Britt Jordan, NU in Berlin, Summer 2014
It’s our last few days in Berlin and, to take the sting off the sad goodbyes, WE WENT SHOPPING AT PRIMARK! For those of you who don’t know, Primark is the most wonderful place on earth if you love cheap clothing and you don’t mind sacrificing your own personal spatial autonomy.[1] This store is a big deal, even if you don’t like shopping. A girl on our program was talking with two Danish girls who said that they take a train to Berlin every year just for the sole purpose of shopping at Primark.
After swimming my way through the men’s section like a North Atlantic Salmon, I headed to the changing room. With my special brand of stilted German, I told the changing room attendant that I had three things to try on and they motioned me forward. All the rooms were taken except for one that a man was seemingly vacating. I walked towards it and the man yelled something in German at me.[2] It took me a long moment to recognize what he was saying: I have this room on reserve for the ENTIRE day.
Two of NU in Berlin’s finest showing off there hip and cool Primark bags on the U2 nach Ruhleben.
By no means have I ever claimed to be a genius, but I was pretty sure that was not a thing that could be done. I felt like this man was trying to pull a fast one over on me and the rest of the EU. I repeated what he said to me with my skeptical face and a biting tone of harsh realism. He stood his ground, but I stood mine. I said something along the lines of, “other people are waiting; you shouldn’t occupy a room for too long.” As the situation escalated, he gestured to a free changing room that had just opened up.[3]
I begrudgingly took the new dressing room, but I then saw a store manager arguing with the man about the same thing as I was exiting. The U-Bahn ride back to Wittenbergplatz was very sweet, not only because I had enough confidence in my German to stand up for myself, but also because I got a sick raincoat for six euros.
[1] No matter when you go to Primark, it is a madhouse. It is like the entire city of Berlin—no, the entire European Union converges on Alexanderplatz all at once.
[2] Let it be clear that most German people will not yell at you for no reason; this man was a piece of work.
[3] It was lucky for him that the room opened up because he wouldn’t have to feel anymore of my wrath. Lucky for me because I don’t think I could have said anything else to him in his native tongue that wasn’t asking him what his favorite food was.