't know what to expect but ended up liking it over all.

Before we went to the movie, Daniel gave us a little tour of the former center of West Berlin, which included looking at a lot of really ritzy (or "chicky-mickey" in German) and expensive shops, an old bombed out church that was being renovated (but kept with parts of its towers missing), and other such places. We stopped and got currywurst on the street before going to the film, but it wasn't so great, which was disappointing since it was the first currywurst I had in Berlin. Something with the curry ketchup was funky. I wasn't a fan, and neither was Daniel.

Haus Der Berliner, where our Berlinale screening was.

After the film screening, we all walked around with Daniel from cafe to bar, bar to cafe, until we found a place to all sit and get something to eat and drink. Daniel lived here in the 80's and knows his way around pretty well. He was trying to take us to his old favorite hangouts, but they were all too full for all of us to sit down. We ended up at a cafe that he used to go to, though, and had a great meal and some beer (wine for me, though). At this point, I was exhausted and headed home straight afterward. (Daniel got us more Berlinale tickets for this Friday night. We're going to see Lovelace at the main theater in Potzdamer Platz!)

Sunday I hung in and napped a bit - I'm not used to these late nights here! - and then met up with Gina for dinner at a great Doyum restaurant at Kottbusser Tor. We had a fantastic dinner, and then I went home on the early side and went to bed. Here's a photo of Gina earlier in the week cooking dinner at my place, though. We were Americans attempting to cook Pad Thai in Germany, which we thought was pretty funny.

Gina cooking American Pad Thai in Germany

Me with the Kreuzberg punk statue after dinner.

Gina with the Kreuzberg punk statue after dinner.

Wednesday, we went on a tour of Kreuzberg with Robert, which I've already mentioned in detail in my last blog, and then on Friday we all met Daniel after Sprachenschule and went to a few museums to see some exhibits.

All on the double-decker bus heading to the museum.
(Jed and Jake)

Photography wasn't allowed inside, but I do have a photo of one sculpture that we saw together that day.

"For the victims of war and violence/tyranny" 

The first exhibit we went to see was a collection of art from all over Europe, I don't really remember what the exact theme of it or reason for it was, but it had a lot of neat pieces in it. It was nice having Daniel with us because he's not only an amazing artist himself (see here) but he also knows a lot about all different types of art. He was always on hand providing explanations and back stories to pieces, which was great! My favorite piece there was by an artist named Roman Opalka who started with a completely black canvas when he was young and begun, with white paint, to paint numbers 0 through infinity in order on the canvas. When he would finish with a canvas, he would get one that was 1% lighter than the last and start where he left off with his numbers on the last canvas. As he finished each canvas, he would take a photo of himself and keep the two together. He eventually did enough canvases to get all the way to the purest white and spent the last years of his life painting numbers, white on white. As his canvases grew greyer and then whiter, so did he, as was shown in his self portrait photographs. According to Daniel, he died in front of one of his paintings, making the last number he reached 88,000,000, which he liked because it symbolized the infinity sign turned sideways. Here is a photo of one of Opalka's canvases and some of his self portraits:

One of Roman Opalka's earlier canvases
(You can tell because it's still quite dark)

Roman Opalka's self portrait series

 This past Tuesday evening, my Mitbewohnerin, Christine, invited me to something called "Kiezbingo" at SO36 (the famous David Bowie/Iggy Pop place). I didn't know much going into it other than the fact that it was put on and run by drag queens, which sounded awesome. Jed and Kate ended up coming too, and we had a great time. They read the bingo numbers so fast! It was excellent practice with German numbers! Apparently, all of the proceeds of the night go to support local Kreuzberg charities, and all of the bingo prizes are donated by local Kreuzberg businesses. It was packed, and so much fun! It's the second Tuesday of every month and I'll definitely be going back.

(L to R) Christine, Me, Kate
At Kiezbingo, SO36

Kiezbingo, SO36
Sorry for the blurry phone photo.

My SO36 stamp - I've actually been to something there now! Woo!

Kate and Jed at Kiezbingo, SO36

After Kiezbingo, Christine went home because she had to go to work early the next morning, but Jed, Kate, and I met up with Nigel and we went to a bar near my house called "Zum Elefanten". It was fun. I had some awesome glühwein and we wanted to play billiards but got too nervous to ask the Germans who were dominating the table.

Zum Elefanten
(L to R) Jed, Nigel, Kate

Mmm... Glühwein.

I think that's all caught up for now! This is getting to be a whirlwind! There's so much going on and so little time to blog about it! I'm going to try my absolute best to write a new one every few days, though. Thanks for reading, and I can't wait to share more of my Berlin experience with you all!

FYI, I ended up getting much better currywurst a few days ago. And some Mezzo Mix, which is the best.

Good currywurst, and Mezzo Mix.

 Glad to hear that all of you New Englanders survived the snow - I'll admit, I miss it a little bit. Stay warm and take good care of each other!

Ciao!