Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

I finally have some time to write about my Berlin weekend. I was there the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday of August, and I'm so happy I got a ticket for Saturday, because the Friday show was cancelled due to bad weather! If I had had a ticket for Friday, I would have been devastated. But it was raining so much and apparently there was a lightning warning too, and being an open-air concert, the risk was just too high. Almut had a ticket for all three shows, and since she had nothing else to do on Friday, we decided to visit the DDR Museum together, which was very nice.

Oh, wait! Friday's highlight was actually spotting a lorry with Bela, Farin and Rod's faces printed on the side! XD I caught a glimpse of it while I was on the S-Bahn train from the airport into the city, so I don't know if it was a concert truck or an ad or something else entirely, but it was such a surreal moment. XD Another highlight was going to the Turkish market on the Maybachufer and getting a Gözleme. Man, I'd been craving one for ages!

( More under the cut )

I haven't posted anything about my holidays yet. Shame on me.

( Holiday report - With pictures! )

urania_chan, you may find this interesting. :)

die ärzte: live sogar noch besser als wie auf Platte!

29.06.2013 (A) Wien - Krieau
Gäste: NOFX, Donots
15.06.2013 Köln - RheinEnergieStadion
21.06.2013 Gräfenhainichen - Ferropolis
12.07.2013 Bocholt - Stadion Am Hünting
14.07.2013 Bietigheim-Bissingen - Festplatz am Viadukt
10.08.2013 Berlin - Ehemaliger Flughafen Tempelhof
11.08.2013 Berlin - Ehemaliger Flughafen Tempelhof
17.08.2013 Uelzen - Almased Arena
22.08.2013 Coburg - Schlossplatz Coburg
24.08.2013 Bremen - Bürgerweide
31.08.2013 Losheim - Strandbad Open Air

Flughafen Tempelhof! That's literally 5 minutes away from where I used to live! And it's in August, which means I'll be on holiday. And I haven't visited Berlin in a long, long time. But, damn, I can't plan so far ahead. And I'm sure the tickets will sell out in no time, so I'll have to make up my mind pretty soon if I want to go. Decisions, decisions...

I had another useless job interview this morning. I already knew it would be useless, but I went anyway: it was a "group interview" with 5 other candidates for an internship in an event agency in Milan (the one that organises the Milan Film Festival in September). I say it was useless because they had already said the internship would be totally unpaid and, even if I'm sure it will be very interesting, I don't want to work for free any more. Actually, I would have to pay to work, because I'd either have to buy an underground pass (about 60€ a month from where I live) or spend much more for petrol. They even said "You'll learn a lot here, you'll have a lot to do. We'll squeeze you dry." The "lucky one" would have to start as soon as possible, preferibly next Tuesday, and work at the organisation of the Film Festival for the next 3 months, often more than the official 8 hours, sometimes on weekends too and with no holidays. Er. No, thanks.

I talked a bit with the other people before the interview and I think only one would accept, because she's just out of university and needs experience, the others were looking for a paying job like me. I mean, you need someone just for 3-4 months to help out with the festival? OK, you can offer an internship, but pay a small reimbursement at least! This is worse than slavery, people had to feed their slaves and give them a place to stay, while now you're simply asked to work for free and be happy about it, because it will look good on your CV. Well, I already have stuff that looks good on my CV, thank you very much. I hope they won't find anyone, but they'll probably find someone just out of university who doesn't really need money and will be happy to be exploited.

Like I said, I already knew it was unpaid, but I went anyway, just to see what they had to say. I applied for a couple of offers when I came back and found one that isn't really what I'm looking for, but could be very interesting. It's for next year, though, so I'll wait a bit before I apply, just in case anything else comes up; the selections only start in October anyway.

Also, driving around in Milan drives me crazy. I hate Italian drivers, especially when they park right in the middle of the street. And the city is getting uglier and uglier, I hadn't seen so much squalor in a long time. And since I lived in Neukölln for 8 months, that's saying something. Actually, Neukölln is much nicer than some parts of Milan that are supposed to be good neighbourhood. I had days in Berlin when I just had to go out to feel happy. Completely, utterly happy. I don't know why, maybe I was simply biased because I love the city so much. Needless to say, I haven't felt that emotion once since I came back. When I told the other candidates I had just come back from Berlin they all asked me "Why did you come back?!" And I have to say, I've asked myself the same question every day for the past month.

Anyway, good news of the day: I stopped at Lidl on my way home and found Milchbrötchen! Yes! We tried some made by a very famous and expensive Italian brand and they were awful, these were only a little more expensive than the ones I used to buy in Berlin and taste great.

Moral of the story: Berlin > Milan.

My parents arrived, they're in the living room playing cards. We went for a walk in the afternoon and my mum's already dead tired.

I saw 3 chimney sweeps on the roof this morning, that must mean I'm super lucky.

I'm slowly starting to realise I'm going to leave in just a few days. I don't know how to feel about that. I mean, I'm happy about seeing my friends again and I guess everything will be all right if I find a decent job, but... For the moment I just want to enjoy as much of Berlin as I still can.

Oh, and meeting Nicole and Chris after more than 3 years was great. Hopefully we'll be able to meet again before they leave on the 24th.


30 days music meme

Day 17: A song that you hear often on the radio
"Horchata", Vampire weekend



I don't listen to radio much, but there's a radio show I listened to every day when I was in Italy between January and February and they played this song every single day. Quite annoying, really.


Day 18: A song that you wish you heard on the radio
"Ziggy Stardust", David Bowie



I heard this song one morning as I was driving to work and it was a great way to start the day. Too bad the radio station had to close down because of financial problems a couple of months later. Of course only a small, indie radio station would play such a song in the morning.

Day 19: A song from your favorite album
"Pictures of you", The Cure



"Disintegration" is still my favourite album and this song brings back a lot of happy memories.

( Past days and the rest )

Months ago I started a picture meme, where people would ask me to take photos of something and I would have to post the pics in my LJ. Well, I never got to post the pictures schwimmerin requested! She wanted to see what my favourite U-Bahn station was and I couldn't quite think of what that could be, but while I was going to Spandau last Sunday I finally found it!

Ladies and, uhm, are there any gentlemen here? Egal, here's Paulsternstrasse's U-Bahn station!



( More pics behind the cut )

I also liked Rathaus Spandau:

( And not just because of Bela :P )

So, sorry for taking forever. And now, on with the 30 days music meme.

30 days music meme

Day 01. Your favourite song
"Heroes", David Bowie

Day 02. Your least favourite song
"Ad ogni costo", Vasco Rossi.

Day 03: A song that makes you happy
"Friday I'm in love", The Cure.

Day 04: A song that makes you sad
"Beautiful", Christina Aguilera.

Day 05: A song that reminds you of someone
"We're in this together", Nine Inch Nails

Day 06: A song that reminds you of somewhere
"Free", Ultra Nate

This song reminds me of my first holiday in Chester, because they played it pretty much every night at the club where we used to go. It was a great holiday, my first time in England and it helped me become more confident with actually speaking English. Even my teacher noticed the difference when I got back to school: I already had good marks, but never took part in conversations and then in my fourth year I was suddenly talking and answering questions quite fluently and even asking questions. My teacher was like "WHAT HAPPENED?" XD



( The other days )

Back in Berlin. I haven't felt like writing lately, mostly because I had nothing special to write about. But my friends won a music contest and the prize was a video shooting! I'm curious to see what they'll come up with.

Also, I started reading Asimov's Foundation Series. Why didn't I read it earlier? It's AMAZING! :O

Back in Berlin. My flight had a 1 1/2 hours delay, I arrived home a little before midnight. The city is full of snow and I've heard it's going to snow again this week.

I got into the umpteenth argument with my mother on Saturday, which pretty much ruined my last two days at home. We sort of made up at the airport, but it's probably a good thing we're not going to see each other for the next three weeks. Let's see what happens when I go back for two weeks at the end of the month.

I put on almost 2 Kg in less than 2 weeks, but I was expecting that, I ate pretty much twice as much as I usually do in Berlin - skipping dinner is not an option with my mum around.

This will be the first time I'm working on the 6th of January (that's a holiday in Italy, we also have a nice dialect phrase for that, I'll have to make another dialect post about it), so, since my holidays are officially over, I took down the Christmas header picture and uploaded a new one. Courtesy of the DÄOF Adventskalender.

Btw, could anyone send me the last part of the Abwärts Adventskalender? Pretty please?

Dominoaktion in Berlin:

http://tv.repubblica.it/mondo/berlino-giu-il-domino/38873?video

I was on the Sprea bank behind the Reichstag and had a pretty clear view of the end of the domino. I've had "Wind of change" stuck in my head since last night, which is NOT funny, let me tell you. But they played "Heroes" as well, and that really did it for me. That song always makes me shiver...

- 5 tomatoes
- 5 bananas
- 3 nectarines
- multicereal sliced bread
- 1 Laugenbrötchen

Total: 4,93€.

I love Berlin.

(And no, I wasn't in Aldi, just the supermarket around the corner.)