The one about Public Transport

This might seem like a strange topic to choose for my blog, but I have experienced some rather bizarre observations on German (specifically Berlin) public transport, and I thought I might share those with you today.

Underground

Surprises

Here in the city there are no ticket barriers on the underground platforms, which means that you get a lot of people attempting to ride without a ticket. All tickets are controlled spontaneously by inspectors onboard the trains, and this can take you entirely by surprise, as they are often plain-clothed (and can fine you 40€ on the spot!)
I have started to realise, however, that there are certain traits to look out for, if you want to spot one.
Firstly, they are virtually all middle-aged men, travelling in pairs or threes, with broad-rimmed glasses and balding white or greyish hair. They tend to wear jeans in an attempt to fit in and look like part of the young crowd, when normally people of their generation would be wearing cords or chinos or something more... age appropriate.
They tend also to wear a loose shirt or black leather jacket, in order to try and cover the bulky ticket machine attached to their belt.
And finally, they always travel in small groups of normally 2-3, who never sit down upon entering the carriage no matter how many free seats there are. After a few moments of hovering by the door in awkward looking silence together, they fan out and start their murmour of 'Fahrkarten, bitte'. Then you can see which people start to squirm uncomfortably!


I must admit, I do sometimes entertain myself by playing 'spot the inspector' on a crowded U-Bahn train!!

Buskers

You often find buskers with guitars or similar on the underground trains as well, which can be entertaining. 
I hear one man fairly regularly- he plays guitar really really well, he has a deep, crooning, beautiful voice, and an amazing beard. He has serenaded me and my fellow passengers with songs such as Moon River and The Way You Look Tonight, and always brightens up my journey to work of a morning.

There is, on the other hand, a downside to having such buskers in the train carriage with you. You can't avoid them. 
Now there's one trio of musicians, and I know exactly where they travel to and from, which I now make a conscious effort to avoid. Their trio consists of a clarinettist, violinist and I believe a guitarist, and they will play Pachabel's Canon in unison in a loop. It's really not very tuneful or pleasant to the ears, and I don't appreciate the way that their assistant pushes their collection cup insistently right into your face. Over all, a highly unpleasant experience, in my opinion!

Polite Homelessness

Homelessness is quite a big thing in Berlin (it's really difficult to find accommodation here), and so quite often homeless people will turn to magazine-selling to earn enough money for a bed for the night/food to eat.
It's quite common to see these people travelling on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, begging from the commuters and tourists they find there.
What astounded me about these people was how unbelievably polite they are.
This is a rough translation of a typical Big-Issue-Equivalent salesperson here in Berlin:
"Hello, and a wonderful and pleasant morning to you all. I would like to firstly apologise for disturbing you on your way to work/sightseeing here in Berlin. My name is X, I am one of the hundreds of homeless people in this city, and I am here today to ask you to buy this magazine from me. It only costs 1.20€ and will help me to afford something to eat and drink, as well as helping me to eventually afford a roof over my head. Even if you don't buy a magazine, I would most appreciate if you could donate any spare change for food and drink. In any case, I wish you all a very pleasant onward journey and have a nice day. Thank-you for your attention."

I mean, seriously?! You'd never find that in England!!

Buses

Bus etiquette. 

It seems that here, travelling by bus is a very impersonal business. You are expected to have minimum contact with the bus driver- there's no greeting or eye contact other than silently showing your ticket upon einsteigen (getting on)- and you exit from a side door without saying 'thank-you' or acknowledging the bus driver's existence. Bizarre, but so it is.

Bus driver driving style

Now, here in Germany, drivers are generally known for being fairly respectful and considerate of other road users (I'm ignoring the concept of the Autobahn for now!), but I have to say, bus drivers are a real exception to the rule.
I have to travel by bus virtually every day for work here, and I have noticed a lot of interesting behaviour.
Bus drivers frequently honk their horns, drive over red traffic lights, cut up cyclists and cars and even shout 'Arschloch!' at other road-users if they don't do what they expect.
For a short period of time, we entrust our safety into the hands of these people, and so to set such an example of how (not) to drive just seems a little ridiculous, and very unneccessary. On the other hand, the buses are virtually always on time, so I suppose that's a positive side to it.

That's it for today. Sorry it's been a little random!

Alles liebe aus Berlin,

Louise x

Drawings, Discipline, Dirndl, Destinations and Dumbfoundment (but it's not all bad!).

I've now been here for a grand total of 57 days. 
That's 8 weeks, or just under 2 months, or 1/6 of my time here (depending on how you look at it) and I've very much settled into the general routine of day-to-day working life.

I now am not only in charge of teaching English to young German children, but also music classes twice a week, as well as undertaking homework-marking and private tuition in my spare time.

Drawings

So I received my first present from a child yesterday. It was apparently a drawing of me:

Hair that's long enough to reach the floor, an anorexic-looking long purple body, short stick-legs (again, purple) a big smile and a lovely pair of purple glasses. 
Yupp. Very accurate... :-)

Discipline

Some of the children in my classes have now sussed out that I can be a bit of a pushover, which has been a steep learning curve!! I hate it when they start to play up and not listen to me, because I don't want to seem like the big scary English teacher, but it got bad enough the other day that I even had to send two boys out after they starting throwing things around, so I've had to learn very fast to assert my authority!
However, I now have some very sneaky tricks up my sleeve (mainly bribery-based), and I've finally mastered the subtle art of keeping the childrens' attention without needing to raise my voice, so my classes seem to be under a little bit more control again. 
We'll see how that goes!

Dirndl

I also recently went shopping with my housemate and her friend, and we all tried on the traditional German/Austrian national dress (called Dirndl). Pretty hysterical experience, I must say, and it was surprisingly comfortable:

Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me...

Not sure quite how the children would react if I turned up to class like that though!

Destinations

So here I wanted to cleverly introduce the arrrival of a few lovely people to Berlin, but then couldn't really think of a word beginning with 'D' that would fit with my title. So I went with destinations. Sorry =P

Emily, Elaine and James (friends and fellow music students from Newcastle Uni) have just arrived to start their years abroad at Humboldt uni, here in Berlin. It was lovely to be able to see their familiar faces again, and to share in their experiences of moving here and settling in, even though I am working quite a lot of the time so unfortunately don't get to see them as much as I would like. 

Dumbfoundment

So I had a bit of a shock the other day, when I found out that the leader of the church I'd been going to here in Berlin has actually been arrested for having had sexual relations with a 13 year old boy. 

I'd met him a few times at the church services, really respected and looked up to him as a teacher and church leader and example of a model family man, and so it was a real surprise to find out that he had been arrested.

It has revealed many things to me:

• That no matter how well you think you know somebody, you never know what's going on inside their hearts/minds. A slightly daunting thought!
• Even those people who seem a perfect role model aren't actually perfect. They're just human.
• People (especially in Christian circles) are very very quick to judge. Me included.
• When the head of an organisation/group is suddenly not there any more, although it brings utter chaos, it brings people together under a united desire for sustaining the cause. It has made a lot of people re-evaluate what's important to keep the church running, and pull together to move forward.
• How much I need Jesus. Without him, I am nothing better than any murderers, idolaters, thiefs, rapists, adulterers, liars or cheats... yet with him, I have everything. I have no more regret, guilt or hopelessness, because I know that I have a hope and a love everlasting that will never change or leave me stranded. What an awesome gift!!

That's all for now. I'll try not to eat too many Currywurst before I post again.

Alles Liebe,

Louise x