This has been my sixth week in Berlin and it has been hard. People on the street and in shops make no more sense than they did on day one and with every language class I sink deeper and deeper into a mire of separable verbs, fickle prepositions, unfamiliar cases and mind bending rules with their infinite exceptions. So, I'm feeling a little blue. It does help that the city is so green at the moment. Fully foliaged trees line the streets and the numerous parks are awash with colour; lush grass, trees and spring flowers. Berliners rightly embrace the springtime, and every sunny day prompts picnics in parks and by the water. I live just by the Maybachufer*, a channel which snakes across Berlin and eventually joins the River Spree. Sitting on the bank watching the swans glide by improves my mood and restores some faith that I am making progress. I must be sure to create a clear mental picture of Berlin in Spring, because by all accounts winter here is rather bleak. The colour disappears and the cold takes over. But right now Berlin is green and warm, which helps me to handle the rest.
*correction: the street is Maybachufer, the canal is the Landwehrkanal
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