The Wake

Im in an internet cafe in Berlin, with a 25 year old doctor from Japan, who was studying abroad in Poland, and is traveling Europe now. He was in the same room as me, and we saw some sights today. His English is.. .limited.

When I got in last night, I didnt have a place to stay but this Columbian girl who´d just missed her train to Poland was crying on a bench I was sitting at. When she stopped, we chatted about my time in Venezuela, after exchanging pleasantries. We had a really intersting chat about Columbian/Venezuelan relations, as I am pro Chavez, and she´s out spoken about her disdain for his stance on Columbia´s violations in Ecuador. Venezuela has no military deployments in Columbia, rather it has only defended, verbally, the sovereignty
of Ecuador. On the other hand the US has all its fingers inside Columbia, with military bases, illegal soldiers, and billions in string-attached funding. I´ll just say we really got into it, but we both came out with a good understanding of each others views. It left quite the impression on me.

After that long chat, it had gone from 9 pm to midnight. She was able to get us both in to a hostel by charming the owners of this New Zealand run hostel she´d stayed in the night previous. We hung out in the common area, and I started playing Table Tennis with two Polish guys named Radek and Loukosh (Sp?). They were very serious about their playing, and both had the professional style of serving where you throw it really high. I felt badly, as I beat them both severly. We chatted for a long time about Polish/American relations, and how we beat them in the 2002 World Cup, and about how there are no famous Polish people. Funny guys. They mentioned that Polish people are well known for their drinking capacity. They had a little bit of the Borat accent going on. Fun guys to hang out with essentially. I checked out of that hostel the next day as there were no vacancies. I asked around the next day until I found another one.

When I checked in, there was this Japanese fellow hanging out in my room. “Bathroom is slippery. Im sorry. Be careful.” We chatted for a good while, and then went down to Pankow, a cool alternative neighborhood in the North Berlin I´d been reccommended. We wandered around, and found some cool shops, hit some fruit stands. After hearing later on in a conversation with someone at the hostel that my last name was Carpenter, he remarked, “Ahh yes, like the group.” He sang portions of several of their songs. I then called up Loukosh and Radek and we´re headed to a Karoke bar this evening. Should be an interesting night. more details to come.