Trailing Wires

Yesterday I became an official Berlin resident, which required sitting in the Bürgeramt for what felt like most of the afternoon, surrounded by the full spectrum of urban weirdness. The same people you see on the street, just more concentrated, all clutching numbered tickets and staring at nothing.

I like it here more every day. I genuinely don’t understand what people have against city life. I walk out my door and within a few minutes I can buy a magazine, a fragrance, something that passes for dinner. I could do all of that before, technically. But doing it in Berlin feels different—a bit sharper, a bit more like the life I was supposed to be living.

I also found out the biggest Apple reseller in the city is two U-Bahn stops away. Before this move, I had to go all the way to Munich just to see a Mac that wasn’t my own Mini. Which brings me to the real difference I’ve noticed between the two cities: in Munich you’d see white earbuds peeking out from under collars, the cable neatly tucked away inside the jacket. Here the trendy crowd wears the full iPod cord on the outside—draped over the clothes, loose, visible, not apologizing for itself. I caught the habit immediately. I snag it on door handles sometimes and nearly send my iPod across the room. Worth it.