Now, at least, it's getting to be the good kind of fall: Bags of apples students of mine picked at a friend's holiday house; the first pumpkin soup of the season. The trees changing color at least a bit (doesn't hold a candle to the northeastern US, but I believe we've covered that point already) and some days there's that nip in the air, an invigorating sign of the changing seasons. Plus there's still the occasional reprieve of a beautiful sunny day like this one, when the city's inhabitants turn out in full force to populate the sidewalk cafés and parks.
Today, between meeting up with friends for, yes, a stint at a café and a jaunt through a park (plus a climb up a church tower, just to mix things up a bit) and then a very British tea party, I managed to:
-stumble across another friend when I stopped by the same café to collect my bike
-pass acquaintances by the Mauerpark flea market and
-run into a couple I know and get to hold their little baby, who I hadn't seen in almost half a year.
It felt awfully nice to be out and about in this big city and run into so many people I know - though clearly I upped my chances quite a bit by frequenting popular Sunday destinations in Prenzlauer Berg on a sunny weekend day.
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Also, can we talk for a moment about swan upping? It's possibly my new favorite Weird Thing About The British (though really, how can you choose?)
I only learned about swan upping yesterday (though it might be my new favorite phrase to say) but had the great fortune to hang out with a number of Brits today and have them confirm that this is a true, real thing - basically, as a holdover tradition from many, many centuries ago, the Queen's Swan Uppers (accompanied by - don't forget them - the Vintners' and the Dyers' Swan Uppers) row about the River Thames in fancy uniforms on fancy boats, collecting and counting all the swans, before releasing them again. Taking themselves, of course, very seriously.
Sometimes I want to move to the UK just for stuff like this. It must be awfully bizarre and fun.
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Back in the land of the Germans, today is Tag der Deutschen Einheit, the day of German Unity - 20 years precisely since the reunification of East and West. It's a bit hard to get worked up about it, since we've already been celebrating 20 year anniversaries for nearly a year - last November 9 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall (it took almost a year from that date in 1989 until the two countries officially and politically reunited in October 3, 1990) and the public reflection and comparative magazine articles have basically continued more or less unabated since then.
But still, it's something significant - despite all the difficulties and bouts of frustration and the economy in the east still significantly lagging and surveys that show people would rather have the wall back (seriously??), now a whole generation of Germans has grown up this way, and the divisions are definitely decreasing.
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Unrelatedly, except for being about Germans, I was out for a bike ride with an American friend yesterday and saw a woman mowing her lawn with an electric mower, the long cable stretching back toward the house, and I exclaimed reflexively, "I love electric lawnmowers! I love Germans!" then paused and added, "Sometimes." And the American friend chuckled and agreed, "Sometimes."
I suppose what I mean is that I love that Germans are willing to do things like tangle with the long cord of an electric lawn mower - that easy relationship with environmentalism was one of the top things that drew my to this country, not kidding - but I'm also well aware that the same person with the electric lawnmower probably also owns at least one car and takes airplanes on most vacations, yet considers themselves smugly environmental just because of the lawnmower and a couple of energy-efficient appliances in the kitchen.
Ah well.
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Another thing to love about Germany, though, and this time I'm serious: health insurance. I'm finally in the German insurance system and it's blowing my mind.
Yes, it took months of frustrating bureaucracy that I never want to have to think about again, but now I pay a reasonable fee per month and whenever I'm sick or even just want to finally do something real about my chronic back problems, I go to a doctor. And for a 10 euro copay each three months, everything else is covered. The system isn't perfect - very far from it - but it covers dental, regular check-ups, everything a health insurance should reasonably include.
I really hope the US finally manages to have this, one of these centuries. I really, really hope that.
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