Open up your eyes, see the sunny skies
The snowy wintry March weather of Berlin has finally opened up into a sunny, and warm, if still a bit blustery day. This nearly unheard of phenomenon allowed me to finally leave behind my bulky bargain of a beaten-up old leather coat and experience the weather in only a sweatshirt and jeans. Needless to say, I am rather unhappy that this weather also heralds my first foray out of the city to the nigh-nordic country of Poland. With any luck, it will not snow. With any luck, the clothes that are hanging on the drying rack in my room will be dry enough by morning that I can pack them and have a supply of clean socks and shirts while on the road. I don’t believe Europeans understand the joys of grapping a freshly dried pair of pants, some warm fluffy socks and that too big sweatshirt out of the drier and pulling them on to have that beautiful feeling of wamth and happiness and comfort spread everywhere. In fact, I believe that that will be the very first thing I do when I return to the states as I wait for my pepperoni pizza to arrive so that I can watch my Hollywood movie on a big reliable television while sitting on the couch with a free glass of water.
With this inaugural post, I feel it is appropriate to insert a goal for my time here in Berlin: be less awkward in unfamiliar and difficult social situations. For example, when people come into my apartment, probably only speak German, and it is now way too late to open my door and introduce myself. At the moment, I’ll stay in my small room, haven of the familiar and personal security, and some other day I’ll work up courage. Perhaps in the morning. I would say that this awkwardness is the result of a lack of confidence in language skills, but I am fairly sure that I often do the exact same thing while in an English-speaking country, a language which I like to think I can speak rather well, despite my currently lagging ability to get the words out correctly.
Will the weather last? Will I learn to communicate and interact with other people? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.
