Letter from Germany 24

Thursday, May 7, 1992

 

born: Johannes Brahms 1833

died: James Nasmyth (inventor of the steam hammer) 1890

1429—Joan of Arc breaks the English siege of Orlean

 

Let's see, Easter has come and gone, we are all waiting for Pfingsten, whatever that is. I had a two-week break from die Etage and spent one week of it teaching a workshop at my old circus school in France. There French school has a new Director, the atmosphere is positive, and it was a nice week of work and reunions. Over the week-end took a quick dash into Switzerland see some old students who are performing with a couple of Swiss circuses. It was quite an international make-up, one each of American, German, French, Swiss and Tunisian. We alternated between French and German, mostly French. A mild disappointment was forgetting to get everyone riled up with local ethnic humor.

 

Having forgotten most of my German while in France, I came back to Berlin a linguistic cripple. Try watching international news in a language you don't understand and see if you can tell the difference between Sarajevo and Los Angeles.

 

All we have over here that is newsworthy is the biggest strike since the war. What this means to me on a personal level is that my German-as-a-Second-Language class has stopped meeting and I am riding a bicycle to work instead of taking public transportation. Fortunately, mild spring weather has arrived, and I have access to a pretty nice bike.

 

Once again I seem to have discovered a city where the roads all seem to be graded slightly downhill, so bicycling is a pleasure. Parts of some of the Berlin sidewalks are laid out in a different color brick, or the weather has discolored them. In any event these paths make quite accessible bike lanes that crisscross the city. Since all U-Bahns, S-Bahns and other public transportation are not working, many inexperienced commuters are riding bikes. The bike lanes can become quite crowded. Also, there is no boundary other than a slight color differentiation. It is fortunate that Berlin is so flat. The hand that is freed from not having to constantly shift gears rests ready on the bell to ting pedestrians off of the bike path. Bicyclists even have their own signal lights and cute little left turn lanes marked off.

 

Tschüßi,

 

Todd Strong, Jonglierlehrer

 

Die Etage

Hasenheide 54

1000 Berlin 61

Deutschland

 

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