Personal observations
2011-06-25: Berlin celebrates being … what? queer? weird? or just liveable?
Today is the day that Berlin celebrates its CSD parade. Maybe I can be just a little bit proud about my native city that the celebration of “not being the same as everyone else” (for Austinites: “being weird”) is held in such high regard around here. Gay or straight, flush or broke, it doesn’t matter so much around here.
Berlin (and other German cities, notably Cologne) has embraced Christopher Street Day or CSD rather early, to the point that many party people out on the streets will not know what the original phrase meant, or where it came from. It goes back to the Stonewall Riots in NYC on June 28th, 1969.
While I myself am heterosexual, I actively support the freedom of people to live their lives unmolested, whatever their sexual orientation or preference. And from what I have seen today (and over and over again throughout the years), Berlin as a whole feels the same way. That, to me, is “Berlin Pride” – the pride of being part of a city that lets people be happy with what they are.
2011-04-22: Dancing among the Taliban
Imagine a country where, out of respect for a religion that little more than half of the population follow (many in a perfunctory way), public dancing was banned during some of the most sacred holidays of said religion.
Think you are in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan? No! Welcome to present-day Germany, where public dancing is banned on Good Friday. Like typically in the US, the exact regulations vary by state, but even in Berlin, the most liberal state when it comes to banning public dancing, it’s banned from 4am until 9pm.
If your religious feelings bar you from going out to dance on Good Friday, then don’t, that’s fine with me. But why, oh why, do we allow religious extremism to curtail our freedom to dance on any day at any hour of our choosing?
2011-01-29: Coping with jet lag
As many of you will know I returned to Germany after spending about a week in Austin, Texas, USA, only at the beginning of the week.
And I have coped quite well with jet lag. Much better than I had anticipated.
Here is what obviously works for me. It will not necessarily work for anyone else, but here we go.
The first basic rule is: Make sure you are tired when it’s time to go to sleep in the location you are in at that time – assuming you can stay there for the night.
So if you go west, from Europe to the US, ideally you’ll want to fly off in the morning. Spend the flight reading or enjoying the in-flight entertainment. If you have a connecting flight, you will probably arrive at your destination in the early evening, which is ideal. Shove your suitcases into the hotel room and head for the next bar. I find that I can make it to a decent time-to-sleep time with no effort at all. Get to sleep, wake up in the morning, and you are good to go.
Coming back is a different story, much harder – as I used to think. But not necessarily.
I got up on Sunday at about six in the morning, Austin time (which is seven hours behind Berlin time). I went through the usual morning rituals and hit the road in my rental car at about a quarter to seven, drove out to Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Then followed domestic flights to Houston, Texas, and onwards to Newark, New Jersey.
Next comes the overnight flight to Berlin. Ideally you’d want to sleep through that, but in Economy, that’s not likely to happen – not least because it’s only early evening, according to your body clock. Having a couple of beers helps, but only so much (and you don’t want to over-do it). So don your headphones (I got myself a pair of noice-cancelling ones, not the super-luxury ones from Bose, but a decent pair from Able Planet), doze to your favourite music, or sleep if you can, until you arrive at your destination in Europe.
I arrived home at about half past eight on Monday morning, tired as hell. Now here’s the second basic rule: If you are too tired to keep your eyes open, go to sleep!
So I did; I hit the sack at about a quarter to nine, having set the alarm clock to a quarter to twelve. I even woke up and replied to a couple of e-mails in between. When I got back up when the alarm went off, I wasn’t exactly completely awake, but that was intentional.
I had caught just enough sleep to make it through the rest of the day (German time) and go to bed at about 11 at night, waking up the next morning and feeling reasonably awake.
I have been suffering from mild after-effects all week, but I basically had the jet lag out of the way as of Monday afternoon.
Which I think is pretty darn good.
