Ich Bin Ein Berliner

July 23, 2015

So I am not a jellied donut, but I think I could be a Berliner (Berlinerin?). After one day here I already have a good feeling about the city. Well, actually it was when I was flying over it that this good feeling developed (the view from the plane was spectacular), and was furthered when I was able to meet my lovely German friend at our designated meeting point at roughly our designated meeting time, and furthered even further (sorry) when I met her lovely friend who would be my host in her adorable "shabby chic," as my mother would say, apartment. 

Perhaps it was also the fact that I wasn't smacked in the face with intense, instant sweat inducing heat when I exited the airplane. Yeah, that helped a ton. 

The good warm fuzzy feeling has also been aided by other "real" Germans coming up to me and asking for directions or just making polite conversation. Here, unlike Italy, I look like I belong. It feels great. It also feels terrifying, since despite looking the part, I don't speak it well... I have had many word vomit moments in my head in which a "real" German says something to me and I go through a Rolodex of responses in various languages before realizing that I have no idea how I respond in German or at that point am too worked up to be able to find the correct response since it does not come to me as easily as the Italian ones do. Ugh. I think it's about high time I actually learn German. As entertaining as the look on my panic stricken which-language-do-I-use face probably is, feeling helpless in a country where I look like I might actually be a local is not comforting, especially when I've just left a country in which I am clearly not a native but can act the part and navigate/communicate successfully. Yep, time to learn German and do as the Germans do... i.e. speak it. And drink beer, of course, but that's a given and that is a skill I already possess. 

But until then I am going to enjoy this amazing city with my amazing German friend and guide, who is not only a fantastic friend, but incredibly helpful in those instances in which I probably look like I'm about to pass out when someone speaks to me (side note: I did successfully "give directions" to a German woman at the metro, but mostly because she said something about Alexanderplatz, which is also where I was going, so I could say "ya" with confidence). (Other side note: I did get semi-lost for about a half hour because I was looking for my host's apartment on the wrong side of the street... Oops.)

And until I learn how to properly communicate in German maybe I'll just pretend to be Dutch... Or Swedish... Or Polish... Less pretending on the last one, of course.