Coincidence: noun 1. a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.
And remarkable is certainly what it was. Please allow me to explain.
Upon returning to Berlin, I knew Fritz would be spending most of the weekdays buried under documents in the archives. Therefore, I would need to find my own purpose and assume responsibility for filling my own schedule during our 4 months here. Entertaining myself has never been an issue for me. Still, I aspire to be very intentional about how I execute each day in this lovely city. Living life "on purpose" has always been important to me. While moving to a foreign city can make intentional living a little easier, it still takes a conscious effort to stay fully engaged, especially since I am not allowed to get a job while we are here. In order to accomplish this purposeful living, I set two priorities for myself.
1. Join a pottery studio.
2. Attend yoga classes 2-4 times a week.
As my third day in Berlin began, Fritz and I initiated the search for a pottery studio. Actually, I really should say that Fritz initiated the search while I slept off my jet-lag. We assumed that most of the Berlin studios would have websites in German, but after he had spent over an hour using his German vocabulary and reading skills, he hadn't gotten very far. At this point, I woke up refreshed and ready, fired up my own computer and entered "Pottery Studios Berlin" into the search bar.
Feuer Zeug Keramik popped up as the first hit. The website indicated that they have a pottery shop, they offer classes, they seem to have available studio space for experienced potters, and they speak English. Conveniently, the studio is located one neighborhood over from our flat. Well that was easy! I wasted no time in emailing Cordula, the owner of Feuer Zeug Keramik, explained my desire to join a studio and wondered if I could stop by to meet her.
I must have refreshed my inbox one hundred times in the 24 hours that followed. Waiting for a response is always the hardest part. Fritz had to remind me that if she owns a pottery studio, she probably isn't doing a ton of desk work and checking her email every 10 minutes. Hands dripping with wet clay don't mix well with electronics. He had a point. So I had to be patient.
The next afternoon, I opened my email and discovered the message I had been waiting for! Cordula indicated that I was welcome to stop by the shop the next day around noon.
I woke up that Thursday morning totally jazzed and ready to start my Berlin life. With the first of my two Berlin priorities in motion, I decided to initiate the second; finding a yoga studio. With any luck, I thought I might just be able to follow my pottery meeting with a zen-tastic yoga class!
Again, I returned to my laptop and typed in "cheep yoga Berlin English." I actually even spelled cheap incorrectly. Luckily Google doesn't discriminate against poor spellers. I was a little worried that finding yoga in English would be tricky. I wasn't totally opposed to German yoga, but so much of the experience comes from the meditation and dialogue a good teacher provides in combination with the physical challenge of the class.
Unsurprisingly, Berlin is LOADED with yoga studios. My search revealed several blogs where other young yogis had provided lists of studios that had English-speaking instructors, as well as classes that weren't too expensive. I clicked on one of the top hits. Yellow Yoga. The website was inviting and clearly met all of my requirements. This was going well.
Now the location. Berlin is a huge city with more yoga studios than Vietnamese restaurants (which turns out to be quite a lot!). If this yoga studio was even in the same quadrant of the city, I would have considered myself very lucky. Looking at the website, I found Yellow Yoga had two locations, one of which was in the very same neighborhood as my pottery studio. How perfect! And you won't believe me when I tell you it gets better than that.
I had already plugged in walking directions from my flat to pottery. It would take 1 hour and 4 minutes to walk there from my home. I could also take public transportation and be there in 20 minutes, but it was a beautiful day and I thought the walk would be a great way to get a sense of my neighborhood.
I switched back to Yellow Yoga's website to identify the address of the studio. For a moment, I thought my computer was playing tricks on me. I rubbed my eyes and refocused on the address. It was EXACTLY the same as the pottery studio. Was this a mistake?
Apparently not. Somehow, my random search for two completely unrelated activities in a huge city was bringing me to the exact same point on the map. If this isn't the definition of a coincidence, I don't know what is.
Of course, I still had to seal the deal with Cordula at Feuer Zeug Keramik. She hadn't accepted me yet.
Cordula said I could come anytime between 12 and 5pm, so I started my walk at 11am.
Naturally I took pictures along the way. The day was perfect for walking and discovering Berlin. For example, I learned that Berliners love to make pole-warmers as you can see above. Someone took a lot of care in knitting this multicolored, cozy pole-warmer. If you look closely, you might even notice that decorative buttons have been added for extra pizazz.
The bright Berlin buildings looked quite cheery under the blue sky.
I must have passed 15 playgrounds on my walk today. Fritz told me that Germany has an aging population, but Berlin seems to be crawling with young families. And therefore, loaded with playgrounds like the one in front of this church.
I crossed over a lovely river. Many of the Berlin sidewalks are made from cobblestones or bricks. Here the street is also nicely cobbled.
There were a bunch of people taking pictures on this bridge.
When I looked over the other side of it, I saw that it was loaded with swans!
For a short time, I was strolling along the canal. I was impressed by the apartments on the opposite side.
The street art and murals of Berlin continue to catch my attention. Some of them are so vibrant!
I was almost sorry to reach my destination after such a lovely walk, but at last, I had reached Feuer Zeug Keramik. Cordula was waiting for me inside. It was a cute shop with lovely pottery on display and two potter's wheels in the middle of the showroom. Cordula and I talked for a few minutes and I explained that I'd be living in Berlin for the next 4 months. I was very interested in spending as much time working on the wheel as possible. More than that, I wanted to be a part of a studio where I could help with upkeep; carry out the laborious and often dreaded tasks of recycling clay and mixing chemicals for glazes. "Sign me up for mopping floors," I told Cordula. Really, I'd do just about anything to be a part of a studio.
"I'm not really in a position to pay anyone," she said. I quickly assured her that I was not looking for a job. She told me she would think about it seeing as the studio was quite small and the space was limited. In the meantime, she invited me to check out her other studio space that has a few more wheels. It's where she teaches her pottery classes.
"It's only about a 20-minute walk from here. It's in the back of a wine shop that my brother owns. He opens at 2 today and will let you see the studio if you want to check it out. Just tell him I sent you." Of course I wanted to see it! She gave me the address and we arranged to meet again later in the week after she had some time to think about whether she might have a place for me in the studio.
With my pottery goals in motion, I checked the schedule for Yellow Yoga. An "advanced beginners" class was starting soon so I headed to the back of the building and up the stairwell to yoga.
Appropriately, an open yellow door with a meditating buddha statue marked the entrance to a bright open room. The signs on the door and floor indicated that visitors should remove their shoes and put them on the rack before entering the studio.
That class was perfect. Equal parts relaxing and refreshing. If I didn't already have good energy flowing through my body, I did now. We ended the class with a love meditation, during which we were invited to focus our attention on sending loving energy out into the world. I try to do this regularly, but it helps to be reminded sometimes and it seems more powerful when I'm doing it with a group. After the traditional exchange of "Namaste," my fellow yogis and I quietly shuffled out of the studio.
Time to find the wine shop.
Here I met Constantine, Cordula's brother. He was lovely and happy to show me the secret studio in the back. It was glorious in that it looked exactly like a pottery studio. Potter's tools were neatly stacked on a shelf, the kiln was nestled in the back corner of the room, and five wheels sat in the middle of the floor, throbbing with potential if only the right potter would sit down and set them spinning.
I thanked Constantine for the tour and asked if he could recommend a white wine to go with a vegetarian meal. Conveniently, perhaps even coincidentally, I was planning on cooking a meal when I got home with a recipe that called for 2 tablespoons of white wine. Funny how the day brought me directly to a wine shop, don't you think? Will the coincidences never cease?
Constantine was quick to select a lovely German riesling. After paying him, I packed the wine away in my bag and started home.
I'll share a few more photos before closing out this post.
You might have noticed that in Berlin, bikes are parked almost everywhere.
Similarly, you don't have to look far to find a little graffiti... or a lot of graffiti. Here is a Berlin phone booth. I haven't ever seen anyone using one, but they are still scattered around the city.
Colorful children's art is also scattered here and there.
Basically, if there is something to paint, it will be painted.
Well, that about sums up my start to Berlin life. I promise there will be more to come soon on how the happenings of this serendipitous day played out in the days that followed.
