I was looking for a word or phrase, or even acronym, that might  in some small way represent our move to Berlin. For the first few weeks I was too preoccupied with the dreary details of relocation - apartment-hunting, bureaucracy, shopping - to give the matter much thought. One day, moving from temporary accommodations with friends to a slightly less temporary apartment of our own, I realized that we were spending the better part of our lives riding back and forth on the U9 subway. Here was my name, if not my inspiration.

The U9 makes for an interesting journey. It cuts across the social strata of old West Berlin, running northward from the stolid, bourgeois districts of Steglitz and Friedenau, stopping at the Ku'damm and Zoo, before continuing on towards the tougher working-class districts of Moabit and Wedding. (Bahnof Zoo is only a shadow of its former self, after cleanup and renovation, but there still remains enough human flotsam to remind one of its notorious past.) The crowd changes completely at Zoo - among other things, there are more drunks on the northern half.

At first, we lived near the upper end of the line in Moabit (U-Bahnhof Birkenstrasse), then at the bottom in Friedenau (U-Banhof Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz). After a few months we moved to Kreuzberg, where the U1 and U7 became our regular lines. But no matter - the U9 marked our arrival in Berlin.