Ibid.

Hmmm, it's interesting to see how bad i've been with updating my blog. There are some strong arguments in favour of updating it a lot: I am in Berlin and do many new things that I am excited about and that I really want to share. Second, I am here without Fedor, so I am actually quite bored: that should be giving me mucho extra time to update my blog.

Alas, I guess it just isnt the case!

Anyways, here I am, after all. I have been back to Milano for Easter, because Fe's Mum was visiting, and I wanted to see her (and Fedor, of course!). We had a lovely time of drinking, and I had some time to hang out with others as well. I also had an opportunity to pick up my drivers' licence... haha, that was a joke of course, because Italy wouldn't be Italy if there wasnt some reason why my licence wasnt finished. So, the reason this time was as follows: yes, well, it's true you requested it early February and it should be finished after about 7 weeks, but for an undefined reason, the request wasnt registered until march 17, so the licence wont be finished before May.... WHAT????? "Thank you for visiting: please call on us again!". Oh well, I will be in Milano for my defence anyway, so I can do it then. It is just a bit inconvenient with the whole moving etc, because I would have liked to be able to pick some stuff up from IKEA with a rental car... oh well...

The weekend after (as in, last weekend), Fedor came to Berlino. It was great to have him here, so I could share some of my enthusiasm for this city with him. While he was relatively unlucky with the weather, we still had an opportunity to walk around a lot and see some nice parts of Berlin:

And while Fedor was here, I was also able to show him our NEW FLAT!!! It is absolutely stunning: huge, renovated, great area (in fact, across the road from where I am now...), simply PERFECT (and seriously, I am not even exaggerating). But in order to fill up the 108 m2, we are going to be needing a LOT of furniture! So we also spent an afternoon at IKEA, sitting on sofas, and lying on beds. After I get the key of the flat on Sunday, I will go to IKEA on Monday night and order all the stuff, so we will have a furnished flat after that!!!! Than the waiting is simply for our stuff from Milano (and more importantly, Fedor himself) and we are all settled for our new life!!!!!

OJ=happy!

Tschüßi!
OJ

PS Also, work is fine: Today I finally met my boss!!! He is very energetic and nice...

Housessss

So, as promised, let me start with a few photos of my temporary place. It is in a gorgeous area, with all these beautiful houses, and I love it here! This is my building:

 

These are the two rooms (one is more sort of a live-in kitchen. Of course, there is also a huge bathroom (with bathtub) and all that....

 

 

And here is the view from the house, towards Kolwitzplatz. Quite lively, eh?

 

However, this is obviously only a temporary flat, so I am looking for something more definitive. During the weekend I saw 3 places: 2 horrible, one in a bad location. This was sort of the moment I started realising that I am quite spoilt with my current flat, and that I really should be looking for something near here.

I did see one other flat, kinda close, but it was still too far away (in between I cancelled a few that, with the additional info, were too far away as well). Then there was one flat, which on the website looked AMAZING. And it's in the parallel street from where I am now. But it was really quite disappointing. No view into the street, kinda cramped, just not great. This morning, I saw a nice flat quite closeby. But it doesnt fulfil all the Fedor-criteria (the Fedor-criteria being: affordable, with balcony, old-style building, 3 rooms, nice). In fact, it didnt have a balcony and the building was quite ugly from the street side. Inside, it was all renovated and all that, but it just wasnt quite the thing.

This evening, however, I may have encountered the perfect flat! Nice area, close to metro, 3 big rooms, kitchen present, French Balcony, affordable. BUT (there always is a but), a total of 55 people responded to the ad, so it really is a question whether we may have a chance. Tomorrow evening, I will see two more: a loft in a renovated factory and a 108 square meter place in the same street I am right now that was offered to us in a more direct manner (so no 54 people to compete with). I have a bunch of other appointments for next week still, but I am already starting to lose the overview.... There are lots of nice places! But it's too difficult to choose!!!!

Anyway, after seeing those places tomorrow, I will fly back to Italy for a few days: I am totally looking forward to that!!! Mostly to see Fedor, but also to see Milano, and finally, of course, to go the Licence Office and see whether my driver's licence is already done...........

Tschüß!
Olaf

PS I think it is time for me to admit that 4 years in Italy has been a waste for me linguistically. A week in Germany and I already feel a lot more comfortable having conversations with people, include phone conversations with strangers, IN GERMAN, than i ever did about talking IN ITALIAN on the phone even to people I know!

Ich bin ein Berliner

Well, that is, I am trying.... And not doing such a bad job, I guess! On Monday, I came to Berlin, where I stayed with my friend Dominik for a few days. From the day I arrived in Berlin (mind you, I am not suggesting causality here), the weather has been great. Sunny and getting progressively warmer (22 degrees yesterday), so I have really enjoyed my first days here. I started work on Wednesday, obviously feeling very nervous about that. But it was totally unnecessary: the colleagues are great and very welcoming. We went out drinking (way too much) on Wednesday night, and really had a good time. It's a cool group of colleagues: all are young, and it's very international (American, Argentinean, Dutch, German, etc). And funnily enough, most of the men working there are gay! I am not sure what the heck that is all about, but it's a pretty funny coincedence...

On Friday, I moved into my new (temporary) place. The appartment is about 60 square meters, and it is in one of the coolest neighbourhoods I have ever seen! All renovated old buildings, looooooooots of bars and restaurants, and many trees and greenery. It's absolutely fantastic! Of course, i am still looking for a permanent flat, but if it could be anything in this area, I would be totally happy! This weekend, I have been looking at some flats, but all of them were pretty shit (one was very cute, but in a pretty terrible area of town, so NO). Oh well, there is no hurry!

Yesterday, I also had a chance to meet up with a friend of mine from Groningen, who happens to be living in Berlin as well. And I went to a big dance party in the Kino International: the old eastern Berlin big Cinema complex. Another great feature of berlin: you can go dancing until 4AM and then take the metro home, because the metros actually go all night!

Anyway, I guess you can see that I am really quite excited about everything. I hope to upload some pictures soon...

Tschüß!
Olaf