Everyone here leaves after two years. I have been here nine
- Looking for
- somebody whose next five years are also going to happen here
- Experience
- Nine years, three dynamics, two of them ended by somebody moving away.
- Around
- Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin
Two of my three arrangements ended at an airport and neither of them ended because anything was wrong. That is what this city does. People arrive for a job or a course or a person, they are wonderful for eighteen months, and then a contract finishes and they are gone, and you are left holding a structure built for two.
Thirty six, Prenzlauer Berg, submissive, nine years here and not going anywhere.
So the question I ask early is not about experience or preferences. It is how long you expect to be in this city, and I have learned to listen to the answer carefully rather than to the enthusiasm around it. Somebody who says three years usually means two. Somebody who says they have no plans to leave is the only answer I trust.
What I want is a long arrangement with real structure: standing expectations, a fixed weekly evening, contact and small obligations through the week.
Not looking for anybody on a fixed contract who has not thought about what happens at the end of it. Not looking to be somebody's Berlin chapter. And if you are leaving, I would genuinely rather know in week one, because I will probably say yes anyway and I would like to do it with my eyes open.