Visible Cords

Just became an official Berlin resident. Only took a full afternoon at city hall with the strangest collection of humans I’ve ever laid eyes on—though I guess they roam around outside just fine anyway. But I’m warming to this place more every day. I don’t understand why anyone complains about city living. You step outside and there’s Hugendubel for magazines, Karstadt for Puma sneakers, Lidl for microwaveable junk. Okay, technically you could get all that back home. But something about it feels cooler here.

Turns out there’s a massive Gravis two stops down the U-Bahn line. Used to have to drive out to Munich to see any Mac besides my tiny mini actually sitting in front of me. But I noticed something between Munich and Berlin that’s genuinely interesting: the trendy people here wear their iPod headphones with the cord hanging out. Fully visible, threaded through your clothes. In Munich, all you’d see were those white earbuds, barely peeking out. I caught the habit, naturally. Now I do it too. Gets tangled on doorways sometimes, but I’ve made peace with that.