Ich bin ein Noodlenoggen

For Pinky and the Brain fans the title is for you, if you don´t get it don´t worry, it´s just an inside joke from a cartoon.

Berlin has been great. Possibly my favorite European city so far. I started out in a hostel in the Kreuzberg neighborhodd which has a lot of character, several small funky bars and restuarants, and an alternative feel to it. My first night I went out with a few people from the hostel and heard some live music. The bar was dark with a painted ceiling depicting a scene from the end of the world or something cheerful like that. The singer was wearing all black, tattoed up and had on a black wiinter hat. He kind of reminded me of a character from A Clockwork Orange.He had a guitar and did his own vocals, most of his songs were depressing sounding, life is sorrow type sounds. Definitely fit into the independent scene. After his break a woman with purple leg warmers joined him on stage. She had a nice voice, still depressing lyrics. But then came the highlight, she pulled out a kazoo, and all I could think to myself was "you just don´t hear enough kazoo in music these days." Apparently they agreed because two songs later the guy afixed a kazoo to a neck brace (think Bob Dylan with a harmonica) and kazooed himself. So imagine this here are some lyrics "life is short and meaningless" kazoo kazoo kazoo. Personally I don´t know how anyone who gets to play the kazoo on stage can claim that life is meaningless, but that´s just me.

I have wandered around a bunch on my own seeing sights, but the highlight was an eight-hour walking tour I look yesterday. The guide was excellent, interesting, entertaining, funny, and had a great sense of timing and delivery. He worked for a guide service owned by a former British Diplomat who had served in Berlin during the Cold War. Lots of good information that will work into teaching, so that is always a nice treat as well.

Also had the luck to meet up with Pascal, a German who had studied as a foreign exchange student in the U.S. for a year. Went to a club with him and his friends and also a movie (Deathproof) in German. I had pushed this, the theatre was noted as being a cool spot. It was in a building that had originally been taken over by squatters. The walls up 4-5 floors were full of graffitti. The theatre was small and the seating was made up of leather loveseats and chairs. No one else was in the theatre so interpretation was possible when necessary. There were also a few galleries where artists were showing off their work. Some really interesting, fun stuff, unfortunately, but understandably no pictures were allowed.

That is a pretty good summary of the week. A lot of details and stories have been left out, but I´m still tired from the tour and I have to do some major bus travel tomorrow to meet up with a high school friend to go to Oktoberfest, so that´s it for the Berlin installment.