Back to Berlin (for real!)

Fourteen years ago, I wanted to leave.

Away from the big city. Away from my parents. To be with my boyfriend in the Netherlands.

Off to a new world, all on my own. Studying in a language that was familiar, yet still a bit foreign. In Groningen, which was completely uncharted territory for me at the time.

It took a while, but that brand-new, still unfamiliar little country became my new home. And it still is—so much time later and despite all the political and economic upheavals.

Always lurking in the background: that other home I’d left behind. Berlin. The big, grimy city that, over the years, has often done a complete 180-degree turn on its own axis, only to reinvent itself afterward. I experienced those changes only from the sidelines: a “quick visit” every two months and, here and there, a few weeks longer; that was all I could manage.

Because the Netherlands had become not only home, but above all work, family, and children. And so your minutes, hours, days, and years fill up quickly.

Meanwhile, the list of museums, bike paths, lakes, concerts, and other outings we wanted to experience in Berlin just kept getting longer. While our time was growing scarcer. And so we kept saying that we’d have to come back and live here for a few years if we wanted to do all those things again.

And now it’s no longer just talk.

It’s not a joke, nor is it a plan still sitting in the kitchen drawer.

It’s going to happen.

We’re moving to Berlin.

For a few years. Living, working, childcare—the whole shebang.

In my application letter for the radio and television journalism program, I’d actually mentioned it once: what did I want to do with journalism? Well…maybe become a correspondent in Berlin again someday? See things through the eyes of a Dutch German? Or a German Dutch? That sounded appealing to me—long before I knew what the Dutch media had in store for me.

Now—14 years after I arrived—here we go. Right in the middle of summer. On the day of the European Championship final.

I’m bringing my camera—and my still-unfleshed-out freelance plans, too.

RBB (Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg) will be my first stop on this new path. But other gigs may come along as well.

Until then, there’s still a lot to sort out.

A new chapter, and thus a “new” blog.

Still with the same old, familiar Ulli, who’s looking forward to something new.

But who’s also going to miss the Netherlands a lot.