berlin-ing

tonight i went and found a crazy bar on the spree river, a small canal about 20 feet wide. you walked in through a gate and there were tiers of seating, the lowest being the dock right on the river, to which a boat was tied. the boat was large, old, and the inside had been removed and the edges of the boat were outfitted with benches and tables. the dock had pillows and square tables set up, and trees from the edge of the river spilled over. people were sprawled out everywhere, drinking beer and having a great time. i bought a beer that the bartender reccommended (although i had a becks for $2 on the way over, since you can drink on the train and all the little newsstands sell and open beer for you) and paid my extra euro for the dj (and got a stamp to show it). afterwards, i explored the area, which was beside the spree and next to a rather large street. Off the street alongside the river was an outdoor seating area. There was a gutted bus, outfitted with new seats so you could sit inside the bus and drink. There were old cars covered in astroturf that people were lying on. there were oversized benches 4 feet off the ground that were so big your feet stuck out in front of you and the back of the bench was two times higher than your head. a dj was spinning in an indoor space and a neon-lit bar was serving drinks, although it seemed to me that everyone already had one from the corner deli.

i wandered into an adjacent graffiti-covered loft area and found it was simply for the WC. Signs in german pointed down a dark alley between two abandoned warehouses and with some trepidation i followed them, feeling reassured by the random display of artistic red lights wired between the buildings. I followed the arrows to a clearing. beneath my feet sand appeared, and as i looked ahead i saw a series of layers of boardwalk and an open-air bar to my right. hammocks, canvas beach chairs, lounge chairs, and small tables led the way to a submerged pool floating on the river. steam rose into the air from the lit pool, the glassy teal surface constrasting deeply with the black river. hipsters lounged in the hammocks while girls in bikinis swam back and forth in the river. this is one of those moments where i wonder what is going on--how can this exist? how is anyone making any money? why is everyone staying up so late? why does everyone seem authentically cool?

the thing i've realized about berlin is that it just exists in this way for itself because it is a product of itself. it hasn't been reappropriated or invented for the purpose of a means to an end. it is the way it is because of its history and its past. it's created itself for better or worse, because it has no other possibility. in a lot of ways i find the city depressing. it's decrepit, rundown, and kind of ugly. even the nice neighborhoods are desolate and graffiti-ridden. there are hardly any banks, no police, no chain stores or drugstores on every corner. but it doesn't matter because everyone is having a good time and doing fun stuff. the whole city is like an outdoor cafe/beer garden, with so much open and shared space that it's just bound to end up being cool. the people are awesome--trendy and fashionable in a very cutting edge way, like they are creating the fashions just by being unique and themselves, rather than following what everyone else is already doing. it makes me wish new york was like this, but i realize that it would never work in new york, because it would just be pretentious and watered-down, and then mobbed by people from new jersey and long island (in a bad way, not a good way).

i just wish all my friends were here to enjoy it with me.

tired and overtired

yes, i'm in berlin, and i know i was remiss in updating the blog--the last week flew by. but more tomorrow--maybe i'll post some photos from france and then start doing berlin full speed ahead. time for a disco nap before i hit the club scene tonight.

i made it to berlin

i eat more pastries than regular food.

le ile de la cite

as i fall asleep and in my dreams

i hear french. a continuous loop of french, the sounds of people talking, compiled from the many conversations i overhear and walk by, the way a song gets in your head, but it's words, and cadence, and i have no idea what it says.

montmartre: sadly, amelie wasn't working.

chatou

le jardin avec les enfants

more boat photos

photo one: view of the bridge from the boat, nighttime. photo two: view of the boat from the bridge.

jai une américaine stupide

Today I went for a walk to the closest town, Chatou, and wandered around, trying to blend in and also take photos. I stopped at the supermarchet to get a baguette, orangina (sans high fructose corn syrup) et du eau, et my first transaction was fine, until i went to the boulangarie a achete la baguette, because the clerk said something to me that i totally didn't understand and i tried to cover it up by saying "je voudrais une baguette, s'il vous plait" at which time everyone in the area started at me like i was a total idiot. I wanted to sink into the floor but had no choice but to stand there, smiling stupidly, trying to figure out what the hell i had missed. I think he probably said something like, "I'll be right with you" so it was totally a faux pas. It made me think about how my personality is so different here, because I also speak very quietly to disguise the fact that my accent sucks and i don't really know what i'm saying. Also i think that often in situations when i would say something, I just don't because I'm not sure how to say the right thing, so I probably come off as just plain rude. I've also noticed that my english has started to suck, that I always write the wrong word when I try to type and also that I have no word retrieval whatsoever when i'm speaking. I was trying to remember the word "triage" to use in an english sentence and I couldn't for the life of me come up with it. Then once I did, I was very amused that it was a french word. I have to say that in a way this immersion thing is really awesome because it is forcing me to think and speak in french in ways that I just never have to at home. But I also think i'm going through some kind of weird silent period/weird mixed up language period that I hope I'm able to pull through before I actually leave here because then what good is any of it.

Tomorrow, dinner in Le Marais avec mon ami Chloé, a very trendy neighborhood, so i hear. More to report de main, je suis certain.

avec amour,
Mona

fromage, soirees, et pan au chocolate

EPOISSE:
"In the mouth it is supple, creamy and never excessively strong. Its taste is honest, subtle, balanced, with gentle hints of dried fruit."
SOIREES:
Me and a bunch of artists, drinking rosé and sitting on the seine.
PAN AU CHOCOLATE:
One, every day, and I'm not going to get fat either because then I sweat it all off on the Metro, which doesn't have air conditioning, EVER.

boat photos

first day in paris!

Le Tour de France! Viewed from above on a McDonalds balcony.




Here is a video from the Champs Elycee!

challenging jet lag

it's 10am Paris time, which means it's really 4am in NYC. I woke up this morning at 9:30 when a huge barge went by, rocking the boat from side to side and causing all the windows to slam open and shut, or at least, put pressure on the wires holding them open, and making them clang and buckle against the metal. I decided to get up and enjoy some quiet time before the kids woke up. I'm eating a grapefruit (pomelo) and trying some fraise rhubarbe yaourt aux fruits au lait entier. it's bio, short for biologique, which means organic. There's a guy who works at the museum who only eats bio(said bee-o). what's really crazy is that when you go to the supermarket to buy your produce, you have to go to a weighing station, put it on a scale, press the corresponding button, and put a sticker on it-- YOU weigh your stuff, the cashier just scans it. Reminds me of the clothing stores in Amsterdam, where you have to put away the clothes you've tried on and aren't going to use (I handed them to the dressing room attendants, which got me very dirty looks). Today we might try out the piscine, the fancy swimming pool in the area. Because the french are very particular about hygiene, there's a rule that all the men have to wear speedos. it's because in the past, people would just wear shorts all day and then run over to the pool in their shorts and get it dirty because they had their street clothes on. Since no one spends all day in a speedo, it's a better way to make sure the pool stays clean. Photos follow.