Little Lucy

You will find Little Lucy and her cat all over the streets of Berlin, here is a bit of backstory and a link to some more pics:

“Little Lucy, his major character is inspired by an TV-series called: “Little Lucy – Fear of the Streets” from what was Czechoslovakia , which was running on TV in the 70s.  El Bocho found the Little Lucy character in this series too boring so he decided to make her a little more interesting. As a friend of dark humor El Bocho has given her a new hobby: killing her cat. You can find her cat in a washing machine, you can find the cat being cooked as a Kebab or merely being microwaved. Little Lucy’s ideas about how to kill her cat are without limitation and she is always finding new ways to get rid of her cat.” Read more at: http://www.streetartbln.com/blog/street-artist-el-bocho/#more-52

Country Mouse in the City

So I thought I would write a post about the city that I grew up in … but in my research I found a map of the city boundary and found out that I didn't actually grow up in this city. So instead spiralled into a “WHO AM I AND WHAT IS MY LIFE?” journey. However, I will tell you about the teeny tiny city I grew up just outside of (it is officially big enough to be considered a city – but if you tell that to anyone from the big cities of NZ they just laugh at you – not looking at a particular Post-Doctoral Fellow from Auckland who is about to move to Stanford!!!). Invercargill (Maori: Waihōpai), population 53,000 as of 2011, is one of the southernmost cities in the world according to Wikipedia, and I grew up on the outskirts in a suburb called Otatara.

There isn't a whole lot to say about Invercargill really, there is an infamous story from 1965 when the Rolling Stones came to town and played at the Civic Theatre, afterwards (due to an unruly crowd apparently) Keith Richards dubbed Invercargill with the title the ‘asshole of the world’. The only part of this story that I struggle with is that the Rolling Stones actually played in Invercargill!

Though I'm sure this wasn't an affectionate title (apparently the audience pelted the Rolling Stones with tomatoes … *shakes head in shame*) it’s all up for interpretation! For example – you COULD look at it like … the last statistic I read on the topic (thanks to some kind of Durex research project) claimed that only 40% of women try anal sex, which means it is a pleasure only enjoyed by a few, quite like a trip to the asshole of the world! It is not a very common tourist destination, so only a small portion of the population of the world will have had the rare pleasure of taking a trip to butthole-ville [Invercargill]. I’m trying too hard aren’t I?

ANYWAY! The point of this post was actually supposed to be that Berlin is quite different from Invercargill (surprise!). I have catalogued a few of my ‘country mouse in the city’ moments and also just some Kiwi-isms that are difficult to explain to Germans:

how do intercoms/door buzzers work?!?!?

You have to PAY to get into night clubs?!?!

There are SO many dogs in town, I could not be happier about this one – but my dog-envy is growing stronger and stronger!

Trying to explain what you meant when you said “The MIRAX scanner shat itself and I’m not sure why”

My constant use of Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes is sometimes mistaken for me mocking German/Austrian accented English, but really if you have to go into a giant freezer-room how is it not appropriate to say “into ze ice chambaaa” “You're not sending me to the cooler!” and of course “Let’s kick some ice!” but pretty much putting any statement into Arnie’s voice has been a passion of mine for years. Maybe it is mockery? ….

The fact that here it is appropriate to wear a bikini/speedos when you are NOT at a beach .. in NZ that is called wearing underwear in public. (There was even a commercial about it -n.b. togs is kiwi slang for swimming costumes).

In Rehbrücke they turn off the traffic lights after 8pm and on Sundays! Seriously!

Also NOTHING is open on Sundays! That only happens on Christmas day in NZ – and even then SOME places stay open – but I'm starting to think that maybe Germany has it right!

In NZ generally only beer/wine/cider is allowed to be sold in the supermarkets, but in Invercargill specifically no alcohol at all is allowed to be sold in supermarkets. In Germany – not only can you buy hard liquor at the supermarket but they also have the little handbag-sized bottles of vodka and gin etc. next to the checkout where we normally have chocolate bars and candy!

All shops don't have EFTPOS machines!! WHAT? Even stalls at our Farmer’s Markets have EFTPOS machines in NZ! I feel like walking and saying “We can fix this, we have the technology!” I hate carrying cash!

BUT I LOVE LOVE LOVE the public transport, the air-conditioned regional train that I take to get to work and home again on the hot hot hot summer days, how cheap buying food is!! I love the fact that I can buy croissants still warm from the oven with my morning coffee, I love wandering around the city exploring on the weekends, the culture is so rich here! I love the fruit stalls at the Saturday markets, and the Tempelhofer Feld, where there are just people enjoying their free time!

That’s probably enough for now, I have a terrible headache but am trying to keep posting reasonably regularly. Music for this week was Robyn – Body Talk, it was a bit hit and miss for me -but the songs that hit really hit! So I have been thrashing Dancing On My Own, Indestructible, Hang With Me, and Call Your Girlfriend.

Walking tour of Berlin

Yesterday I went on a free walking tour ( http://alternativeberlin.com/subculture-berlin-free-tour ) with one of my new Berlin friends, and it was AWESOME!!! It made me want to get creative, and try out their specialised street-art tour & workshop where you get to have a go at creating a piece of street-art! The main thing I noticed today was how it has changed the way the I see street art, now I am keeping my eyes open for it, trying to spot some of the popular street artists who I now know by name (thanks to the tour), and seeing if I can find any new artists that I really like. Little Lucy was one of my favourites from the tour, you can get Little Lucy singlet tops and hoodies! I WANT!

I am now looking through all the other tours the company offers, there are a few I am interested in :)

A cobble stone set into the sign of a Pharmacy in Kreuzberg, it was apparently hurled there during one of the many May-Day riots.

Street art in Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain

Little Lucy! Love her!

On of J.R.'s pieces in Friedrichshain

This is a close up of one of Blu's big murals in Kreuzberg

Ph.D. trial period complete!

As of next week I will be 3 months into my Ph.D.! That is 1/12th of the way through the 3 years they like to set as the goal finish time! It was a tough week involving some animal experiments on Monday and then an exhausting two days trying to do a solo TECAN run, but I got through it! Despite the fact that I was so shattered on Friday that I actually caught myself googling ‘good things about PhDs’ to remind myself why on Earth I am doing this! Though to be honest it never takes much reminding :) I was just pretty tired, and it had been a bit of a hard week with things getting lost-in-translation, which makes me feel really stupid because my colleagues feel like they've explained it perfectly so are not sure why I am struggling, and the absolute LAST thing I want to do is suggest that their English is the problem, because they speak English SO well, there are just sometimes verb tenses that aren’t used the right way, or something just isn't translating in a way that I understand what they mean. I really really hate feeling stupid, it’s mainly down to my Impostor-Syndrome insecurities, no matter how qualified I become I always expect someone to turn around and say “What makes you think YOU are smart enough to be a Neuroscientist!” or “Who let HER in here??” I hope to get past this one day, but have spoken to tenured Professors who still haven't shaken their Impostor-Syndrome - so I'm not holding my breath!

For the next week and a half I am flying pretty much solo, which will be a nice test to see how competent I am after a quarter of a year in the lab! Also it appears as though my Love will be arriving in Berlin on the 9th of August if there are no troubles with the American embassy in NZ (fingers crossed). We should know for sure by the end of next week :) I am struggling to keep my excitement under wraps :)

I have my meeting at the Berlin Foreigner’s Office on Monday to officially apply for my Residency Permit! I will be glad when it is all sorted!! Then it is just University Registration to get through and hopefully then all the paperwork with be DONE!

I finished reading the Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood this week, I really really enjoyed it, more so than Oryx and Crake I think, probably because I related to the females a bit more easily than I did with the Snowman, who looking back after having read Year of the Flood seems pretty pathetic and whiney compared to the females in the Year of the Flood.

IT IS SO HOT. I am mainly living off ice-blocks, I am not built for anything above 30 degrees celsius!

Song for the day: Wye Oak - If Children Were Wishes, my favourite from the If Children album, quite haunting and beautiful.

Friiidayyyyy!

Mouse lollies!!!

It has been a loooooong work week, playing with lab-mice on Monday and doing a bunch of slide processing for the rest of the week! It is Friday nowwww! Just gotta make it until 5! Just get through the damn day!! Saw these lab-mouse lollies and chuckled!

Germany - first snapshots

Some “WOAH” moments in Germany, where you wonder if these are inappropriate to Germans as well. Sexual abuse on postcards, toys for children which are named after boners, porn in museums, some man-on-sheep  worship, and statues showing testicles (I will be mature enough to appreciate testicles on display as art one day .. but it is not this day!. 

Casual nudity in the DDR museum part 1

Casual nudity in the DDR museum part 2

I don't know why I liked this statue so much at Sans Souci - Potsdam

Billboards tackling erectile dysfunction (www. come later .de)

This postcard is called 'The Cold Finger'

Learning more and more about East Berlin at the DDR museum

Things I never thought I would be learning!

This was posted in the toilet cubicles at my work ...

Another classic Sans Souci statue

Down with the sickness.

I was sick this weekend :( spent most of Sunday lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, but was finally able to keep my dinner down, so thankfully it looks like I won’t have to go through the complex challenge of finding a Dr. who speaks English while I am feeling miserable. So, apart from adding ‘find a Doctor’ to my to do list, not much was accomplished this weekend, which is a shame because it was absolutely stunning from what I could see out my window! I managed to go for a run on Saturday morning before the sickness arrived - I am just getting back into it after an injury (January near-death-experience) and a break while settling into Berlin life - so am starting slow but managed to run 2.5km. I am training for a 10km race next year so I have plenty of time to build up my distance but it’s coming along much easier this time around - I believe the hour I spend walking each day, plus my inline skating, has helped make my legs realise they have to work for their room and board!

Being sick made me miss a few things from home, my Love (obvs. more than usual), and my Mama (ditto), as well as grapefruit Frujus, TipTop Thick-as-you-can-buy-it white bread with Margarine/Butter on it (so deliciously plain and full of empty calories mmmmmmm), and my little Rattling named Taco, she always used to hang out with me when I was at home sick, miss her!