Meet my friends, Sophie and Eva

Sophie

So, there’s this girl (woman? Old woman?) I know from back in the Londontown called Sophie and, well, in all honesty I think she’s stalking me. I mean, we know each other pretty well, but unlike my other friends she has followed me all the way to Berlin*.

She has kept her FLAJ situation pretty tidy, which it actually turns out is not the norm for ex-pats out here. Most people I know are looking for jobs or working somewhere they hate to tide them over, and most people moved here quite whimsically too. However, Sophie has a proper job here which she got before moving over, a flat of her very own in the most amazing location in the heart of Kreuzberg which only took two days of searching to find, a much better grasp of the German language (she is three levels above me in German class) and also this amazing friend called Helen to entertain her here.

She arrived last Sunday and since then we have eaten most of Berlin, and some of Hamburg together. This is less good for my dwindling bank balance and growing waistline, but has been much fun nonetheless.

Sophie is especially awesome at:

·        playing stupid games (my favourite of late is coming up with a word and then singing all of the songs with that word in)

·        gossiping (especially about menfolk)

·        meeting people

·        drinking Prosecco from a can

·        eating exceptionally healthy foodstuffs (and giving me all of the non-healthy ones)

·        being indecisive about restaurant a bar choices

·        travelling all over the world

·        making me practice German

·        having hilarious conversations

·        wearing awesome skirts from markets

She is marginally older than I am and really enjoys it when I speak about this. Oh and also she is sehr schön:

Eva

There is also a girl I know here in Berlintown called Eva. She is extraordinarily friendly and kind and has extended her kindnesses to allow me to sleep in her spare room which has aided my whole apartment dilemma no end.

She comes from that strange like-Britain-but-far-less-good place called Australia and is in Berlin after finishing University. She is doing an internship ('Praktikum') here in Berlin, or as I like to call it, Berlinternshipping. This is an excellent scheme in Germany where companies hire graduates for real jobs but pay them a salary more appropriate for a pretend job. Everyone seems to be expected to suffer through this phase of employment before finding a more suitable job. Eva earns an amazing 80 cents per hour.

While she is here she is also writing a book. I understand this to be some primitive form of a blog, typically involving more paper**, and I cannot wait to it read upon its completion. She is also studying German, which she has picked up in impressive time given that she started learning in November and is certainly good enough to get by and express herself with German speaking friends. (She is five classes above me)

I have discovered Eva is awesome at:

• speaking German
• karaoking
• suggesting awesome weekend trips to Hamburg
• ordering pizza
• knowing things about the Beatles
• meeting people
• cooking excellent meals
• buying funky second-hand clothing (a must in Berlin)
• getting up early in the morning (and sleeping at times more customary for a normal person)
• writing mean songs on the ukulele (but only about mean people who totally deserve it)
• putting up with me blowing my nose as though it’s a trumpet

This is a picture from our trip to Hamburg in which Eva was so excited about the Beatles she became all of them at once:

So now you know these people you have friends in Berlin too. Unless they don’t like you. But that's pretty unlikely, as they like me J

*take note Susie.

**unless it is on a Kindle

(I would like to offer a general warning to people I know in Berlin that I may also do this to them too.)