September 2023: a month of first times

I wrote an entire recap for September and then realized every single paragraph talked about something I did for the first time this month, so I decided to start over.

Here’s a list of things I did for the first time this month:

Went to Barcelona!

Before I moved to Europe I had this idea that everything was so close that it was super easy to just travel around to different countries for a weekend all the time, but it turns out when you’re actually here life gets in the way. And lately I started feeling like I still don’t know many places despite having been in Europe for over 6 years.

So I started September with a long weekend in Barcelona and it was great! My partner couldn’t take time off, so I invited a friend to come with me. We ate a lot of delicious food and saw many Gaudí places and all his work was mindblowing. I still can’t get over the interior of the Sagrada Familia and just how impressive everything was! (I also can’t get over how mundane his death was, getting hit by a tram!)

I really liked the vibe of the city and how many places served açaí! And it’s such a skateable city, we saw skaters everywhere and I want to bring my skates next time!

Skated new places

Speaking of skates, I did quite a lot of it this month, despite skipping training for a few weeks. I went to Fläming Skate with a group and it was a really pleasant ride, super smooth and full of trees covering the 12km path we took, I’d love to go back for a longer route!

I also joined Critical Mass for the first time last week and at first it was a bit scary being among so many cyclists, but it was also a lot of fun and I managed to stay on for 23km!

Derby!

I watched not one, but two Roller Derby bouts on the same day. I had no idea what to expect, and it was such an incredibly welcoming atmosphere! I loved how the commentators were super excited that many people were there for the first time and explained the rules and everything that was happening as it went! It even made me want to try it out, maybe next year?

beyond tellerrand

I still don’t understand how I had never heard of beyond tellerrand before this year as I actively looked for events like this since I moved to Berlin, but I’m very happy I finally found it (even if it was completely by chance on the IndieWeb wiki!) because it was one of the most interesting and inspiring events I’ve ever been to! By far my favorite talk was Shirley Wu’s Take up space, but all of them were amazing! Already looking forward to the next one!

Collage!

I love the aesthetics of collage work, but I never even know where to start, so when a friend invited me to a “Hysterical Women”-themed evening of art making I was both excited and anxious. It turns out I’m much better at finding interesting images in magazines than at putting them together, but I was able to finish my first piece with some help from my friends at the last minute and I’m quite happy with how it turned out!

And here’s a podcast I enjoyed listening to: Critical Horizons: Douglas Rushkoff. It was mentioned in Offline Matters, by Jess Henderson, the book I’m currently reading.

I’m still trying to get the hang of writing these again so it feels more chaotic than before. Let’s hope it gets better. Have a good one!

Written on a Sunday in October, 2023