Tage 2 & 3: die Elbe, Eis und Hamburger

So I am writing this again in the wee hours of the morning as I'm still not quite over my jetlag and Am waking around 4 am most days. I missed yesterday blogging in fact, because I completely and totally passed out before I had the chance to even make it to dinner that evening and although I woke up a few times, I was able to quickly get myself back to sleep.

Host sisters, the girls, Herr Blume & I in front of the main building.

So Day 2 for the girls they went to their first day of classes with their host sisters. I know a few of them had English and German classes, and anything that was being taught in German mostly went over their heads. As they were doing that I was brought on a walking tour of the school grounds. Herr Blume gave me a wonderful history of the school which sadly I can't remember much of. After my tour we went and had breakfast in the cafeteria. During breakfast they serve rolls, bread, (toast for the students),  along with a variety of cold cuts and cheeses. They also have some vegetables and fruits on the end, and some yogurts, jams, and musli (cereal/granola cereal). This is a very typical German breakfast spread. I ate with the teachers and then the girls came in with the other students during their first break of the day. They told me about their classes and how they had heard their teachers talking about fairytales in German class, but they have no idea what the story was.

After breakfast the girls when back to class and then after that class the school had lunch. We have been given a special table that the girls and their host sisters and I all sit at with Herr Blume.  The lunch they served for our first day was a very traditional southern german meal. We had Leberkäse, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. The principal whilst we were all eating gave out the announcements and also announced the girls and the school welcomed us.

After lunch Herr Blume gave the girls and their host sisters a tour of the grounds. However this was only after I brought the girls back to my apartment to get them some warmer clothing. Several of them were not dressed properly for the weather and I figured letting them get a cold walking in the cold rainy weather on the first day would not be a good way to start, so to the parents of the girls if you see them in clothing you never bought for them in the pictures this is why.

Once the girls had their tour we got into the school van with Herr Blume and took a trip to see the Elbe. I think at this point the girls were pretty exhausted by their jet lag, because for the rest of our time together they just looked exhausted.

When we got to the river Herr Blume explained that this used to be the boarder between East and West Germany during the Cold War and that the land on the other side of the river had still not developed and recovered from this period.  This is because during the Cold War there was a 3 mile buffer to the boarder and all of the land was cleared with the exception of a few homes and watch towers for the boarder guards' usage.

The girls and their host sister tried skipping rocks and watched the ferry that is still in operation today, because they have yet to rebuild the bridge that stood there before the Cold War.

Spaghetti Eis

We ended our days excursion with a sweet treat at an Eis Café. Eis being the German word for ice cream. This was most definitely the highlight of the day as the girls got to try something they have learned about for YEARS in their German classes, Spaghetti Eis. Spaghetti Eis is an ice cream sundae where they make the sundae look like a plate of spaghetti. This is done by pressing the ice cream through a press in a similar fashion to the way play doh spaghetti is made. It is then topped with a strawberry syrup sauce, and shaved white chocolate to mimic the tomato sauce and parmesan on real spaghetti. The girls all ordered one and all loved it. MANY pictures of this historic moment were taken. ;) I personally went for one of my favorites the Haselnuss Becher which is a sundae with hazelnuts. Typically it is covered in Ferrero Roche and chocolate sauce as well, but this one was all about the hazelnuts and was also quite delicious.

Haselnuss Eisbecher

After ice cream we drove back to the school and the girls were picked up by their host families.






Tag 3: Hamburg

Today was a pretty cool day. We began as usual with the girls going to class with their host sister, and then having breakfast together. I sat with the girls in the student area, which I think was strange for the actual students at the school, but since I know the girls and not the other teachers I prefer it. That and it gives me a chance to confer with the girls during the day and see what they are up to and if anything needs to be adjusted in their schedules. Today there was a definite need for adjustment after the first period for the girls as Jessica had Chemistry in the morning and was slotted for Biology in the afternoon. This in German is of course a little intense and so I let her and Kat tag along with Anna and Grace to their Math Class which Herr Blume was teaching. While they were in class learning about the Quadratic Equation and factorials, I sat and continued breakfasting with the other teachers who did not have a class that period. I enjoyed being able to talk with them a bit and learn a little more about the school culture here in Germany.

Once class was over Herr Blume and the girls came to get me from the teacher's lounge where I had been discussing with another teacher au pairing as her niece is leaving for Chicago in a few weeks to au pair, and we loaded up in the van to Hamburg. As with every trip thus far in the van the girls' jet lag catches up with them and they all passed out for the majority of the hour long ride to the city. Once in the city we began our day at the Elbe Tunnel. This tunnel is used to this day for day workers in the shipyards and harbors to get to work, however during the work day it is mostly filled with tourists who wish to see the tunnel itself and the view of Hamburg from across the river. Whilst visiting this area Herr Blume gave us a little of the history of the area and explained how due to a high trade industry that Hamburg is home to the most millionaires on the European continent.

Herr Blume then drove us around for a while trying to find a restaurant to get lunch near the harbor, but parking was a little crazy so he gave up and we headed down town. After a little walking he introduced the girls and I to Moenckebergstrasse which a locals shopping street in Hamburg. I explained to the girls that this is kind of like their mall, but instead of a singular building and a roof it was a street and a few side streets with similar shops to our mall. I also restarted a game with the girls that I introduced in the Copenhagen airport to pass the time and get the girls a little more active and communicative. Whenever they see an American brand store or advertisement whomever sees it first and calls it out gets a point. Herr Blume gave me an hour with the girls to go shopping and said he would meet us afterward. We began by walking the street and went into one store Promod which is akin to express or zara at home.


The girls soon had seen all they needed to of the store and told me that they were hungry and wanted to sit down at a restaurant. So we sat and got some fish at a restaurant on the street name Daniel Wischer. The girls each split a vareity plate of 3 different battered fishes and fries and I got Fisch Frikadellen, which are essentially fishcakes with a side of warm german potato salad.  When we finished it was time to go meet up with Herr Blume. Jessica had expressed her desire earlier in the day to eat a Hamburger in Hamburg and said it was imperative that

The girls eating their hamburgers in Hamburg. :)

we do so, so Herr Blume as sweet as he is, found a burger place not far from where we were whilst we were shopping and eating. The girls were all stuffed however and so when we got to the burger place they decided to split one burger into 4 quarters and we took video and pictures of them. They cooks and staff found this extraordinarily amusing.

Herr Blume bought us doughnuts.

Add caption

Once we fulfilled Jessica's burger needs we headed off towards the older portion of the city that houses the Rathaus, stock exchange, exclusive multimillionaire banks, and the posh expensive shopping street ( Think Champs-Élysées in Paris). We went and saw the waterfront and Rathaus and then continued on to beautiful park downtown and also as a treat from Herr Blume got some dunkin doughnuts. I also pointed out to the girls a statue of one of my favorite German writers Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. I explained the story of one of his most famous works "Nathan der Weise" (Nathan the Wise) and how important it was for it's time. I told them of one of the parables in the book that Nathan tells a Sheik that gives the moral that no religion is better or more important than the others and that we do not know truly which way is right, but that we should all go on living in the best way we know how and be good and kind to others. I personally cried the first time I read this story and was very happy to share a little piece of this with the girls. 

Statue of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Once we had seen as much  of the city as our feet could handle walking we took the train back with Herr Blume to the car and started our trip home. The girls again passed out as they do on every car trip. Once we were home The host families began showing up to pick up each of the girls, however before all of them left the girls and I decided that we would have a sleepover in my apartment for tomorrow night. In my apartment I have 2 other rooms beside my own and 3 extra beds. Herr Blume has sad he will work on getting an extra bed for one of the other rooms as well. The girls are very excited to have a girls night in with one another and to order in some pizza and do facial masks :). It should be a lot of fun.

OK well that's all for today lovelies!

Tschüss!

Kathleen

Tag 1: der Reisetag

Day 1 -Die Reise

Well today I began the trip with 4 amazing high school girls to Dahlem, Germany. It began with us all meeting at the airport 2 hours before our 5:30 flight out of Dulles. We got to the SAS ticket counter and MAN was that line long, but we got to the gate with enough time to stop by Starbucks  as per Jessica's tradition.

Everything was working perfectly until we got on the tarmac and we got stuck there for 45 minutes. A storm was coming through and we were stuck behind another plane who was being rerouted due the storm. Unfortunately by the time they had figured out the new route for the plane ahead of us, our plane needed a reroute to get out of the city. Finally after 45 minutes we were in the air, but within the first 15 minutes we hit the storm. Normally turbulence doesn't phase me. I have flown often enough that I know to expect it and that the plane is perfectly under control. However this turbulence was the WORST turbulence that I have ever experienced. We had several sudden and prolonged altitude drops that forced me to brace myself on the seat in front of me in order to not smash into it. Thankfully after a few minutes the intensity stopped and the captain explained that we had gone through a storm cloud that we couldn't get around, but that all was well.

The flight itself was OK, but it was definitely one of my more physically uncomfortable flights that I've taken overseas. SAS seems to have narrowed their seats by several inches since the last time I flew with them, and they have also decided that only one non-alcoholic drink is free during the flight. They later explained when I asked that hot tea, coffee, and water were still cost free the juice and sodas were the only non-alcoholics that were limited.  The girls and I were all split up, but I think the seat arrangements actually worked out really well. 3 of them are in the same German class together and are very good friends and the other is a year older and from another high school in the county. I was on my own a row ahead of two of the girls and then the 2 others were a few rows back from that.

Once we actually landed we realized how much the delay in Washington had impacted our trip. Our flight out of Copenhagen to Hamburg only allowed for a 45 minute layover and given our 45 minute delay we missed our flight. The transfer desk quickly sorted out our issues, but told us that regretfully the only other flight to Hamburg today was at 2pm. It was 8 am at the time. So the girls and I settled in for a day in the lovely Copenhagen Airport. We had thought maybe we could go out and explore the city, but decided getting a taxi and spending money all over the city wasn't really what we wanted to do. Plus the airline gave us 2 vouchers for food worth €10 each. Unfortunately in Copenhagen that doesn't translate to much food, but we were able to get some Starbucks coffees and I got a ready to go pasta in a container for lunch.

The delay turned out to actually be quite a blessing in disguise. The girls and I ended up spending the day together getting to know one another and bonding as a group. We had fun swapping stories, and I teased the girls for their sport-like boy watching. 15 year olds are absolutely hysterical to watch scoping out boys. They had little code names like my friends and I used to for each different individual or group of attractive males they found. My favorite being, "The Herd" which referred to a young soccer team that the girls saw outside of a café. As we were waiting at our gate the girls and I were sitting at separate tables for a few minutes and Anna turned around once and said to me, "I'm pretending like I'm talking to you so I can look at the boys behind you." I told her I would take a picture so they could scope out the boys a little longer. The picture is below :P

The exhausted girls scoping out boys (and making silly faces).

Once we were finally in Hamburg Jay our point person here in German was waiting with a sign at the exit. He drove us home in one of the school's vans and although He and I had a wonderful chat about the differences in schools in Germany and America the girls all passed out for a much needed nap on the way to Marienau. The host families were excitedly waiting for the girls at the school when we arrived and were promptly swept off and taken to their new homes for the next 2 weeks. Jay then took me on a tour of the school and brought me to my extraordinarily large 2 level apartment where I will be staying, which has a beautiful view of the forest from my living room.

My Living Room

He then dropped me off to get dinner in the school cafeteria (this is a boarding school and the dinners are quite nice), where I met several of the staff members and had a wonderful meal with them. After dinner I retreated to my apartment and after about 30 minutes of sorting through my things and then discovering my American Netflix account now works in Germany without a proxy server,  and that this account essentially to my delight switched to a German account and all the shows have German dubbing, I passed out watching Clueless in German.  I woke a few hour later changed out of my day clothes and slept again until 3 am which leads us to now when I am sitting in my room at an absurd our blogging the minute details of our trip whilst watching Arrested Development in German.

Here's to a wonderful 2 weeks in one of my favorite countries in the world.

Tschüss!

Kathleen

Germany Trip 2k15!

This summer I'm escorting an amazing group of students for a two week cultural exchange trip in Germany. I will post about our adventures for the benefit of our families and friends back home. 

New family

Well some of you know already, but many of you don't. I am switching host families. Things with my current host family just simply aren't working out for either of us. I have found a new family that I really think will suit me much better. We seem to be a better fit overall. My new family lives in the 7th district in Vienna, which for those of you who don't know is very close to the city center and has lots of restaurants, shops, and just generally has a very cool vibe.

My new host mother Martha is a single mother with a 2.5 year old daughter named Aisha whom she adopted from from Mali. Martha and I really seem to get along well with each other, and I have been going visit and play with Aisha in my free time. We.already seem to be  getting along very well as well. So far we've gotten to color, do puzzles, and play telephone together.

On the 20th of May I will officially move into my new home and will be staying until June 2014. I plan to get a student visa to study German after my au pair visa expires. Another six months away is difficult to wrap my head around now honestly. I miss you all back at home so much and would love to have visitors! My host mother has said that I am allowed to have visitors stay with us. So hey a free bed and cool cultural experience all in one! She thinks it would be great to meet my friends and family from the states or elsewhere. I'm very excited about this new opportunity and living arrangement, and can't wait for it to begin!

Miss and love you all!!!

Kathleen

Prague

So yesterday I started my journey for my first trip to Prague! I got up early, did some last minute packing, had breakfast with my host family and then left for my bus. It seems however that I truly am my mother's daughter and my grandfather's granddaughter, because I showed up an hour and 45 minutes early... I knew what time my bus was set to pick up passenners, but even though I went and found the stop the night before, I was paranoid that I was in the wrong place and would miss my bus. For those of you who don't know my mother or grandfather they are perpetually worried about the same thing. In fact one of the favorite stories of this paranoia is when we showed up to my sister's first communion 2 hours early and crashed a wedding ceremony...

So I showed up massively early, but I did get some things accomplished -read bought myself snacks for the trip. At 10:20 the first of the other passenners started to assemble and at 10:40 our bus arrived on schedule. In your minds eye I'm sure you see a typical coach bus with tacky 90's fabric with a faint hint of old wafting to your nostrils mixed with the inevitable smells that one might associate with eastern European countries. This image is completely off from what I experienced. The bus was a bright yellow coach that looks modern in its design. On the inside were very nice and large leather seats with touch screen tv's in the back of each so that every passenger could watch a  large variety of movies or shows in English or Czech. In the wall by my seat was a plug where I could charge my devices and there was Wi-Fi in the bus! Finally to top it all off they served free hot drinks (coffee, tea, or hot chocolate).  So basically this was the best bus ride of my life, and it only cost 35€ round trip. I highly recommend the Student Agency travel line for any of your traveling needs into or out of Prague.

I arrived in Prague at about 3:40 ish and thanks to my friend Tobi who did me a huge favor and printed out my tickets and hostel booking confirmations (which consequently were apparently about 5 page emails each) I had amazing step by literal step directions from where the bus dropped me off to the front door of the hostel. After waiting in quite a long line at check-in (it's Easter break/weekend) I finally was able to check in to my room. I'm staying at the Plus Prague Provinzi. It isn't in the city center, but I have had several friends stay at the Plus Berlin and figured this would be a good bet for a decent hostel. I'm staying in a 4 person mixed dorm, although for my first night it was all girls. Hoping for the same luck the next few nights (since they have all left), but either way it's a good room. It's very clean with nice large lockable wardrobes with 2 single beds and one bunk. It also has great Wi-Fi service in the room, so good that I can Skype from my cell in my room. The only complaint about the room is that the shower floods very quickly. Making showering a race against the clock kind of situation.

After getting myself settled and calling my parents to tell them I'm alive I met my roommates for the night. They are studying in Madrid for a semester and for their Easter break they are/have been visiting a new city almost everyday! 12 cities in 12 days! Since I am on my own and they were very cool, I went out with them them and we saw the old town square and Easter markets. We met up with some of their friends who are studying in Prague in front of the astronomical clock. Christine (one of my roommates)was beside herself with excitement in seeing it in person. She has been obsessed with this cock since she saw it in a national geographic kids magazine when she was 10. So. We met their friends at the clock and went with them to the Cafe' Louvre.

The Cafe' Louvre is a well known traditional Czech cafe' and it has amazing food. I had a dish that they simply called on the English menu Roast Beef in Cream. It was one of the most amazing dishes of food I've ever eaten. I paired it with an out of this world beer called Bernard

. It was a dark beer that looked like a thick syrup. It was thick and kind of heavy, but absolutely delicious! After the meal I honestly couldn't eat anymore, but everyone else got amazing desserts. Two of the girls split the most amazing Apple Strudel I've ever seen. Yummmmm! After dinner we went to Wenceslas Square and walked out to the metro. Such a fun night with my new hostel friends.

International Faith Day

International Faith Day is a greatly anticipated event celebrated worldwide by approximately 10- 20 people (up to 40 on good years) on July 21st. It was founded on July 21, 1951 when Saint Robert of Cleveland and Saint Virginia of Cornwall herded the faithless geese to the holiest of holy Bethesda, where the geese were cleansed of their avian sins with the help of the glorious purple sponge.

Every year since this glorious date 10s and 20s of people have celebrated this day with much pomp and circumstance. The Parade of Violets with floats of geese made of purple flowers and other purple vegetation is held in Pittsburgh where the holiday is most heavily celebrated.

The traditional garb of the day is a leisure suit in any shade of purple, E.g. Violet, Lavender, Lilac, Amethyst, Aubergine, Royal, Eggplant, Wisteria, Mauve, Biloba, Lotus, Cabbage, Heliotrope and many more! Combining patterns which are made of these shades on a silk shirt with the holy leisure suit has become a popular addition for its most dedicated of celebrators.

In 2011 the chairwoman of the event (AKA the Glaube) moved the main celebration to San Francisco, where revelers have congregated for the past week in order to prepare for the celebration.

This will be the first time San Francisco will have hosted the event and the organizers say they will wow the Berkley and Haight-Ashbury crowds.

This year's event will cost upwards of 100 million MDN , half paid through taxes (at national, regional and local level) and half by private entities, mainly K.Andrews Bank, Yoj of America (based in Arlington, VA, however it is currently starting up a new West Coast branch in the San Francisco Area) and Bobbykins National.

Ups!

So until just now I have not thought about the possiblilty of a Blogger app. I'm going to try to post some shorter blogs using this before I leave. Which by the way is 10 days... As much as I miss all of you back home, I don't want to leave. It will be super depressing when I have to drive everywhere vs. walking to the closest S-,U-Bahn or Bus to get where I need to go. I have not missed driving in traffic.

The first pic is me waiting on my class to start lol. Lol I'm a little bored... The second picture is of my classroom that is empty except for this kid named Johannes.

Montag, Montag, Alle warten auf den Montag!

SOOO Last night I had a lot of fun with Heather again. My plan had been to walk home, but then she said she was going get dinner at the best döner place in the city (which is Mustafa's Gemüse Döner off the Mehringdamm U6 &U and I had to join. The döner was AMAZING! I have never liked the chicken döner as much as the dönerfleisch (lamb and other meats) döners, but this was AMAZING. The chicken was really well seasoned and they not only gave me the shaved meat, but Heather said I also got a full grilled chicken breast!!! I was just devouring it so I didn't even notice. The salat (<--- german spelling) was good lettuce with carrots and chives, red onions and and other veggies, The onions had some sort of great sauce on them, and CILANTRO! The sauces were the best sauces I've ever tasted on a döner and the FETA... OMG the feta had DILL in it! It was AWESOME! The cucumbers and tomatoes were also fantastic quality. THEN they put grilled peppers, onions and potato slices on it! BEST DÖNER EVER!!!!

Since heather had never seen Prenzlauerberg and I have been dying to go back ever since our excursion there in my second week, we headed in that direction after eat our döners. It took me a while to get my bearings though. The last time I had been in Prenzlauerberg I was doing a scavenger hunt type of excursion in a down pour, so I had spent most of that walk looking at my feet and not learning my surroundings. HOWEVER we did find Anna Blume, which is where I wanted to bring Heather. We got some amazing crepe and had another very long conversation. Anna Blume is a really cool cafe' in Prenzlauerberg, which my professor had sent my group to on our scavenger hunt. We were to go and ask the people inside what Anna Blume meant, and it was a poem. I think I have the poem somewhere in my facebook album. They have amazing crepes there and during the downpour we were in during our scavenger hunt, it was a fantastic stop out of the rain.

Unfortunately we had forgotten we had gotten out of class at 6 so our sense of time was off. I still am not used to the sun going down so late, So it felt more like 9 when we realized it was 20 to midnight and the U & S-bahns would be closing soon. We sped walked to the U-bahn we had taken there, and it was closed. So we were freaking out a little bit, because our homes were VERY far from where we were and walking that wasn't really an option. So we decided to try the S-bahn at Alexanderplatz. However on the way, we saw the Rosa-Luxembourg U was still open and we took that to the S1 and went home.

It was a crazy night and I had a lot of fun, but I def need to spend the rest of the week in studying. Heather and I have completely different schedules EXCEPT on Mondays and Fridays. We have decided we will be putting alarms on our phones from now on, so that we get home at a reasonable hour lol.


btw the title was inpspired by Rebecca Black's having a new song out... (seriously???? why does she have ANOTHER song???)

Kathleen ♥

Auf Wiedersehen und Hallo!

Last Friday everyone left as I told you it was the end of the program last week, and most of my good friends are now back home in their respective home countries. We had a Creative Project and Farewell day with FubiS that day as well. This is why I have had that video posted all over my FB profile. It took us a week to put together (quite an intense week of editing for me) and SOOO worth it! All of the groups had really great projects. Ours (Anna Band, Hillary, Rory and I) was of course the video which is meant to be a day in the life in each of the types of accommodations offered, but with a humorous twist. Rory really put the humor into it lol. Nicole, Autumn and Ham did a really cute children’s book of a bear wandering through Berlin (the bear is the city “mascot”). Holly and Chris did short movies showing what things were important to them and how they had spent the past 6 weeks. And last but not least, Arly, Davis, Derek, Matt and Jacob did Bahnopoly which was a trivia game for Berlin where we had to answer questions about Berlin and German vocab in order move forward spaces toward the Hauptbahnhof to win. All were really nice projects.

OUR project however was however shown to the entire FUBiS program at the Farewell ceremony (It was the only student project shown from ALL of the classes in the program!!!) where Rory performed it live! Not only did our class LOVE our video and Rory’s performance, but the program and its directors and CEO’s loved it! It was an absolute hit!

Rory's Performance

The final scene in the video is my personal favorite. After the exam on the last day of class, I stayed in the classroom to work on our video. Claudia our Professor also stayed. It was a really nice day though and Claudia decided she wanted to go out onto the Balcony outside our window. Our classroom doesn’t have a door that lead out to it, but just our window. SO Claudia decided to climb out the window! I thought this was hysterical and as she was preparing and putting her things out there, I prepared Anna’s flip cam and got the wonderful shot of her climbing out the window. SO at the end of our film as the students are walking in it looks like Claudia is trying to escape! She had NO idea I had taken this video and nearly collapsed she was laughing so hard, when she saw it! It was great! After the presentation, we had a free luncheon and I said SOO many goodbyes. I did NOT like that at all! I am going to miss all of them so much! I already do!

After the lunch I went with Nicole out to Friedrichshain and got a few drinks. Watermelon man cocktails are REALLY good btw! Nicole had never been to this area and so I showed her the graffiti and Simon-Dach-Straße. We then went and walked the East-Side-Gallery and took lots of pictures and signed the wall! It was a REALLY great way to end my time with her here in Berlin. We took the train back and she had to leave. That was the first time I REALLY felt upset about everyone leaving. I know I whined the week before, but that is when it really hit me. When she walked off the train, I was SOO upset! Thankfully she lives in Pittsburgh and I’m going to go visit her when I get home! After leaving Nicole, I went back to my dorm and saw people still around and felt a little better. I cleaned my room packed up my things and said a few more goodbyes. The next day I moved into my new place.

This week felt a little weird. Through Monday I had FUBiS friends still kicking around and my friend Rory even stayed with me 2 nights. I’m pretty glad he did, because it would have been a bit lonely and pretty awkward those first few nights had I been alone with my crazy landlady. He and I spent last Sunday walking around Mitte. We started at Friedrichsstraße and then made a big circle to the Museen Insel (museum island) ran into a flohmarkt (which because it was on the Museen Insel was super expensive), wandered through the Insel, down to Gendarmenmarkt and saw the German and French Churches there. We then headed toward the Tiergarten and walked through it on a path parallel to Straße des 17. Juni . It was a super hot day, so the shade on the path was MUCH appreciated. It was a really nice walk though, because the Tiergarten is just beautiful. Then we got to the Siegessäule and paid our €2,50 student fee and climbed to the top. It was super hot and in the stairway it was super stuffy, but at the top it was totally worth it! You can see the whole city from up there! Absolutely Gorgeous! The top was pretty crowded and the side with the shade was even more crowded lol. We stayed in the shaded are for a while and then headed back down.

We then headed through the Tiergarten to my favorite place in all of Berlin, Café am Neuen See! I have visited this café EVERY time I have been to Berlin. The first time was with my cousin Julia, when we met the very flirtatious eastern European men and had fun learning how to row a boat. The second time was with Marybeth and Anna. It took us FOREVER to find the café again! I remember us walking by the zoo thinking we had run into a Jurassic park type park; because the sounds we were hearing were not anything any of us had ever heard before. We finally found it and had beer and pizza and took a rowboat out as well. We got stuck again as I had with Julia in the low hanging vines and tree roots. It was awesome. We went there several times actually and got Pizza and bier, except I always got fresh peppermint tea. With Rory I had a new experience; we ate at the cafeteria style portion of the café and got pizza there. We sat at the long picnic style tables and sat with an old German couple. They were very nice! Possibly the funniest moment with them was when the man was trying to explain to us the type of people that live in Neu Köln. We had just been on an excursion there the week before and knew it has a high Turkish population, and the immigration issue is a big deal in Germany as well. SO when the man told us that Juppys lived there Rory and I just looked at one another thinking, “OMG what have we gotten ourselves into here!?!?!” We thought that this was some sort of derogatory term for the Turkish in the area. Thankfully the man was trying to explain the term to us and then we realized he meant YUPPIES!!!! I guess there is a part of NeuKöln (which is a Bezirk aka borough in Berlin) that is filled with young rich yuppies. We were SOOO relieved when we realized what he meant. He and his wife were very nice. His wife and I teased Rory and the man about the amount of smoking they do.

After a wonderful chat in German with this couple we headed off toward Ku-damm to see the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche. It normally looks like this:

However they are renovating it right now and it looks more like this a big aluminum box... lame. I had seen it a few times before with Julia and on an excursion last time with FUBiS, but Rory had not. We did get to look inside though. Then after that we headed back to my apartment. I asked my landlady if Rory could stay another night, because his plans changed suddenly. Once I had the OK from her (we had a backup plan of him sleeping on the floor of another friend in our Goerzallee dorm, but my couch was far comfier), he and I headed out to see the House of 100 beers restaurant in Charlottenburg (another Bezirk). OMG it was SOOO good! I got a Wahrsteiner and potato salad and both were delicious. Rory got himself a Guinness (something from home lol) and knackers, which are long skinny sausages. We went back to my apartment again and then went straight to sleep. I had class in the morning and we wanted to get him out early so he could start planning a new trip for himself. I saw him again that night and met a new friend, whom he had met in his hostel, named Alleigh! She is super sweet and was spending just a few nights in Berlin. She headed to Amsterdam and Rory ended up following her there. I’m excited we met her, because I now have another new friend in Cali and she has a beach house I am welcome to visit!!! YAY BEACH!!!

It was sad when Rory left because he was one of my closest friends here. He and Nicole were probably the hardest to say goodbye to. I love you all, but I spent most of my time with them.

Once Rory left and Matt dropped off his things (Matt also was headed to Amsterdam with his brother and dropped off his huge luggage since he is staying for term 3. He didn’t want to carry that around Amsterdam, so I let him leave his things in my room under my bed), just about all of my friends had left the city. I had my classes during the day and I wandered around the city a bit after my classes, but for the most part this week I have been in my beautiful new apartment reading or studying. I watched several movies on my TV in German and OF COURSE watched the World Cup games. My landlady found me fairly hysterical. She and my roommate hadn’t been around the apartment when Rory and I watched the US beat Brazil so they were not prepared for my sport hysterics, Lol. For those of you who have seen me during a game I really care about, you know what I’m talking about. I curse the opposing team to the netherworld, and rejoice like a child given an insane amount of sugar and do everything short of a cartwheel when my team does something good! In between these fits of anger and joy, I pace the room, bite my cheeks, and play with my hands (Lacrosse girls remember the pacing room I needed on the sideline? I need that for every sport! lol).

Outside of the soccer games I have met, just a few new friends at my new school D.I.D. Their names are Heather and Callie. Heather is a PHD candidate at Vanderbilt and got her undergrad at GW, SO ANOTHER DC LOVER!!!! She is from Chicago, but looooves DC. She is getting her PhD in German history (early modern). Her thesis is pretty cool, but a little difficult to explain. Callie just moved here from Dallas, TX to live with her Berliner BF and will be working as a pre-school teacher at the Berlin Metropolitan School. She told me they are looking for another teacher for the pre-school. I’m considering this possibility, although since I don’t have my certification yet, it would be a long shot. I met her on Friday and then after class Heather and I went out to Friedrichshain, one of my favorite parts of Berlin. We went to a café/bar on Simon-Dach- Straße (this is the 3^rd week in a row I have brought someone who had never been to Simon-Dach- Straße to this street/area after my Friday classes!) It was just supposed to be for a drink, but we ended up sitting at the café from 4pm until 1am! I don’t know that I have ever sat for 8 hours and talked with someone I just met before! It was a great conversation. We talked about German history and the ridiculous things that happened in our classes this week, we reminisced about DC, talked about our families, our past and current relationships, PhD programs that are good for German History, and SOOO much more. I don’t remember most of the details of our conversation, but it was really fun!

This Weekend I have basically been a lump on a log. I have sat and studied and read. I did have one annoying thing happen though. I need to buy groceries yesterday (Saturday), because all of the grocery stores are closed on Sunday. I also needed to pull out money at the bank, because I was down to my last €2. I took the train ride down to Rathaus Steglitz, because that was the closest grocery area and ATM I know of. It is about 4 stops on the S-bahn from my apartment. I got to the bank and then realized I had left my wallet with my public transportation pass and my debit card back in my room! I was FREAKING OUT! Had I had my pass with me it would have just been frustrating, but I since I didn’t that meant I would have to ride the train without a pass back to my apartment! The way the metro system works here is based on the honor system. They expect you to have your pass on you. On the busses you must show it, but the trains no one checks. HOWEVER there is control. It is super rare, but they are plain clothes officers who periodically check the trains, and if you are checked and don’t have a pass it is €50 on the spot or a trip to the police station! I not only didn’t have the pass, but no little amount of money to even buy a one way ticket to be safe. My only hope was that I didn’t have the awful luck that my first time seeing the control this Berlin trip would be on this short ride home. Thankfully it wasn’t and I went back got my wallet. I Went BACK to Rathaus Steglitz, got myself some more quarkcreme and jam and headed home. I bought some strawberries at the stand by my apartment and made the best dessert EVER! A small spoonful of jam, quarkcreme and 5 large strawberries cut up. It was divine. If I can’t find the quarkcreme I need to make this when I get home I will be SERIOUSLY sad. Quark btw is a fresh cheese that has the consistency of sour cream and cream cheese mixed together. The flavor is kind of like that as well. That may sound awful to some of you, but I swear it is awesome! Quark is also naturally SUPER low in fat, so it as an awesome lowfat healthy dessert!

Ok well I am having a hard time paying attention to the US vs Japan game while writing this and I have been looking forward to this all week so I’m going to end this here. I don’t know why I can’t make these things shorter! I ramble too much lol. 4 ½ to 5 pages per post is a little crazy. OK well Love you all! See you soon!

Kathleen ♥

OK people I have read through this several times and every time I find awful grammar errors. It sounds almost as if i can't make proper sentences! But I'm going to chalk this up to being here.... It happened last time I was here too. AND I was writing this during the US vs Japan game! SO don't judge me too harshly ;)

Hoppla!

So I’ve missed telling you about 4 weeks of my program and have once again only made 2 posts to my blog during that 6 week period. My class with Fubis is ending in the morning (I’m writing this at midnight Wednesday night/Thursday morning). I have my final exam in the morning and then my creative project is due Friday. Then I am done with FUBiS... as an enrolled student this summer anyway. I am moving out of my prisoner-like living conditions at Goerzalle Student Wohnheim (this is a running joke with those at our dorm, we visited an actual Stasi/Nazi/Russian torture prison and in the Stasi portion of the prison it actually seemed as nice if not a tiny bit nicer than our dorms. The main difference being we were not forced there, we can sleep on a mattress and in any position we choose, and have quite a bit more fun and human contact… Although, our communication outside of school prior to people getting handys (cell phones) was almost as bad as the prisoner’s knocking communication system.) on Saturday at around 1ish and into my knew and unknown apartment in Shöneberg. The new apartment is on the same street Marlene Dietrich was born and Albert Einstein lived in Shöneberg when he lived in Berlin.

It has quite an awesome history, which you all know is my favorite part of Berlin. I’m not far from a lot of really amazing historical sites in my new apartment and as my prof. Claudia showed us on one of our excursions (which I will blog about later I swear) there are tons of signs all over Shöneberg that depicted laws against the Jewish community, which was quite a large part of the population in Shöneberg. The signs are absolutely ridiculous and truly horrifying when you think of how many there are and all the small things that were prohibited that added up to a horrendous life in the ghettos and then deportation. People just let these laws occur to their neighbors and friends. It is really hard to comprehend that thought process. Anyway there is a LOT of history in this area and well in Berlin in general.

I love this city so much, because it has such a deep and fascinating history. Although I’m already just a bit homesick and DESPERATELY wish to see my friends, family and MY RUBY, I don’t know how I’m going to get myself to leave this city. I really love it. It works like it should, it makes sense, it has a ridiculous counter culture attitude that fits perfectly within the main culture. That sounds like it doesn’t make sense, but I promise you here it does. The main culture of the city is so open and accepting that counter culture becomes a celebrated norm. Of course even with this open attitude, a good deal of these Germans have a stick up their butt. I was actually told to shut up on the bus ride home last week, and I was VERY cognizant of the fact that the bus was quite quiet and kept my tone low. The crazy man who sat in front of me just was ridiculous. Others on the bus were on my side and told me he was an idiot, but he still is not alone in his curmudgeoniness (btw this man was in his late 30s not an old dude!). My friend Hillary has been accosted by 2 older Germans while trying to get off the bus. The first of which stood in front of her as her stop came up and told her she wasn’t going anywhere “Sheißkind”! What you should know about Hillary is that she is possibly the shiest, quietest and most polite girl you could ever meet. She is small and blond and wears almost exclusively black. There could be nothing that she had done to offend this man except for existing. HA I started this paragraph looking to praise the wonders of Berlin and all the things I love about it, but instead I talk about the curmudgeons! Alles in Ordnung!!! Typisch Deutsch! They say Germans don’t have normal small talk they just complain and talk about their wars. I don’t think this is really accurate since I don’t believe I have ever heard my uncle Marco talk about the wars, but it’s kind of funny.

I really do love the city. It’s kind of dirty and backwards, but it is truly amazing to behold. When you think of what the city was less than a century ago, it really is quite amazing to see what is here now. There are literally 2 mountains of left over rubble from the war in the city limits! I think what I love most about this city is that everything has a purpose and meaning. I feel like that is something missing in my life. There is no “meaning” in sterling and as much as I say it to anyone outside the city I’m not actually from DC so any meaning that city has prior to my birth doesn’t quite feel like it belongs to me. My parents aren’t from the city. My dad grew up around it just like I did, but his family was in the city quite a bit more than ours is. Still I don’t feel like there are parts of the city that are mine and what belongs to me in sterling I have quite literally outgrown, my schools in particular. My friends have mostly moved away, (minus the awesome new ones I have acquired through Justin & Katie J) and I pretty desperately want to move out of my parents house and begin my life. I really would like to hang with my rubes (poppy I don’t care what that word means, I am going to call her that anyway!) forever and ever, but unfortunately as a new to the adult world and an entry level position worker, I don’t think a dog would work well in that environment. Anyway I love that this city has so much that means something! There is just about nothing here that isn’t the ghost or relic of something from their past. I’m living in this dorm and I’m quite sure this must have been US army barracks during our Berlin occupation. If I was offered a job here tomorrow I would take it and just not come back. That is how much I love this city and its history and color, and nature, and art!

Schöner Tag!

Wow that ended up being a little sad.... I'm not depressed I swear. I was a bit delirious, because I had spent the entire night editing video... but other than that I am ok. Today was a bit of an odd day. It was the the last day of real class and we took our final. I'm going to miss everyone in my class so much! We just are getting to know one another and there is no real drama, which is refreshing to say the least. B2 Class kicked major butt! Hopefully I will see some of you again! Ok well I must go work on my creative project again! Tchüssi!!

Ach So!

Week 1 - Ach So!

So it’s the end of the first week, and so much has occurred in the last 7 days! I have made LOTS of new friends and experienced Berlin in a very different way than I did last time. As many of my friends know I have decided to move up to the B2 class. I’m still not sure this was definitely the best choice for what it is I need to accomplish here, but I’m definitely going to become more fluent. We (my friends and I) are trying to speak German as often as possible. At times we just decide to go with English, but more than I spoke outside of class last time. OK So let’s recap on this week. Tuesday ummm I can’t remember anything in particular other than moving up in classes that happened on Tuesday. Actually wait maybe that was the day Rory, Chloe (a swiss girl in C1), Olivia, Derek another person although I can’t remember who right now and I all went out to Friedrichshain again. They had all gone on the Spree boat tour that the program set up for us. I was supposed to have gone as well but had transportation issues. Lol I seem to be having quite a few of those this trip. I am not remembering how the U and S-bahns connect very well and so I had decided to just take a bus…. BAD IDEA. As bad of an idea as trying to take a bus in DC during rush hour and attempting to get to your desired destination on time…. Mostly it was bad, because it was definitely Berlin rush hour when I took the bus. It took me an hour and a half to get somewhere that should never take more than 30-40 minutes to reach. GAHHH! Well I figured at that point the boat tour would be getting back to the pier when I arrived, and I might as well see if they wanted to do something in the city. So I sat with Olivia and her friend (who is the person I couldn’t remember before… but still can’t remember her name :/) and waited on the boat to get back. Olivia and her friend had been on the earlier of the 2 tours FUBiS had set up for us. When Rory, Derek, and Chloe got back we all went to a Mexican place. It was basically chipotle. Olivia and her friend have been here longer so they are a little tired of German food and missing home food apparently. From there we went to hackeschermarkt and sat at a restaurant couldn’t believe the drink prices and then left the table. Some of the group thought it was a little rude, but the rest of us refused to pay €8 for a drink just to be polite. SOOO from there we went to Friedrichsheim. By this point we had been wandering around for quite a while and some members of our group DESPERATELY needed to use the WC. So we just chose a restaurant that looked like it would be cheaper and had a few drinks there. We just had a beer or two at a restaurant and went home. We had spent so much time looking around for places to go most of the night was already gone, and we all had class in the morning. This was my first night actually staying up later than about 4 in the afternoon so I was beat.

Now onto Wednesday… Wednesday was another epic day in Berlin. I went to class had some fun there and learned that June 1^st is ascension day (which I already knew),that Germans get that day off, and that it is also Father’s day in Germany. The way Germans celebrate Fathers’ Day is getting a large case of beer and hiking and/or just walking around town, drinking and singing. Then at night the fathers take their sons out and buy them their first beer…. And then their 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th beers soon follow. In a nutshell German men drink and sing all day long in big groups and then get their sons at night and get them drunk. I think it is a pretty fantastic way to spend that holiday lol. SO after class Matt, Jacob and I (Jacob is one of the Jacobs I described last week. He is super tall and is as he describes a Medievalist.) went to the tiergarten to witness the holiday festivities. Matt is a little bit more adventurous than Jacob and I and he decided we were going to just walk up to a few groups and see if we could get invited to the festivities. The first group was nice enough; they talked with Matt for a while and explained the day to us again. We then moved on and found another group of guys playing a game with wooden blocks and batons (batons as in the batons used in a relay race, but made of wood). We watched for a while and then Matt again struck up a conversation. They invited us to play and told us it was called Wikingerschach which translates to Viking Chess (immediately thought of you Big Steve!). I have some video footage of it I will try to put up later, but basically there are 2 teams standing about 20 feet from one another. Each teach has about 6 wooden blocks in a line in front of them and one tall block in the middle that has a red crown. In addition to the wooden blocks on the ground there are 6 batons. There is only one set of these batons, because each team uses these to try and knock over the other team’s wooden blocks. When a block is knocked over, the team whom the block belonged to, on their next turn, throws that block before throwing their batons as close to the other team’s blocks as they can. Wherever this block lands is the new line from which the other team is allowed to throw from, which is always just a bit closer. Whoever knocks over all of the other teams blocks first then gets to try to win by knocking over the king block in the center. However to knock this block over you have throw it facing backward between your legs granny style. My team lost, but it was SERIOUSLY fun… although I’m sure that my long description was not nearly as fun as my experience playing lol. ANYWAY after we played a game we went with the Germans we had just met (who were all college students as well) to a sixties restaurant. It was American and the Germans had already planned to go there prior to our joining the game and they invited us to join them. We spent the evening just having fun talking to the Germans drinking beer ( I actually didn’t drink I was already quite tired from the night before) and sharing stories. We got their contact info and we’re FB friends with one of them now so we may meet up with them again.

I honestly just can’t remember what I did Thursday. Not that I drank so much I don’t remember or anything like that. It has just been a crazy week and I don’t remember Thursday. I feel like I did something, but oh well I’m sure I had fun lol.

Friday I had planned to go to the Goerzallee Welcome party… but I fell asleep. I met one of my flatmates though and he and I had a tea and got to know one another pretty well. He’s an Indian guy named Abul and he is just a cool guy. He’s promised to take me to watch a cricket match while I’m here! After my tea with Abul I crashed and slept until about 2 am. I had a lot of missed calls and texts from friends and then finalized my Saturday plans with Rory to go to Potsdam. THEN I went back to bed.

SO Saturday… all I can say about Saturday is that it was awesome. At about 11:30 Rory Jacob and I headed out to Potsdam to see the city. We walked through the main streets of the city grabbed some lunch and then saw the Nauentor (which we thought was a fake installation at first), the Jaegertor, and the original Brandenburger Tor. All three were nice to look at and interesting. Then we headed off to Sanssouci! I just LOVE sanssouci! We didn’t pay to go in but we wandered all around the parks and gardens. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day! We watched these absolutely adorable little kids playing with their parents in the shade of the Neu Palais (I’m definitely not sure of this name) and rested a while there. It was a crazy hot day and we all needed a rest from the long walks in the city and gardens. On our way back to the Potsdam Hbf, Rory taught us a word game. Each person in the group has to give a letter trying to not be the person who ends the word. The words can’t be less than 4 letters long, no proper names or nouns, and the person who ends the word loses the round and has to start the next round with a new letter. If at any point you believe the person before you is not actually spelling a word and is instead just giving a random letter, you can call challenge. If they have a word in mind and the letter they gave would once the word was completed be part of a correctly spelled word, then the challenger loses. If the person challenged has no word or the letter given would create a misspelling of that word, they lose. It sounds a little boring, but it is super addictive. We added some more rules as went, just to make it competitive, but they are essential to the play of the game so I will leave them out. SOOOO after we got home we went our separate ways and got some work done and rested. After about an hour or so I went and hung out with some other FUBiS people at a bench outside and we decided to get some dinner. We went to an Italian place not far from our dorms and omgosh was it delicious. I had already made a sandwich and eaten before I knew the dinner plans so I got something small and inexpensive. I can’t remember what I thought I was ordering, but what I got was snails in hot gooey mozzarella. HOLY CRAP WAS THAT GOOD! Chloe and I left a little early from the table, where a nasty political argument had broken out between some of the FUBiSers and german guy who is a flatmate of one of the people in the group. We paid for our food and made plans with other people mainly Rory, Jacob, and Matt to go out into the city. We went into the city with the people from dinner and the boys previously listed and had a great time at a happy hour in Kreuzberg. Chloe and I were the only girls in the group lol except Derek ;) who we met up with on the way and we all just had some nice girl talk, and had fun talking with the boys and watching Matt and Rory see which could finish a tall beer faster (Matt totally won btw under 5 seconds!). Rory and Chloe then struck up their own little romance lol and we began to head back to Goerzallee. Derek and I had fun chatting on the way home. Then when I got home I went straight to bed. I woke up around 2 in the afternoon Sunday morning, went to the silberlaube after a shower and much needed absorbent breakfast and chatted with my mom and Kelly. I SOOOO needed some girl talk with a friend from home. I miss all of you sooo much! Not having internet at the dorm is really very hard for me and I am definitely not a fan. Abul said he may be getting internet soon, since the person he was sharing with recently changed the password on him, So I might go in on it with him. We’ll see what happens. OK well that was my week! I hope it was entertaining and informative : )

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!

Kathleen