Boddinkietz

Only here will I begin a Sunday in the early afternoon, eating breakfast in the middle of the road. By Boddinstr U-Bahn you will find a motley crew of people, chairs, and teapots outside on the island between traffic lanes. Passers by might stop to grab a bite of croissant or balcony neighbours might offer some eggs. Today was probably our last outdoor HermannFrühstück, but plans to take it onto the ring S-bahn in winter are already afoot. I feel lucky to live where I do, with my old WG opposite and Evan's two houses down.

Following Frühstück I'll maybe bake a cake, drink coffee, raid a Flohmarkt, more tea, cycle into the sunset on Templehof's ghost runways. I've started knitting everywhere I go: U-bahn, queues, pubs. Our weekly stitch and bitch sessions are touring the bars of Berlin, and have some guerrilla plans in the process. I've found the most brilliantly emerald green coat imaginable and feel like an "Ampelmädchen" as I skip this city for its stories.

Universität properly begins tomorrow. I'm all matriculated, zedat-ed, filled out and signed every coloured sheet of bureaucratic crap and am so so ready to get on with the business of learning. It seems a lot more relaxed here - I get to spend this week just wandering into the classes to figure out which ones I want to stick with. I'm already falling in love with my daily train journey. Zipping from east to west and south, from grungy grimy Neukölln to the intellectual greenery of Dahlem. I love the JFK institute of North American studies, the students are all cool, the volunteer run cafe has more sofas than floor and is strung with beautiful bunting. Perfekt.

I have a lot more that I want to talk about - some snippets of Neukölln histories and upside down bars but this will have to wait for another update. Which will be sooner. Promise.

Ich liebe euch.

xx