Chad kauft ein Fahrrad

September 4th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Initialization, Recognizer, Resource Hog No comments

As I’m sure you can imagine from my previous post, the day after Tresor started pretty slowly. I’m grateful that it wasn’t a clear sunny day to start with this Saturday as it did allow me some extra time to sleep in. And sleep I definitely needed after dancing until 5 in the morning. But sleep would have to wait as I had a 1PM appointment today and, unfortunately, had to compound my hangover with the annoyance of my alarm clock buzzing at 11:30AM.

After careful consideration and patient examination of Craigslist ads, I finally found a listing for a good bicycle on Friday. I e-mailed the person and set up a 1PM meeting Saturday to check out and purchase the bike. We set the meeting place up at his end of the city at the Burnauerstraße U-Bahn station near Prenzlauerberg which made it convenient for me since I only had to take two trains to meet him (only about 15 minutes from start to end). When I came up from the station onto the street, I saw the bike with a tall bald guy sitting behind it. He responded to the name Zane so I knew I found my contact.

Zane is quite a nice guy from Australia. Funny, I’ve met more Aussies since being in Germany than any other time in my life. He was heading back home after 2 years in Europe so it was time for his bike to go. And what a sweet ride it is. He’d obviously taken good care of the bike…no rust, no squeaky parts, and everything worked as it should. Here’s a rundown on its features and design:

  • You may call this a “city bike” since it’s not meant for speed nor is it meant for off-roading. I was specifically looking for a bike of this type since the rider doesn’t have to lean forward as much when riding which can fatigue the neck and arms. Instead, you sit more upright, kind of like a beach cruiser.
  • It has nice wide tires like a mountain bike. Though I won’t be hitting any trails with this, these wide tires are much more stable in a city that has cobblestone walkways and streets and all sorts of other nooks and crannies to navigate. A thin street tire might get stuck or slip while these tires will go right over.
  • The seat is spring-loaded for comfort. This is especially important when considering all the cobblestone I just mentioned, above.
  • It is a 7-speed bike with a twist-grip shifter. While there aren’t a lot of steep hills in Berlin, there are a few here and there and being able to shift gears is helpful (many bikes here only have 1 gear). The twist-grip means you don’t have to take a hand off the handles to shift–you just twist like throttling a motorcycle. Simple!
  • It has front and rear lights powered by a dynamo. The dynamo is turned by the rear wheel so the lights come on while you pedal and there’s never a need to buy new batteries!
  • It has mud guards and a rear carrying rack. As a bonus, it even has a chain-guard.
  • It also came with two locks: a big, beefy chain lock to go through the frame, front tire, and whatever structure will hold the bike, and a second locking mechanism that prevents the rear tire from rotating.
  • Price: 140€

After a quick test drive, I made the purchase. I then consulted my trusty Google Maps on my iPhone to figure out where I was and how far away I was from home. Many people will take their bikes on the trains, trudging them up and down the stairs in the station, but I decided that I would ride back instead. According to the map, it was a 6km ride.

By now, the sun was out, the air was cool, and it was an excellent day for a bike ride. I saw that Google Maps was navigating me through Alexanderplatz, so I just headed towards the TV Tower until I arrived. The place was definitely bustling with people enjoying the sun, but I didn’t have any shopping to do here so I continued onwards. My route took me past the Alexa Shopping Centre and eventually over the river Spree. I ended up on Köpenickerstraße which is the street where Tresor is located. Sure enough, I ended up passing Tresor and stopped to look at the sign posted out front. And guess what I saw?

Der Dritte Raum is performing on Saturday, 18 Sept! That’s two weeks from today. Holy crap! This is so fantastic! I’d never see Der Dritte Raum back in the States, and now I only have to walk (or bike) a kilometer and I’ll be able to see him live at Tresor! I put the date in my calendar right then and there.

Elated, I continued biking onward and made a stop by the Netto market to pick up a bit of food and some laundry detergent. I then headed down to the Sparkasse to use the ATM. But this was no ordinary ATM transaction. I did not need cash. What I needed to do was to transfer money onto my Geld Karte.

What is a Geld Karte, you ask? Well, in Germany (and probably all around Europe) your bank card has what looks like a SIM chip embedded on the front. It still has a magnetic stripe on the back like a regular credit card–the stripe is what the ATM uses to identify your bank account. However, the SIM chip on the front is basically an electronic purse. When you put money on the SIM chip, you can debit money from the SIM chip without the retailer needing to communicate with your bank. It turns out may vendors (and vending machines) use this system so it’s really important to have it. And since I just got my bank card on Thursday, it was time to use it. And just in the nick of time, I might add: The laundry machines in the basement of my apartment building do not take cash–they only take the Geld Karte! I therefore have collected over two weeks of dirty clothes–everything I’ve worn since arriving in Berlin–and I’m almost out of clean stuff to wear. So, after a super-party night at Tresor on Friday, the rest of my weekend is going to be spent doing loads of laundry. Finally!

After figuring out how to navigate through the German on the ATM, I loaded up my card with 20€ and headed back home. The apartment has a bike room in the basement, so I took my bike down there to keep it safe. Before I did, though, I took some pictures. Here it is!

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Tresor

September 4th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Game Grid One comment

This post goes out to my friend, Sean Sutherland, without whom I probably never would have known about Tresor, much less have had any interest in electronic/techno music. In a way, my being here in Berlin is his doing as the music he laid on me back in high school has shaped my artistic endeavors and career ever since. I remember it very clearly. He went on vacation (I believe to Seattle…OK, maybe it’s not that clear) and returned to Colorado with two very important CDs. The first he let me hear was called “Techno Mancer” which was a compilation CD of Belgian Techno music, many of which were penned and produced by the guys responsible for Praga Khan and Lords of Acid. I took to this CD first–it was really high-energy and made use of “breakbeats” in a way that I totally loved.

The second CD, however, was a slow burner. I did not take to this one immediately as it turned out to be a bit of an acquired taste for me (especially since I was jumping into Techno after being a huge Jazz fan up until that point). It was called “Berlin 1992: A Tresor Kompilation — The Techno Sound of Berlin.” Unlike Techno Mancer, this CD had a much more raw and minimal sound to it, and I am still in awe of how relevant those tracks still sound today. “Drugs Work” and “It’s Anything You Want It To Be, and It’s a Gas” are two that still kick my ass to this day.

What I discovered is that Tresor was not just a record label that put out Techno music, it was actually a dance club in Berlin. In fact, it was a dance club before it spawned off its own record label. This club was built in the vault of an abandoned department store (Tresor literally means “safe” or “vault”). When I made my first trip to Berlin in 2005, I made sure I got to see Tresor. By this point, it had become a virtual Mecca for me. This legendary place that spawned all this insane music that I loved. So it came as quite a surprise to me on that trip that Tresor was going to close. It turns out that, through luck or fate, I happened to be in Berlin the very last week of it’s operation. I got to see the location that was legend before it became no more. And, yes, I had an amazing time. It was one of the first times I was at a club and actually recognized the songs that were being played…songs that I had in my own collection. It was fantastic.

Though that Tresor location closed, Tresor did not die. It was reborn in Kreuzberg at a location a mere 15-minute walk from my current apartment. And that was the ultimate destination last night.

But before I got to Tresor, I went to another spot called Hotel Club at 10PM. Jim at work mentioned that Jesse Terry of Ableton, a guy I knew from the biz, was going to be performing there. It worked out perfectly because we planned on going to Tresor at midnight to see our NI workmates, Klein und Meister, do a two-hour DJ set. So I got to enjoy Jesse’s funky downtempo beats mashed up with 50′s music before moving on to Tresor.

Jesse Terry, aka Adult Situations, performing at Hotel Club

Yeah, I know…it’s a bad picture again. But this is what clubs are like in Berlin (so far): they’re dark with minimal bits of lighting here and there. Hotel Club had a disco ball, a tiny video projector illuminating the wall, and a few candles here and there. That’s it. Cool vibe, though, fun people, and cheap bier.

By the end of Jesse’s set, a number of people from NI had congregated at Hotel Club, so we hung out a little while then caught a cab over to Tresor. Since we were going to see our workmates, most of us were on the guestlist. Not only did that increase the totally-cool factor, but is saved me 13€ in cover charges! We got in then started heading down this long cement corridor…

I should probably stop for a moment and explain that I’ve never been to a “clean” club in Germany. When I talk about clean clubs, I’m referring to the places back in Colorado and Los Angeles where there is proper lighting and ventilation, decent restroom facilities (often with a guy offering you towels, mints, and colognes), in a well-maintained building. Not so in Germany. Every club I’ve been to here is encased in concrete with paint peeling off the walls, minimal ventilation (exacerbated by all the cigarette smokers), disgusting restroom facilities (though not as bad as the most horrible toilet shown in the movie Trainspotting), with only a few exits…a setup that would never pass approval in the US as far as the fire marshals are concerned.

Tresor is no different. In fact, it may be the epitome of such clubs. Even though it’s in a new location, it’s still underground in what looks to be an old vault. The corridors twist and turn, the ground is uneven, and there are bars everywhere. And when I say bars, I’m not talking about alcohol. I’m talking about those round metal things like in a jail cell. The DJ booth happens to be set up behind one set of these bars.

When we got there, Klein und Meister had already started their set. And it was loud. Thankfully, it was not distorted or overdriven in anyway so the loudness didn’t wreak as much havoc on the ears as a distorted system would. Due to the odd shape of the place and all the alcoves here and there, we did have opportunities to get out of the way of the sound and have conversations. But that was only at the beginning while we were having biers. The majority of the night was spent on the dancefloor. I don’t know how many biers I drank or how many shots of Jägermeister and scotch I did, but I’m sure I burned it all off as I danced my ass off for nearly 4 hours straight.

The key to all of this was the music. Never before have I ever heard this kind of music at a club–definitely not in LA. The LA scene seems to be dominated by hip-hop and trance. I’ve never encountered this kind of relentless minimal tech in a public place before, especially for such a long time. Sure, there may be places in Detroit where this kind of music is played, but I never lived there. And now here I am in a city that embraces this kind of music. I’m now starting to feel at home. And what’s even more fun: I know know what Tresor looks like from the DJ booth. I got to go back there and snapped a picture of all the Native Instruments gear being used during the Klein und Meister performance.

NI Traktor software, 2x Knotrol X1s, and Maschine all being used together!

We didn’t end up leaving the club until 5AM, yet another thing that wouldn’t have occurred in the US. By the time I got home, there was already light in the sky. Thus concluded my first club night in Berlin. What an exhilarating success!

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Dragonboat Race and Lola Rennt

September 4th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Game Grid, Recognizer No comments

Berlin is turning out to be a pretty fun place. These volks like to have a good time, and Friday was an excellent example of that through Dragonboat races that occurred between various companies in the Berlin area. Native Instruments had their own team called the Dragon Slayers. I heard Ableton had two teams of their own. I don’t know what other companies participated, but it doesn’t matter: Native Instruments won the championship! This is the second year of the Dragonboat races, and NI won the previous year, too. So their record is currently unblemished. NI dominates! Maybe next year I’ll get to participate, especially if I’m able to loose some weight by then and not drag the boat down.

The races took place on the river Spree which happens to pass right behind the NI offices. I was able to walk back to a dock at the rear of the complex and watch some of the heats (though they were happening on the other side of the river). Here’s a picture of the fabulous view from where I stood:

The Spree, Oberbaumbrücke, and Fernsehturm on a beautiful day.

Yes, I really need to get myself a better camera soon–the iPhone 3GS isn’t cutting it anymore. Maybe my iPhone 4 will be better but, if not, I’ll probably have to pony up some Euros to get something nice. And not a Sony, either…the last two Sony cameras I bought had horrible image quality.

Anyway, for those of you who have seen the movie Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt in German), the Oberbaumbrücke (the bridge in the image above) is featured in one of the “running scenes” from the movie. I was told this by one of the marketing guys while we watched the races. It’s funny because I did sense a strong familiarity when crossing that bridge my first time in Berlin. There’s also a corner at the bottom of the bridge that seemed strangely familiar. I’ll have to go back and watch the movie again, but I’m quite sure that corner is also shown in the movie a few times. Very cool!

By the way, if you haven’t seen Run Lola Run, get yer butt down to Blockbuster or get it on Netflix. It’s a totally great movie and the soundtrack is superb. Don’t worry, even though it’s a German film, the English overdub is excellent.

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Die Küche und das Badezimmer

September 2nd, 2010 · Chad Carrier · System Idle Process 5 comments

After seeing pictures of how I’d squeezed my belongings into the single room of this apartment, Jason asked if there were any pictures of the kitchen or bathroom. Yes there are, right here:

The kitchen is quite modest. Only the bare minimum of what’s necessary to survive. Here you’ll find a stove, an oven, a refrigerator (which fits below the counter), a sink, a coffee maker, a water boiler, a set of dishes and silverware, a pan, and two pots. That’s right: no microwave. Fail #2! (Fail #1 is the lack of Internet here). The stove works fine, but the pan is as cheap as they come and does not have a non-stick coating. The oven is tiny and probably will not be used by me. The refrigerator is fine, though, as it’s the same kind of under-the-counter fridge I had at my place in Whittier for years. And while that was somewhat unusual for the US, it’s quite the norm here in Germany. I think it has to do with the fact that space is limited and there are grocery stores everywhere (so you don’t buy tons of groceries to last for weeks, you just buy enough to last a few days).

But there’s also something else quite strange here: Germans don’t refrigerate a lot of the same things we do in the US. The one that really messes with my head right now is milk. When you go to the store here, the milk is sold in boxes that are just sitting in the aisle. No refrigeration. It’s the same think at work–palettes of milk at room temperature. What? Not at my place. The milk goes straight into the fridge as soon as I get it. I don’t want it to get funky on me.

So there’s not much to see in the kitchen, but the bathroom is a little more interesting. I included a picture of the hallway (that goes between the front door and the door to the main room) so you can see the entrance to the bathroom. The bathroom is tiny, so I had to shoot multiple pics from the doorway and corners.

The toilet, thank goodness, is not one of the “shit shelf” types that I encountered in Bremen. It’s still German in that there’s only about a cup of water down at the bottom, but at least you don’t leave a steaming smelly load reeking up the place with this one. Still have the same 4-ply toilet paper which I still believe is just a roll of paper towels sliced into thirds. No Charmin for these volks.

Opposite the toilet is the shower which merely sits a half-inch lower than the rest of the bathroom. There’s no special porcelain for the shower, just the same tile with a drain at the bottom. And as you can see, it’s got one of those hand-held shower head things. Perfect for giving your undercarriage a “how’s-your-father.”

The sink is nice and large, and the mirror opens up to many compartments. But the coolest thing of all is the “towel rack.” As you can hopefully see in the picture, the towel rack is not just a towel rack. It’s actually the radiator for the bathroom. It’s plenty warm in the place right now so the radiators are not on, but I do hope that I do get a few opportunities to dry off using a hot towel that’s been hanging on the radiator. I imagine that would feel really good. I’ll definitely be looking for one of these when I find my permanent apartment.

So that’s it! A tiny place. Basically feels like living in a bedroom the whole time.

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Step 2 Complete

August 30th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Initialization, Resource Hog 3 comments

Part 2 of all the governmental requirements is now complete. I have my work permit that will allow me to stay in Germany as long as I have a job.

I had to leave the apartment at 6 this morning in order to pull it off and it thankfully went without a hitch. I got lucky, though, since I didn’t know I would owe them money for the permit (it didn’t surprise me, really, but I did not know that I had to bring a specific amount of money with me). Fortunately, my German was good enough to understand what the lady was saying. “Funfzig Euro”. That’s 50€. Thank goodness I had that in my wallet, otherwise I would have been completely screwed. It’s fortunate that I still had that much left after my shopping extravaganza on Saturday.

It only leaves me with about 7€ in cash now. But I think today is payday so I should be alright. Next up: getting my Tax ID card. Once I have that, I think all government requirements will have been met and I’ll officially be on the German health care system!

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One More Month

August 29th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Resource Hog, System Idle Process 5 comments

The plan from day one was to move into a temporary apartment that would provide easy access to work but would also allow me time to check out the city and locate a proper apartment that suits my needs. That’s still the plan, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to be making the move to a new place as quickly as I’d anticipated for a few reasons.

The most prominent reason is money. The fact I had to pay German Customs a deposit of over 2.500€ has put a huge delay on my capabilities for finding a new place. I’ve been searching for places online and most of them need huge deposits in the range of 2 or 3 months of rent. That means I probably need to have at least 2.000€ on hand in order to move. Until I get my money back from German Customs, I won’t be able to do that.

I won’t be getting my money back from German Customs until I have my Tax ID card. That’s step 3 in the German Bureaucracy that I’m going through right now, and I hope to complete step 2 (the work permit) tomorrow morning. Once I have my work permit, it will simply be another trip back to the Bürgeramt a few doors down from work, but I don’t know how quickly they provide the actual card. Maybe it’s like the California DMV where they at least give you a temporary ID–a piece of paper with the number printed on it–until the real one arrives. Maybe there is no “real one” at all–perhaps this Tax ID card is just a sheet of paper and that’s all there is to it.

But even if I did get my Tax ID card on Monday after obtaining my work permit, I still don’t know what I’m going to have to do with German Customs in order to get my money back. Can I send them an e-mail with all my info and my bank account information for them to make the deposit? Do they prefer to issue checks and how long will it take to process? Do I actually have to go to the Customs office in person? If so, where the hell are they? The bank they used for the wire transfer was in Cologne…do I have to go there?

Because all of this is still hanging in the balance, and because NI only pays monthly at the end of each month, I think I’m going to be staying here at this tiny apartment on Zeughofstraße for another month. It’s only 527€ which is totally affordable, though not the greatest value considering what I’m getting for the money (or, to be more specific, what I’m not getting for my money. Can you say “Internet”?). But since I’m already here and didn’t have to make any deposits, it will be easy to just pay another month’s rent. Actually, come to think of it, I haven’t paid any rent yet since I arrived. I wonder if that means you pay rent at the end of the month for the portion you used? Since I only got here on the 17th, it stands to reason that my first rent payment for August should only be about half. Is NI paying my rent at which point I must reimburse them?

I’ll find out tomorrow–it’s the last Monday of the month and I was told that NI pays their employees then. Though I don’t have everything put together for them to pay me the normal way, they will still pay me cash as if I was a freelancer. Since I started work last Monday, that should equate to 7 days pay (the 5 days last week and the 2 days remaining this week in the month). It will be interesting to see if that’s just a prorated amount of my gross salary or if they still manage to pull out all the taxes. If they don’t pull out taxes (and maybe they can’t while I don’t have a Tax ID card), then this first payment may actually be pretty good. But I may have to give it right back to them to cover my rent. We’ll see.

Either way it goes, I have no confidence that I will be moving out of there on Wednesday, September 1, so I’ve decided to make the best of my current place and “settle in” a bit for the month ahead. If you saw my previous post of the apartment filled with boxes, you’ll know that this place is definitely small. The main room is roughly 4 meters by 4 meters and already holds a couch/bed, a desk, a table with 2 chairs, two small tables that sit in front of the couch like a coffee table, an entertainment center, and a padded chair. But after some careful packing and stacking of boxes, I’ve managed to clear out the space and utilize it in a way that feels good for now.

I have set up a “mini studio” on the desk in the corner next to the entrance hallway (that contains a closet and the entrance to the bathroom). I’ve stacked a number of boxes behind that door so they’re basically out of the way. I’ve moved my computer from the desk over to the coffee tables. Since watching the supplied TV is useless until I learn German, this puts my computer right in front of the couch/bed allowing me to watch movies and TV shows that I have on disk. I’ve also stacked six boxes in the corner next to the couch/bed so they’re out of the way. I’ve placed some more boxes on the shelves of the closet unit that’s in the hallway–the remainder of the boxes are stacked next to the entertainment center on the way to the kitchen. This leaves the table free for eating or other needs. And the floor area of the apartment is now wide open!

While I was originally considering getting a 3-room apartment so I could have separate rooms for the living room, bedroom, and studio, I’m now starting to think that I may be able to get away with a large 2-room apartment instead. Though it was 17 boxes that I brought with me, you can see that they don’t necessarily take up a lot of room. This at least increases my options when looking for apartments. It might offer me more flexibility with location and cost.

Now that the hard work is done, I may spend the rest of the day testing out the thickness of these walls with my speakers. I haven’t heard music from any of the other apartments and I don’t know if that’s because this building was built to withstand nuclear attacks or if people just haven’t been listening to music loudly or with much bass. But if the walls are thinner than expected, I’m sure I’ll meet my next door neighbor soon enough.

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Berlin Walkabout

August 28th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Recognizer, Resource Hog 2 comments

Today is Samstag, aka Saturday, and it happens to be my first full Saturday in Berlin (as you may recall, I was in Bremen last week). Today was an important day because it represented my first opportunity to get some necessary shopping done. Stores here in Germany keep the most annoying hours–they’re basically the same as my working hours during the week. And most stores are completely closed on Sonntag (Sunday) as well. So I had no choice: Shop today or wait another week.

Today also represented my first day using Berlin’s public transportation completely on my own with nobody telling me any shortcuts, what train lines to use, interpreting the ticket machine, or pointing me towards any of the stations. My success was due entirely to my iPhone. Since I finally got a SIM card for T-Mobile on Friday (thanks, NI!), I’m now able to use the Internet on my phone again. That means Google Maps and, paired with the iPhone’s GPS and compass, it gave me all the information I needed. Oh, and I also used a free App called Tube: Berlin City to plan the routes through the S-Bahn and U-Bahn systems.

My main destination for the day was Alexanderplatz, a place shown quite often in Berlin tourist info. It’s most notable landmark is the Fernsehturm (television tower) which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city, being the tallest structure in Berlin. There’s an observation deck and rotating restaurant up in the sphere–I will have to check them out some time in the future since the tower was not today’s destination. Instead, I was heading out for the mega shopping complexes that are at Alexanderplatz. Alexa Shopping Centre, to be specific, because it contains a Media Markt which is probably the closest thing to Best Buy in Germany. So I headed out at 11AM to the U Schlesisches Tor station which sits almost half-way between my apartment and Native Instruments. Thanks to the Tube app on my iPhone, I knew I had to catch the U1 towards Warschauer Straße which was only one stop away over the river Spree, then catch one of four different trains which would all go to Alexanderplatz before diverging towards their separate destinations. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but I only had to wait about two minutes for the second train to come along once I got to Warschauer Straße. I hopped on and rode it three stations to Alexanderplatz. When I walked out of the station, here’s what I saw:

Pow! It's the Fernsehturm, aka "Toothpick", silhouetted against the grey sky.

I had obviously made it to the right place. But where was Media Markt? I whipped out the iPhone, pulled up Google Maps, and typed in the name. Voila! Walking directions appeared, and I was only two blocks away. I started heading up the street as directed but, before I found Media Markt, I found Saturn which is evidently Media Markt’s biggest competition (or vice versa). I decided to go into Saturn instead and managed to find almost everything I was looking for: a pack of cheap AA batteries (for my wireless mouses), a pack of cheap C batteries (for my TB-303), two 9-outlet power strips (a combination of 3 Schuko sockets and 6 Europlug sockets on each), and a 3-meter extension cable with a Schuko plug and socket on the ends. I was unable to find a simple 9V adapter so I could run my TB-303 on wall power, so I’ll have to find that elsewhere (probably online once my Sparkasse debit card shows up). I wandered through the rest of the store (all three levels) to get a sense of what was there. Same stuff as Best Buy and, much to my dismay, basically the “same price” as things in the US. What I mean by that is that something that costs $49 in the US cost 49€ here. When you convert 49€ to US Dollars, that’s about $62.29! So consumer electronics are more expensive here…bummer. I was also appalled by the prices of their flat-screen TVs: a modest set will run thousands of euro. I was used to seeing pretty large sets sitting near the entrance to Best Buy that were between $499-$899. Maybe I haven’t found them yet, but it looks like I’ll be forking over a bunch of dough if I have to buy one of these myself (in the event I don’t find a furnished apartment that already includes one).

I’d had enough of Saturn, so I left and started looking for stores that would satisfy the other needs on my shopping list. I still needed towels, a backpack, a wallet, and a kitty litter box with scooper. As I hunted around the building that housed Saturn, I finally saw where Media Markt was across the street–at the Alexa Shopping Center. Off I went and entered a 4-story mall that was crawling with people. I guess I wasn’t the only one who needed to get all their shopping done this Saturday. Media Markt was right by the entrance so I decided to head in to see if they may have had the elusive 9V adaptor I wanted. I was quickly stopped by an employee because I was carrying a bag–he gestured towards some lockers where I was to put my stuff if I was going to walk around their store. I went over there, but couldn’t figure out how to work the lockers. I honestly think the free lockers were all broken–I don’t think I was completely inept. So I decided to leave and explore the rest of Alexa.

Alexa is a trendy place. It’s got all of your hyper-fashion stores there, places where I’d probably never shop in my life even if I had the money. I walked around each floor to make sure I knew what was there and didn’t miss anything. They evidently love Esprit. I think I walked past 4 different stores that were all variations on Esprit one way or another. Something I didn’t expect there: Build-A-Bear Workshop. It seemed rather American amongst all the other stores, but I guess the whole concept of mass consumerism is pretty American to begin with so I shouldn’t have been horribly surprised.

I finally came across a store called Top Two. I don’t know why it was called that, but I quickly saw that it was the place to get a backpack. I must have rummaged for 45 minutes through that store looking for something that would suit me. I ended up getting a backpack for 50€ that I probably never would have got back in the States, simply because my requirements are different now. The way I see it, without having a car, the backpack is the equivalent of a trunk. It’s the trunk of a pedestrian. It’s the trunk of a bicycle. And, dammit, I want to be able to hold a lot of junk in my trunk. The backpack I chose has two really large pouches that make up the bulk of the bag. This will allow me to carry my work items (laptop, power supply, etc.) and also have plenty of room to fit groceries on the way home from work. What’s also cool is that both pouches cinch up at the top and are made of waterproof nylon, so everything inside will stay dry if I’m out in the rain (which has been more often than not, lately). It’s not very stylish, but it’s extremely functional and didn’t cost an arm-and-a-leg.

Before I left the store, I also found a wallet because I have discovered a frustration with Euros that I simply cannot handle anymore. There are three factors at work here:

  1. The Euro paper bills are all different sizes. I’m sure this was intended to allow a person with vision impairment to figure out what amount of money they are handling–the bigger the bill, the more it’s worth. But this creates a problem in that I cannot stack the bills all together and fold them in half to place nicely in my front pocket. Every attempt to do that has resulted in a complete mash of bills in my pocket. Instead of pulling out a nice, clean pack of bills, I pull out fists of wadded cash like an 8-year-old.
  2. The 5€ note is the smallest bill they make. 1€ and 2€ are coins. This means I’m walking around with more metal coins in my pocket than ever before. This is exacerbated by the fact that I want to be quick at the cash register, so I don’t waste a bunch of time trying to sort through all these weird coins to get exact change. Thus, even more coins go in my pocket every time I partake in a transaction. I’ll obviously learn the coins soon but…
  3. The humidity here makes it difficult to get my hands in and out of my pockets. If I stick my hand in to find some coins, my pocket will usually pull itself inside out when I remove my hand therefore dumping the entire contents of the pocket all over the ground. This makes me want to use coins even less!

I noticed a bunch of people around here have wallets that also have zippered or Velcro coin pockets on the side. That allows them to whip out some bills and easily see the coins they’re carrying. It keeps the bills neat, too, so that’s what I got. As you may have deduced from the above, I never carried bills in my wallet back in the US. I always carried them in my front pockets. My wallet was basically just a card holder for my driver’s license, debit card, business cards, etc. So I now have to get used to a big bulky wallet in my pocket. If it drives me nuts, I may have to invest in one of those over-the-shoulder bags I see some guys carrying around. We’ll soon see.

So I’d succeeded in finding the majority of the electronic items I needed, plus the wallet and backpack, and even stumbled across a book store that had a few books in English. And they happened to have exactly what I was looking for–better than what I was looking for, in fact: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–A Trilogy in Four Parts. A nice fat book containing all four volumes in one. Without any English TV stations or the ability to stream English shows, I guess I’ll have to go back to the printed word.

One thing was still missing: towels. I was totally baffled that, after walking all levels of this mega-mall, I had not found any place selling towels. No Bath & Body Works type place, nor Bed, Bath, and Beyond. No department stores, either. I walked around the bottom floor one more time and did finally find one place that had towels. I found a huge white bath towel for 20€. Expensive, but I really needed a new towel–this beach towel I brought with me just wasn’t cutting it (I’d expected there to be linens at this place like there were in Bremen back in May…I was wrong). So now I have one super-huge towel and it means I can use the beach towel as a floor mat in the bathroom so I don’t have to worry about slipping and falling on the tile every time I get out of the shower.

And the cool thing: Everything I bought fit inside of the backpack. Perfect!

Realizing I was done with this place and that it was approaching 2PM, I went to the food court and had my first Currywurst. Seems to be a bratwurst smothered in curry sauce. It was good, and I had my pommes with mayonnaise instead of ketchup (like a real European).

While all the stuff I’d managed to buy was important, nothing was as important as the last things on my list: The kitty litter box and a pooper scooper. Zoey has been putting up with this tiny cardboard box for the entire time she’s been here and I know she’s been hating it. She’s also been tracking litter everywhere since it can’t keep it in when she digs around in the box. Unfortunately, the grocery stores here are not equipped with anything but food. They have human food, and they have pet food, but they have no “accessories” at all. The market may sell kitty litter, but they’d don’t sell the box to put it in. It’s been damned frustrating. And it’s even worse because I can’t type “Pet Store” into Google Maps and expect to find anything in Germany. I need to type in the German name which wasn’t translating properly on Google Translate.

Fortunately, a website called ToyTownGermany.com had the answer. This website is basically a forum for English-speaking expatriates trying to find their way around Berlin. There was a thread about this very subject and the store name that came up was “Fressnapf”. I typed it into Google Maps and found it…it was not nearby. So I had to hit the train station again and get myself down to Anhalter Bahnhof.

One thing I should mention about the train system: You buy a ticket and it allows you to switch trains as many times as you want over a 2-hour period provided that you’re constantly going in one direction. You can’t, for example, travel 30 minutes one way, spend 45 minutes there, then travel 30 minutes back on one ticket. You have to buy a separate ticket for the return trip. Each ticket is 2,10€ and I’d already purchased one for my journey to Alexanderplatz. But since I’d been at Alexanderplatz for more than 2 hours, I had to buy a new ticket even though I was still traveling away from my place (the same direction as when I’d started in the morning).

To say that I had to buy a new ticket is a bit of a stretch. They sort of run on the honor system here. I bought my ticket, validated it, then stuck it in my pocket and never pulled it out again. Nobody ever checked it. Typically, nobody ever will, but occasionally there will be Kontrolleur who get on board the train and start checking everybody’s tickets. If you don’t have one, well, I don’t know what will happen. A big fine, I presume? Anyway, I don’t really want to find out. 2,10€ is manageable.

After riding 2 trains again, I arrived at Anhalter Bahnhof and used Google Maps again to point me towards Fressnapf. I found it, and it’s just like PetCo or Pet City back in the States. Not only did they have every kind of kitty little box there (ones with domes, ones without, square, triangles, you name it), they also had all the toys, scratching posts, and every type of food imaginable. The kitty litter boxes were all on the top shelf, and I managed to use charades to ask the lady working there to get one down for me. I also said “Wo ist scooper?” while making a scooping gesture and she pointed me towards the slotted shovels. Yay! 6€ and I was out of there with the scooper in the backpack and the kitty litter box in hand. Yeah, I had to walk around carrying that thing until I got home.

Getting home was a little tricker at this point. I ended up going back to Anhalter Bahnhof and catching the same train I was on before (so I didn’t buy a new ticket), and took it one stop to Yorckstraße. I then switched to another train which took me one stop to Möckernbrücke. I then switched again and took the train 4 stops to Görlitzer Bahnhof which was one stop short of Schlesisches Tor where I started my day. It turns out my apartment is half-way between the two stops, so I decided to try the walk from the other direction. When I made it back, it was almost 6PM. I’d been out almost 7 hours doing my thing. Amazing how much time it took. But it was a success. No goof-ups on the trains at all. I’m quite happy about that.

I think Zoey is very happy now with her new box. I’ve also started moving some things around here to make the place more livable now that I got those few essential items I’d been missing. Tune in tomorrow to find out what happens to my apartment as a result of this venture!

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Doin’ the Nasty

August 26th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Initialization, Resource Hog One comment

So today kind of sucked. I got a lot done, but it wasn’t very fun, and there was one tremendous fail along the way.

Today started out at the ungodly hour of 8am. Today was the day to go to the Ausländerbehörde to get my work permit. This permit is what will allow me to stay in Germany indefinitely (as long as I have a job) as opposed to getting kicked out after my three-month visitor’s visa expires. Unlike the Bürgeramt which was a 2-minute walk from the NI offices yesterday, I basically had to get to the other side of the city today. This was my first ride on the S-Bahn, and this particular line goes in a circle around the whole city. I started at the east side and ended in the west. I had to meet the HR manager of NI at the S-Bahn station at 9am which was a 30-minute walk from my apartment. I’m now really itching to get a bicycle.

After riding the S-Bahn around the city, it was another 15-minute walk to the Ausländerbehörde. When we got there, we gave the lady my passport, the registration paper from yesterday, and the employment contract from NI. We then waited DMV-style for our number to appear on the board. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long. Unfortunately, we were told that their computer systems are down. FAIL! So now I have to do the whole thing again on Monday: walk all the way to the S-Bahn station, ride it to the other side of town, take another 15 minutes to the Ausländerbehörde, just so they can affix a sticker to my passport. What’s worse is that, on Monday, I have to be at the Ausländerbehörde between 7 and 8 am! So that means I need to wake up around 6 am on Monday. Dammit!

On the plus side, I did manage to open an account at the Berlin-Sparkasse which is only one block away from the apartment. It took 2 hours to get it all set up, but it also included liability and home insurance. For 10 € a month, my personal belongings are covered up to 20.000 € which, according to my customs declaration, is beyond the value of my current belongings. And if I cause any accident, property damage, or injury to anyone, I’m covered, too. Are you happy, Mom? I should be getting my debit card by the end of next week. I’ll also have access to the online banking system which is entirely in German. Yeah, I’ve gotta start learning now.

And to top it all off, my apartment is now filled with 17 boxes of personal effects–the very same boxes I handed over to UPS in LA three weeks ago. What a complete pain-in-the-ass that was. I had NI call me a cab (one of the larger vans) and I had to move 16 packages from the NI office on the 3rd floor (which, by the way, is the 4th floor if you’re an American) to the elevator, then from the elevator to the front door, then from the front door into the taxi, then from the taxi to the front door of my apartment building, then from the front door of my apartment building into the elevator, then from the elevator into my 4th-floor apartment (which is really the 5th floor). What could suck more than that? Oh yeah: doing it in the rain! I was drenched in sweat by the time I was done due to the humidity. Totally nasty.

Going Up?

My apartment was already small to begin with but, now with all these boxes inside, it’s quite cramped. Thank goodness I’m not trying to impress anyone yet. But in the words of Sir Isaac Newton: “What goes up must come down.” Yeah…at some point in the (hopefully) near future, I’m going to have to do it all over again. And when I think about it, 17 boxes isn’t so bad when it constitutes the bulk of my possessions (those boxes plus the suitcases that came with me on the plane). I could probably shove it all into a taxi again and do it in one trip. But that’s definitely making me not want to unpack anything at this point. By the looks of some of these boxes, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pack them again if I open them up. It might be best to just leave them as they are in the middle of the room. But I have a sneaky suspicion I’ll break open a couple before I move, especially the ones with prime music equipment inside.

Nowhere for things to go.

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Ich bin ein Berliner!

August 25th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · Initialization, Recognizer 5 comments

Government bureaucracy step 1 is now complete! I am now registered with the Bürgeramt in Berlin. They’ve got my address. Of course, they’ve got the address to this temporary apartment where I’m staying. As soon as I find a new place, I’ll have to go back again to update my address. Germany wants to know where I live at all times.

But it’s not just me–everybody in Germany has to do this, citizen or not. It’s like an entire DMV just for changing your address including the assignment of a number and waiting in a room for your number to come up on a screen. But in Germany, this office isn’t open all the time. Today, it had to be done by 1PM.

Fortunately, a co-worker, Sven, was able to come along with me and translate because the lady didn’t seem to know a lick of English. I guess I’ll have to drag him along when I update my address again. Thankfully, it’s a favor that can easily be repaid with a few biers.

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Dead Mice

August 24th, 2010 · Chad Carrier · System Idle Process 2 comments

WTF, Apple?

Not too long ago, I purchased the Apple Magic Mouse. This replaced my Apple Mighty Mouse that I’d been using for a while. Why upgrade? The trackball on the Mighty Mouse kept getting clogged up with junk and would stop working. The Magic Mouse, on the other hand, has no trackball on the top. Instead, scrolling is achieved using touch. That’s right–the mouse has a touch-sensitive surface and can track the motion of your fingers for vertical and horizontal scrolling, as well as navigation forward and back through webpages. Slick.

In preparation for my move to Berlin, I sold all of my Mighty Mouses and just packed up my one Magic Mouse. When I arrive in Berlin, everything was fine–I even took it with me to the NI office last week when I was stealing their Internet. The first day there, I had set up my computer in one of their conference rooms so I would be close to their Wi-Fi box. A group of guys came in and kicked me out for their own meeting, so I quickly packed up my computer and mouse into my M-Audio Studio Backpack.

Upon setting everything up again, I was shocked to find that my Magic Mouse would no longer turn on. The mouse that had worked only moments ago was now dead after being transported one level up in the building. I tried replacing the batteries, but still nothing. There should be a green light that comes on when switching on the mouse. This one didn’t light up at all, and my computer would not recognize it. Crap. Now I have no mouse and must use the trackpad on my computer which is less than ergonomic.

Today, I shared my plight with Sven who works across from me at NI. He agreed that using the trackpad is no way to work, and mentioned that Michael got a mouse with his Mac that he doesn’t like to use. Sure enough, it was another Apple Magic Mouse. He gave it to me, I fired it up, and paired it with my MacBook Pro. Ahhh…it worked great and I went about the rest of my day mousing as normal.

At the end of the day, I packed up the computer into my M-Audio Studio Backpack, turned off the mouse, and placed it into a small pocket on the right side of the backpack. The mouse fits perfectly. I walked to the grocery store on the way home, picked up some cat food and human food, then came back to the apartment. I fired up my computer and pulled out the Magic Mouse and flipped the switch.

Nothing. No green light.

Stunned with disbelief, I swapped out the batteries on this latest mouse. Still dead. Nothing. To ensure I wasn’t going crazy or made a mistake somehow, I found the old Magic Mouse. Yup, still dead, too. I now have two dead Magic Mouses, both of which worked perfectly one minute and were then completely dead the next. The only thing in common: both mouses were placed into my M-Audio Studio Backpack.

I’m now wary of using this backpack anymore for fearing that I might be carrying some sort of sub-space vortex on my back. What the hell inside this sewn arrangement of nylon pockets could be killing these mice? Are these things really that cheap? At $79, I find it hard to believe. And I can’t find any information on the Internet about others experiencing dead mice like this.

So I’m now back to no mouse again. Oh how cruel the universe is sometimes…

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