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Most of East Berlin looks indistinguishable from the West, but some sections of the old Eastie buildings still remain, as here. When we used to visit the East, it would be so dreary, almost monochromatic, with very few advertisements and monotonous little Trabi cardboard cars, and weird Communist experiences like seeing items in shop windows that the shops didn't carry. It was really a startling change to see it looking so Western.
Despite the definite excitement in the divided days being over, there has been some friction in reuniting the East & West. Juliane explained how in East Berlin in Communist days, you would go to work at 10 a.m., chat with coworkers, go to the cafeteria for a snack, learn that a market was selling butter for the first time in weeks so race over there to stand in line, and knock off "work" at
2 p.m. The West Germans have a very strong work ethic, so it was hard to retrain the Easterners to work for money as opposed to just showing up. In the East, you had a job title but not necessarily any skills. She was telling stories of "electricians" whose job in the East was snapping plastic tables together; with the Reunification, they put down their job as "electrician," only to have the Western electricians assigned to work with them discover the Easties knew nothing about wires. Juliane works at the Deutsche Bank, and one of her formerly Eastern coworkers complains about how exhausted she is and how she will have to retire at 40. Steve & I have decided we're East German.
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