Hi from the skies!
I’m currently writing to you from 30,000 feet in the air, on my way to Istanbul, and I have to open this issue with a request — please talk to your Uber drivers!
I took an Uber to the airport this morning — as someone who is naturally an overly (perhaps obnoxiously) energetic morning person, I always start with a smiley hello and this time threw in a "wie geht es Ihnen heute?" (“how are you today?”), which my driver, an older gentleman, seemed a little taken aback by. Noticing that he didn’t actually want to speak, I laid off the chatting, but, being American, I couldn’t help but open my mouth 10 minutes into the ride, astonished by the lack of traffic. We then started properly talking for the rest of the drive.
My driver told me that he moved to Berlin from Syria 10 years ago, and that he loves having conversations with his passengers, especially because he rarely gets to practice his German (which was excellent — not to throw shade*, but he could run serious laps around almost all of my American friends in Berlin) and rarely gets to speak at all. He estimated that he chats with his passengers maybe once a week, which, as an extrovert (and a human being) obviously saddened me and piggybacked off the feedback I got recently. We chatted about politics, our families, and the weather (an unavoidable topic in Germany), and I walked away from our conversation feeling happy to have made a lovely, albeit brief, human connection.
I don’t know why so many people choose to sit in silence. I completely understand if someone feels self-conscious or like they’re intruding on the driver’s personal space/quiet time, but in my experience (as someone who’s taken far too many Ubers in the last 10 years), I’ve found that about 98% of the time, drivers really do welcome conversation. In the 2% chance they don’t, it’s easy to pick up on what are usually very clear social cues.
I firmly believe you should try to do as many things as possible that scare you (something I am continuously working on myself!) and eventually, you find they become much less scary. Over time, just like my insistence on walking a minimum of 10,000 steps per day, these little habits end up being the main contributors toward genuine happiness.
So please try a little conversation next time you’re in an Uber. You’ll probably be surprised at how much it brightens your own day.
*it’s possible that I may, in fact, have intended to throw a little shade.
Sober, solo, situated
Last Saturday night, I hosted a birthday party at my house for two of my friends, something of a warm-up before going to the club we all had tickets to.
I've definitely earned a reputation amongst friends for either bailing on club nights at the eleventh hour or, if I do somehow find myself actually in the club, making a swift exit after two hours. In retrospect, I obviously had no grand plans to deviate from this pattern on this particular evening.
I had two espressos in anticipation of this late-night affair, but as the clock struck 1 AM, I realized it was time to drop the facade and admit I wasn’t going to go. Instead, wired from all the caffeine, I ended up cleaning my entire apartment. This particular club night was planned with the intent of seeing DJ Stingray, a Detroit-based DJ, but we learned a little too late into the plans that his set wasn’t until closing time — a casual 10:30 AM start. In a totally out of character moment, having woken up to a pristine home the next morning (there are few feelings more intoxicating) and feeling refreshed from a good night of sleep, I thought I should go see if my friends were still at the club (it’s notorious for horrible cell reception, so I didn’t really have another way of checking). Given that I’d paid 28€, it also occurred to me that I should just go see DJ Stingray — after all, if you ever have the chance to see a Detroit DJ (the home of techno!), you should probably take it.
So that’s how I, at 10:50 AM on a Sunday, found myself (stone-cold sober, might I add) at Tresor. The deciding factor for whether or not I would go was how much the coat check cost (I didn’t have any cash and didn't feel like getting any out), only to find out from a friend that it was free. Tresor ranks at number 9 on my best clubs in Berlin list, but I would definitely consider bumping it up a couple spots based on this (tourist friendly) perk alone.
I spent the first 10ish minutes checking to see if my friends were still there (they weren’t) and then decided I would just treat it like a workout class and get my steps in for the day. My original plan was to leave at noon but I ended up loving the set so much that I stayed until closing, around 1:30 PM — my first ever closing!
I’m not a person who’s amazing at going places solo (the idea of going to a restaurant alone, for example, still terrifies me) so doing this felt like a huge step forward. It ended up being a great workout, a highly meditative practice, and an amazing way to spend a winter Sunday. I already think this will be etched into my memory as one of my favorite unexpected adventures, and I would definitely do it again. I also think it’s a great reminder that stepping out of your comfort zone is a lot more attainable than you probably realize.
Best art under 50 Euros
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Dinner at Sera's to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.