Hey there, I’m new here.
If you’ve been following this blog as religiously as you ought to be (so many fun bloggers it’s a little overwhelming) you’ll probably notice that this is my first post. But don’t worry, it’s not because I’m a complete degenerate. I’ve actually been blogging from my various ~social media~ accounts, so if you want to keep up with my antics you can follow me on Instagram (@cary.goldstein) or Twitter (@CaryMcGoldstein). Yes that was a shameless plug of self promotion but what is a blog post besides that?
Anyways let’s get to some introductions, from most to least generic. I’m Cary (yes it’s a guy’s name too); rising Junior; from Yorktown Heights, NY; studying History and Economics; non-German speaker; working as a Center Manager at the Norris University Center, and vying to be the future face of Norris; member of the Ballroom, Latin, and Swing Team; poster collector; and avid small-talker.
Right now I’m sitting in a Turkish café in Nollendorfplatz that I can’t find on Google Maps, failing to beat the heat with fellow blogger Haley as we compete to see who can write the better post (she’s winning so far). (Update #1: we’re currently trapped in a thunderstorm that came out of nowhere) (Update #2: I’m soaking wet right now, but at least we made it home)
Somewhere around here
———Break for quick, necessary, uninteresting updates———
German class is going well (s/o to ya boy Herr Benjamin Trivers) it’s like I’m fluent already; the German culture class apparently counts for my History major (#gocats); seen some cool places; visited some interesting museums; met some great people; yada yada yada…
———Break over———
Anyways, this weekend was hot, like v v v hot, and the Germans don’t believe in either air conditioning or screens on windows, so my room is littered with new friends from the natural world. We received an email early Friday afternoon from Ben with recommendations of what to do (he’s 10/10 on recommendations so far) and he suggested we go to the canal in Kreuzberg (the local #hip and #cool neighborhood for people like Ben, who is both #hip and #cool) where the “enviably aimless young Berliners hang out.”
Some hip and cool kids
We decide to go dive a burger joint literally underneath a U-Bahn Station (Berlin’s “L”) that Yelp raved about and had a line that stretched from what seemed like the entrance to the next U-Bahn stop. Unfortunately all the buns were covered with sesame seeds (tragically allergic), so I opted for pizza instead. After dinner and getting a little lost, we finally arrive at the canal, with a grassy knoll more crowded than the Lakefill on that one Thursday in Week 4 this Spring Quarter when the weather was actually nice.
Don’t be fooled by the charming aesthetic
After a bit of wandering, we finally find a spot in between a family with a young kid drawing in a coloring book and a couple holding hands and sharing a cigarette. Perfect spot. A bevy of swans was swimming back and forth, jonesing for some food. Swans are pretty, but don’t be fooled, these things are vicious, fighting each other for the pieces of grass people were tossing them and yelling when they didn’t get what they wanted.
After a while, some fireworks started going off in what was clearly a pre 4th of July celebration, and a group of five of us ventured off to get a better view. Unfortunately for us, we’re in the middle of a city, so any time we turned the corner of a building obstructing our view we were met with more buildings obstructing our view, quite silly of us it seems. After a bit more venturing we found an ice cream store offering €1 scoops. We decided to head home afterwards, considering we had an early start the next morning to go visit the city of Potsdam (see Haley’s post below), and as U-Bahn pulls up to the station, we notice the friends who opted to stay at the canal rather than find the fireworks. Strange coincidence in a city full of strange coincidences (the story of Johnny is for another time). It was a great ending to a great night.