A whole new city...

Apparently this past winter was a particularly odd and cold one, according to Berliners I have talked to. When we arrived in January, it wasn't too cold, but often rainy and cloudy. Towards March, it began to get colder, rainier and even snowed. Finally, the last two weeks of the FU BEST program, it actually started to get sunny and a little warm. The later half of April was actually graced by the sun on a daily basis. As we have moved into May, shorts, t-shirts, and skirts can actually be worn; there are green trees, flowers and the city-pools have opened.

Not only does this make the city more beautiful, but it has almost completely changed the atmosphere of the city. All of sudden, there were people in the city. On some nice days earlier in the spring, when walking around the Grunewald (a large forest in the south-west section of Berlin), Tiergarten (a park in the center of the city), the canal where I used to live, etc, there would be Germans out for their Sunday walks. My guess is that when nothing is open on Sundays, this is one of the best ways to pass time.

Now that there is good weather almost everyday, there always people in the parks. On weekends, there is hardly a patch of grass that isn't taken up by someone's blanket. In the Fredrichshain Volkspark, close to where I live now, there is the distinct smell of grilling all over the park, with the noise of kids and adults alike playing in the grass. Walking around the university on school days, there are always students sitting around any green space they can find, reading, playing games, or just hanging out. As the sun came out, the population of Berlin crept out of their apartments after a long winter and may actually be becoming friendly.

I have no empirical evidence that it is because of the weather, but the previously cold and distant Berliners seem to be warming up. In the past week, I have one person start a conversation with me on the S-Bahn train and one person wish me a good weekend as I was getting of the U-Bahn metro. Both of these incidents totally shocked me, since I believed talking to strangers to be something completely un-German.

No matter what the reason, I appreciate a more friendly attitude from the Berliners, and love the great weather we have been having. It opens up so many opportunities to be outside, go for walks or bike rides, go running in the park, have barbecues, etc, etc, etc. I would venture to say that there is no better time to be in Berlin than the summer.