a friday night bzw. three tales of cultural adjustment

on friday evening i visit someone i know from an organization i volunteer with at his bookshop in the south west of berlin (i needed to go to a bookstore so i thought i would go to one where i knew the person). it's a little bit 'out there' (but not actually!) so i think he was genuinely surprised to see me. since it was slow we spent a lot of time chatting - he spent some time in india so we were talking about desi-ness and how i feel out of the loop of germany without a television. usually i form connectiosn with people based on their knowledge of american culture (tv, music, etc.) which obviously does not say much for me since it should be the other way around. and i think without significant efforts on my part it subtly encourages cultural imperialism. we went to a mexican restaurant together afterwards, def. one of the best i've been to in berlin (not that i'm a mexican food connoisseur). i would venture to say it's worth the trek out there - i guess many other people agree with me because when we walked in all the tables were reserved.

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then i headed off to see a friend and another who was visiting town. they were both such american frat boys (although neither of them was in a fraternity) where most of their stories revolve around massive consumption -either of food or alcohol- and are told with much enthusiasm. even though this type of personality doesn't particularly appeal to me, it was kind of cute in its own way and the outing it made me feel a whole lot better. it was nice to be in this enclave that was american in every respect if only for a few hours. in that sense, it's a privilege to be an american in berlin where i can escape when i want to. even though many americans clump together while abroad, there's also a sort of repulsion to other americans because i think knowing that there are others with the exact same experience sort of undermines the high cultural emphasis on individuality.