I’m writing from one of the many local bars that show football world cup games. It’s really incredible football fever here. the streets stay busy throughout the night. a lot of tourists around and a lot of flagging of national symphaties, a lot of noice and colours.
I’ve been watching the games in all kinds of places: from the alternative berlin, to the fifa fan mile, from the local pubs and restaurants to the house of world cultures (http://www.hkw.de/en/index.php), to puma centre based at cafe moskau.
it’s been all very cool – the alternative world cup to those with tickets, or in fact, as no one has tickets the mainstream world cup, at least in berlin…
i’m based here in berlin at the humboldt university, institute for european ethnology and at the department of urban sociology. the lovely thing about berlin, is that i already have a lot of friends here from my previous stops in europe and i’ve been making more contacts on the spot. i have a lot of interesting colleagues, for instance. also, there are almost too many things to do in berlin, and you can always go around alone too, which is nice.
the only problem i’ve had is a bad anemia, which must have been plaguing me for months already – makes me really tired and unproductive, i always seem to be too busy. it shows in the lack of text on this blog, for instance. it also meant that i didn’t want to promote it to anyone – no text, no fun.
the world cup is great: i wish all my friends were here to support their respective teams – since they, you, are not, i try to do my best in supporting a lot of them. currently mexico..!