Pics

Have a look, it is been also my vacations for this short central european summer.

Sorbian all over the world

Sorbian in Texas.
They reached the sun-belt! Amazing...apparently they were only 76 in the year 2000.
That is a pity...

Better talking to each other than building up...

Columbia University Discussion

Back to Czech, back to Venice

Paul came back to Europe for a couple of weeks with a friend of his: this time they spent most of the time at my place in Berlin: it was so much fun...after some days in here we headed to Czech, straight to Brno, actually...
Brno is always beautiful and difficult to fully understand...this mixture of love and scorn is my main feeling everytime I go back there...
Apart from that I realized that I forgot almost all I knew about Czech, sad...
Going back to Venice in two days...this time for longer, for two weeks almost...
An apartement in Berlin for a couple of weeks...? ...well you know, post something in here...
Take care you all...

The first serious contract I ever signed in my life

So the big news are the following: I got a sort of normal job: even if it is just twice as week, and even if the money is not so much, I have a normal job!!! Fuck yeah! At least the rent is paid until December and I can concentrate on some other stuff.
Second: Paul is coming in few days! Ah Ah Ah!
Third: after 8 years of marveillous and lazy smoking inactivity, I started playing volleyball again...I am dead now but I got rid of so much tension, if you know what I mean....
Hope you are doing all right, here the weather sucks so badly...it seems another country if I think about how it was one year ago...whatever...
Take care you all...
P.S. Do you know somebody who needs a flat in Berlin between the 26th of September and the 6th of October? If you do, let me know...

Have a look, you, Italian Mother Tongues...

il cannocchiale

Cool but save and not too big...

Der Spiegel in English on the coolest cities in Europe: Which are they first of all?!

Dog eat dog and man eat man, apparently

Der Spiegel in German on another possible case of Cannibalism.

Job offer

I have got offered a real part-time job today!!!
Things seem to be moving towards...bit by bit every month something nice happens here in Berlin...
Take care you all...you too.

Only for mac users...

Views of the city through the mac os dashboard...in a bad quality though...
Enjoy....
Live-Venice

Funny story

In Italy you say that Luckyness is blind!
Well after you read this, you will probably believe it!
Is anybody coming to Berlin soon?
Take care you all

The smarter, the hornier

Der Spiegel

Spiegel on the Berlin Wall...

New discussions on recent German History.

A good website

Czech Language
That is a funny one.

Dienstag, 7 August

I went to Barcelona just for a couple of days...now the working hours are getting more and more packed...I work in three days what i used to work in five...
And I am not having so much fun...
Hope you are having a better summer.

Reasons

Why do we have sex?
A range of possible answers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/science/31tier.html?_r=2&8dpc&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I did past the test of German Language with the best grades in three of the four parts!!!! Fuck yeah!
Now i can study in german in Germany, that seems actually a good idea.
I kiss you all!!!

Adieu.

Adieu

An interesting documentary, as far as I can reckon: No end in sight, 2007

You can both see a short trailer on the media contents of the new york times and try to watch it all in a cinema. ..I am not sure whether it´s planned to come to Europe soon, though...It seems a very interesting movie for those who want to have a better idea on what went wrong. Because a damn´ lot went wrong...don´t you think?

The new Venetian Film-Festival and a sad loss.

Have a look at what will be going on between the end of August and the 8th of September of this summer.
Few days ago this man died, too young: I think he was a good actor, and not for the Oscar movie from last year - that i actually have not seen yet.

And the version changed once more...

Bush on the Iraqi war, LA Times.

That is soooo funny!!!

thank to Stephie I found this!

Culture and Money in Berlin

NYT from 17th february 2005.

Ah ah!

Same name and same nationality but I guess that´s it!
Marco Baldan

The best radio in town

Berlin had no good rockradios until a couple of years ago, some rock lovers told me...
MotorFM, a project that turned to be kind of successful, has filled up that gap, appaently...I listen to it when I can: I find it good and stimulating...even if sometimes you just get all this never changing mass of sweet-crossover that has already bored any curious person of this planet...
...anyway, as almost any radio of our world, you can also listen to it on-line...www.motor.de, and then click on the banner where there is written motorfm.
ENJOY! By the way, do not be scared: they also talk in English sometimes...

Naked women from Italy.

This is a long article from the Correspondent of the Fin. Times in Milan.
Start to read it, please...it will turn to be interesting, believe me.

T.G. Ash on the Guardian, on what Freedom should be

Read it, please.

Have a look...That is what I did it on Sunday evening...has been interesting and a bit scaring, maybe...

The threats of this world...

Poll, the Financial Times...

...

We really miss something like this...oh yeah...

Chilean Fruits, January cold, Transcontinental flights...

NYT on "Green Consumerism": the last oxymoron we managed to create...damn´!
It is so fashionable to be eco-sensitive nowadays, uh?

A Polish Historian about Poland

Have a look (French)

The Bros from Warsaw

There is such an over-the-top absence of any form of intelligence in what the Polish government, through the speeches of its two major representatives, said in the last days before the Brussels meeting of the European Council took place.
One thing made such a big and bad impression on me: in an attempt to change the voting system of the future European Council ( that should be derived whatsoever both from the calculation of national entities and population), it has been said that the Polish weight on it should be calculated also summing up all the victims that Poland suffered during II WW. It is one of those assessments that are against any form of logically-structured way of reasoning.
I guess that the Czech Prime Minister, Topolanek, said something that sums up my thoughts:“When I heard that, I felt a cold stream running through my back.“
What strikes me so much is the stupidity that this couple of last-minute politicians are able to condensate in 80% of the things they say. I have the feeling that they do not represent so many of the things I knew about Poland and its beautiful and curious, tollerant and sensitive people. I am so disappointed on one side, and sad on the other because I have the feeling that there is no way that this is going to change soon. The Polish government seemed able to be pro the American government even after these catastrophical 7 years of the Bush jr ´s Foreign Policy (that is rather a miracle); it is close minded, filled up with rancid catholic intolerance, against Germany, Russia and EU, apparently, and not coping really well with the problem of the thousands of Poles, that every year are going abroad to be better off than back home.
I think that being European implies also to have the right to criticize politicians of foreign countries when they are going over the top: I hope the Brothers will leave their posts soon: Poland deserves much better and Europe needs Poland much more than Poland needs the two racist brothers living in the world of rage.

Have a look

NY Times on Capo Verde

Suicide rates have been worldwide increasing

An interesting article about a global phenomenon...
The Economist

On-line learning plus some other stuff.

If any of you is interested or knows somebody who is, please get some more infos.
Have a look.
It is raining a lot in here, the internship is fine, the old job in the restaurant is still bearable.
I´ll go to Barcelona for three days in August: the summary of my sommer vacations.
Does any one know some people in Kassel? We need a place to stay for one night soon.

Australien und die Einsamkeit

Australien sieht ganz oft so aus. Niemand ist da und man kann entdecken, was eigentlich das Gefühl "allein in der Natur zu sein" bedeutet. Wir sind leider nicht mehr daran gewohnt.

nah ja...

What kind of person am I (become)? After more than a year in Berlin I have not created anything similar to a circle of friends or anything like acquaintances...sounds terrible even to me that I write it now...there have been the few European volunteers I have been in a good contact with: they are all gone: they were very few anyway...there have been the few people I knew in here...I guess I can count them on one hand...none of them is listed as a friend...and I am listening to my inner feelings...the few friends are those who were friends even before I came in here...not a good sign.

So considering the fact that I cannot complain about the absence of chances to know new people in such a big city, I guess I have to turn to myself...it is not about the environment.
I am probably changed a lot: I can hardly stand company for longer than an half an hour if I get to think that the conversation is not bringing me anywhere, unless it is the first time I talk to this person, or unless I am in a very good mood - in such a situation that usually happens seldom...I feel also scared by the choice of the topic: in such situations I am often looking for a new topic to talk about all the time...Even when I feel I could have never ending monologues, I can hardly keep on for more than a couple of minutes...could it be listed as depression? I actually feel very well and I do read and learn new stuff with pleasure everyday....but I turn into something really misanthropical with such an big ease...
I have spent most of the last months either alone or with one person...in the last days I realized that it happens kind of often that I do not say a word for eight or ten hours in a row...that is scaring, mostly because I find it relaxing and not so uncomfortable...
Fortunately I start a new work experience on Monday: I guess I shall have to speak a bit more with people, just people...

G8, the people and the rest of the world

What are all the people (minus a couple of thousands of idiots with rocks in hand) in Rostock/Heiligendamm standing for? Do we know that? Do they know that?
For few days in June the Chefs of Government/State of the 7 richest countries in the world - plus the rich-in-natural-resources-poor-in-democratic-standards Russia - will meet in an ex residence of the German kings, protected by the most sophisticated security systems, by two circles of iron and some thousands policemen.
That is a fact.
We also know what they will mainly discuss about, and we also know how hard will it be to find agreements over some topics (Kyoto, liberalization in agricultural products, HIV help in Africa) and how easy will it be to find it over some others (Libralization of Services, Deregulation and Fight on Terror). We can already forsay that the results will not probably emprove the life conditions of the most, not even when considering the trade-offs on a national base.
What are then the people on the streets of Rostock standing for?
Ungerechtigkeit der Welt, said a girl I talked to last week. It means: the injustice(s) of this world. That is a point, a good one but also a very general one. Many of those are probably standing for the same (vague) idea. I do agree.
The problem, for me, is that many of the people, who go there to show their dislike for the effects of the globalization and of the internationalization and decentralization of the different national economies (plus some other things), are totally missing any kind of idea, plan, program, even a slogan, serious enough to be considered an alternative, a credible platform of ideas, not just for themselves but for the whole group of possible world-listeners.
I did not believe that until few days ago, actually, for I did always consider the "Movement", or whatsoever is nowadays called, a serious and accountable mix of "good" people, on the average, with plans, programs and projects that go on anyway.
(My point is also that these things still happen: there is unfortunately no more global movement, though.)
When the first demonstrations in Rostock took place, the so called "Black Blocks" and their hormonal and macho violence reached any German Broadcast while anything, not connected with that violence, lost importance and relevance. Exactly like in Genoa in 2001 - but 9/11 had not happened yet.
After the new few-men-show of the stree riots I changed my mind.
Why? Keep on reading, please.
It is unbelievable to hear speakers of some of the organizations present at the contro-meeting (or reading a TAZ journalist´s opinion) declaring that, in the end, having these groups of dudes dressing black shirts and throwing stones - when not firing up anything on their way - is a sort of price the "Movement" has to pay, everytime a big event takes place. They do not say that so clearly but, when they do not mark the distance from the violent, when they are not trying to show that the contents (where are they?) they stand for are totally different, when they keep on demonstrate next to this misanthropical amount of overexcited idiots, what else are they implying?!
In reply to such a critic, they would tell me:"Well, you should come here and see"...what kind of hope is there for a movement that chooses such a philosophy: "Something is always better than nothing"?! What would happen, if the meeting did not take place...? It is not a rhetoric question.
This Heiligendamm-meeting will be another such-a-meeting, where the politicians will spend their time in a castel, will have a couple of press conferences and, at the end, will go back home to their usual business; where most of the "normal" people will demonstrate against everything (police, security measures, globalization, Africa, pollution, global-warming and the Iraqi War - sorry if I have forgotten something...); where the retarted will have shown off their muscles; where the German police will have smelt some more people, like in the DDR times; and where those 86% of the world population, that is not represented by those 8 Mesdames et Monsieurs, will have an even worse opinion on the ability of that 14% to choose (their representatives) for the better...
...and where hopefully nobody will be killed.
....good news, uh...?

I have also found a job for the summer!

Well I guess that in the last five days so many things have happened.
I will be working, for free, obviusly, in this private Insitute for the summer.
Tomorrow I am going to the first German wedding of my life.
That is already a lot, uh?

Elliott Smith and the end of May...

I am here, listening "Miss Misery" and some other songs once more...it is so loud that the sound of his fingers sliding on the strings could be annoying...and maybe they are....
His music has amused for ages, since those days I really discovered him with Paul, in Brno, when the winter 2004-2005 was not gone yet...late, much later than I should have done...a cuple of yeras before that my ex-girlfriend had talked about him but I was not curious enough, probably, so when I heard the first couple of songs I was not so impressed.
Later his music turned to be a source of ever-changing feelings and emotions for myself...Elliott Smith is me writing my essay, sitting at the desk before finishing university, is being in love, being dismissed, being here and there, happy or sentimental, on the train or in a bus in Australia...
I would define his death one of the biggest losses that my "Education Sentimentale" has experienced.
They chose me for this Master...I am happy but already considering whether I should say yes or wait for the other one in German.
Take care you all, those who like Elliott Smith particularly...

Once ist was the color of the skin, today God knows what...

There are so many things that were thought to get into this series of pages called blog and never succeeded because of my lazyness...or maybe because of my bad memory...so many times happened that I thought that those few thoughts I have had on the streets, should have been put on the blog...but then, back home, they were not clear enough anymore or not there...well, the difference between confusion and not remembering could be also considered debatable...no?

I read a couple of days ago, maybe more, an article on the TAZ that talked about the (depressing) condition of many gay-lesbian communities in many Eastern European Countries. The article described the gloomy and intollerant environment that surrounds them in Moscow and in Warsaw, in Bratislava and in Belgrade, apparently with the only exception of Prague. Being hit when they demonstrate or try to gather in public places, not considered 100% believers or citizens with their rights both by the Catholic (Poland) and the Orthodox (Russia) Church, it is such a unacceptable condition for them.
A sad story that has more to do with ignorance and a very slow and problematic development of the civil society, probably. So sad...
Few days ago a few european politicians demonstrated in Russia together with some activists of the local gay-lesbian community...what they got for sure was to be beaten by the police and to be brought to the police station where few have been arrested. Have a look.
Half of the states that were in the list of the TAZ article are at least since 5 months members of the EU...this problem has less to do with the sexual tastes of people and much more to do with the rights of every citizen of this as-a-paradise-described EU...have a look on the web, there is some stuff to read.


By the way: I have found a bycicle, I have probably found a non-paid internship for the summertime and I am so in love with the city where I live.
Hope you are all doing all right.
Take care.

Bloggers with something to say

Chinese Stand

Have a look...

Venetian philosophers...

...or an internship!

I need a job.

Here everything is super fine!
Hugs for everybody.
See you soon.

Here we go again

So after more than ten days, it is time to write something more about what is going on on the other side of the world...
Sydney has been amazing even if I was so fucked up for the first couple of days...it was jet-legged for sure, but that was mixed up with almost 48 hours of not sleep...I managed to fall asleep only when the flight took off from Bangkok, and only for one hour...the positive thing is that every passenger has a device where he can play, listen to music, see movies and see what is going on out of the plane...so I was busy with this machine for thw hole time...

Back to Sydney: we lived IN FRONT of the ocean: the beach was LITERALLY 40 seconds far away from us....we had fun the whole time, we did not go out that often though (thank you for the tips anyway, Lee) but we saw a lot of stuff...the city is build on the most beautiful piece of land I have ever seen...it is like living next to beautiful nature all the time...on the other side there is so much traffic...so many cars and so many trucks and polluting machines...
I tried to surf with a Venetian friend of mine who lives there, we had Indian food, Italian dinner at home, we saw the city with its big skyscrapers, we took a feryy, saw a theather play and so many other nice things...
Now we are in Adelaide, probably a city not as exciting as Sydney but a place where a lot is going on anyway and where your contact with nature is there all the time, every time you walk around...
By the way, there is this festival going n now: it is the biggest cultural festival of the whole Australia (it is only 20 millions people living here but it is cool anyway!), yesterday we listened to some local bands playing their own stuff, drinking Shiraz in a beer garden just next to another club...Holydays!!! Vacation, that is it!

Dubai International Airport

I am just waiting to be there since a couple of weeks...since she arrived there, that is the point.
I am not in Europe anymore, first time in my life. Not the last, hopefully. Do I look more German than a year ago? I have this feeling somehow...two stewards from Alitalia looked so Italian at the bar, one hour ago...I am writing from the funny and silently messy Dubai International Airport, a place where you could find people from all over the world (almost), running after Western clichés, trying to fill their luggages with them, more or less...is that enought if I say that the biggest restaurant in here is an Irish Pub...?
But since the wireless is for free and since I am alone I am having fun, somehow.
Take care you all.

Cool that you live there, Lee!!! Any tip about stuff that we should do in the five days we will spend there?
A big kiss to everybody.

Infos

This is going to be my new neighbourhood from next friday...I cannot believe it yet!
I am leaving for Australia on thursday, the 15th.
Hope you are doing all right. I am.
Hugs.

Human rights and Chinese Laws

Have a look

March deserves a post as well.

Last wednesday I finished my experience as a volunteer in the kindergarten...those nine months have not been always wonderful, but the very most of the time I felt that I was so(ooooo) lucky to be there, enjoying the big and amazing findings that children experience every single day, when they are two years old.
I lived more than a third of their actual life with them: nine months out of 24 are a lot...
I know that J. does not sleep that long, that N. misses the mother a lot when he is not busy with some new games, that L. do not eat carrots and a thousands of other informations like these. I can recognize their voice, the way the cry and the way they scream.
I know that children - as the teacher I have been working with last week said to her colleague - are the most surpirising and amazing phenomenon that human beings can experience. That is something that probably every single person would say or at least agree upon; but the best is when you experience it in such a direct and sincere way.
There are children in that kindergarten that, unless only two years old, say my name when they are home with the parents. Some of them could call me 50 times a day while we were doing something together. It is something that makes your heart bigger, for sure.
I hope you do not find it cheesy. It is not cheesy, damn!
What you can also learn from such an experience is that some parents decide to have children for some reason but, after a while, they see their sons and daughters as they see sport or hobbies...if the parents are not in the mood, the child is a bit put in the background...and that is sad and made me angry, a lot.

Whatever...anyway on Wednesday I had my sort of Farewell Party,all the children of the kindergarten sang for me....I got flowers and presents, but nothing, nothing will be as good as what happened with my 14 children: they all came to me with one tulip in their hands, and said one after the other "Alles gute"...I was almost to cry, uau...I have to thank the teacher mostly...you know at this age children this organizing capabilities...
I kissed all of them though....
I left them while they were sleeping, did not feel say "tschüß" as a normal day...

Anyway this thing is gone. I am now looking for something new.
SO Ill be first of all back to my humid city for 5 days...
What else?
I finally managed to make my apartment look nicer...now I have some more pieces of furniture! And some will come soon!
My love is already in the other side of the world, I´ll join her in two weeks...It is so hard to wait a month being so apart from, but Skype and webcam techonology help a lot.
I am looking for an internship or a job. But it is not so easy...that is just challenging!
A big hug to all of you.

Berlin

I miss some good friends in here...I miss the old ones and I am a bit sad because I did not create so many new friendships in here so far...it is probably my fault...
But I cannot complain too much though...all the rest had been quiet fanstastic...but I miss good friends a lot anyway...

We really don´t need you, Mister Iñárritu.

I went to watch Babel; I left the cinema before the end: it is one of those movies you have the feeling you have already seen: in this case already twice with this over-rated filmmaker´s previous two movies...damned! I should have gone to see some Berlinale movies!
Take care you all and boycott the film, please, it is so obvious in its try to be indipendent and against the violence and the distorsions of this world; but in the end such a movie takes advantage of all these sad and tragic stories...it is the only way Hollywood can deal with serious topics...finding everyday tragedies and putting them on the stage, with cool colours and cool "montage", just for a couple of hours; after that we should all feel better, no? And the director should be labelled as an "indipendent" regisseur! Please!
Verdammt!

News

SO the first thing is that I am going to Australia from March the 15th to April the 19th! Fuck yeah. Stephie will be already there and we will spend a month between Sidney and Adelaide...sounds great...I just have to keep on saving money...

What else? Not so many things indeed...I am going to Venice before that time and I am looking for somebody who can live in my apartement for that month...if you know somebody who is interested, please let me know...
Ciao.

P.S. Read it if you have time, sounded interesting to me

Friday afternoon

I finally realized today that, since I still have a lot of vacation days to take, I will be done with my project in three weeks (and three days)...in the end time has passed so fast...as everybody would probably say...
I am looking for something else to do, it does not seem to be so easy though...
I have the feeling that I am not enjoying the city as much as I should, but the time is limited and I am working almost every day: today it is the 12th day of work without any break...and I have to keep on till three in the morning probably...
I miss you all, dear bloggers and friends...I hope you ll manage to come to visit me soon, somehow...
Take care...

P.S. I am sorry for the troubles that some people experienced with posting in this desolating blog...and I have no idea on how to solve them...please, do not give up, though.

11 January 2007

Days and days of working with my children made me love them so much: I know so much about them now...but the work is getting kind of boring: there are not so many big news indeed...but it is probably me more than everythig else...
Paul, I feel my life goes like you described it: slow and fast at the same time...I am not sure we meant the same way, but I guess we did...
I am thinking about going to Australia for a month after I will be done with the kids...I have to see if it is possible or not...

I am fixing my new apartement bit by bit...now I can actually host you without problems...so please come to visit me, if you have some time off!

Take care and be in peace!

Ciao.

Hallo 2007

So guys, happy new year to you all!
I wish you that 75 percent (at least) of your dreams can come true this year! It would not be a bad rate, uh?
During the N.Y.´s Eve I have been working while drinking Champagne - a good deal somehow, since they also paid me!
After that I tried my best to get obliterated: I almost managed to succeed: the sourness of the lemon juice just fucked my stomach up a bit too early!
Anyway I spent the whole evening with the most amazing woman of this city. We had fun!
What did you do, people?!

I look for a website which finds the best offers for intercontinental trips?
I have a sort of plan for March! Any tip?
Take care you all, and enjoy the warm January 2007!

Tomorrow I am going to the cinema with my cousin: any tip for a movie we can both enjoy? She is 12 years old.
HAve a nice day.

Back in Venice

Where is the Xmas atmosphere? I am probably not sensible to it this year, but on the other side it seems that this city is losing its soul, and it is doing it very fast. It does not seem that it is such a big deal for the people who live in here, by the way...and that is probably the saddest aspect of this development...not such a big news though...
Once more I feel farther and farther away from this city....it is not a good feeling: you feel like you cannot live anymore in the place where you are born.
It is still charming, still beautiful, still the most amazing challenge to Nature that I know, so far : building up a city on the water...but I feel as a stranger, everytime more, and that makes me feel sad...so deeply sad.
I was Santa Claus tonight: I dressed up for a four years old child who, lucky her, still believes in him...I envied her somehow: still having this excitement for such a wonderful moment of the year is something that I would like to enjoy once more...I guess it has been the best present I did this year: mostly because she was not supposed to say "thank you" to me: I did it just to let her fantasy go further, one more year dreaming about the magic of life...that is cool.

My dear blog-readers: I was thinking about making a top-five concerning the things I want to emprove about myself for the next year: would you please think about them for you as well, and post them on the blog, please? There is a bigger and bigger luck of feed-back for this blog...sometimes I think about I should write much more, sometimes I think I should not write anymore...it is getting boring without feed-back. Can you understand that?

By the way, my dear, I wish to all of you a peaceful, peaceful, peaceful 25th of December 2006. Hug you all.

There are moments when you feel like not having choice....there are moments when you feel like that you shouldn´t make any, rather wait and be a more patient with the things happening all around you...
There are moments when you know you should just consider that there is no third option, keep it cool and let the angryness and the frustration away...
There will be moments when I ll just enjoy the patience, probably...

People told me lately, and in different ways, that I am not so patient....I think I see a point on that...I think as well that I get less patient with somebody when I have the feeling that I have been misunderstood...
On the other side I do think as well that I am not such an easy person to understand: I am not easy for myself as well, I guess....

Anyway the time goes by really fast, I did not manage to do all the things that I had planned for these three months....but I found a flat, just next to my house, so it is gonna be easy to move out the staff from one place to the other...
I was in Holland to visit Michel, a good friend...went back to The Hague after seven years...my memories were so confused, really impressive how few I could remember...but I had the feeling that I had already been walking in front of the small Parliament´s lake, before I could actually remember it....I felt my mind just jumped to that evening of seven years ago but did not tell me that it wanted to move back there...it is probably similar to the feeling you have when you remember a dream months after...you fee like your mind is communicating with you through feelings... you remember in a sort of neither verbal, nor figural way...
There is still something I did not understand about Holland though: it is a very developed and organized country, where people seem to be pratical on one side and able to enjoy life on the other....what I did not clear with myself yet is if I would be able to live over there....it is not an answer that I should get soon, it is more a question mark Ill try to solve...

Ana, I ll try my best to come to visit you before Xmas, but it sounds difficult, my organization needs some help: a group of students from Sardiny is coming to Berlin for a week, and since they do not talk any German and any English, Ill probably get big headaches trying to translate stuff to them...
But I promise Ill do my best...
Ill be in Venice from the 22nd to the 30th this month....so if you know somebody who is interested to have holydays in Beriln for Xmas, there is an apartement in Kreuzberg waiting for him, her, them....I would not ask for a lot of money, though...It would be cheaper than any other accomodation you could get in there for that period....and the apartement is in a very nice neighbourhood!

I had some troubles with posting stufff....don ot why, actually!
There is a post which waits to be there since more than a week...Ill try today once more but it did not work.
Hope you are doing all right. All of you. I am scoring pretty well

Hopefully there will be more room to talk about the past

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,453620,00.html

Another Seminar

Between Colon and Bonn, in the middle of nowhere

Have a look

Le Monde

South American Volunteers

So Edgar is leaving soon for Perú...he is gonna do some volunteering there....good luck, man!
By the way here is his blog, check it out from time to time: I will, my friend!
Edgar in Perú
Alex is leaving soon as well...Argentina is his destination: take care you too, man!
Paul, we should really try to manage to go there next year, at least to visit them!
Noemi, if you are still in Chile, I can just say: "Take care and kisses".
For anybody else have a nice day!

122nd Post

I posted a lot in this blog, but mostly at the beginning...not a lot in this last couple of weeks...or maybe more...whatever..I am fine, a lot of things are somehow changing...I met a lot of people both in here and during the travels I did...but it is not easy to keep the contacts with everybody...and sometimes you think it would be nice, but does not work so well...by the way the time is never enough, and that is a pity as well...

I am listening a lot Tv on The Radio, right now....do not listen to them if you have not already gotten through an hard rock period in your life...but they are so cool!!!
What else? Nina Anastasia is kind of interesting: I started to listen to her with more pleasure since I wrote an interview she did a month ago: at a certain point he says:" Nowadays is the most revolutionary thing is to be totally true and sincere!" I think she is right, but I did not manage to be so till the very end in these last months...I am trying to emprove...and I am, actually.
I would say NIN are cool as well, but more difficult to listen to...
The Editors, on the other side, seem a copy of Interpol: so a copy of the mixture between the Velvet Underground and the first Coldplay...a coupe of tracks have a really charming beat though...

I just started to read another book by Z. Smith: my mother sent it to me last week...she is so young, so beautiful and she writes so well...unbelievable (ehy, I am not talking about my mother, obviously..!)
I am trying to Belgium or Netherland for a couple of days (3rd-5th December: no way to change the dates: it is the only window of opportunity...if somebody is interested, it would be nice if he´d let me know!)

I hope you are doing all right, wherever you are...
I ll post some more soon...

On Thursday the 19th there has been the twenty years Party of the Kindergarten where I work...there were almost all the children with their parents, playing and eating some bloody pasta and some nice home-made cakes...everybody was in the garden...there was also a show for children, made by a woman dressed like a tiger....
I was really happy of the whole situation: it was nice to see that the children run to me to tell you just Hallo, that the parents smiled at me, and that the teachers considered me as part of the school, one hundred percent...

But the coolest thing happened when the party for the family finished and I went with 15 teachers upstairs to drink some wine....photos of ten years ago came out, stories of the past, told in this strict Berlin accent, came out as well...and I could feel at a very intuitive level that I am working in Eastern Berlin...I loved it...

Yesterday I went to this German-Czech Jazzfest, that turned to be OK but a bit too poppy for my taste...mostly because when I think about jazz on one side, and about the amazing players that I heard in Czech, I feel like I miss something for sure...and then there is this kind of typical Czech attitude of making charts of anything: when you study Economic History of the previous socialistic Eastern European Countries, it is easy to find some Czech authors who will tell you that Czech was the 8th biggest world economy in the 1920s, in every essay the will write....or that Czech always scored better than any other previous brother-country from any of the European standards - that is actually not true...or that the mountains on the Czech side are nicer...
So it is Ok I guess, but why should I care about the fact that the piano player I am listening was ranked among the best 10-12 European piano players of 2006, according to some magazines...I mean: since he plays a cheasy version of Fragile, full of funny (negative meaning) keyboards sounds...?
Anyway that was the first thing the leader of this band - Shanti (ethnojazz v Ceske Republiky) - said....hmm....


It was cool though: I met a woman from Prague there, who actually offered me a ticket for half of the price: we obviously talked in German: since she lives in Germany since 1966 it was the language we could both talk well enough...

TIPS

Last week I read a book by Agotha Kristof, the first of my life: Hier....amazing, probably less than 100 pages...but so intense and so direct....read it, if you do not have a book on your table right now...by the way she is somehow a product of what happened yesterday, exactly fifty years ago...
Right now I am reading a book by Coetzee: the beginning sounds really good...

So after such a kind pretentious cultural part, a short story to make you all laugh ( hopefully): Lost in Translation

A nice week to everybody...

P.S. It would be nice if the people who read this lunatic blog could post something from time to time...just to keep some more contacts...
Tschüß.

Illness

I cough a lot, I have got a cold as well, on Friday I guess...but I would not say I am ill....anyway I cannot get more than 4 hours sleep since thursday night so I feel like dead...I went to the doctor today and I guess I looked like a very ill person...that is why she gave me three days off...but the thing is: "What should I do?" I´d love just to sleep for ten hours in a row...for three days in a row...not the most likel event in here....

Anyway it is interesting to be home and enjoy all the sounds of my neighbourhood, sounds and situations that I had not enjoyed that much. Have a nice begin of this week you all!

Sunday ........ Sunday

Once more it was one of those weekends full with things going on...once more it has been one of those weekends in which I work more than 24 hours in 2 days and I cannot get any sleep: would you consider 14 hours sleep in three nights enough sleep?
Anyway I had an interesting day. Since I am looking for a new flat, I walked a lot through areas that I did not know...I saw something new...I went to my favourite bar in Kreuzberg 36 and drank something, while reading the last pages of "White Teeth" (get it! It is amazing!)...the evening was filled in with Czech beers and the need to be by myself...I can state that I love also the Autumn of this city...
I love to be here...I am getitng sentimental.

Nobel Prize

Noch eine Nachricht aus Stockholm

News

News from Stockholm

Read it if you understand French

An indipendent point of view on Cecenia

Plans for Xmas

So thanks to my temporary Venezuelan room-mate I bought today the tickets to go back to Venice on the 22nd of December...It is getting normal to miss the Fall in Venice, it is such a nice season...but I cannot complain that much...
Take are you all...

No way...

Once more

Make it cooler...hopefully...

As you hopefully have already noticed, I did some changes for this blog...hope you all like it...

Ah ah ah, Sonntag ist da...

Only yesterday evening i finally discovered that the restaurant in which I work is considered - according to the most accountable Berliner Guide for restaurants and bars - one of the best twenty restaurants in town!!! It is really something...and now I see why in the last two weeks we are always full, every single evening...

I have ben working so much in the last two two days...and working as waiter in such a restaurant is a bit stressing...I am proud right now, though, for real...it is definitely not the job of my life but I like to work for five days with the most amazing part of humanity - 2 years old children - and then, on the week-end, living the night life of Kreuzberg...Indeed I got barely drunk yesterday...but we had fun...only my stomach did not like it this morning...but its reaction was really polite: it is learning, finally...

I like being here from any point of view, but I am always thinking about travelling somewhere else in these last days...I am actually also thinking about the people I would like to have here but I should ask for three weeks holydays in order to meet all of them the way I would like to...
Whatever....
Gute Nacht...

What are we talking about, please?

Los Angeles Times Report

Evaluating Montessori´s Method

Science´s Article

Au weia!

I always thought that I had a really strong need for a computer in here...now that I have it, it is just as I imagined....I can listen to new music, talk with friends who are living or studying on the other side of the world, and realize that I do not need the television anymore!!!
Right now I am in this internet café on a big avenue just next to my house, drinking a beer, and writing mails...nice! I know it would be much better to have all of you here, I have no doubt about that, but, as the Rolling Stones sang - and still sing thanks to some medical miracles...- "You can´t always get what you want".

My children are so amazing, loud and not listening to us all the time though, but come on, when you make them smile or when they hug you, I feel like I am lucky...and the more the time goes by, the more they smile and they just run to me, joyful and "zufrieden".

I have probably found a bit of harmony inside of myself, that is the main point...I can´t say anything else...that is enough, no?
Take care you all...and try to come here some time: you would love this place, I guess.

Have a look...mail from Berlin

Angela´s troubles

Marathon in Berlin

There is the Marathon today...I woke up so early this morning...I can´tsleep more than 7 hours...a kind of biological clock makes me awake...so the race was passing just behind my house...there were so many runners...a band playing at a petrol station...
I have seen a runner all covered with tatoos - and the reaction of an old man lookig at him - I have seen a runner dressed up like Robin Hood, Japanese runners holdng their flag, danish people that seemed not to bear the high temperatures very well...
A nice sunday to everybody...

First Saturday of this Fall

So it is the first week-end since ages that: 1. I am in Berlin, 2. I do not have to work...I was really lucky today: the weather was wonderful: my organization had planned a day trip to Spreewald.
So we were travelling by boat through small rivers in the middle of a natural reserve for three hours: drinking beer and talking. If you have read this post till this point (and for some miracle you still find it interesting), mybe you ask yourself:"Hey, Marco, who was "we"?" There were some people from England who do an internship here in Berlin, some people from Spain - why is it so difficult to talk with Spanish people?!!!!. I had no chance to say anything to any of them, and all of them could either talk english or german...I am not hat scaring, since I talked with the all the other people...god damned!

It has been a nice day...by the way I just discovered three months ago the existence of this slavic minority, the Zorbians, thanks to a book I was reading...these Zorbians live right in this region we visited today...it is a very small minority but they managed somehow - Nazis and Socialistic times should have been tough - to keep a language (that is still taught in the schools) and a lot of traditions...
Interesting...

By the way, on the way back from this Berlin train station, I walked all along the last part of the wall that is still standing there...not any particular feeling...it is just strange to see that the street standing in front of the wall is simply packed with cars...

Here we go...is that the first I post in 2+2=5?

News from the Eastern part of Germany

I bought a laptop yesterday...so I hope I ll be better in keeping the contacts since tomorrow....the things is that my flat mates are so f.... lazy...the internet connection has never functioned but they never tried to fix the problem...so I am gonna get a headache while talking with an underpaid phone assistant for Tele2 Germany...
Paul, you have to give some tips about the Mac world...hope to hear from you all soon though.

By the way a short summary: my children did not forget me...nobody cried and all of them is amazing every day more and more...
Berlin experienced some sunny days for this ununderstandable summer 2006...I am planning to go Munich early in October and I would like to go to Belgium soon...the main issue, as always unfortunately, is money...
My sister moved to Barcelona today...cross your fingers together with me, please, so she will find a job and her own way soon...
Berlin is buddiful.

Falling Star

Yeah, I have seen a falling star, just half an hour ago...on the way back from this pub, the only one that Grosshennesdorf has, I was walking through streets without any kind of public lighting - if somebody ever doubted about it, guys!, the Milky Way still exists!...the moon is less than the half right now...

The day has been long...we have been riding our bikes for more than 50 kilometres today...we visited a small town that is completely relying on renewable kinds of energy, has a congress center that is amazing and lives just next to a convent full with Benedictines nuns...you can enjoy the newest technology at the border between Poland and Germany...

I have been in the point where Poland Czech Republic and Germany meet up....there is a small river going by and three four flags blowing at the wind - EU´s flag is obviously the fourth one....

I am positive in these last days...the reason is not just one, and by the way, it is something really difficult to write down in a clear way...
I also have to say that some phone calls during the last days helped me a lot to keep the mood high...

This seminar I am doing is well planned: a small group, many inputs on different topics...many informations, the chance to meet people who dedicate their life to something in such a way that is so deep and so natural at the same time...and, last but not least, thepossibilty to be outside fromn the early morning till late in the evening...

Czech, German and Polish people were the people I met in these last days...
This region was fucked up by the pollution: it was coming out mostly from some coal mines and brown coal power plants that were all built along the area - it was actually named the Black Triangle.
The environmental problem was the biggest issue in the late 80s and at the beginning of the 90´s...nowadays not any longer, but it seems that some people miss the point....so many persons left this region to move West: Germans to Western Germany, Polish and Vyech moved a bit western...it seems like that the famous "Best minds of the last Generation" left this areas and that the few people who are still doing stuff here live in this sort of idealistic and metaphysical regional pessimism...
All the others seem to be very passive or nostalgic of the past...

I am going to sleep...it is more than a month that Imout or awake till late...now it is too late to make the things changing but my legs are tremblig so I need some sleep...

Was ist Kultur?

This was the question they posed us today...
Yesterday I went to Buchenwald and I i saw people smoking 50 meters from the Krematorium, people taking picture of their parents inside the Lager, people playing the prisoner game between the two sides of the cage that used to close off the world from that Hell...
I saw people moving the stones who are laid down in the ground next to a commemorative grave...
I never felt so fucking away from this world as in the five minutes during all these things happpen...I cried like it never happened to me before...and I could not stop weeping, I could not tell them anything, I could not even move from there...
I got so pessimistic but fortunately I did not feel alone...one of the wonderful persons organising this seminar was fortunately there and was so helpful to me....
I think we are really losing our souls...and at the same time we think that our culture is not (mostly or only?) a language or the sleeping times, cooking or flirting...
But it seems to be a very unpopular way of thinking...
I miss my friends and my parents so much today.

seminar for music player?

Since I am here in Weimar I play my guitar more than two hours a day...
We have a lot of free time and I do not sleep that much...
As I read in an article that early this morning (it dealt with the checkpoints between the Palestinian and the Israeli areas): the important thing is trying not to lose your soul...

Days go by

So the seminar is getting more interesting...you get in touch with the people and you get to learn something new...
I got barely drunk on tTuesday night...a bottle of Jägermeister conquered me in thesupermarketand now it is almost empty in the room...I do not sleep well since ages, I'd say, but since few days I do not even sleep that much...
It is a pain in the ass...and the weather sucks a bit too much...

Weimar: the Mother Land of German Geezers

When I was in the bus yesterday,I could hardly find a person younger than 70 years old...though I i talked with a 90 years old man who actually was fighting the war (the second) in Italy...he defined Italy a gentle country but Ii wondered what it could mean since when he was that the country was torn apart and divided...whatever...
No way to sleep here: I woke up at six and nobody was awaken in this centrum...fortunately I had stolen my flat-mate's guitar so at least I could play somw stuff, listening to the rain...kind of depressing though...
It will be a long day....

No more Schawarma this week but the nightmares kept on coming...it is a kind of habit of my friday nights: last night as well...I went to bed at 4 and I woke up at 8.30 with the same unpleasant feeling of every saturday morning...
This week run so fast: my parents came here last tuesday...in the end I have been either working or spending time with them...always in a kind of hurry.
I need a break...and maybe I need to get away from here for a couple of weeks...

I am kind of sentimental today and not in such a good mood...I hope that the Rembrandt exhibition we are going to visit will emprove it...

This morning, after having been thrown away from a pub in Mitte called Russian Coffee - not just me, though, we were all expelled - I had the crazy idea to walk on the way to the river...
It turned to be wonderful: even this city is empty for few hours a day and you can seat on a bench in a park in the very center and find nobobdy but birds lighted by the morning sun, American runners/joggers and empty beer bottles...the Dome, the River, the docks and the restaurants....everything was silent and peaceful...only two voices speaking in German...

Schawarma and Nightmares

In this period I am filling my stomach with Schawarma...I mean: I had probably four of these delicious and fat meals last week...
On the other side I collected two very bad nightmares in six days: I do not remember my dreams that often but I´d say I usually don´t have so many bad dreams...
This morning I woke up at 11 - I went to bed at 5 - with a very annoying feeling...and I remember all the shit of the dream...she was the main character and I was among those who could just watch all the thing...

Are the two things connected? Hmm...I would say not...next week Ill try with some Falafel to see if there are emprovements on the quality of my dreams...
Hope that everybody is fine...I am going to work...

The time runs so fast...Megan was here for three days and it seemed that she stayed just a day and a half...we went to this Twilight Singers concert and it was definitely good...really amazing...and there was a surprise during the concert: M. Lanegan sang some songs with Greg Dulli...great!
Then the day after we went to a classic music concert for this Young Euro Classic...it was an orchestra from Norway and they played quiet good, I would say...

I work with my children and everything is OK...it is a bit tiring, I have to say, but you can see that they learn something everyday...

I will go to Weimar in a week...for twelve days because of a seminar...
...then I have the chance to go to Eastern Germnay, not far from Goerlitz, for a ten days environmental project...we should travel by bike between the German Goerlitz, the Polish one and Zittau...sounds interesting...in the end the places that somebody had to visit - but he could not - always come back...In the end I won´t go to any warm place: no beach no sea no real holydays...but these things should be fun...
I beg your pardon but my English is getting worse and worse...my German emproves slowly...but it emproves...

Noch mal...

This week as weel I have been working a bit too much...I feel like I do not have so much time for myself...but in the end I read a lot on the train on the way to my job and on the way back...I play music with my room-mate and I love this city deeper and deeper - why are you not here, damned!?.

Two days ago I had a conversation with a girl and I had to say something definitely important: she said I could explain myself in English but I realized I would have felt so unnatural...so I did my best with German and it worked out...

I hear so many stories that could be easily labelled as border-line. Weird developments for funny situations...or weird situations with possible funny developments...probably just a question of point of view...

I read on an Italian newspaper´s on-line edition that G.Grass, when interviewed by a German newspaper, declared that he was in the SS for a short period of his life...that is weird at least. Another funny development...( Read Mein Jahrhundert and Die Blechtrommel, guys...the read is worth a small period of anybody´s life).

Scaring numbers for stressed lungs

I calculated that, on the average, I smoke 8030 cigarettes a year. It means something like 23 days and a half (every day made of 24 hours) of simple smoking. It is ridicolous...considering the economic aspect of the thing, it means I spend yearly 1300 € (or more) a year in cigarettes...there is an open fly-ticket to travel twelve months around the world (but only round the clock) that costs 1300€...I should travel eleven months, find the country where the cigarettes are the cheapest and spend there the last three weeks, just smoking...ah ah...

Flying cheap in September is harder than believing Mr. Bush is smart

No easy and cheap ways to fly south in September...so I bought tickets for a couple of concerts here in Berlin...Tex Perkins (TNT) in few days and the Twilight Singers next week...

So here we are now

I have been working with the very young children the last week as well. There are new entries in the kindergarten and these new children, as already posted, are more complicated, obviously: new environment, missing their parents, crying a lot, and needing more attention. But after the first few days they got used and turned to be Ok, sweet and great.
The thing is that they are not used to that so they get tired very soon. On Wednesday I was with this C. and other 8 children in the garden (kind of stressing because it is not easy to look after 8 little mouses walking all the time: but it is fun). After twenty minutes she started to cry and there was no way to make her stop: too tired. So I said the teacher that I would have brought her upstairs in our rooms where the babies were. I embraced her - she suddenly stopped crying - and started to walk away from the garden. Suddenly all the kids followed me on the way to the doorstep, all of them: I had not called them or said: "Hey, sweethearts we go upstairs" though. It was like I had a small flute, a silent small German flute.... They trust me. I can play with them and at the same time they think I can protect them. And this feeling is awesome.
N., almost nine months old, learnt to walk last weekend: she walked to me last monday. She cried non-stop every time I went to the garden with the other .- and she could not - until Friday, when I brought her with me downstairs too: there she was peaceful and satisfied.
I am really enjoying the whole thing so far...I guess this is clear.

I have been working 39 hours in the last three days...a personal record I would say...but this weekend has been nice: my sister is here with a bunch of people from Barcelona.
On friday night the people at the restaurant moved from their tables to the bar because of the music I played: it was totally cool!
Then I went to a Karaoke bar with some other people until 6 in the morning...I think wé did a good job with Jealous guy by John Lennon and with Wish You Were Here...the rest was aweful...

New entries in the kita

The same name and a polish surname, a complicated personality, two big blue eyes...
Today was a tough day...