Ich bin Berliner !!!!

Our first week in our new town has been a bit surreal. Given that our new home is still completely empty (our furniture is expected to arrive sometime in mid July), we are staying at the one bedroom furnished apartment that Giuseppe is renting since his arrival here in April. It’s in Charlottensburg, very close to the City center (and to the inexorable Scientology Center…feels so L.A.) such that moving around is painless. 

Obviously, we had to take care of some bureaucracy: open my bank account, get a Credit Card (so incredibly easier compared to what we went through in Los Angeles), and register as new residents.  We went to the Bürgeramt (the resident’s Bureau). It’s mandatory for all new residents and must be done within 7 days of your arrival. Of course the first attempt was unsuccessful since the office closed down as soon as we arrived. At 10:00 am sharp an unsimpathetic lady placed a yellow hand written sign on her door and refused to accept our papers, despite our (futile) efforts to complain. The next morning I was literally the first one to show up at the office and this time things went smoother, despite the language.

Someone told me that everyone here speaks English. True, but only once they are done deriding your attempts to communicate with them in their own language, only after you made every effort to pronounce the few words you know. At that point, still with a hint of mockery on their face and in their voice, they address you with a perfect English and answer your questions. In our case, as soon as we entered the office, we asked: “Sprechen Sie English?”. Very politely the bureaucrat answered that, yes, he does speak English, outside the office !!! Nevertheless, we were able to obtain our Anmeldebestätigung (new certification of residency). Now we officially belong to this city!!!

We took Josh to see the new house and he loved it! Should I be concerned that our neighbor is the Ambassador of Iraq? Not that having security guards and cameras pointed at the street 24/7 is bad, it just doesn’t make you feel comfortable, given the current situation!

We had our very first German dinner at Alter Krug, a Biergarten close by. The beer is served as soon as you sit at the table and there are only two sizes: medium and large! Josh enjoyed his Wiener Schnitzel and, for the first time in months, I saw him devour the entire meal without complaining!

The surprises weren’t finished yet. In fact, after dinner we walked to the nearby Metro station to go back home: from the outside, the U-Bahn station in Dahlem-Dorf, with its thatched roof, shoud be a referral to a traditional northern-German farmhouse (eventhough to me is a clear evidence that the architects, F. and W. Hennings, were avid readers of Goscinny and Uderzo….

The platforms of the station are, ehm, “extravagant”: the artist, Wolf van Roy, from Berlin, clearly had a gaudy sense of humor or perhaps wanted to give his own rendition of the word “metrosexual”. 

Needless to say, I haven’t find anything similar in N.Y. !!!

During the following days, while Giuseppe was back at work, Josh and I did what regular tourists do. We visited some local attractions. We started at the Brandenburger Tor, which was almost entirely concealed by massive music speakers and an immense stage for the celebrations of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. 

Along the interminable Straße des 17 Juni there were hundreds of  stands, selling all types of Pretzels, Knusperstangen, Käse Brezel, and of course beer, beer and more beer. The street is so wide it could easily fit an airplane. In fact, I read that it was used as a landing strip during WWII! It was still empty but a few night after, we saw it on TV completely congested by the immense crowd celebrating the victory of the Germany national football team.

The afternoon was torrid and humid, in contrast with the typical California weather. We found some relief from the heat by walking in the shade of the contiguous  Tiergarten, the urban public park that is located in the middle of Berlin. It is unquestionably a stunning site: we found canals, small lakes, playgrounds all over the area. It’s easy to understand why it’s called the green oasis or the green lung of the German capital, with its 210 ha filled with linden, maples, oaks, plane trees, and chestnuts.  

Our touristic expedition ended, dramatically, at the Siegessäule, aka the Victory Column. 

 
Josh wanted to reach the top to take some pictures. Regrettably, I agreed to climb with him the steep spiral staircase of 285 steps. About halfway to the top, I started panicking and at that point I realized that I had no escape. Doomed at 50 meters high! I had a full blown out panic attack (sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, numbness, hyperventilation, muscular cramps and trisma…). Poor Josh was so startled! He didn’t know what to do! Lucky for me (and for him), someone passed me a plastic bag to breath in and I started to calm down. Josh finally went to the top in order to take some picture. Initially he wasn’t sure he could leave me alone, then he realized that I wasn’t going anywhere, with my hands clenched around the handrail and my eyes shut closed. 

While I was sitting on the stairs, meticulously counting my 7-11 breathing, I had a flashback. It was 1998: Giuseppe and I were in Zion Canyon when we decided to complete the 2.4 miles trail that leads to the top of Angels Landing.  we were hiking on Angels Landing. We passed Walter’s Wiggles and its switchbacks. We were committed to reach the top and get a glimpse of the breathtaking panorama from the Scout Outlook at 5,700 feet. Needless to say, I never reached the top. All I remember are my hands holding painfully tightly the chains that should be used to help you in the last half-mile to the top. 

My dear ex-boyfriend (aka husband) was initially terrified by my reaction. Then, after a while, he regain his calmness and decided that, since I was practically bonded to the chain and I wasn’t going to run away, it was his chance to see the eagle’s nest that is apparently located on the top. Like father, like son!

Going back to the present, about an hour later, with some help from a tourist and my son, I was finally able to return to the base, just to find out that someone had called the ambulance!!!! 

Josh was so embarrassed he hardly spoke to me for the next 30 minutes.

We concluded our adventurous day by having dinner at the Dicke Wirtin, a small restaurant best known for its local cuisine: schnitzel, pork chops, fried potatoes and….Gulaschsuppe for Josh!!!!

We had one more place to visit before heading to Italy: Josh’s new school. It is located just 5 km down the main road and we were able to reach it by bus (20 min drive only!). From the main road we couldn’t see it, so I decided to ask directions to a woman who was walking near us. She told us that we were going in the right direction but that, giving the summer vacation, the school was closed. We told her that our son was going to start in August his 7^th grade and that we just wanted to take a look at the campus from the outside. She turned to Josh and asked him: ”What is your name?” Josh, a little startled by her perfect English accent, timidly replied: “My name is Giovanni Sebastiano”. “Ah, Caire!!!” said her.

My first thought, while staring at my son with a reprimanding look, was: “How on Earth can a perfect stranger know my son’s name? What did he do to be recognized even here? Is this a bad omen?”. It turned out that she was the Secretary of the High School who had handled Josh’s admission package. Such a coincidence…

...such a relief!!

- 10 to Berlin...Hawaii time!

 It’s Hawaii time…and I don’t feel guilty about it. Everything has been done. I managed to complete the renovation of our house (which is now more beautiful and empty than ever!), live in our house as I was in a campsite,

survive through my son’s last days in South Pasadena (which were filled with farewell BBQ, play dates, good bye parties, laser tag adventures, sleep overs...

 and even a week at Camp Fox – Catalina Island), 

complete the entire sets of medical (including a couple of visit to the nearby ER) and dental appointments before moving, 

transfer all the utilities, organize a couple or more trips to the Goodwill Donation center, sit for my USMLE Step 3 exam (which I passed!!!)...

So I deserve some good rest…before having to go through the exact same process in our new home in Berlin.

Our week in Honolulu was simply extraordinary. Sleeping, sunbathing, eating and having fun with my son and my husband is all I did and, honestly, all I was looking for.

While I was busy napping on Waikiki beach, our son took advantage of every possible sport and leisure time he could manage: surfing, paddle boarding, parasailing, scuba diving…(the music in the video is not my fault - copyrights and country restrictions mandate a limited selection of songs):

We are now ready. For the big adventure to begin! 

- 40 to Berlin: Grasshoppers in South Pasadena

Twenty-seven years ago I visited my father in Zinder, Niger, for a couple of weeks. Aside from the beauty of the panorama, the kindness and the dignity of the locals and the breath-taking sunsets I witnessed, I vividly remember the devastating effects of the grasshoppers on the landscape. Nothing was left after their stormy and ferocious passage. Just void, solitude and a giant sense of emptiness.

Yesterday, those images came back to my memory, when I looked around at our empty house...

Our small crew of movers had just finished raiding our house, packing and loading all our belongings. I had just completed labeling all the boxes and making sure that nothing was left behind. Their truck,  filled with our 146 boxes of books, clothes, sport equipment, frames, pots, pans, and TV had just left the driveway.

At the same time, my husband, who had been busy with emptying his office at USC and his daily conference call, had to make a brief (but very complicated) trip to the postal office in order to fill the application for our son’s US passport.

He just came back in time to observe, with much anxiety, the piano movers disassemble, pack and load his grand piano (924 lbs.) in 45 minutes!

Then, at 5 pm, it was all over. We were left with an empty space. Nothing else.

I called my husband and was startled by the echo of my own voice in the house! I though of how much our piano tuner specialist would have loved the home as it is now, so perfect for a resounding piano, with no furniture to stop the music from propagating all around!

I should have been prepared for this, after all this is the 8^th relocation in the past 14 years (not counting Paris), but I was not. I loved this home: this has been the home where we finally lived together as a family, after commuting between Biot and Turin for 7 years. This is the home where our son grew up, made friends…

This is the only home I ever lived for more than 8 years in my entire life!!!! I could finally see the faded color of the wall paint around the furniture, something I have never experienced in my whole life and I looked for as my final ambition.

I realized that the humid drops on my cheeks were not sweat, but tears. It already started a couple of days ago.
I was walking back home with my son from his Hapkido class and we decided to stop for an ice cream at his favorite place, the Soda Fountain. They make delicious ice-cream cones (sugar, not corn syrup, as my son likes to point out)! He sat on one of the high-stools and ordered his favorite cone (chocolate, coffee, fudge, chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry) and all of a sudden he stared at me and said: “I’m going to miss this place!”

True, we will miss it a lot. I was getting ready to immortalize this moment on my camera when, BAM! I started crying. I wasn’t able to stop the tears…. My son was so embarrassed but he understood, he approached me, he leaned over me and whispered in my ears: “Don’t worry, mom! I’m sure we’ll find excellent ice-cream in Berlin!”. So sweet…

We decided to celebrate this moment with a dinner: that’s when we realized that the movers had taken ALL our shoes. Seriously? Yes, we only have some sneakers left! I do hope that this is the only slip in our relocation.

The real big drama occurred this morning when I realized that they took my Espresso maker!!!!

AHHHHH!!! I can leave without shoes but how am I going to survive without coffee? Impossible. Fortunately my American-Italian friend Etta rescued me and handed me one of hers…Bless you, Etta!

Now I know I’m going to make it through!

- 55 to Berlin

Things are moving so fast lately that I barely keep up with everything! 

Lucky for me, I'm more of the hyperactive person, or else I don't know how I could have handled all this...In chronological order, here is a brief summary. 

First, hurray, we sold the little apartment we owned in Culver City. Not exactly the best time for a real-estate sale but it would be hard to handle two apartments from so far away. The only tricky part is that, being Giuseppe already in Europe, I had to take care of EVERY ASPECT of the transaction. So many papers, telephone calls, etc. I’m so happy it’s all over!

Second: my beloved car has been shipped…. 

Will I ever see it again? According to my son, I’ll have more chance to find it at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean than in Berlin. Really? Of course, the same day it was picked-up from the moving company, we watched the movie “Captain Phillips”…. I was not really in the mood for a story about a cargo boat kidnapped by pirates! Anyway, it should arrive in Berlin in about 8-10 weeks, just in time for us to retrieve it from the custom clearance. 

Third: we started our home renovation project…. 

before

after

I know, it sounds a bit ridiculous to renovate our home 6 weeks before you leave but I want to have it ready and new for our tenants. Imagine, you are 9,000 km away and you get an enraged phone call because the cabinet broke down or the water heater is not running properly! No way! Better to fix things before hand. So I had a crew of contractors come in and take care of a few things and I hope everything will be done by the time we leave. It has to be!

Forth: my awesome husband was officially awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Award 2014. Huge ceremony with the other winners, a band, a video…

 

An here is the full length interview: Alexander von Humboldt - Professur 2014

Congratulations, I’m so proud of him!

Last but not least. The biggest and most unexpected good new: our son has been accepted to the JFK School in Berlin, a bilingual public school located 3.5 km from our future home. 

I am overwhelmed with happiness! They initially rejected our application because apparently there is a very long waiting list. Somehow due to a free spot they are now able to offer admission to him! Such a wonderful surprise! 

I haven’t personally visited the school (it was close for Summer vacation last year, during my 5 days in Berlin) but I know it has an excellent reputation. It’s a K-12 school, the curriculum is extraordinary and, on top of everything, the campus is huge, extremely well equipped for sports and so many other extra-curricular activities. 

Of course, it’s a bit far from our house so Josh will have to take a bus (or ride his bike…) to school and back home but we have options: public transportation (direct bus), private school-shuttle, bike… I’m sure we’ll figure out a way.

So far, so good!