our group is through with another days action and none of us are arrested. There are rumours substantiated by a few foreign corporate media sources that the fence has been broken. I don't think the masses are in yet and I don't know if they will, because I think the group that successfully reached and cut the fence was the group blending into the liberal group 'block g8' and they're having trouble getting the sheep into their pen. Oh wells, I need to sleep bad.
the police state is in full force. Checkpoints everywhere, arrests and detentions that don't even make any sense.
toodles
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
yeah, so...
I wasn't going to post because I'm not feeling so hot emotionally at the moment. All the stress is wearing on me, and tomorrow the delegates fly in. Today is like my vacation day. Nothing to do today except maybe some jail support. But I'm going to post briefly just to make sure I have something to go back to so I can remember roughly what happened and fill in the blanks.
The day after the riots there was a protest against GMO food and factory farming. It was really a good chance to get to meet the kind of activists I'm most familiar with... those at least a little on the hippie end of the spectrum. There weren't too many black bloc'ers (by in large "hippie" issues don't mix with anarchism here. The march was more like what I know of marches i.e. We were flanked by the police the whole time. All the different black bloc dressed people were exchanging glances with one another wondering what was going to happen. As soon as we arrived saed got searched and id'd and I only avoided a similar fate because saed's search left the officer bored with searching. We walked through the march route, and then the march ended and people were gathered around a stage in a square. From there we had a list of 8 places put out by the march organizers that they would like targeted... they published a map with a second route (a 15 km route) that hit up everything from McDonalds to GMO fields to an animal testing facility. Unfortunately people were heading to the first target in quite small groups and many were getting stopped, handcuffed, id'ed and searched. In order to search people police have clarified a law that exists here that you cannot be masked. Historically the legal case has been vague and weak on what counts as masking up, so usually people don't wear bandanas, but they wear a scarf around their face and a hat and sunglasses. I've been using sunglasses and have had a scrap of cloth around my neck in case I need it. So anyway, anyone carrying more than one of this three-thing list of apparal is in violation of the law, and gets their ID taken and is forced to pose for pictures wearing their masks to see if it lines up with any helicopter survielance. So, Saed was tired and I reluctantly agreed to leave, but was later glad that I did because everybody was getting stopped and searched and id'ed and nothing was able to happen. Some clowns who did make it to the McDonalds were arrested.
So, that seems like just about the whole of the post. I am feeling quite nervous which is making way for homesickness, so do write me an email. Same for the others, I think they feel the same way.
The day after the riots there was a protest against GMO food and factory farming. It was really a good chance to get to meet the kind of activists I'm most familiar with... those at least a little on the hippie end of the spectrum. There weren't too many black bloc'ers (by in large "hippie" issues don't mix with anarchism here. The march was more like what I know of marches i.e. We were flanked by the police the whole time. All the different black bloc dressed people were exchanging glances with one another wondering what was going to happen. As soon as we arrived saed got searched and id'd and I only avoided a similar fate because saed's search left the officer bored with searching. We walked through the march route, and then the march ended and people were gathered around a stage in a square. From there we had a list of 8 places put out by the march organizers that they would like targeted... they published a map with a second route (a 15 km route) that hit up everything from McDonalds to GMO fields to an animal testing facility. Unfortunately people were heading to the first target in quite small groups and many were getting stopped, handcuffed, id'ed and searched. In order to search people police have clarified a law that exists here that you cannot be masked. Historically the legal case has been vague and weak on what counts as masking up, so usually people don't wear bandanas, but they wear a scarf around their face and a hat and sunglasses. I've been using sunglasses and have had a scrap of cloth around my neck in case I need it. So anyway, anyone carrying more than one of this three-thing list of apparal is in violation of the law, and gets their ID taken and is forced to pose for pictures wearing their masks to see if it lines up with any helicopter survielance. So, Saed was tired and I reluctantly agreed to leave, but was later glad that I did because everybody was getting stopped and searched and id'ed and nothing was able to happen. Some clowns who did make it to the McDonalds were arrested.
So, that seems like just about the whole of the post. I am feeling quite nervous which is making way for homesickness, so do write me an email. Same for the others, I think they feel the same way.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
holy sheißa
So, we went to the anti-capitalist demo today. It was pretty much off the hook. There isn't actually much to tell despite the fact that it was off the hook. Rocks were thrown, bottles were thrown, flares were launched at pigs (bullen in german) and buildings. Then when the pigs tried to snatch squad a few people, the people in the vehicle that was travelling with the black bloc made an announcement over their PA and everyone came over and busted up a cobblestone sidewalk to make stones to throw at the police, and there was a dance of retreat-attack for several hours. For about an hour of that Säed and the guy who was with us who speaks german natively went missing and were presumed captured. They were not captured, only lost. I'm not sure what to say right now so here's some statistics from the media
over 100 cops injured
18 cops seriously injured
1 cop stabbed
hundreds of thousands of euro of damage to buildings
around 10 demonstrators arrested (my estimate)
5000 black bloc (my estimate)
30000 protesters in general.
There were a lot of commie black bloc groups, and they all fetishize latin ameria (che, castro, etc.).
The demos are likely still going on. I'd like to be there but one of us was uncomfortable. Actually it might be done by now, I'm not sure.
Their chants were kinda stupid, but kinda cute too, when they'd speak in English with the german accent. There was something sort of endearing about it.
Oh yeah, the anti-nazi demo was a flop, I'm glad we went to this one. The police were tied up with this demo, so they made it illegal, and the nazis decided not to march there, they stayed in a few major cities like Berlin where there were enough pigs to protect them. The few antifa hanging around the area where they were supposed to march (20 or 30) were arrested but have already been released. No nazi skulls were bashed in at all from what it looks like now.
Again, not sure what to say. I'm sure this would be better with my emphatic gesturing and if you have questions, ask and I'll answer em on here.
Here's a news article with some photos in the meantime http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-ex-g82jun02,1,2682627.story?coll=la-headlines-world&track=crosspromo
that link didn't seem to work so I changed it. This has a rad photo album... much better anyway.
over 100 cops injured
18 cops seriously injured
1 cop stabbed
hundreds of thousands of euro of damage to buildings
around 10 demonstrators arrested (my estimate)
5000 black bloc (my estimate)
30000 protesters in general.
There were a lot of commie black bloc groups, and they all fetishize latin ameria (che, castro, etc.).
The demos are likely still going on. I'd like to be there but one of us was uncomfortable. Actually it might be done by now, I'm not sure.
Their chants were kinda stupid, but kinda cute too, when they'd speak in English with the german accent. There was something sort of endearing about it.
Oh yeah, the anti-nazi demo was a flop, I'm glad we went to this one. The police were tied up with this demo, so they made it illegal, and the nazis decided not to march there, they stayed in a few major cities like Berlin where there were enough pigs to protect them. The few antifa hanging around the area where they were supposed to march (20 or 30) were arrested but have already been released. No nazi skulls were bashed in at all from what it looks like now.
Again, not sure what to say. I'm sure this would be better with my emphatic gesturing and if you have questions, ask and I'll answer em on here.
Here's a news article with some photos in the meantime http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-ex-g82jun02,1,2682627.story?coll=la-headlines-world&track=crosspromo
that link didn't seem to work so I changed it. This has a rad photo album... much better anyway.
Friday, June 1, 2007
bittersweet cynicism
Indeed, well where was I?
So the next day we woke up, tired from staying up till 3 watching riot porn and began to pack our stuff. We got a ride into Camp Rostock, the closest place to the city actions...
When we got there they were just starting a meeting, which we joined and it seemed like tons of shit was needing to get done. There were only like 30 people there at this point. There wasn't even drinkable water apart from the sparkling mineral water being sold at the bar. They had a bloody bar set up stocked with beer and constantly staffed, but they didn't have drinking water! So after the meeting I decided to go where people had said they needed help, while the others set up camp. I started going up to people asking what they needed help with and they looked at me strange and would usually send me looking for some tool. When I'd ask people where that tool was they would nonchalantly tell me they didn't know or care. As our camp started getting set up others in our brigade would join me in my quests, but they all ended the same way, us deciding that no such tool existed or was able to be found. It was sparatically raining throughout all of this, getting my feet soaked. Eventually we got the task to make rubbish bins for recycling and trash.. and decided to just do that ourselves with no more asking for info. We found pallets already being formed into crates and decided we'd finish those up and turn them into rubbish bins. Somewhere along the way a British woman named Ana joined us.
We spent most of the day making a rubbish bin, and decided we'd go to the meeting and maybe spend tomorrow doing something more than busy work. So we got to the meeting that night and it was the worst meeting I've ever been to bar none. Worse than the Cascadia meetings... worse than any of the various 'process meetings' i've been to. Worse even than the World Can't Wait meeting after they snitched us out. The facilitator stopped facilitating midway through the meeting. There was nobody taking stack, so people would just shout as loud as they could and whoever shouted loudest got heard. Women were interrupted more often than they were not interrupted. So throughout all of this I was remaining silent and curling up into a tighter and tighter ball, until I snapped, and I stood up, and I yelled that this meeting was fucking bullshit and every single one of them needed to just shut the fuck up for a minute. Then I explained stack to them and they asked if I would keep stack to show them. We continued the meeting with stack and it went much more smoothly, excepting once when they started talking over each other again and I had to again yell at them, telling them to shut the fuck up. I was wet and cold and aggravated. In all honesty I haven't a damn clue what was said at the meeting. I spoke once or twice about the meeting topics, and I think Seda spoke once. Vanc and Säed didn't speak, and it seemed to wholly be a failure.
We went back to our tent to find there had been a leak. There was a puddle in the tent but the spot I put my sleeping bag in was immune. I fell asleep to the slow humm of vanc and saed complaining.
The next day I started off by helping with one of the big structures that was being built. From there I seemed to be of little help so I went to make another rubbish bin with the other mckinley brigaders plus ana. We built another rubbish bin as we slowly realized that we were in the middle of a commie barrio. To explain, the 3 large camping spaces were being planned to be split into barrios for like-minded individuals and safer spaces for womyn, queers, and tranny folx, but some NGOs thought it would be a good idea to make their own barrios. So during this day we slowly recognized that everything from the tools that we borrowed, to the drinks we bought, to the building we built belonged to the commies. They had trucked in tons of rich commie dollars to make their camp the bougiest. Shießa commies. They controlled the means of production. Throughout that day porta-potties showed up in droves, till there were around a hundred. That was pretty weird. This day was the day we realized we were in the liberal and commie camp. The commies kept putting red flags on everything. Every building they built had a big red flag on it. Or a Che flag. Or a hammer and sickle... until more than half the camp was showing red flags. That evening we turned a trash bag into a huge black flag and hung it from our tent. We also put huge circle a's on our rubbish bins, which were fabulous fyi.
Later that night we formed a line to dig the water out of the puddles with buckets, and while we did that, the commie barrio built a second bar for the camp... a bar from which funds would be funneled into their organization.
I went to sleep that night, and was so feeling so bad about camp that I hardly woke up. I woke up briefly but I took two long naps that day. More and more people showed up, mostly commies, also liberals and ravers. The ravers are going to have a rave at that camp from saturday evening until monday evening. The ravers set up a huge disco ball and a huge stereo system that they played techno from. The commies were apparantly two groups and one set up another huge sound system to play other music from. They mostly played linkin park and gangsta rap. The two sound systems were approximately 30 yards from one another. The other commie camp set up a projector and a sound system to go with that. They played a german war movie late into the night while the ravers played techno and shined their disco ball and the other commie tent played christian rock.
The situation had reached critical suck.
The next day I was well rested and up to getting some work done around camp. I did some work at the greeting tent as people poured in, more than a person a minute this day. I did a lot of cooking in the cooking tent and did a security shift at the parking spaces, while the rest sat around the tent shießa-talking. The shit-talking is understandable but I didn't feel like it was making anything better. I was more into making my presence known and connecting with others like us. There were, after all, a few like us, just not many. When I came back to the tent they were discussing leaving camp early, in the next day or two after the action. That sounded good to me until it was discussed that we could leave sooner. Today, and get back to the convergence center, go to the first major action the next day, and then pick a new camp after that. We went to the train station and rode to the CC and more people piled into that camp. I wish those people luck. Which brings us to now. We only have one person's size of sleeping space here, so I'm not sure what we're going to do, but whatever it is, it will work better i.m.o.
Tomorrow is the first major action. Actions are split between an antifa demo against some nazis who are protesting the g8, and a more general anti-g8 anti-capitalism protest in the city. I'll tell you which one we went to after it's done, but in the meantime I'm curious as to which you think we would be most likely to go to.
Gute Nacht, Fruends!
So the next day we woke up, tired from staying up till 3 watching riot porn and began to pack our stuff. We got a ride into Camp Rostock, the closest place to the city actions...
When we got there they were just starting a meeting, which we joined and it seemed like tons of shit was needing to get done. There were only like 30 people there at this point. There wasn't even drinkable water apart from the sparkling mineral water being sold at the bar. They had a bloody bar set up stocked with beer and constantly staffed, but they didn't have drinking water! So after the meeting I decided to go where people had said they needed help, while the others set up camp. I started going up to people asking what they needed help with and they looked at me strange and would usually send me looking for some tool. When I'd ask people where that tool was they would nonchalantly tell me they didn't know or care. As our camp started getting set up others in our brigade would join me in my quests, but they all ended the same way, us deciding that no such tool existed or was able to be found. It was sparatically raining throughout all of this, getting my feet soaked. Eventually we got the task to make rubbish bins for recycling and trash.. and decided to just do that ourselves with no more asking for info. We found pallets already being formed into crates and decided we'd finish those up and turn them into rubbish bins. Somewhere along the way a British woman named Ana joined us.
We spent most of the day making a rubbish bin, and decided we'd go to the meeting and maybe spend tomorrow doing something more than busy work. So we got to the meeting that night and it was the worst meeting I've ever been to bar none. Worse than the Cascadia meetings... worse than any of the various 'process meetings' i've been to. Worse even than the World Can't Wait meeting after they snitched us out. The facilitator stopped facilitating midway through the meeting. There was nobody taking stack, so people would just shout as loud as they could and whoever shouted loudest got heard. Women were interrupted more often than they were not interrupted. So throughout all of this I was remaining silent and curling up into a tighter and tighter ball, until I snapped, and I stood up, and I yelled that this meeting was fucking bullshit and every single one of them needed to just shut the fuck up for a minute. Then I explained stack to them and they asked if I would keep stack to show them. We continued the meeting with stack and it went much more smoothly, excepting once when they started talking over each other again and I had to again yell at them, telling them to shut the fuck up. I was wet and cold and aggravated. In all honesty I haven't a damn clue what was said at the meeting. I spoke once or twice about the meeting topics, and I think Seda spoke once. Vanc and Säed didn't speak, and it seemed to wholly be a failure.
We went back to our tent to find there had been a leak. There was a puddle in the tent but the spot I put my sleeping bag in was immune. I fell asleep to the slow humm of vanc and saed complaining.
The next day I started off by helping with one of the big structures that was being built. From there I seemed to be of little help so I went to make another rubbish bin with the other mckinley brigaders plus ana. We built another rubbish bin as we slowly realized that we were in the middle of a commie barrio. To explain, the 3 large camping spaces were being planned to be split into barrios for like-minded individuals and safer spaces for womyn, queers, and tranny folx, but some NGOs thought it would be a good idea to make their own barrios. So during this day we slowly recognized that everything from the tools that we borrowed, to the drinks we bought, to the building we built belonged to the commies. They had trucked in tons of rich commie dollars to make their camp the bougiest. Shießa commies. They controlled the means of production. Throughout that day porta-potties showed up in droves, till there were around a hundred. That was pretty weird. This day was the day we realized we were in the liberal and commie camp. The commies kept putting red flags on everything. Every building they built had a big red flag on it. Or a Che flag. Or a hammer and sickle... until more than half the camp was showing red flags. That evening we turned a trash bag into a huge black flag and hung it from our tent. We also put huge circle a's on our rubbish bins, which were fabulous fyi.
Later that night we formed a line to dig the water out of the puddles with buckets, and while we did that, the commie barrio built a second bar for the camp... a bar from which funds would be funneled into their organization.
I went to sleep that night, and was so feeling so bad about camp that I hardly woke up. I woke up briefly but I took two long naps that day. More and more people showed up, mostly commies, also liberals and ravers. The ravers are going to have a rave at that camp from saturday evening until monday evening. The ravers set up a huge disco ball and a huge stereo system that they played techno from. The commies were apparantly two groups and one set up another huge sound system to play other music from. They mostly played linkin park and gangsta rap. The two sound systems were approximately 30 yards from one another. The other commie camp set up a projector and a sound system to go with that. They played a german war movie late into the night while the ravers played techno and shined their disco ball and the other commie tent played christian rock.
The situation had reached critical suck.
The next day I was well rested and up to getting some work done around camp. I did some work at the greeting tent as people poured in, more than a person a minute this day. I did a lot of cooking in the cooking tent and did a security shift at the parking spaces, while the rest sat around the tent shießa-talking. The shit-talking is understandable but I didn't feel like it was making anything better. I was more into making my presence known and connecting with others like us. There were, after all, a few like us, just not many. When I came back to the tent they were discussing leaving camp early, in the next day or two after the action. That sounded good to me until it was discussed that we could leave sooner. Today, and get back to the convergence center, go to the first major action the next day, and then pick a new camp after that. We went to the train station and rode to the CC and more people piled into that camp. I wish those people luck. Which brings us to now. We only have one person's size of sleeping space here, so I'm not sure what we're going to do, but whatever it is, it will work better i.m.o.
Tomorrow is the first major action. Actions are split between an antifa demo against some nazis who are protesting the g8, and a more general anti-g8 anti-capitalism protest in the city. I'll tell you which one we went to after it's done, but in the meantime I'm curious as to which you think we would be most likely to go to.
Gute Nacht, Fruends!
Monday, May 28, 2007
real quick
last night David Rovics played, and then we stayed up super late watching riot porn. This place is like a crimethinc wet dream sometimes. Seda and I argued and are not on such hot terms at the moment. Das ist alles.
a lot of stuff in a short space.
sorry for covering a lot of material in a short space, but lappy is busted so I'm using a common computer with a french keyboard. It's so difficult to do. I'm releasing some pictures to you as a supplement for words: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/veganbikepunk/Photos
So the past few days were not as terrifying, since we had a place to stay the whole time. We checked out some radical cafès, went to a punk/electronica festival, I got a tooth pulled, and we went to a planning meeting for the g8.
Where to start... the radical cafès were nice, one even reminded me of the Red and Black a little, but it didn't quite cut it... i sincerely miss dragon noodles.
I got my tooth pulled, which was a pretty strange experience... I just walked in to a nearby dentist complaining of pain and he just immediately sat me down, numbed my mouth and scraped all the nerves out of my aching tooth, then scheduled me for the next day to have it removed. When I got it removed he handed me a bill and asked if I wanted to pay cash or have my insurance deal with it. I said insurance and that was the end of that. I had my insurance card but he never asked to see it. He never even got my name until the end of the exchange. Rad yet surprising to see a medical professional whose first concern is health. So, my jaw still hurts and I'm terrified of getting dry socket, but at least that damn tooth is gone.
At one point the people in our squat let us know of a radical festival that would be going on, and we decided we would tag along. It was in a big park, and when we first got there, we figured we had accidentally gotten ourselves into a hippie-jam-fest. One tent was playing this super-hippie electronica, and another was just playing hippie jam band music. Further down, though, we found the punk stage. We watched some band (Walls of Jericho, I think) play for a while, then they finished and another band started setting up and then playing, and they were this weird ska-polka mix... not really my thing, but oh well. In any event, during their first song it started raining, and by their second song the wind was nearly knocking people over and there was hail bigger than bb's. Everyone huddled under stages and used tarps to cover the equipment and to cover the stages, meanwhile people were being pelted in the head with these huge hail crystals. It was the worst weather i've ever seen and the tarps above us were filling up and dumping water on me. When it started to die down we ran to the car and drove back home, just in time to take the subway to the g8 planning meeting, which was interesting but contained no information of relevance here.
So then yesterday we caught the train up to Rostock, and arrived at the convergence center, zhich is RAD AS SHIT. I got the tour then spent a few hours in the kitchen cooking, then attended a workshop on sexism and sexist violence, which was actually more of a recruitment ploy to get people to sign up to hang out at their safe space area and do shifts on the phone in case of sexist violence or anything like that, which I can't really do for two reasons...
1) I'm going to be split between two camps and
2) In the work I've done regarding sexist violence I've come to the conclusion that a man (or boi)'s place in these scenarios is almost never up front. The patriarchal reality is that the vast majority of the time the perp is male and the affected person is either female, child, or trans. And although not always, but usually, a woman who has been sexually assaulted wants nothing less in the immediate followup than to deal with a man.
I made it clear that I will be around and if anything is needed of me, I would be beyond willing to help.
So while I'm here I'm gonna do some grammar checking for the english portion of germany imc, and hopefully soon we will be on our way to camp rostock.
So the past few days were not as terrifying, since we had a place to stay the whole time. We checked out some radical cafès, went to a punk/electronica festival, I got a tooth pulled, and we went to a planning meeting for the g8.
Where to start... the radical cafès were nice, one even reminded me of the Red and Black a little, but it didn't quite cut it... i sincerely miss dragon noodles.
I got my tooth pulled, which was a pretty strange experience... I just walked in to a nearby dentist complaining of pain and he just immediately sat me down, numbed my mouth and scraped all the nerves out of my aching tooth, then scheduled me for the next day to have it removed. When I got it removed he handed me a bill and asked if I wanted to pay cash or have my insurance deal with it. I said insurance and that was the end of that. I had my insurance card but he never asked to see it. He never even got my name until the end of the exchange. Rad yet surprising to see a medical professional whose first concern is health. So, my jaw still hurts and I'm terrified of getting dry socket, but at least that damn tooth is gone.
At one point the people in our squat let us know of a radical festival that would be going on, and we decided we would tag along. It was in a big park, and when we first got there, we figured we had accidentally gotten ourselves into a hippie-jam-fest. One tent was playing this super-hippie electronica, and another was just playing hippie jam band music. Further down, though, we found the punk stage. We watched some band (Walls of Jericho, I think) play for a while, then they finished and another band started setting up and then playing, and they were this weird ska-polka mix... not really my thing, but oh well. In any event, during their first song it started raining, and by their second song the wind was nearly knocking people over and there was hail bigger than bb's. Everyone huddled under stages and used tarps to cover the equipment and to cover the stages, meanwhile people were being pelted in the head with these huge hail crystals. It was the worst weather i've ever seen and the tarps above us were filling up and dumping water on me. When it started to die down we ran to the car and drove back home, just in time to take the subway to the g8 planning meeting, which was interesting but contained no information of relevance here.
So then yesterday we caught the train up to Rostock, and arrived at the convergence center, zhich is RAD AS SHIT. I got the tour then spent a few hours in the kitchen cooking, then attended a workshop on sexism and sexist violence, which was actually more of a recruitment ploy to get people to sign up to hang out at their safe space area and do shifts on the phone in case of sexist violence or anything like that, which I can't really do for two reasons...
1) I'm going to be split between two camps and
2) In the work I've done regarding sexist violence I've come to the conclusion that a man (or boi)'s place in these scenarios is almost never up front. The patriarchal reality is that the vast majority of the time the perp is male and the affected person is either female, child, or trans. And although not always, but usually, a woman who has been sexually assaulted wants nothing less in the immediate followup than to deal with a man.
I made it clear that I will be around and if anything is needed of me, I would be beyond willing to help.
So while I'm here I'm gonna do some grammar checking for the english portion of germany imc, and hopefully soon we will be on our way to camp rostock.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Portland Uber Alles
So that morning we compiled a list of meetup points that the G8 sites had reccomended for getting info. The nearest was a bar, called The Clash, so we would go there first. The second was an infoshop called The New Yorck, and the third was a squat, about to be evicted, called The Köpi. We took the subwaz to The Clash, only to find it was closed... not terribly surprising since it was now 12.30 in the morning, but things are of course much different here, especially concerning vices. So we sat and we waited for it to open. After a while someone came by and let us know that they usually open around 3pm. So we went to get some food and drink while we waited. We went around the corner and got some samosas and beers. Then we went back to The Clash, which was now open, and got more beers. We asked about g8 info and they informed us that the info for meetups and such came out tomorrow, and they'd be happy to tell us where to go tomorrow. I was briefly stumped as to what to do, but Seda immediately jumped in and said of a farm she knew the owner of in the East. We agreed that it would be fun to go there, but Seda said she couldn't call her until the evening. So we went to get Vegan food (The Clash had steak on their menu, and when we ordered something that looked vegan, they said their menu wasn't up to date.)
So we went around the corner to a restaurant, and ate some bougie vegan food and sat on a bench until Seda was ready to call her friend. She gave us directions, which lead us to the regional trains, which went long distances, and are kinda spendy (a series of regional trains are how we got to Berlin). So we did our best to manage the subway system to get to the train station at Lichtenberg. We rode trains for an hour and a half or so until we were there. She was waiting in a car for us there, and we crammed ourselves in. When we got there she introduced herself as Carmen, and we found out she didn't own the farm, she just lived and worked there. She was very hospitable and generally plesant. We all passed out just about as soon as we got there, and woke up that morning at 7 or so.
When we first woke up we were very afraid of running into other people there (social anxiety is magnified by at least 10 when you don't speak the language). But when we got into the kitchen there was freshly baked bread laid out for us and a note saying to help ourselves. We ate well, and went back to the room to cower. When it was lunchtime for Carmen, she came in and said that everyone was saying it was weird that they didn't see us. So we went out and took a quick tour of the farm, eating little bits and pieces of things growing. Then it was time for her to go back to work, so I went back to the room and took a quick nap while Vanc, Säed and Seda swam in the pond. Later Carmen came back and gave me, Seda, and Säed a more full tour while Vanc napped. We met the horsies, Max and Mori. We met cows, who I gave various beautiful names to. And we met bees, whom I cowered from.
Then we had a picnic dinner of pasta and salad, and I played on the swing. It was a beautiful relaxing day, all in all. So we went to sleep again, and the next day, we walked the half mile to the bus stop and got on, to go to Frankfurt Am Oder (a different Frankfurt) where we caught a train back to Berlin.
Once in Berlin we went back to The Clash. There they had a list of info for travellers coming for the g8. They said if you needed a place to stay, you should inquire at an infopoint. So we inquired, and they hooked us up with a squat that had an open room. We ate soup while we waited to go there, and checked out the radical bookstore from the Slingshot (it was like 20 meters away). While there, a man came in to let us know there had been a raid and there would be a rally that night. I really really wanted to go, but we had confirmed with the squat that we'd be there at 7, and that's when the rally was. Oh wells. I want to give you more info about the squat, but I can't while I'm still there, security is becoming a real issue with all the raids. But rest assured, we now have a nice place to stay, in a room of our own, for the rest of the time we're in Berlin.
Toodles.
So we went around the corner to a restaurant, and ate some bougie vegan food and sat on a bench until Seda was ready to call her friend. She gave us directions, which lead us to the regional trains, which went long distances, and are kinda spendy (a series of regional trains are how we got to Berlin). So we did our best to manage the subway system to get to the train station at Lichtenberg. We rode trains for an hour and a half or so until we were there. She was waiting in a car for us there, and we crammed ourselves in. When we got there she introduced herself as Carmen, and we found out she didn't own the farm, she just lived and worked there. She was very hospitable and generally plesant. We all passed out just about as soon as we got there, and woke up that morning at 7 or so.
When we first woke up we were very afraid of running into other people there (social anxiety is magnified by at least 10 when you don't speak the language). But when we got into the kitchen there was freshly baked bread laid out for us and a note saying to help ourselves. We ate well, and went back to the room to cower. When it was lunchtime for Carmen, she came in and said that everyone was saying it was weird that they didn't see us. So we went out and took a quick tour of the farm, eating little bits and pieces of things growing. Then it was time for her to go back to work, so I went back to the room and took a quick nap while Vanc, Säed and Seda swam in the pond. Later Carmen came back and gave me, Seda, and Säed a more full tour while Vanc napped. We met the horsies, Max and Mori. We met cows, who I gave various beautiful names to. And we met bees, whom I cowered from.
Then we had a picnic dinner of pasta and salad, and I played on the swing. It was a beautiful relaxing day, all in all. So we went to sleep again, and the next day, we walked the half mile to the bus stop and got on, to go to Frankfurt Am Oder (a different Frankfurt) where we caught a train back to Berlin.
Once in Berlin we went back to The Clash. There they had a list of info for travellers coming for the g8. They said if you needed a place to stay, you should inquire at an infopoint. So we inquired, and they hooked us up with a squat that had an open room. We ate soup while we waited to go there, and checked out the radical bookstore from the Slingshot (it was like 20 meters away). While there, a man came in to let us know there had been a raid and there would be a rally that night. I really really wanted to go, but we had confirmed with the squat that we'd be there at 7, and that's when the rally was. Oh wells. I want to give you more info about the squat, but I can't while I'm still there, security is becoming a real issue with all the raids. But rest assured, we now have a nice place to stay, in a room of our own, for the rest of the time we're in Berlin.
Toodles.
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