A Day in the Life

July 23

Got up early for lululemon yoga.  It was difficult, having gotten in about 1:30 a.m. after watching jazz at B Flat ( a very good cool jazz quartet, Ott, the saxophone player and leader, Hornung, the pianist and had almost equal time with Ott, Berkman, the bassist, and Rupping the drummer.   Both Ott and Hornung are very talented.  As a whole they were very good, the pieces weren’t too long, the sharing of the spotlight was natural.

If I can figure out how to get a video, I will insert it later.

Before I went to B Flat last night I walked to Münzstraβe 20, 10178 Berlin to the lululemon Ʊ (that’s the lululemon trademark upside down – the symbol symbol) athletica store Mitte location, to make sure I would get to the right place.  I had the experience the previous Saturday of going to the lululemon CityWest location (which has its classes on Thursday evenings). So I got there plenty early, 9:30 for a 10:30 class.  The early person gets the mat, said the sign on painted on the door.  A young German couple showed up after I did.  Then a German woman, Nicole A, in between in age between them and me.  She was excited to know I was from Houston.  She knew it well because her son had worked in Houston for Deloitte and lived in Montrose.  Her first lululemon experience was in Houston.  As the time got closer, many people gathered.  The doors opened and we all went upstairs and grabbed mats.  Then we marched from the store to Montbijoupark (the Strand Bar where I had seen people dancing the tango is very close) to do our class . The experience was amazing.  Apparently, each class is different.  Our instructor said she was from the store in London and spoke no German.  That didn’t bother me.

We did a number of exercises which, for the most part I was surprised to discover I could follow pretty well.  Then my heart sank as the leader said they were warm-ups and we would be doing flying yoga with partners.  The first exercise was for two. The instructor was tiny and one of the women working with her was bigger.  I was thinking size mattered.  Nicole, partnered with a woman named Julia O.  I saw one woman by herself and we did the exercises sort of.  They were easy.  Then it was for three and I rejoined Nicole and Julia.  These were more complicated.  At a certain point, I saw the woman I had partnered with originally by herself and motioned for her to join us because four could participate.  Her name was a German name and I never got it right.  But for the results, see the photographs on Facebook.

Julia had been to Costa Rica for a one or two week yoga class and had done the flying yoga before.  Neither Julia nor I had.  I was most comfortable being on the bottom holding people up, much like the catcher in a trapeze act.    When it was over we repaired to the lululemon store and Nicole and I exchanged photographs from our phones which were taken during the yoga.

I left.  Looking to replace my lost glasses, I found a store named Found, near a store named Closed, which was open.  Found said  they could make glasses to my prescription in 20 minutes.  The cost was 119€.  I asked the other customers in the store to help me pick out frames.  I’m told the one I selected is green.  It is what it is but at least I can see street names at night and station destinations from the train clearly so I can know when to get off.  I walked out of the store on Alte Schöenhauerstrasse which curved to become Neue Schöenhauerstrasse to the ATM to replace the euros I used to pay for the glasses because the internet wasn’t working for their credit card, then returned, got my glasses and began walking back home, having decided to have a coffee at Hilde’s before I went home and resisting all the alternatives along the way.   When I got to Torstrasse, where I would turn right to return home the way I came, I decided I would continue on Schöenhauerstrasse  which at this point I believe becomes Schöenhauerstrasseallee.  (Actually, the repetitive use of the name is better than when the same street changes names which happens frequently here – in Houston think Elgin becomes Westheimer).   I felt pretty confident that going this way would lead me to the U  Senefelderplatz Station, not that I didn’t have a few moments of doubt  It is a wide street with lots of shops and places to eat and buildings.  I turned  to get to Straβburgerstr., my objective being to turn on Metzer to get to Hilde’s, which is on the corner of Metzer and Prenzlauer Allee.  I had walked only a short distance when I heard some wonderful music coming out of a low window.  Thinking it was a place of business, I bent down, peered through the window and saw a woman and asked if it was a café.  She said no it is an artists studio.  She invited me in.  I stepped down.   It was a combination gallery, studio and living quarters, sort of like an efficiency.  The woman was very attractive and, thankfully, spoke excellent English.  She introduced herself as Gudrun Boiar.  Website is http://www.gudrun-boiar.de/  The music playing that drew me in was Todo Sobre Mi Madre Alberto Iglesias https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQVrNkfL8DY&list=PLqrb2w5uU-TuEbygV0WQMOBthYjIKO0Hu  which means All About My Mother and is from the soundtrack of the Almadovar film.  She is a portrait artist.  What I saw was mostly watercolor.  I think she makes a living doing families and children but she told me about two series.  One is the Gray Series of 20 women writers persecuted by the Nazis – “Strong Women of Burned Literature” and the second is the Blue Series of women persecuted by the East German regime – “Strong Women of the Peaceful Revolution.”   I think her work may be very important.  Based on the reproductions I saw the two series are well done and compelling.  I would like to see originals of the Blue Series and the Gray Series that I believe have been exhibited in important museums.  I wonder how her work could get broader attention.  She said it was her birthday and she had to be ready in an hour but didn’t rush me.  I stayed to look through some of her portfolio.  I took a quick look at her website.  I think at least one of her pieces was or is in the Alte National Gallerie.  I told her I had to leave and she gave me some information about her work.  I proceeded to Hilde’s, ordered a Flammkuchen and ice coffee with milk and no eis, and sat in a beach chair facing Metzer. The Flammkuchen is a thin-crusted German version of pizza.  I had been intending to try it and I very much like it.

When I got to the apartment, I felt an overwhelming exhaustion.   It had been hot for Berlin and I’d walked, according to my phone, 6.5 miles, the same as the previous day and evening, plus the yoga.  I fell asleep for a few hours, got up, took the computer, the left over Flammkuchen and a Schwarzer ABT beer ( pictured with my new Found glasses) on the terrace and wrote this. 

This is the first time in my life I’ve ever drunk a beer by myself.  3.1% alcohol.  It’s delicious, like a coffee root beer.

A Day in the Life.