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...