Apparently my ability to express myself in photo captions sucks and i will never be a journalist. Although admittedly "journalism" these days just means writing a 140-character teaser with a link to a video, photo or article someone else has created. YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS TO THIS CAT AT 1:06. And i'm never going to know either if you don't fucking tell me in the headline. But 16 million other idiots apparently will. Perhaps i should have captioned it THIS IS AMAZING! CHECK OUT HOW MANY BELT SIZES YOU LOSE IN BERLIN. Anywho. I'm getting skinnier. I'm not sure how, because i don't think i'm eating particularly less than i did in Canada, but i am. I wonder if it has something to do with what i'm eating. My breakfast these days is yogurt and muesli, occasionally with some berries if they are cheap. Lunch is two bread rolls with salami and cheese. Dinner is whatever meat i feel like cooking, on some corn chips, rice or another bread roll. Sometimes i eat an apple or a pear or some cucumber. Sometimes i eat chocolate. I always drink beer. It doesn't sound very diet-y. In fact, it sounds almost exactly the same as what i used to eat in Canada. I think it helps that here i can actually buy meat in single-serve portions, so i never cook more than about 250g (0.5lb) at a time. Also, the potato chip selection is woeful, and even if it wasn't they only come in single-serve packs so you can't spontaneously binge on a family pack. I'd like to think i'm getting more exercise, but honestly most days the furthest i walk is across the road to buy fresh rolls for lunch and more beer for dinner, so it can't be that. Whatever, i'll take it.
I think i am finally clear of my hangover. My lips are still all dried out and i have my throatache from the weekend back and i might have mild conjunctivitis. I will blame the various gay dudes and God knows who else i got unusually intimate with at the hüttenclosing. I still haven't received my tax number in the mail, possibly due to the fact that my name is handwritten and stuck on my mailbox with tape (in Germany there are no apartment numbers; the only way your mail is delivered is by having your name on the mailbox). This might involve a visit to the tax office, which would suck. I also haven't heard back from my health insurance or bank applications. I'm probably being impatient, but it's hard not to be when you have literally nothing else to do besides sit around waiting for the next stage of the bureaucracy. Once i have those things sorted i can start my American Express global card transfer to build up a credit rating and start the steps of getting a local driver's license. I extended my airbnb booking here till February, and spoke with my landlord about possibly getting a "real" sublease after that. My only complaint here is that the sofa-bed is pretty uncomfortable, but i love the location and the fact i don't need to buy any furniture or fixtures so it's good for now. It is retardedly more expensive than an equivalent-sized apartment rental, but apartments in Europe come with nothing (no kitchen, no carpet, no light fixtures) and fuck buying more stuff. I am already dreading having to buy a few more clothes so i don't wear the same damn hoodie to work every day.
Which i guess i will do tomorrow, because i am going in to sign my contract. Might as well make a day of it. Saturday S from Toronto is playing Ritter Butzke, and i'd like to go seeing as we still haven't met up since i got here. I found another old colleague on LinkedIn, someone from Brisbane (!) who is now in Hamburg at a mobile gaming company. Be neat to catch up for a beer with him too, maybe next time there is some rad-ass party going on there that trumps whatever is happening in Berlin that weekend. Yeah, right. Because i'm not going to Acid Virus in Tilburg this weekend, and i had planned to go to that since May or June. I also didn't go to Osnabrück last weekend to catch up with the woman i met last time i went drinking there, nor will i likely ever go to visit A in Frankfurt or M in Lilles or R and M in London. I feel like one of those douchebags who moves to NYC and then never leaves NYC. I'm not quite so bad i won't even bother visiting the next borough over, but leaving Berlin seems harder than leaving the entire fucking continent right now. There's just too much on. I don't know anywhere else where i can party in the middle of the day and smoke inside and drink wherever and hang out with cool people and then still take a subway home to my own bed when i'm done. I'm in the black hole, that didn't take long.
