Hmm, it’s been more than two months since I last posted. Time for an update. A lot has happened since January.
So,
- I moved out of Finland as planned.
- I stayed in a temporary apartment for a month. Central-home is the company managing the facility where I lived (on Habersaathstrasse 24) and if you’re looking for temporary housing in Berlin, look no further.
- I managed to find a nice apartment for long term in Berlin Mitte, in the Bergstrasse, which is more or less walking distance from tourist attractions like Alexanderplatz, Hackeschermarkt, Friedrichstrasse and of course the Brandenburger Tor.
- I re-aquainted myself with Java, Java development, and lately also release management. Fun days of hacking but the normal Nokia routine of meetings creeping into my calendar is sadly kicking in.
- I learned tons of new stuff
- Unfortunately German is not yet one of those things. My linguistic skills are ever pathetic and English remains the only foreign language I ever managed to master more or less properly. On paper German should be dead easy since I can get by mumbling in my native language and people can still figure out what I want. In practice, I can understand it if spoken slowly (and clearly). Speaking back is challenging.
- I’m working on it though, once a week, in a beginners class. Relearning stuff that 3 years of trying to stuff German grammar in my head in High-school did not accomplish.
Moving is tedious and tiresome. But the end result is some genuine improvement in life. I absolutely love Berlin and am looking forward to an early Spring. I was in a telco with some Finnish people today discussion the weather. They, so how’s Berlin. Any snow there still? Me: no about 20 degrees outside right now :-). Nice to have spring start at the normal time again. Not to mention the more sane distribution of daylight and darkness, throughout the year.
A shitload of updates is overdue. For several months already. I have a ton of photos to upload. Wordpress needs upgrading. And some technical stuff might need some blogging about as well. Then there is still some unfinnished papers in the pipeline. So, I’ll be back with more. Some day.