Application prep, and flea markets in Berlin.
I spent the last week reformatting my portfolio for A4, which is what a lot of firms request. Jed and I also decided to print copies of our portfolio and send them out rather then just relying on email applications. I think we have a higher chance of our work being seen this way, and since we don't speak German or have any connections we have to do everything we can to get noticed.
Of course, as I was reformatting, I made a lot of changes to the content of my portfolio... so here it is, revised, in all it's entry-level glory.
I have the weekend to make my cover letters and prepare my packages for mail-out on Monday. It's exciting and scary.
We haven't done much by way of entertainment in Berlin, as our main focus is looking for work. We did go see Pina earlier this week, which was incredible.
ON FLEA MARKETS:
This weekend we tried the whole 'flea market' thing for getting furniture/housewares. Not that we need that much, since our apartment is almost completely furnished... but we were pretty disappointed at how pricey everything seemed to be.
Piles of old junk--and I don't mean beautiful antiques, I mean broken chairs, scratched mirrors, and blackened cookware--when we enquired the cost it was always something outrageous ("80 euro for this mirror--it's real crystal") or our offers were rejected with disdain. It was kind of like the people selling this stuff didn't really want to sell it. Or maybe just not to us (foreigners!).
All I really wanted was a cheese grater. There were boxes and boxes of kitchen utensils and I finally found a used, but good condition, cheese grater. Offered 2 euros. Was snickered at and told 4 euro. Forget it, I'm not even going to bother haggling over a used kitchen utensil.
Oh well, no big loss. The North American in me prefers one-stop shopping anyways. At IKEA not only did we find everything we needed, but I got to experience the double dog, a Swedish masterpeice in culinary delight.
Today: Jed has a job interview! We're actually not sure what kind of position he's being interviewed for, something to do with his visualizations, but as to whether it's a full-time position or just contract work... we'll find out within an hour. He's sitting in a cafe right now awaiting the partner from COBE.
What else: Berlin is a scary bike city. It's very possible to bike everywhere, but traffic is much less forgiving and patient with cyclists as in Denmark. There are a lot less real bike lanes, but I still find it impressive that a poor city like Berlin can implement biking as a viable form of transportation with at least some lights and lanes. I'm not sure about winter biking; I assume there is no money to clear the lanes as there was in Denmark, so probably it will be a lot of U/S bahn. Anyways.
This post is getting incredibly mundane and so I'm going to get dressed and go downtown for a post-interview debriefing. Wish Jed luck!