Category: Blog Posts

So now we have to start thinking about it. Because where are we ultimately going to live in a city with 3.5 million people?

There’s a huge selection.

We could check out the trendy and well-known neighborhoods that are all over Lonely
Planet. Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg.

Continue reading “Step 1: Finding an Apartment”

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.

Continue reading “Back to Berlin (for real!)”

It wasn’t that long ago. I’m shuffling down the hallways here with my bag full of syllabi. I pull out a yellow-and-blue chair at a table in the cafeteria and sit down for a croquette sandwich. Back then, it was still an exotic explosion on my German tongue.

Behind the tall white doors with blue handles, I sat between the benches listening to the English teacher trying to coax a properly British “Winnie the Pouuuuuuuuh” out of me.

I’m talking about 1998, the year I began my studies in Groningen.

Continue reading “Visiting Lecturer”

Last year, the three of us were standing on a drafty, cold platform in Hengelo. It was the morning of the 24th, and we were waiting for our train to Berlin.
It never came. For winter-related reasons: the overhead wires near Hanover were frozen. Not a single train headed east that day. And every square meter between Zeeland and the Baltic Sea was covered in meters of snow. There was no escaping it.

Continue reading “Christmas Eve on our own”

No, not a zoo. And not an amusement park, either. Well, okay, playgrounds—we’ve done those. Because there are plenty of them in this city. But this week, I decided to try the alternative kids’ route.

And it takes you past shops and cafés—places where both parents and kids can relax. No screaming, no whining, no restless running back and forth, and no tugging on skirts or pants. That route really does exist!

Continue reading “Kiezkind”

There’s always something new. A little sand dune gone—a new building gone up. Or one that’s disappeared.
That’s Berlin.

My friend J. is already staring out the window as soon as we arrive, amazed. “This wasn’t here before, was it? And when did they put that up?”

Continue reading “New (a photo report)”

No, I haven’t found my boots yet.
But on another note.

I’m already used to everything in the Netherlands. The hot dinner, birthday streamers, satay sauce, bread that’s dry after three days—it’s all familiar and has become part of my German blood.

But with a little Dutch child at home, there are suddenly some awkward moments. Like children’s birthday parties, for example.

Continue reading “The Wondrous World of…”

So I did it. I can hang an NL Award above my bed.

Completely against all expectations (since there are so many other great stories out there), my colleague Eva M. and I won the award for best regional TV and radio production last night. When it was submitted, I was on vacation, and when I got back, I thought: Oh yeah, that really was a pretty cool series.

Continue reading “A prize, a prize!”

If spring just isn’t going to happen—then I’d rather it be like this. We went outside to feed the ducks (that’s what you do with a toddler who’s almost 3), but they turned out to have flown away.

Instead—this. We didn’t have our skates with us, but it worked out just fine. Beautifully smooth, dark, and thick. Just the way it should be.

Continue reading “Berlin Ice”

Two weeks of the new routine are already behind me. On my first day as editor-in-chief, the first colleague was already standing at my desk. He had bad news: he asked if I could lend him my camera and case for a bit.

That stung a little.

Continue reading “Space”