days of friends and travels

I briefly mentioned our visitors from Switzerland, who were here a week and a half ago now. Ellen was here Friday to Sunday, Anouk and Jean-Yves just Saturday to Sunday. Friday we went to the Stasi museum, the museum of the East German secret police. I'm not a museum person. Ellen was tired too. Kids came along. We had a really hard time finding the place, finally after tacking back and forth through alleyways found the entrance through a desolate and deserted parking lot, inside the place it was depressing and, as Ellen pointed out, the decor was stuck in the fifties - given that the place was being kept up and used (sorry, I didn't point out the museum itself was in the Stasi's former headquarters) up until the country came apart in, like, 1990. It really was interesting but their technology was surprisingly retro and embarrassing, the whole scary Stasi thing wasn't that impressive looked at that way.

But it was a very good and intense visit. And then they left, and here we are. Felix has gone back to school now, Max moved out today to go live in a WG (a Wohngemeinschaft, a living community aka shared apartment), and as hubby, sitting on the couch next to me reading the next chapter of The New Rules of Marriage (I read the chapter this afternoon; wanted to order us another copy or at least bring our second copy back from Bloomington with me in March but hubby theorizes it's good practice cooperating on taking turns reading from the one book!?), points out, I am/look tired.

So, super briefly: it's been a week of more new friends. Friday morning last week I met my American/Colombian/Spanish writing buddy at a cafe and we wrote together, talked, and went to what felt like a greater level of intimacy; Friday night was our big German-English writing group and there was a charming young lady sitting next to me whom I had seen there also the previous month. Chatted with her, invited her to our Friday morning writing group, exchanged contact info, later invited her to the weekly play-reading group as well.

Saturday morning on my three-hour walk with my neighbor (it didn't start out to be a three-hour walk; her feet were bleeding by the end!) we went into boutiques to look at clothes - I would never do this on my own! Reminded me I do like to wear other things than my jeans. Didn't buy anything but have worn different things than my jeans recently. Went into a Starbucks so she could get coffee, they didn't take her bank card, we left again. Talking all the while. 

Tuesday morning I went and picked up my recently-connected-with lively and boisterous Viennese friend at her house at the S-Bahn station nearby and we took an hour-plus-long walk to Weight Watchers. Afterwards we walked home together, but not before connecting with and exchanging contact info with and having a long talk outside the building with one of the two spunky journalist women who are part of the life of the Weight Watcher party there on Tuesday mornings. So now Viennese friend and journalist lady and I are all going to do Tuesday morning walks together. And we have our contact info - that reminds me I need to write journalist lady quickly and give her mine, since everybody seems to have business cards to pass out but me.

And Tuesday night was play-reading group at my Israeli sociologist neighbor's house (the neighbor from the Saturday walk) - and young lady from writing group came! She's up for things, she's out and about, and I love her style and her harem pants and even her nose ring works for me. And then after the play-reading group I stayed and got some reassurance from my neighbor - I felt like I'd been loud and noisy and taking up too much space at our monthly poetry reading group the night before and she was very helpful about it.

So . . . this town is full of people to get to know. And lastly but not at all leastly, my choir director from Hamburg, 1985-86, with whom I would go and play cards in smoky cafes for hours after choir practice (three of us: me, him, and my buddy Kim) - anyway, I woke up yesterday morning and he had found me on Facebook. So we are connecting away via Facebook. Kim, what do you know! He didn't even know I was in Berlin, he imagined us all in California, where we lived four moves and thirteen and a half years ago. So Ruthy, I guess that answers your and my question re Facebook.