Drag Scene...

Today is my first day of work as a Nanny for a Polish family in a neighborhood south of here- two girls who don´t speak english yet and who have shaved heads. It´s sunny but still very cold and I keep on having performance fantasies when listening to bad radio in the morning with my tea and bread in the kitchen at X-B.

Last night I went with my roommates Lota (swedan) and Catalina (NYC) to a drag show at the club ÁHA´(www.kingsofberlin.de) . It was an open stage and I went with the idea of just checking out the scene... but inspired by the german line dancing and bad romio and juliet, plus some singing drag queens, I decided we needed to perform. Catalina went to NYU for drama and we quickly put together a performance with some stuff we both had done in the past. I was not wearing anying very special, so I just decided to perform in my bra, singing ´crying over you´ with Catalina coming out crying over me and then we did a sassy little southern girl act about our hats being happy and sad. It was really fun and I think people liked it- Catalina and I will most likely come up with more performances also, which I am looking forward to. Afterwards one of the bar tenders kept on kissing my hand and trying to get me drunk and I got to chat with lots of different people at the club. Afterwards we went to pizza and then to the gay disco club SO36, which was on the way home.

This morning Nossa came back to the house and told that all went well with her interview about the wedding (the one from Friday) and then I said my good byes to Nossa and Elisa who are going back to Amsterdam today- hopefully they will be setting up a show for me and friends as well.

One of Tinas friends in Milan wants us to come and perform at a party called ´Fetish Art´(www.fetish-art.it) for ealy dec. and I am working on an Alice in Wonderland theme for it- it looks like we are also going to perform in Balonia while in Italy. Also, after the show at AHA last night, I talked with this girl named Elliot (france) who works at the Barbie Dienhof and she asked me to be in the cabaret for late November. So great how many opportunities there are here for performing and trying new things.. I´m having lots of fun with trying new performances and getting to work with new people.

I´m not looking forward to working and getting enough money to get a bike and my new room... there is also a lamp at the flee market that I have my eye on... little things that make life feel nice sometimes.

Barbie Dienhof, Swedish Karaoke, Opera Drag Queens and Queer Weddings in Berlin!

Yes, and this is only the beginning. Where to start. It is hard to me to keep up on all these things, trying to recap, but at an internet cafe I am not always feeling the Berlin life that now runs through me. More drag shows coming up, one in Milano in Dec. as well at the cabarette at the Barbie Dienhof (http://www.bader-deinhoff.de/).. the most amazing bar/place ever... There is a huge Gala tonight at X-B, the huge building I live in in east berlin and we made lots of vegan cakes for it and now people are decorating and mixing up the bar in the ground floor, as well as the bike shop with has been converted into another bar. Wow, I really am not even knowing where to start in explaining what has been happening. Most of my friends here are still swedish and italian and we go out to karaoke bars with private booths and sing ´time of my life´ and britney and I go to the library tons and drink lots of black tea in the morning with my nice german bread. I think a lot about the US and being in Germany, think about why it´s different, what about this life that makes it so freeing and amazing. Right now I´m at an african owned internet cafe and there is a guy working here speaking an african dialect, at home it´s french, italian, german, swedish, and more. I ride my bike around this city and wonder where I really am. There is a huge Turkish population here also, some kind of agreement between germany and turkey... we eat lots of falafels and bakery goods. Stores are small and food is made fresh and it´s starting to get really dark at 6pm-18 hrs. I know I am jumping around, but I wanted to give an update of some kind, and this is what I have. I also went to a queer wedding this morning and the other wedding next to us was also queer... I think german and spanish with two girls and there were all these great fags there and this one trans girl who had amazing bangs and I wanted her to be my new bestfriend. I thinkI will go to my house for the gala now and make a big party with all the women and queerions of berlin. I have also found a job here finally.. watching polish girls who don´t speak english and also don´t have hair, so it will somehow grow back better. this is the story for now.

Take care and keep in touch!

Berlin... at last!

And where do I begin...? First of all, I love it here, not sure I want to leave ever even though the nights are getting colder and colder and I am having trouble getting a job. I live in a big building that used to be a squat, and is now legalized, in what used to be East Berlin in Friedrickshain. The building has 4 floors and is a huge womens collective house called X-B Liebig, with a bar on the first floor which is open some days of the weeks. I am living on the 4th floor, which is known as the queer/international floor and there are girls from Norway, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and the US, and all of whom are extremely smart and talented artists and craftspeople. There are many realities to living here... the people you meet and the relationships built, the day to day activities and making of pasta and such in the kitchen, wondering the streets and looking at all the beautiful buildings and spaces, being around so many mixed languages and stories, the personal thoughts and ideas that come from traveling and questions one has about self, life, purpose, goals, direction, time and so forth. I long to stay here and yet worry about everday survival and also long for traveling more and at the same time am creating stability for myself here. I am tired and restless, longing for certainty and looking for adventure.

I will write more later... more on love and bikes and maps and big euro cities...

xo, elliat

Hamburg, Germany

¨That fishy town¨as they say, so at least in the chicks on speed song. I spent almost a week there, staying with my friend Eleni, who I met at Queeruption in Barcelona. It took me about two days to finally get to her house from my house in Seattle, but it was great once I landed. Germany is an interesting country and for the most part I really like it here. Hamburg was more sleepy that I had expected and my main memory of it is the wall of vine leaves on the building across the way from the kitchen window at Eleni´s house, turning a deep red as the air was growing colder. I stayed in their guest room, on the 1st floor (in the US it would be the second floor) and then the kitchen, living room (home of the guine pigs) the bathroom and the two boys room were on the 3rd floor, and lastly, Eleni, Joy and Andrea lived on the 4th (next was the attick where you went to hang your closes to dry). The bathroom was divided with the sink and shower/bath and then a room on the other side of the hall with the toilette. We ate lots of bread with a wide array of spreads for the morning and I have found that the most popular meal in Germany is Falafel as it is only 2 euros for a quick dinner.

Eleni introduced me to her friend Christina and we went to the womens art/video archive in Hamburg. They had an amazing space next to the central station with a huge room full of books and zines on all sorts of subject matter, a room full of 5,000 films by women starting from the 1970´s, an office, a kitchen/filing room, and a viewing room with a huge tv and large rolling boxes with pads on them for sitting on. I went the next day with Christina to watch some films and get some ideas for things I might be able to screen in the US later... my favorites so far are the one from the this woman in London who goes for a walk with a huge purse and a pink coat, goes into a office in a building and then takes out half a pizza from her purse and eats it, of course saving some for later after she is done. The other was called ¨Women in Black¨- a play on men in black, about two butch femme couples who basically kill gross guys who try to fuck with them.

I will finish my update soon, and then I can tell about Berlin, where I am now!

xo, elliat