Back to school, German style

If you spent some time in Germany over the last few weeks, you probably saw children walking the streets with giant cardboard cones. 

They might have been wearing backpacks large enough to fit another child inside. 

Their parents might've been dressed to the nines. 

You might've even been invited to an Einschulungsfeier, which is a party celebrating the first day of Grade 1.

It's back-to-school time in Germany, and like most things that Germans love, it's taken very seriously here.

And like most things that are taken very seriously here, I was very unprepared for it. 

My own Canadian experience with starting school was modest. I got some new clothes, a backpack, and a brown bag lunch. Maybe a photo was snapped before the school bus took me to school. No party. No body bag backpack. 

In Germany, it has been taken to the next level. There's a big ceremony at the school the weekend before the first day. Parents throw parties. All the kids' parents buy the same type of (expensive) backpack. The kids receive a cardboard cone filled with school supplies, sweets, and whatever else can be crammed into it.

It probably wasn't always this way. The kids are anxious and excited for this next step, so a ceremony at the school is a smart move. Gifting school supplies? Also, a smart move. But the rest can take on a feeling of an overly commercialized affair that's developed its own Enschulungs-Industrial Complex, making the whole thing futile to resist.

In the midst of all this, it's easy to lose sight of the most important thing: a six-year-old growing a little older and entering a new phase in their life. 

Riding to the first day of school

Parental Leave Time

My two months of parental leave is over, and I can tell you that time has taken on a new meaning.

Before parental leave and the arrival of our second son, time was structured around Kita drop-offs and pick-ups, and the unrelenting beat of the work day: focus time, one-on-ones, stand-ups, all-hands, and so on.

During parental leave from work, the rhythm of the days feels more fluid. Often just as urgent, but more important.

We (well, mostly the mother) adjust our schedules around feedings, wakings, and diaper changings. You rise with the sun, and can't wait to get to bed after the sun sets. The Kita drop-offs and pick-ups feel like interruptions into the parental leave's unique time zone. 

There are other impositions inviting themselves to the mix. Forms must be filled out to meet bureaucratic demands. We're moving to a bigger apartment, so boxes must be packed (while the baby sleeps). All of which make the usual time-constrained demands on our schedules and energy levels. 

Aside from those impositions, time starts to feel more natural. I see parental leave as a return to a natural order of things, instead of a deviation from the expected order of things. Which is something I hope to keep in mind when I return to work.

Some Berlin Tunes

The building where David Bowie and Iggy Pop lived.

Burnt out and lost in his own revolving cast of identities, David Bowie left for Berlin, well, West Berlin.

He didn't go alone. He brought a friend, James Newell Osterberg Jr., or Iggy Pop, as most of us know him. Berlin would have seemed the perfect place for them. A city living on the edge, walled in, surrounded by Soviet tanks, and still a rough ruin. But still free. 

They shared a flat (in my neighbourhood). They collaborated, went to local shows, worked with Brian Eno, jammed with Kraftwerk, and made a musical hash of rock, punk, and electronic. And they've both gone back, again and again. Those Belin roots went deep.

So, it was a treat to find this audio treat: Iggy Pop's Berlin Bound radio special. 

Mixed up in Pop's playlist is some Nico, the lady from the Velvet Underground. She's German, by the way. Some Kraftwerk, which has become a household favourite here. Some Anton Karas, who you might remember from The Third Man soundtrack. And, of course, some Rammstein and some Bowie.

Pop's playlist is perfectly Berlin. It defies genre, ranging from Krautrock to electronic music and 1920s oldies. It's all ear candy if you give it a shot. And it captures some of this city's musical awesome-ness. 

---

Und! Hier ist die Playlist auf Youtube:

• Nico - "Abschied"

• Nico - "Janitor Of Lunacy"

• Lotte Lenya - "Happy End: Surabaya-Johnny"

• Lotte Lenya - "Alabama Song"

• Nico - "Evening Of Light"

• Lotte Lenya - "September Song"

• Neu! - "Lila Engel"

• Can - "Vitamin C"

• Faust - "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"

• Popol Vuh - "Wir wissen von der Not"

• Viktor & Die Vokalisten - "Berlin Boys and Stuttgart Girls"

• Lou Reed - "Berlin"

• David Bowie - "V-2 Schneider"

• Einstürzende Neubauten - "The Garden"

• Einstürzende Neubauten - "Ich Gehe Jetzt"

• Michael Rother - "Zyklodrom"

• Michael Rother - "Katzenmusik 5"

• Michael Rother - "Katzenmusik 6"

• Nils Frahm - "Spells"

• Rammstein - "Ich Will"

• Powell Tillmans - "Tone Me"

• Anton Karas - "The Cafe Mozart Waltz"

• Neu! - "Hero"

• Helena Hauff - "C45p"

• Boney M. - "Daddy Cool"