boring by day great by night:kreuzberg

thurday evening we have free time. I had asked half the class if they wanted to go to kruezberg with me. my room wanted to go back to the hotel, and though t kreuzberg was too dangerous-k i had expected that. qunetin wanted to do something with the guys andcharlotte had to warm up after the cold rain shower this morning. so after a shopping spree through all the shops you can also go to in stuttgart, the two girls i was with decided to go to the hotel. I mumbled something like "meet with cousind" "meet with alice" or something.as we were not allowed out by ourselves, but at that point i had already given up. i fi wanted to go to kreuzberg i would hsve to do that all by meselves. so after a detour in mitte i took the u and s bahn to morizplatz in the middle of oranienstr. in the middle of kreuzberg.

I walked out expecting a colourful pulsating community of international people. I see a scruddgy imbiss, aldi and grey communist era living blocks. but i dont give up yet. If i have learned something about berlin it is that you have to look around a bit before you find the truely cool places. so i continued my hunt for something edible and preferably oriental. I came across a bio store, several turkish pubs, and suddenly stood before a cinema. the "babylon" had heard of it before, as i had conducted some internet research for "off cinemas" which my driving instructor had ranted on about for half an hour. the notice that had stopped me was the following poster:
followed by Spanish OmU 19:30. it was 19:15. I quickly figured that id theoretically have enough time. and almodovar definately seemed to be interresting enough- he is famous enough in the spanish speaking world that no beginners course can pass without his mention. I decided I wanted to have a look. curiosity had won over my foodthirsting stomach.

I entered a corso sized dark red cinema room wiht a good meter distance between the rows of chairs (plenty!) with my becks lemon (common if you break the rules you might as well do it properly). and saw a really good film. I cant explain what made the movie so good from the contenct or the message, its jsut the sort of movie where you pay 7 euros to sit behind a 2 meter giant where you have to twich each time you want to read the subtitles and dont regret a moment.

I jumped out of seat the moment the movie was over- a pity because i actually enjoy watching credits in cinemas, it feels like part of the movie, and gives a bit of time to think and ponder before the world comes back. well i went back to the ubahn and the district was as transfrmed: the lonely frightening bars and restaurants had transformed to lively locations for evening diversion. I was intrigued to sit down, get a strange sounding food and keep my senses open, but due to time constraints I had to adjourn the session to...to? well to when?me at the alexanderplatz on my way back to the hotel after my detour.

we dont want to be upscaled

the rebellion of survival of the suburb culture against the evils of commerce is on

I walk along an absolutely great neighbourhood. Cute cafés, restaurants from all around the world and independant clothing boutiques flank the read. It's cozy, familiar, cool. and not too high priced.
Prenzlauer Berg, "prenzelberg" is a berlin district that has experienced the first stages of gentrification. It has become a hip artsy neighbourhood.It has attracted atention and enough money for renovation, and most importantly it has attracted a mix of sors: od DDR remaining elderly, families, hip artsy students. All the old truely bohemian stores are of course all moved out it already is too expensive for that due to the second wav of gentrification. but the places of commercial exchange, more, of entertainment have an independant enough flair compete with the boring, unimaginative and expensive coffehouse milieu found "unter den Linden". but surely enough gentrification will not end here. estate prices are still nowhere near maximum, especailly so close to the center. the dilemma is born: an indepted city whith over 15% unemployment, a financial crisis, and more. In the middle of the city you nw found a vacant brown feld site. what to do? of course the government is going to take the most logical step: sell and get money.
A 700 people new upper class neighbourhood is now implanted into prenzelberg.
it is a great solution for you, who has the money to buy a flat, send you kids to the private school at the other end of town and boast at the next champagne ball about the flairfull independant district you live in. but mercedes and co. do not really fit in. more money means higher prices, not only in estate but also in cafés, restaurants ect. the living of the "indigenous population" is at threat for they cannot afford the 2 euro more for a starbucks that you can summon on a day to day basis. the original charme of the district is lost. upstriving artists get replacedby the everyday brands, students get pushed away, and once starbucks moves in everything is officially known to be lost to the well to do middle aged population with pseudo coolness and a porsche.
in gentrification a district only as a small speck of light in which it really is cool: when a artist scene has been established, the money starts to flow and themiddle class starts coming. gentrification on the one hand means a better living: better apartments, a nightlife and coffeeculture. on the other hand it contains an inbuilt mechanism of self destruction. so why dont the people just live with it and get out when the prices get too high or when the luxury apartments make them feel like animals in a zoo? well, its their life and culture these people have made for themselves. of course they will defend what they love! (the theme of the other half of the world literature). if not its just a mask to cover up that gentrification has eaten itself long ago.

long time no write

I guess the italy parts never are going to get finished. anyhow I have done pretty uch nothing in the rest of my holidays...well, I did work at the hopital in Esslingen... no internship, it was real work! but other hand, that is not interresting, and eats quite some time too. so now school has started agan and I have spent a week in berlin, on a class trip, which I WILL write about

Italy: Tirrenia and Marina da Pisa

the place I stayed at.
The two small coast towns are quite cute. a typical tourist town center, with overpriced icecream, pizza restaurants, bars and nto to forget those typical dark skinned vendours that sell everything: food, clothing,fake gucci bags, bracelets, everything. but luckily some do not get annoying about it, whilst others dont let go of you, especially if you have shown some sort of interrest.
Appart from the sardine private beaches, the really really really cool thing about tirrenia was the small green WWF protected strip of mediteranean forrest. very cool.
more to come

Italy

I am starting another series of anecdotes of my italy vacation i am currently on. TIs my last day, and I just discovered the internet terminal of the hotel, so i am going to finish at home.
this year I have a short vacation. not viositing 5 countries, no, only visiting 3: holland for IMUNA, switzerland, as a drive through and Italy, near Pisa where I am at this moment.
It was another one of those ad hoc situations. exactly one week ago my parents phoned this hotel they had found online and reserved a room for the night. we got packing, left and found ourselves 650 km furhter south that evening.
the hotel turned out pretty nice, nicer ythan those thing I have stayed in the last few years. no cockroaches like in macedonia or rusty bathtubs, no wood powered heating like in romania and no tiny room giving space for 3 beds and 3 beds only like in slovenia. Dont understand me wrong, I had absolutely nothing against all these hotels, but a nice one is a good change for once.
The little town Tirrenia we are in, is located between the port city of Livorno and Marina di Pisa, where the Arno river flows into the mediterranean sea. It feels like a tourist town, almost a linear settlement along the coastline, though i suppose it only is full of tourists in summer. thats not quite my favourite holiday situation, but it has a nice beach, clear water , sunny weather and gave me time to read my english assignments.
The day trips we took were to Pisa, Florence and today we are going to halt in milano, if we ever get out of here.
that leads me to a last point. my parents. its the last holiday i spent with them, and even though I like my parents and get along quite well with them, there are things that annoy me, the slowness my dad exhibits when he wants to leave the hotel, even to go to the beach, and simply the lack of hanging out with people my age. its awkward meeting people with parents at your back, even more so if you speak good 5 words of the language. but i am here for and with my parents after all and despite all the bitch fighting that occasionally arrises we get along better every day were here.

end of school

an entire year has passed. one more to go. this year the end of school felt completely different again. even though there was this urge to get out, which started even earlier than last year, we did have exams pretty much the last week. this meant that a last push was necessary. and all at once i was studying studying studying and all the sudden...POOF! schools out. I go to IMUNA, which I PGAd this year, I get my report card and i have off. that went way too fast for me, but I think another great problem is that unlike the other years where summer holidays were two months of trying hard to forget as much as possible, so hat our brains are like "squeaky clean sponges" (mr garvey, the mid IB break does not do that fr me. I cannot let go of school, even though I have been off for two weeks now.
maybe thats because of the homework, I have finished my third and last book for english yesterday, and now "all" I have to worry about are one english essay, one history project my flunked math paper 2 and especially my Extended Essay, all of which are vast (ok, tiny compared to exams but still) parts of my final IB grade.
school should be over, but effectively it is not. Its still the same people, with one exception, the same workload and hopefully the same teachers. we had class the last day and probably are going to continue just where we left off in august. on fluffy "hello welcome to the year stuff" .
Actually i dont want to press the "shut down" button, cuz i know what i do now i dont have to do later, when i want to do other things, like dance, study or sleep.

mnammnammnam

majestät brauchen milchschaum :P