A New Start

From Being a Berliner 1

From Being a Berliner 1

Well, it's been a long time coming, but eventually I've got back to blogging again. A year and a half ago, I had just finished my year as an Erasmus student (or "Erasmouse") in Sweden and Germany (see http://blogspot.com/iansnorthernsaga). It was an experience that changed the way I saw and thought about many things, not least where I saw my life going.

My final year back at university in Sheffield in the UK was a lot more fun than any I'd had before, mainly due to my new openness to the world and at times near-suicidal determination to cram my life full of as many fun and varied activities as possible. I took up circus activities, learned to bake, had a reunion with my band which turned out to be probably the best gig we ever played, began to learn keyboard and even became a mentor for our own little group of Erasmice in Sheffield. On top of all this, I still somehow packed in a ridiculous amount of study and came out of university with a good grade.

By this point, I'd realised that I wanted a lifestyle where I could keep the flow of new activities, places and people going, and that, for the first time, I had a completely free and open choice as to what I would do next. So I did what any sane, travel-orientated, young German graduate would do. I moved to Berlin.

Five months studying in Berlin on my year abroad had convinced me that there was no better place in the world for me at this point in my life. It's a vibrant, modern city, full of history and yet, probably because of its past, entirely unafraid to embrace new ideas, cults and trends in a way I am yet to see replicated in any other city. Over the past two months, I've been to beach bars and Vietnamese coffee houses, whiled away lazy hours playing zombie-orientated board games in the local Ludothek and even got myself a bike, something I never thought I'd do after my friend Holly's somewhat hair-raising attempts to convert me by cycling me around Munich.

I'm working as a translator, and living with two very lovely German girls by the names of Dani and Cynthia in a spacious flat in Friedrichshain. My office is next to the Ministry for the Interior in Tiergarten, right on the bend of the river Spree, meaning it's a direct S-Bahn ride or a nice 45-minute cycle to work, through the centre of historic Berlin and along the river. I'm developing a nicely-sized group of new international friends, but have also been somewhat blessed in that my ravings about Berlin over the past year have brought some of my old friends from Sheffield along with me. Unfortunately, my old housemate Clarissa's internship here ended this week, and she left to return to the UK yesterday, but I'm still glad to have Holly around, as well as Bella, my former Swedish speaking assistant, and the assorted other accquaintances giving me a connection to my old life in Sheffield. On top of this, I'm meeting more Germans than I did as an Erasmus student, and expect this to continue the longer I live here.

For the forseeable future, I'll be using this space to document my life in this fine city. Being as I actually live in Berlin now, this is going to be less of a travel blog than my previous effort, and more a place to record the new memories I'm making here. I'm going for a less event-orientated approach, supplementing writing on individual escapades with concert and music reviews and general reflections on life in one of Europe's most vital cities. I hope my latest foray into amateur journalism provides as much entertainment for those reading as it does for me writing it.

From Being a Berliner 1