Or: Oh, Won, you're so German!
I. Berlin, Berlin
I just got back from Berlin. And Despite the fact that I have been there for only three days it still feels like I just got back from a world tour. In the past I have been ranting about Berlin quite a lot but recently I have started to feel more and more positively about this place. Firstly, the last two times I have been in Berlin it has been on my way to and from Poland. And also the purpose of this visit was to get a visa (still feels weird to use the plural as singular) for the US so I can visit Julia.
Julia: "Did you pass that exam?"
And secondly, the people in Berlin are smaller than the people in Hamburg, especially the men. I am tall in Berlin!
Berlin is so much poorer than Hamburg. Except for that part of the city where the government and the embassies are located, Berlin is so worn down, old and historic, the people look poor and malnourished, there are so many homeless. And the people in Berlin are nowhere as stylish and chic as my fellow Hamburgese though they are not living on a separate way back fashion planet anymore as they seemed to two years ago. Even the homeless in Hamburg are classier. But that's exactly what I like about Berlin. Style and fashion are nowhere as important as in HH. All of this makes up for the charm of Berlin. Berlin feels so much more historic and cosmopolitan than Hamburg which is rather a giant Kleinstadt. Berlin feels like a mixture of Warsaw and Seoul.
That HH has been benefitting from the EU expansion so much more than B really helps to feel easy about the fact that B has been using the money they got from HH to lure prestigious firms away from here.
But I was really surprised, no, rather shocked, to learn how un-re-united Berlin still is, 17 years after The Wall came down. Westberliners consider East-Berlin still to be abroad and vice versa. And the people hardly seem to know the other part. Driving through East-Berlin I told a West-Berliner that I thought this place looked a lot like Warsaw. The reply I got was: Yeah, like the ugly parts of Warsaw.
II. One Wedding and No Funeral
There was also another reason why I went to Berlin: I attended the first wedding of my life. I went there with my friend of seven years of med school, Alex The Greek, and his girlfriend Jenny, an Italian nurse. Both of them being followers of the goth movement. As Alex noted the wedding was veeeerrrrry bourgeois, too bourgeois for the two of us though I kind of fit in optically at least. So I decided I would never get married.
The wedding ceremony itself was really impressive thought slightly unsual for the bridegroom was a strict atheist. So the sermon was split between a the best man and the pastor. And there was no Wagner or Mendelson-Bartholdy. But as one of the guests noted, this wedding set standards. BTW: Most of the guests were doctors and lawyers from Hamburg... A beautiful church in a beautiful palace and a beautiful (and damn expensive) restaurant.
Anyway, when midnight was closing in all the unmarried men (which included me) were asked to form a human paravent to prevent the bride's and bridegroom's parents to see how the bridegroom was taking off his wife's garter with his teeth which was quite a show. And when he got ready to throw it I made sure I stood a little bit offside so the garter wouldn't be thrown to me. But then it happened: I saw that blue thingee approaching another guy's face... I thought: protect the people... automatically my left arm extended... and like Mickey Mantle I caught the garter. It took me quite a while to realise what I had just done. Alex told me it looked quite cool how I caught it. But I was kind of dumbfounded, shocked, speechless. Thankfully the other guys didn't react like in that adidas ad for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where they tackle that guy. The first wedding I attended. And, as the bride remarked, the next one will be my own.
By the way, of course Alex and I arrived late and of course it was mostly my fault and of course those who knew Alex and me (i.e. the bride and the bridegroom) expected this.
III. Jeden Tag sitz ich am Wannsee...
"So you know where you are now."
Between the wedding (Saturday) and my appointments at the US and Korean embassies (Monday) I had one day to explore Berlin. And because I happened to be in Grunewald (where they kept Indiana Joneses father prisoner) I decided I wanted to see the famous Wannsee. When I arrived at the underground station I was kind of surprised to see this sign in Gothic type letters. And all the signs at that station, about 50, looked like this which angered two of my fellow travelers. Of all the underground stations in Berlin is it necessary to put up brand new Nazi-style Gothic font signs here where they decided the total annihilation of the Jews? And this cannot be unintentional because there are only two stations where they used this font for the signs: Wannsee and Potsdamer Platz.
My personal Wannsee Konferenz: Currywurst im Darm, the lake and I
But still I decided It was to beautiful a day to get distracted by the past and so I got myself one of the famous Berliner Currywürste. In doing so I learnt what the difference between the red and the grey wurst was: The red one is Currywurst im Darm. And the grey one is Currywurst ohne Darm. And when you hear someone discuss about whether the red or the grey wurst is the real Berliner Currywurst you now know the awful truth.
IV. Du bist soooo Deutsch!
On monday I had my appointment at the embassies of the US and Korea. For the US embassy/consulate I had to bring a photo along with my visa application. And since I remembered how M'André for his trip to Houston made a picture with Bu's camera and printed it out with my then brand new inkjet printer I thought of doing the same. My sister was quite surprised to hear that I had decided against it and instead had gotten professional pictures. Her boyfriend had done the same as Marc. When I had told Julia about my photo considerations she told me: Why do those Germans always think they can use their homemade amateur pictures?
When I got to the US consulate in Berlin (Which is, unlike the embassy, located am ADH - After der Heide) I had to go through a tight security check. (Quite a difference, the Korean consulat didn't have no security, the Italian embassy didn't even have a fence but the US consulate wa so high security). Inside there were to desks. Obviously one was for the Germans, the other one was for the foreigners. For the latter the interviews seemed to take quite long whereas for the Germans the interviews hardly took more than 3 minutes. Since I had been told so many stories about how mean the US consular officers were, even by the official translator of the Korean embassy I was quite nervous. I had brought almost all the documents I had to prove my ties to Germany since I have only a limited visa for Germany which is due to expire in Jan 2007. Suddenly I got called to the counter to which so far only Germans had been called to. And after my fingerprints were taken I found out that for the US consulate I am kind of a German. I was only asked for how long I have lived in Germany (24 yrs), who paid for my (trip), where I was employed (MDS) and where I knew Julia from (Smith JYA: Ah, Smith College, so so...) I was told: You will get your 10 year visa via mail in about a week. Have a nice day. And I said: You don't need no documents? No. I brought almost everything I have. Good to be well prepared but I believe you, good bye...
I was kind of stunned but didn't insist on the officer seeing my documents since I had to go to the Korean consulate. I needed to pick up some paperwork for my application for a medical licence. After I had paid the fees I took my papers and put them into my folder. The officer looked at me and said: You're so German! Most other Korean students just take the papers, fold them or wrap them up and put them into their hip pocket. They have no respect for documents. And I said: My parents are the same. As if we were still living in the good ol' times of the Yi-Dynasty. And the officer said: Yeah...
But I was bemused that in the Korean consulate as a replacement for my passport which I had left at the US consulate the Korean officers didn't accept my Korean ID issued by Korean authorities but instead wanted to see my German driver's licence...
