Expat Heaven

This past weekend Sweet No and I were visited by Cliff & Sarah of Regensbloggers and Adam of That Queer Expatriate. All of this was celebrated with Berlin local, Yelli and The Scientist of 50% of My DNA.

It was lots of fun to wander around my chosen hometown with people who were willing to explore it with me. I get great pleasure out of seeing others enjoy themselves, and this weekend was no exception. On top of that joy add the experience of chatting with interesting people, enjoying their stimulating conversation, and Adam iPhone fact-checking everything. Although I jest here, I did find the instant access to public transport possibilities quite valuable.

This weekend had me thinking about some things I hadn't considered in a long time. One of those was how "German" I've become in my four plus years here. Things I now take for granted as an Expat who has adjusted, are still slapping others in the face. These folks are still taken aback when a Germ is rude in the grocery store or pushes them out of the way on the bus. I on the other hand am ready to fight them back and manage to somehow be fine and drop the anger within moments, just like the Teutonics.

In the beginning of the weekend I found myself hesitating at red lights with no oncoming cars, eventually willingly going along with the crowd of Expats as they crossed at the red, then soon realizing that I was leading the pack to break the law, pausing only when I realized that there were children witnessing (a major no-no here in Berlin).

I've found myself in an international company which helps me in many ways. Expats from other countries make good friends because they are going through the same thing. Most of the Germans who work in this company have lived and worked in the rest of the world as well, and have had their eyes opened, thus making them more willing to consider friendship than the "never left my home state" Germans.

My new-found addiction to good cheese and fresh bread is strong and sometimes fascinating to a girl who grew up on Wonder Bread and yellow "cheese" slices in individual plastic sheets. But after talking with these folks, I see that this is by no means my experience alone.

The next realization was just how lucky I am to have my own German living at home as a "go to" for questions. Not only the "How do I fill out this three page piece of German bureaucracy at its finest?" situations, but also the "What is it about the whole German idea of sauna culture?", and "such and such called me an 'Ami' as though it was a dirty name... what does that mean?".
(For those needing help, the German bureaucracy nightmare is second only to America... with much less helpful people guiding you through. German sauna culture is basically "nudity is cool, get over it". And an "Ami" is a German nickname for American - with the same tone as calling a German a Kraut.)

Unfortunately the next realization was that my percentage of the German language understood and processed is getting embarrassing when compared against the percentage of my life spent in Germany. Cliff has had a long time love affair with things German, so he does not really count, but other people, short timers, have demonstrated better understanding of the language, and that just makes me feel bad. To make matters worse there is the guilt that I LIVE with a native German speaker, one without accent, I might add. Pure laziness on my part, I suppose. I guess that it is time for me to get my ass back into a learning program.

Been reading:

Germans wake up to extent of Stasi's reach - I think this is going to take a while to heal. When a person learns that they've been spied on by their friends, neighbors, even husbands and wives... this is a hard invasion to just forget about.

Gay marriage battle to return to Calif. ballot - Damn this is irritating, but expected. The vote was quite legal, the people have spoken. I guess this is what it takes to get a complacent group of people off their asses and willing to fight for a cause. Too bad there is no Harvey Milk type person for everyone to rally around. Is there no one with the guts to stand up and fight?

Manic Monday

Ah... I love it when things just seem to go right for me. Over the years I've noticed there are times that everything just sort of works out and other times it all goes to shit. Of course I know that most of the time how well things go for me is in direct relation to the decisions I make. Monday for instance, was one of those days.

Sweet No woke up at 5.45 in the morning. My first thought was, "Should I go to the gym?". My decision was tempered by the fact that my head was still swimming from not enough sleep over the weekend, made worse by a genuinely lazy heart. "Um... no." Rolling over and catching another hour/hour and a half of sleep certainly seemed like the better course of action, and so it was.

At 7.30 I was faced with my next decision. Should I get up now, or skip the shower (come on, I had one at 9.00 last night) and cuddle up to the cat for another 30 minutes? Yeah, you guessed... the cat was unmercifully squeezed until the alarm went off again.

It's 8.00. I must get my shit rolling. The job starts at 9.00 and it is a 25 minute commute in the best of times... and hitting the city at 8.25 is NOT THE BEST OF TIMES. Out the door at 8.20, this doesn't look good. The ground is wet, it's been raining. Damn. You don't have your umbrella. Double Damn. Well, it isn't raining NOW, that is cool. YEA!

Next decision. IF you take the bus leaving at 8.20, you will get to the office at about 9.00. Um, and that is if things go well. IF you take Mimi (the Vespa scooter - yeah, she has a name.... you got a problem with that?), you will hit city traffic at its worst, but get there about 8.45. Oh... and do I hear it? Yes, that is what I think it is... the bus is now pulling out and away from the bus stop. Right on time wouldn't you know it? And I am two blocks away. Bye bye bus, and the next one would get me there late. Oh well, so much for that decision. Alrighty then, Mimi is looking better and better. Of course it COULD be raining between here and there. Um. F**k it. Take a chance.

Hop on Mimi and within two blocks come across cars standing in line... in an area they NEVER stand in line. They are simply trying to CROSS a major street. Whoops, it looks like it will be a VERY heavy traffic day.

No problem for Mimi and I. We just pop out of line and pass the group (yes, in the oncoming lane... no, there were no cars coming... yes I know this is a bit iffy, but you have to know the neighborhood I am talking about to know that this is no problem). The cross street was crazy and it looked as though the problem was the highway interchange. Maybe it had to be closed for some reason, and folks were confused about that. Either way it was a mess and I was happy to be crossing that street, not driving down it.

About eight blocks later I ran into the next problem. Another long line of cars, backed up way beyond the normal locations and blocking the way for me to even see if the highway at the crux of the problem. I skipped into the bus lane (yes, you are guessing right... this is not something people should be doing) to go around the majority of the stopped traffic but eventually had to merge back into the regular lanes because the bus lane ended.

I was now sitting at the traffic light seeing the winding line of stationary tail lights stretch out for as far as I could see. The last two green lights at my intersection moved our line three car lengths and had me considering what my boss would say if she actually beat me into the office (she's always at least 30 minutes late - one of the perks of being the boss). I was giving myself the "you should know better" speech when I heard a scooter approaching my position from behind. I expected to see him in my side mirror, creeping up between the cars... but NO... he was cruising by me quickly on the bike lane! YES, he had jumped off the street and started down the sidewalk-based bike lane to get away from the traffic. Oh baby THAT's the ticket!

At the next opportunity I was cruising down the lane right behind him, it felt just like Amsterdam where the scooters use the bike paths all the time. We passed at least three miles (almost five km) of bumper to bumper, immobile traffic. There is no way for me to express my happiness while speeding past all of those cars. Elation is probably the only word which really fits.

(Now before you think I'm very bad, remember that the skies looked like it would pour rain any moment, and there simply weren't that many bikes out. Throughout our entire little trip, we didn't pass a single bike.)

When the bike path ran out and there was no bus lane anymore, we were forced to get back into the regular traffic lanes although we were very lucky and slipped right in at the front of the line. Thankfully here is where the worst of the traffic jam ended, sweet! As we sat there with him in front and me to his rear I noticed that he was looking in his mirror at me with the most cute look of "ha ha, we did it" on his face. I must have had the same look because may I say I was really feeling it. Then we gave each other the thumbs up sign and at the next green light we cruised off to our respective destinations.

Oh yeah, I made it to work with 10 minutes to spare... and yeah, the subway would have had me there about the same time. But it wouldn't have been as much fun.

"Blame it on the train, but the bus is already there."

Been reading:

• After 60 years, Germans learn to love themselves - A look at a new-found self-confidence in the average German. This is very interesting to me.
• Electric Bikes Gain Speed and Popularity - I could really go for something like this.
• Current Crisis Shows Uncanny Parallels to Great Depression - 1929... 2009. Do we really have to go through this every so often?
• It’s a new era for same-sex rights - Too bad it doesn't do me a damn bit of good until it goes Federal. But it is nice to see the change coming, nonetheless.
• The official White House photostream - Maybe I'm funny, I mean we've all seen news photos of the "goings on" at the White House. But for some reason this seems different, like an intimate peek into the secret world of the President of the U.S.
  

The New Star Trek Movie

People are beginning to ask more and more frequently what I thought of the new Star Trek movie I saw at the premiere in London almost three weeks ago. I suppose it is reasonable to put it down here.

You are hereby warned that I will do my best to not give away the whole thing, and I will not give away major story points. But little quirks which I found pleasing are possibly going to make it into the next paragraphs. If you wish to enter the movie with no preconceptions, read no further until you've seen the movie.

I will start my comments by saying that in my eyes this is the best prequel ever, bar none. As a concept the movie itself is genius. The entire setting is an alternate, parallel universe in which the screenwriters and director are now free to do what they want and play around at will without upsetting the fanboys too terribly. Kirk and Spock meet each other in a completely different way than we learned about years ago while watching the episodes (historical documents - Galaxy Quest reference, thank you). Spock can even have a steamy affair with ... well, I won't give that away... but let's just say it's about time.

The cool thing is that this works. The characters are forging friendships and camaraderie under fire as people we know and love and have been becoming reacquainted with along the way are facing a Romulan threat. The bad guy wants to destroy Federation planets one by one, and he has technology from the future to do it.

The editing, cinematography, and special effects work are state-of-the-art, as you'd expect. The screenplay was obviously written by Trek lovers paying homage to so many of the things we loved about the original Trek.

Yes, we get to see extra, unimportant characters added into an "away" mission only to have them bite it to show that the situation is serious. Yes, we get to hear the "Ah'm givin' it all she's goot, Cap'n," and "Dammit, man, I'm a doctor, not a physicist". Yes, we get references to story lines of the past, the Kobiyashi Maru and Kirk's creative way of passing the test comes out with a different perspective and gives us a chance to see some interesting character development between Kirk and Spock.

The characters we know and love are all here. There are plenty of fantastic performances in this movie. Chris Pine fits very well into my estimation of a young Kirk, Zachery Quinto is a sullen and kind of sad Spock, but Karl Urban is the REAL McCoy! He's taken the performance and vocal quality of DeForest Kelley and made it his own. For me, his scenes were some of the best parts of the movie. I hope that we will see more of him in the future.

One thing I must say simply and clearly... I am... very happy... that Chris Pine decides... NOT... to try to replicate... William Shatner's stupid way of delivering lines. BUT, he does make out with a sexy green alien (would we expect any less?), and he does sling himself into the Captain's chair with the same macho "I'm the king of the world" attitude.

Two events hit me on an emotional basis. The first one was two-thirds of the way through. The camera pans back on the bridge and I suddenly realized with a start that all of the major players are here: a young energized Kirk is here, emotionally stunted Spock, Uhura (played wonderfully by Zoe Saldana - a young lady I first saw in "The Terminal" and hoped she would go on to bigger and better things), Sulu, Bones, Checkov and of course a funnier and much cooler Scotty. All the old favorites are standing up there, fresh and reborn... and I sighed deeply. The next event was the appearance of an older, wiser, and certainly more frail Spock played by (of course) Leonard Nimoy. Ahh... All is right with the world. The continuity is explained and the family reunion with my favorite ST character is complete. Strangely the moment was more emotional for me than I would have thought.

As it was for me in other ST movies, the bad guy and the "threat" are almost insignificant. I am here to visit with old friends, characters I've grown up with, and no matter how scary the situation may look for my old buddies, I know that they will make it through alright... they have to. Paramount most certainly has plans for another movie down the road.

Is the movie perfect? No. The final battle seems like it was cut from a Star Wars movie... a later Star Wars movie. Character, not plot is the strong suit here (but then I and thousands of other Trekkies would have it no other way) and I assume that for it to stand 100% on its own for non Trek lovers, it needs to have a slightly stronger plot. What it did do perfectly was play on the emotions of fans, giving us a family reunion of sorts, a reunion that spans across decades, even generations. Forty years of popular culture come to play in this hard reboot of a franchise... and unlike most other such refurbishments, this one reminds us what we loved about these people in the first place.

Do you have to be a Trekkie to enjoy the movie? Not at all. This is a perfectly good stand-alone movie for all action movie lovers, and especially the sci-fi freaks like me.

Now I want to know when J.J. Abrams and crew will do the same for Next Generation?!

I've uploaded some of my pics from the trip to London.