I have worked out my visa and now I want to start my wonderful Berlin life. I have this romantic notion like you see in the movies. I am young living in a foreign country, I want to paint everything I see, create a masterpiece, I want to write the next great travel novel. I want to try yoga, travel, meet people, eat, drink and party. So what is stopping me? I am stopping me. I am so overwhelmed with bursting desire and passion that it all seems too much at once and so I do nothing. I am my own worst enemy. I have so many ideas but none of them seem good enough.

So starting today (08.02.2009) I am taking my life in my hands and embracing it. I am going to paint anything and everything even if it is crap. I am going to try and talk to one random person everyday (that will make for some interesting blog posts). I am going to take lots of photos, try yoga and start running around my neighbourhood. Today is only the beginning.

Ole has been waiting 8 weeks to get internet put in the apartment. Instead of fixing it they send us the exact same letter every week and still no internet. This is driving him and me crazy. What is the problem??? Don’t you just flick a switch or something???

I step out of my building and the icy wind bites at my ears and nose, turning them an angry red. I want to go back upstairs to the warm apartment and a place where I am completely comfortable but alas I have decided I want to make Ole a dessert as a surprise. Dessert requires ingredients and ingredients requires shopping so off to the supermarket and the masses of German people.

First stop Aldi. Super cheap, efficient and limited talking…perfect. As I am wandering the around the hastily packed isles with their contents spilling on to the floor like an overstuffed rubbish bins, I realise that Aldi has everything and yet absolutely nothing. If I needed hideous rubber shoes or four different kinds of gingerbread I would be set. So now that I discovered that there is nothing I need here how do I get out? How do I escape this labyrinth of foreign foods and strange, disheveled people. Both check outs are blocked with human bodies, prams and wheelchairs. I am not thin enough to squeeze past the pram or the wheel chair and the thought of asking them to move for some reason terrifies me. I feel like I am being suffocated by brussel sprouts and bockwurst, is it just me or are the boxes getting closer, crushing in on my air space. Please release me from here quick.

Wait, what is that? A beacon of hope, maybe I can just go out the entrance. It is a simple little swing gate that doesn’t lock after you have gone through, there is no electronic, magnetic devise holding it shut. I don’t want to buy anything I just want to get out. Now is my chance, I am making my way to the entrance just as a young Turkish lady is coming in, how nice she holds the gate open for me. I can taste the freedom, two more steps and I am out. Oh shit, there is an alarm sounding. I can feel the colour and heat rising to me face. I have been caught. What do I do, my heart is starting to race, maybe they will just ignore it, realise that I don’t want to buy anything and let me leave. Unfortunately this is not the case, the check out lady is looking directly at me and saying something in not very nice German. I know that I am getting in trouble for going out the entrance. I try and explain, I show her my empty hands and tell her that I don’t want to buy anything I just want to leave. She doesn’t understand me and is still giving my an earful. An old lady in the line gives me a sympathetic look and I continue to protest my innocents and explain that I just want to leave. The check out lady isn’t listening, I am so embarrassed by cheeks are burning, I turn around and exit the shop as quickly as possible with the woman still talking to my back. I am finally free with the humiliation still burning in my body and I am vowing to myself not to go back to that Aldi ever again.

Should I cut my loses and go home or suck it up and try somewhere else? I am a strong independent woman I can do this. I have to get used to shopping in Germany. Next stop Edeka. Hopefully better than Aldi and less embarrassing.

Edeka is better but no less difficult. I have been in the supermarket 20 minutes and been around the shop 4 times. I browse the isles multiple times and I still can’t find the bloody eggs. I know the German word for eggs so this shouldn’t be so difficult but there is no sign pointing me in their generally direction. I want to buy only four items and so far 25 minutes have elapsed. Ok forget the eggs for now move on try and find the rest and come back to the eggs later. Cocoa, twice around the shop again and I still can’t find it. I would assume it is with the flour, sugar and other cooking ingredients but of course I am wrong. I can finally see the sign and now I know that it is kept with the coffee and tea. Thank god I have at least one ingredient. Biscuits check, mascapone cheese not here, lets wing it and go with quark which I know is some cheese based product and at the moment I don’t give a shit, I just want to go home. Haven’t even made the freaking dessert yet and already I am exhausted. Oh praise the higher being I have finally spotted the damned eggs. Head straight for the check out, please let it be painless and quick. Ten times around the shop 45 minutes later and I am out with all ingredients. Back into the cold, head down and I am making a bee line for the apartment.

Ole better appreciate this dessert, I hope he realises all the trouble I went to. He better eat every last bit and enjoy it or I might just possible burst into tears from sheer frustration and exhaustion.

New Years I will be moving to Berlin. I am very excited and plan to keep a small online journal of my thoughts here. This is my first time living in a huge city and a countries capital. What makes it even more exciting is my lack of German skills. Be prepared for funny and probably embarrassing stories involving me and Berlin (a character in its own right).

Please tell me all the information that you know about living in Berlin or what experiences you had moving to a foreign country.