JC, if you're behind what happened to me today, thanks, but you're a few years late.
I've noticed from all the comments that have been posted on this journal, in addition to the countless pieces of personal mail that I've received but do not have time to answer, that a lot of people are curious about what I'm doing here in Berlin in my spare time. Repeatedly I am asked questions such as "Nathan, how do you manage to update two 'blogs' at once?" or "Can you tell me more about the Berlin district in which you live?" or "What is your favorite color, so that I can co-ordinate the background of my 'blog' to it?"
Without a full-time job or it may seem as though I have plenty of spare time; indeed, I do enjoy more leisure than I did before I exchanged my lucrative but stressful office lifestyle for the existence I cherish today. But to suggest that I'm just sitting around all the time, attempting to write witty little tidbits and turns of phrase -- well, that's a little unfair.
The reality -- at least the reality that I recognize -- is that I spend a good bit of my day attending classes at the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Volkshochschule, which is either a kind of a Finishing School for Intelligent Foreigners, or the Cheapest German Classes Available, depending on your perspective.
For those of you that have never studied a foreign language in its country of usage (German in Germany, for example), let it be said that you may be missing out on an experience that, if not personally enriching, is highly amusing. Cultures meet, mingle, and sometimes butt heads. Here in Berlin it is entirely possible to take a German class where you will find yourself in a room with students representing six of the world's seven continents. (I have not yet met a student from Antarctica.) Several of us have noted that it is not unlike the United Nations, although as of yet we have not tried to pass a resolution.
Indeed, today I started my fourth German class here in Berlin (a weekly three-hour grammar class designed to complement the four three-hour sessions I take on the other four weekdays), and par for the course (I hate golf), there were representatives from a dizzying array of nations. But something was different this time, and I noticed it immediately. The din in the room, comprised of various voices and languages, somehow seemed a bit off, perhaps a slightly higher pitch. Perhaps I had been listening to my iPod too loudly? But no, just before I sat down I realized that this was no meeting of the United Nations, no, not by a long shot. This was a Miss Universe pageant. There were 21 girls in this class, and apparently I am the only male in Berlin who has bad grammar and wants to improve it. I had to think of The Beach Boys, who were always singing about how great California is with the lyric two girls for every boy. Well, those guys apparently have never been to Berlin. When I introduced myself I thought about saying "My name is Nathan, I'm from America, and my phone number is..." but I thought better of it. Or maybe I couldn't remember it... and eventually a guy from Greece arrived, whose name I will not try to spell.
But really, being surrounded by so many women did not bother me. No, seven years of near-nightly deadline pressure in some of America's most poorly-climatized newsrooms has taught me to maintain my composure.
So once I'd wiped the sweat away from my brow and the drool off of my notebook, yeah. I was totally cool.
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