Since when?????

I am officially at home in East Berlin.

Something has changed since I used to live here and enjoy my forays into the gentrified Zoologischer Garten/Friedrichstrasse areas of Berlin dressing to fit in, snubbing the tourists and their maps... then today happens.. A beautiful sunny day where I go and hang out at the Teutob.platz park where there are more hippies than the whole of Berkeley can offer, and feel that I fit in perfectly considering the state of my clothes, the unbrushedness of my hair, we won't even get into my legs ;) I felt more at home here with the man sitting in the middle of the park shouting that "Deutschland has come to this! THIS! yes this! this is Deutschland now. Oh Deutschland!" with the kids being told to be nice to the grass because it has feelings too, with the man near me on the (oh so sensitive) grass laughing out loud about once every 5 mins (still not quite sure what at), than I did later when, needing to do shopping at the only supermarket that stays open on Sunday, I braved Friedrichstrasse. Feeling rather free, I didn't go home but wandered into the gentrification sunburnt and hippy-influenced. I realised I was getting those looks! the - hmm-student-east-berliner looks. I realised that me and my unkempt hair were happier walking through Alexanderplatz. where there was a line of 5 men standing urinating in a happy line into the park, than through Friedrichstrasse where each little cashmere sweater is tied sweetly around the necks of the tourists out to see "Berlin".
and I wonder when it happened.
Maybe I should have realised when I got to 1.5 weeks here and had only left my immediate area once.. and without actually wanting to at all! I love where I live and all that goes on here. I am slowly finding the best bakeries, the best markets, the best fruit stores.. and I am fast becoming a happy east berliner hippy ;)