My, oh my. Much too much has been happening in my life as of late to keep up with on this here blog. My past month has been incredible--seriously one of the most productive of my life--and has had an extremely positive influence on my life. I've picked up a few new hobbies, gained a new-found confidence and sense of self-worth, and have generally been having the time of my life doing it. Though this post can't possibly do justice to just how great things have been going, I'll try to describe it the best I can.
So this whole busking adventure has taken on a life of its own. Partly through the pure fun we experience through doing it, and partly from Will's initiative in promoting us as a busking duo through social media, busking has been the activity which we've focused the majority of our energy on in the past couple weeks. During our busking shift last Friday, I experienced a couple of things I never thought I would. Firstly, we continue to connect with all sorts of people in an extremely positive way. For one reason or another, we had a lot of contact with the so-called 'vagrants' of the street: the homeless, drunks, and other 'unpalatable' people that an average middle-class person would avoid. However, they didn't aggravate, beg money from, or show any sort of hostility towards us in any way. While roaming around Alexanderplatz, we walked past a group of such people who only wanted one things from us: to play a song for them. When we stopped and paid them the little bit of attention they politely asked for, the response was simply electric--we haven't made people so happy through our busking besides then! Afterwards they shook our hands and let us go on our way, without any of the usual money-grubbing or disgruntlement that they show towards people who ignore them. Amazing.
Secondly, we performed for somewhere between 70 and 100 people at the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station for around 20 minutes before the security guards asked us to stop. The energy we created there was astounding - when the guards came to stop us, everyone gave them a resounding 'boooooooo,' and then cheered for us when we bowed. I think that qualifies as me completing my recent goal of wanted to perform on stage! What's more, five girls we had met two nights before at a bar showed up to listen and cheer us on. We told a lot of people that night about us, and weren't expecting many (if any) to show up, so that was rad. We got some video footage of the event, which we'll be soon editing and posting on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Funky-Anglo-Boys/281964835205989.
Thirdly, we had a glimpse of what it must of been like to be a Beatle: as we were standing on a relatively empty platform waiting for the next train and talking to the few people sitting there, we were about to play a calm, quiet song when a full train pulled up.When the doors opened, nearly 35 teenage girls stormed out, screaming wildly and swarming us. I changed tunes to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and tried my damnedest to keep singing during the wave of shock that hit me like a ton of bricks. For the entirety of the song, they were surrounding us, getting their pictures taken by their adult chaperons (it must've been a school trip or something), screaming all the while. And they left as quickly as they came, leaving those of us who had been on the platform before standing there in confusion and disbelief. So random, but so awesome.
Fourthly (and least importantly, though certainly great), was that we made over 110 Euro in around two hours of work! Not only was it incredible to have felt such a strong, highly-energized connection with so many people that night, but it was great to see people's generosity. We even managed to get three free beers and some melted chocolate during the tail end of the night. Most importantly, though, was just how happy both we and those we performed for were during and after our busking. One particular carriage full of drunk-off-their-rockers 50-somethings for whom we played "Take Me Home Country Roads" was memorable for the happiness and warmth exchanged there, as well as the countless people we talked to who were intrigued by what we were doing. We even gave one Euro to another busker with a much more professional set-up, who couldn't restrain his laughter when he saw who was paying him compliments. As I said before, this busking gig is becoming bigger than we ever expected: on Monday, we went out for a couple hours simply as a pick-me-up when Will was feeling a little down. Of course, afterwards we felt on top of the world! And we got invited to play at a kindergarten from a couple on the subway! Lovely randomness continues to ensue from our busking adventures. More stories from the busking front soon to come!
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In the hitchhiking department, I'm making huge strides in gaining confidence and experience through doing it more. Two days ago, I hitched back to Munich from Berlin in around an hour more than it would have taken had I caught the train (even though I got rides from four different drivers). I took a more proactive approach this time, going up to drivers at rest stops and asking if they had any interest in taking a hitchhiker instead of standing on the side of the road with a sign. Shortly after arriving to my first rest stop outside of Berlin, I ran into a young couple also hitching to the south (to Rosenheim, just an hour or so south of Munich). They had much more experience hitching than me, and it was great to observe and learn from them. They were suuuuper relaxed about the whole enterprise, and had absolutely no fear in confronting everybody who stopped at the rest stop. Of course, they were extremely courteous and humble (which you sort of have to be for anyone to take you), and just let things happen as they would. We ended up getting three rides together, and they even got the last one for me (since the guy was going to Munich, not Rosenheim). The whole day was quite full on, as we didn't wait for longer than three minutes at any given place after the first stop (at which we waited for about half an hour). In fact, between the second and third rides, I barely had enough time to pee and scarf down a sandwich! I had some awesome conversations along the way with my travel companions and those who picked us up. After that, I'm more than confident that hitchhiking is an easy, stress-free way to travel, and will continue pursuing it when I have the time to do so.
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Otherwise, I've been hanging out in and around Munich with my friend Karen from Pittsburgh and Cathy, her friend since childhood. They're on a six-week European backpacking adventure, and will be spending a week with me, half of it here in Munich, the rest in Berlin. We've been taking advantage of the warm weather by frequenting various beer gardens, leisurely strolling through the great parks of Munich, taking a sobering trip to Dachau, succeeded by a much needed 'water-break' at Kloster Andechs for some delicious German beer and food. Tomorrow a couple of my Munich friends will be over for dinner to celebrate Karen and Cathy being here as well as my brief return to Munich before hitching it back to Berlin on Saturday. I'll spend another couple of weeks there to attend the Fulbright Berlin Conference, as well as hone my busking skills some more with Will, before shipping off to Paris to meet my mother for her first proper trip to Europe.
Well, that's all I have the patience and energy to write about for the moment (and more than enough than you probs want to read), so I'll end here. Though I will say there will be an important blog post coming soon, which deserves all the attention of a whole post to itself (which can't be given justice here and now). I'm still working out the finer details, but my life is going to change directions drastically within a few months. It will probably not come as a surprise to most of you, but it's something I've struggled to convince myself of doing for the longest time. But if I've learned anything so far during this year in Germany, it's been that I need to do this. Until the next post!
