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

First Few Days in Berlin

Hello everyone! I’ve been so disconnected and it is really off-putting. I tried to get onto the internet today, but my passwords weren’t letting me on. I’ll have to talk to the Fubis Admin people tomorrow. BUT enough about my internet woes, that as evidence of your ability to see this are no longer applicable. I’m writing this blog on Monday the 30^th. SOOO much has occurred since I last spoke with anyone. Let’s start with the plane ride.

So on Friday I got to the airport super early for my 1:55 flight. I got to the terminal and it actually said it would be leaving at 1:30, which seemed odd. Flights aren’t supposed to leave before the time the passengers are given. Well not one passenger had an issue with an early departure, because our plane was stuck in Cleveland until 4pm. When we finally got on the plane, it was just that a PLANE! It had 2 propellers and everything! I fell asleep almost instantly after takeoff, so I don’t know how the flying was in between takeoff and landing, but other passengers gave me the impression it had been somewhat of a living nightmare. I have to say if the landing was in anyway indicative of the rest of the flight, I’m inclined to believe them. I woke up minutes before it was time to touch down and the plane was wobbling. Then the actual landing just about gave me a heart attack! I had never hit the ground so hard during a landing. I feel like the pilot was either not used to this kind of plane or was just generally awful. Well after that terrifying experience I had to run to catch my next flight. We had landed at 5:40 and my connecting flight to Berlin was scheduled to leave at 5:55. Of course continental’s flights and attendants make no effort to communicate with one another and even though I ran the fastest I have run since I was 15, I missed my plane by ONE MINUTE! GAHHHH! So now, not only have I just woken up 15 minutes earlier and waited hours for my first flight, but I was going to have to rebook a flight at the help desk very groggy and disgruntled.

The people at the continental help desk in Newark are the most silent and rude customer service agents I have ever met! Having worked at Kohl’s and dealt with awful customers, I make an effort to be a good customer anywhere I go, but the woman that helped me was just ridiculous. I walked up explained the situation and she asked for my boarding pass. That was it for our conversation for about 10 minutes! I asked twice if there were any available flights that she could see for Berlin that night and she didn’t even acknowledge me! THIS IS AT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DESK! I get customer service sucks, but really? A huge part of your job is to help reassure me that something is being done to help my situation. I know she heard me, because she would roll her eyes when I asked about the availability. Whatever… after about 20 minutes of standing at the desk in almost silence she finally spoke and told me I had two options I could either take a flight that went through London or through Munich. The Munich flight was later, and I was going to have to go through security again so I decided that was my safest bet. WOW was that a lucky choice! Due to the Volcano eruption most flights through London were severely delayed. It was an even luckier choice, because of how AWESOME my flight with Luftansa to Munich and Berlin were.

The flight from Newark to Munich was AMAZING! I was in the second center row of coach which is one of the best rows on the flight. The first row only has 3 seats and the 2^nd has 4, and I was on the end of the row, so I had SOOO much leg room! There was only one other person in my row and he was on the other end of the row with an aisle seat as well. I had a few glasses of the complimentary wine and after watching No Strings Attached (Kelly I totally chose that movie, because of you), I slept for 4 and a half hours. It was fantastic! In the last two hours of the flight I finally went to stretch and use the restroom. OMGOSH the bathroom was sooo cool! The bathrooms were DOWNSTAIRS! I had never been on a flight before that had multiple levels! There were 4 super well lit bathrooms that were super cleans as well. They were also the biggest on flight lavatories I have ever seen. I didn’t feel like I was in a tiny pee filled box at all! There was never a wait for the restroom and it was just fantastic in general. The food for both dinner and breakfast was delicious. I had roasted chicken on rice with cream sauce for dinner and a roll with jelly and butter, a chewy bar, and fresh berries for breakfast. I loved that flight. Luftansa gets 2 thumbs up from me! Continental… well I don’t think what I wish to say about continental is quite appropriate for this blog. Let’s just say continental and I are no longer friends.

So after an 8 hour flight to Munich and a one hour flight to Berlin, I had finally arrived! Now my greatest concern after exiting the plane in Berlin, was getting my luggage. After all of the ridiculousness of my flight situation I was worried that my luggage might have been lost in the confusion. Well my first piece of luggage (that had been checked by luftansa, but I had intended to keep as a carryon) was the LAST piece of luggage to come onto the carousel. I was LIVID! I went to the luggage lost and found desk and despite my boiling anger, I was again a good customer to the lady behind the desk. She found my luggage almost instantly… however it was only a digital find. For some reason my luggage had taken the very flight to London I had turned down and had been delayed in its arrival to London, which caused my luggage to miss ITS connecting flight. They told me it would be arriving at the airport at 7 pm and since I was in a dorm and not a hotel, my luggage would be delivered to me on Sunday. However I had no phone and they said I needed a phone number or to reply to an e-mail in order to schedule a drop off time. …. Really. I was so close to just being done with this traveling thing and having no phone number and no access to internet was going to keep me from it???? Well after taking the 90 minute trip to my dorm by bus, I went with some friends I made when I was waiting to check in (Nancy from the New School in New York and Matt for UD… btw aren’t they a CAA school and we destroy them in football every year?) to go get a sim card so I could call and give luftansa that information and finally get my luggage. It’s nice to actually know my way around this time! I am honestly shocked at my ability to retain that kind of knowledge. I have not gotten lost yet and have in fact been leading people around to get groceries and other necessities… and getting home from nights out ;).

Anyway I finally got my luggage at noon on Sunday an hour before I needed to meet with our guide to get us to the main campus for our orientation meeting. I FINALLY had soap and a towel and was able to shower. Oh glorious shower! It was sooo nice to get the awful plane grossness off of me after having been on the ground for 24 hours… So I went to the orientation and met a lot of really nice people there. Rory Mclearny (sp) who I found out lives on the floor just beneath mine, a Norwegian girl named Pauline and several others whom I will talk about at another time. Rory, Pauline and I sat together for the meeting which wasn’t too bad.

ACTUALLY when they showed the slide show at the end I saw SOOO many of my friends in the pictures! Stephanie Poucher I saw you in a picture on the Spree boat tour… you were actually in a few pictures. Mouna and Fiona, I saw both of you in a picture that has been at least one of your profile pictures. It’s the one where you and a lot of other FUBiS people are standing in a hallway together laughing and smiling. And Parker! I saw you in a picture as well. I’m not sure where it was taken, but you looked cute in it J

Back to the orientation. After our meeting in the Horsaal, we went and had ate at our welcome buffet. Last time the food was not that great, but wow the food this go round was fantastic! They made us chicken and vegetables in curry sauce on rice and a vegetarian lasagna. Both were absolutely delicious! Not at all typish deutsch, but a good hot meal all the same. I ate my meal with Rory and after finishing we went in search of an open grocery store. On a Sunday this really is a mission of sorts. All but, VERY few stores are closed all day on Sundays. We tried at Rathaus Steglitz, but as I had feared it was closed. Well as I always say, C’est la vie! He and I then trekked home, which I think could have been a lot quicker, had I really been thinking clearly (the jet lag has been getting to me); however it was nice to just walk and get to know the area again with Rory. OH btw although some of you may already understand this, I feel I should clarify. Rory is a boy. My Gilmore Girl loving friends out there, were I’m sure assuming the opposite ;) He’s from the UK, really all over the UK it seems. He was born in London grew up there, and lives and goes to school in Edinburgh, but is of Irish Nationality. Although to get back on track with the story, He and I walked and took a few trains and walked back to our dorm. It was a decent walk so he and I got to know one another a little better.

When we got back to the dorms we found my friend Matt from Delaware, drinking some beers with 2 other guys who are both named Jacob (I’m meeting a lot of Jacobs this year!) out front of Matt’s building. We hung out with them there for a while and made plans to go and get some drinks and food. Rory and I had originally hoped to just go to a bistro we had passed on our way back to the dorms and just chill, but the other 3 really wanted to go into the city. Rory had been here for a few days already and knew a few great places to eat and party. I am drawing a blank on where we went, but it was one of the areas I had not yet been, so I was excited. When we got off the train there was a kiosk selling beer and whisky and coke pre-mixed in cans. The boys all got a few beers and I got my typical Jack and coke…. And we drank those on the way to finding food. Yes, you can just walk around Berlin drinking beer and liquor and no one thinks anything of it. We got some AWESOME currywurst for dinner and the boys got a few more beers with dinner.

After a great dinner of good conversation and amazing food, we headed off to, as Rory calls it, the bottle shop. It’s just the liquor store, but I like the British way of saying it better. After the guys grabbed a few more beers and wine, we headed to this SUPER sketchy looking area, but it was totally fine. It was an abandoned warehouse district turned awesome gratified club scene. The clubs hadn’t opened yet, but we sat and drank a beer and looked at the awesome graffiti. Oh and we made a few buddies who were sitting on the platform near us who were listening to American rappers and doing awesome stunts. I had run out of euros, because I forgot all of the money that I had exchanged before leaving the states at my house. I also have been afraid to pull out more from my account, because I hadn’t been able to check my balance. Rory was really nice and offered me one of his beers and OMG I found a beer I like! I think it was called Farsteiner? I’ll have to ask Rory later. It is one of his favorites too. He gave to me after I found out how much I liked it and we just chilled talking and admiring the graffiti. We headed home after a while and got to bed so we would get up in time for our interviews.

Now we are caught up to today Monday May 30, 2011. Today was the day for our placement interviews. The professors talk with you for a few minutes and based on how well you speak German they place you in the appropriate level. I did ok in my interview. I walked out thinking it went really well, and then as I analyzed it on my way to Rathaus Steglitz to change some cash I had from home to Euros, I realized I had messed up a lot of my grammar. Ugh… Well my placement was B1, but the professor came up to me after our first class intro meeting and told me that if I wanted to move up to B2 after observing our class for a few days I could do so. It is a totally different book than I used last time and a different professor, So I’m sure I’ll learn new things, but I am tempted to move up. The people in my class seem to be a little umm…, well they just don’t know German very well. They all are also about 2-3 years younger than me, whereas all of my friends I have met thus far are in B2 and most are either upperclassmen or grad students like me. We’ll have to see.

I skipped one portion of the day though, after our interviews Matt and I went on the campus tour to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the main building. We then went to the Mensa and grabbed some lunch. Wow I had forgotten how good the big Mensa was!!! I didn’t get anything all that special, but sooo typish deutsch. Matt and I both got a bockwurst, Sautéed spicy onions, and potato salad with a half liter of chocolate milk. OMG SOOOO amazing! We only had to pay €3,30 (in Germany they use commas and not periods, so in the US that would read $3.30) and we absolutely stuffed ourselves. I could not finish more than about half of what was on my plate and I felt a little sick lol. Matt wished he had stopped sooner, because we were both completely stuffed and had to walk back to the Brentanostrasse classrooms by 2pm to get our placements. After we ate we met up with Rory and a tall red headed guy from texas (kinda the build of a FB player, tall and beefy lol) and another guy who goes to emery college… I unfortunately don’t remember either of their names. We walked the whole way back, and It seems Rory and I were the only 2 that didn’t wimp out and take the bus lol. Matt and the Red headed guy got on and then realized the very next stop is where they needed to get off.

Anyway so we got our placements and had our intro day and then went to use the computer lab for a bit. I had foolishly not brought my laptop so I had only a few minutes to check my FB on Rory’s computer. Some of the 16 notifications and E-mails were nice to see, others were a bit devastating. As many of you know my dog Ruby has been sick for the past week or so, and had multiple seizures in the week leading up to my departure. I found out from my sister’s status and a message from my mom that Ruby my beautiful and wonderful little sister of a coonhound has pancreatic cancer. My dad has her on a diet that keeps her blood sugar up so she won’t seize, but pancreatic cancer for a dog is a death sentence. I’m hoping I’ll be able to see her again when I get home, but I have not heard from my mom yet what the next steps we are taking will be. I got this news and was really just heartbroken and decided to go home and just get away from all of the chaos of FUBiS. I took a long way home, which allowed me to walk with my thoughts for a bit.

When I did finally arrive home I changed out of my jeans, scarf, and cardigan into shorts and a T and slept. I woke up at around 10 pm my time, got redressed and went to see if the boys were out at the bench. They weren’t, so I came back up to my room and began writing the blog. It is definitely therapeutic to write all of this, and I think having come with no friends from home I will have more time to write these blogs. None of my friends have made the decision to get a phone or sim card yet, so unless we make plans before we separate there is no chance we will see each other again until the next class day. I don’t really mind that, but when you are looking for someone, it become a bit frustrating. How did we function before cell phones??? I mean really I can’t figure out how people got together! Did they all just sit at home waiting by the phone to figure out what was going down? Mind boggling. Anyway so that is a brief (hahahahahahaha this is 5 freaking pages in my word doc here) synopsis of my first 3 days. I think in the future I should be little less specific. I basically gave you all complete play by play. I only excluded the conversations and a few of the walks home and to shopping. Btw I would like to point out that I have been making a TON of guy friends this year. The majority of the people I hang out with at home and abroad are guys…. Definitely a different trend for me, but I like it J OOOOH and Pav I see signs constantly for Bitburger and it makes me think of you. Miss you all sooo much!!!

Tchüssi!!!

Kathleen

It is now Tuesday May 31^st and I am adding to this post before I update it. We do not know if ruby has pancreatic cancer that is just what my sister understood from what she had been told. She is apparently doing much better. I also am very heavily debating moving up a class. OOHH and the place Rory took us was Friedrichsheim. Ok well Tchüss!

Berlin 2.0

I'm going back to Berlin and FUBis Again! Although this time I'm going for 11 weeks!!! I'm doing this on a tight budget and am going to find a way to make the most of every euro I have while I'm there. As it stands my budget will be €10/day or €70/week, for food and entertainment expenses... All else is paid for. It won't be much, but let's see what I can do with it!

My goal is to do a weekly Vlog that shows the highlights of my spending and activities. I want them to be fun and light, but also informative so I can show travelers on a budget that they can do it too! I ambitiously want to say that I will blog everyday and chronicle my spending, but I know myself too well... Given that this blog lasted a whole 2 days last trip I think that is asking a bit too much of myself. I think setting up for a minimum of 2 blog entries per week will be reasonable. It will force me to not only keep you, my lovely friends and readers up-to-date, but help me remember later all of the great things I did on this trip :)

I really would love for this blog to be interactive with anyone reading this. Feedback and comments on any post are welcomed along with any advice on how to save money or some inexpensive activities that I haven't done. So I'm going to start this portion of the blog with a request:
For one of my 11 weeks in Berlin I will not have a dorm to stay in, So I am looking at other options. The dorm is available for me if I MUST use it, but I'm hoping to string together some couch surfing stays and save some of the dorm fee to spend on something fun! So if anyone knows of a friend in Berlin that would be willing to allow me to stay on their couch for a few days to a week I would greatly appreciate it!

That's it for the first Blog See you soon!

Whoa A Lot of Germany!

So it has been a little over 2 weeks and, as many of my friends have reminded me, I have been once again slacking with the postings. But I am here now :) OK soooo the reason I have yet to make a second post is because I have been one busy girl! So last time I told you all a little about my loft and was going to meet up with MB (Marybeth) and Anna for orientation. That was quite the experience! Alexander dropped me off at the Silberlaube (FU main building) so I wouldn’t get lost and be late for my first day, but gave me the simple instructions on how to get home alone. After some time of trying to figure out how to get into the building (because Alexander had something about it being under the building) I noticed a group of students being led by a man with a Fubis name tag. SCORE! So I followed them into the building and was able to get my orientation folder. After I got all of that it seemed like we were just supposed to sit around meeting one another and waiting for the big intro meeting. So I began my search for Marybeth. I looked in the line that she should have been in and no Marybeth. I wondered if she was late, lost, in the bathroom, or all of the above. THANKFULLY I found Anna wandering around looking just as lost as I was. I asked if she had seen Marybeth, and she too said no. Hmm getting a little worried… I guess I was just super early, but it felt like we had waited forever. She was only about 15 minutes late, because Perot, a boy she by chance met on her way here noticed she looked lost, asked if she was from fubis and then found the way there together. The rest of the orientation while interesting and useful to me would be rather boring to you all so I will be kind and skip it. The next morning we (Marybeth, Anna, & I) we all had very early interview time slots. I mean in reality 8:45, 9:15, & 9:45 isn’t that early, but when you have sever jet lag all things that early are evil! Anna and I met up at Onkel Tom’s Hütte, got to our interview rooms on time and even grabbed a bite to eat. Meanwhile I hear Marybeth’s name called and see no Marybeth. ONE HOUR goes by and I am just a tad worried. I go on facebook though and notice her status says she is coming and it was posted an hour before, so ok she must have made a mistake on the U- or S- bahn. 30 more minutes go by and I STILL don’t see Marybeth. I occasionally check in with the ladies running the interviews and they still hadn’t heard from her. I write Marybeth a message telling her where Anna and I will be and how worried I am. This is all made much more frustrating by the fact that none of us has a working phone. Finally as the SECOND HOUR rolls around I check in with the Fubis ladies and they tell me yes Marybeth is up giving her interview! OMG relief rushes over me. Of course it would be Marybeth that gets lost and walks the wrong way off the U-bahn for an hour and 30 minutes. It was totally fine and she made it before interviews were over, but omg my heart was pounding! OK so result time (drum roll………) Marybeth, Anna, and I all had wanted to be in beginner 2. I really wanted to fix my grammar so I wanted the lowest class I could take. Well Anna and Marybeth got their wish and are together in beginner 2. I on the other hand did better than I thought in my interview and was placed into intermediate 1. At first I was upset, but I think it is a perfect fit for what I want to accomplish here. The people in my class are really awesome, and I think I am going to make/making some good friends here.
First day out!
We only have class 3 days a week for 6 hours, so Tuesday Maryb, Anna and I all went out. First thing we did was buy phones, so of course we spent our first few hours of freedom in a mall :-P. After that we went and found the tiergarten (literal trans: animal garden). It is like central park in NY. Historically it was filled with animals for the kings, Kaisers, or other aristocracy to hunt. As Julia (cousin) explained to me last year. I was totally caught off guard though when while trying to find my favorite café from last year we ran into caged animals such as llamas and exotic birds. We also kept hearing this crazy sound that Anna decided could have only come from a dinosaur (We later realized this was the backside of the Berlin Zoo). After our exploration of Jurassic Park, we FINALLY found my café! Café am den Neusee. We sat and shared pizza, which was absolutely amazing (!!!) and some beers. I have found that really will never like beer. So from now on the rest can have a beer and I will have wine or mint tea. Maybe I just need to go back to Landenhausen and drink that beer again. After we ate and drank, we decided to do the rowboats, just like Julia and I did last year. Unfortunately no eastern European men were yelling catcalls at us, but the ride was just as hysterical. Since we had foolishly drunk the beer prior to entering the boat we nearly tipped ourselves over due to our poor coordination. Anna and Marybeth got us caught a few times in the bushes, which was fantastic! Don’t worry, I definitely messed us up a bit too… LoL. At the end of the ride I my whole torso hurt from laughing so hard. I really enjoyed that beer! All in all the day was (to steal a word from Marybeth) phenomenal!
Class!!!
Ok so my first day was phenomenal! I love my professor and my class! We all seem to click really well together. No one is incredibly better than anyone else so it feels incredibly comfortable and relaxed. Claudia (professor) is super patient with us and gives us lots of good and helpful constructive criticism. I have made a few friends in my class so far. I haven’t hung out with them yet outside of class really, but that will come… So far I have turned in 2 journals, one essay, and learned konjuntiv I and II. We also have gone on an awesome outing all around Berlin on June 17th which is a very important day in German history, because it is the day East Germans held a strike against the DDR. We went to the memorial on that day and it was covered in roses and other flower arrangements! SUPER COOL! I will be stealing pics from friends of this stuff because I didn’t find my camera in my purse until the end of the day… typical me; it was in there the entire day! We went to a bunch of memorials for communist rebels, a train station (Anhalter station) where 9.600 Jews were shipped to concentration camps during WWII, a haunted bunker, the place where Hitler’s bunker formally stood, and Treptower Park. The last was definitely one of my favorites, just because it was really well huge and beautiful (in an odd way). It is a memorial built by the Soviets to remember their fallen soldiers of WWII. There are lots of quotes from Stalin on huge marble blocks, which on the sides have scenes from the war carved into them. Then at the end of the park you see a GARGANTUAN Soviet soldier carrying a Nazi baby and stepping on/crushing a swastika. Definitely interesting! The class stayed for a while after Claudia left and enjoyed the day of sunshine. Oh I forgot to say how INSANELY cold and rainy it has been here! It’s JUNE and I feel like it is March! But this day was the first gorgeous day since we have been here and we all enjoyed lying on the monument and absorbing the sun. I personally absorbed a little too much and my face got burnt.
Ok So there has been a lot skipped or missed in this post so far so I am gonna try and back track a little to get everything in. One of the days, I don’t remember which, we all went to the German history museum, which was fantastic once again. I will have to go at least 1 more day to get the rest in though. It is an absolutely massive museum! Anna I got to unter den linden first, because Marybeth’s family had prepared her a huge breakfast and caught her just as she was walking out the door to leave. So Anna and I went down to the Brandenburger Tor and saw an awesome breakdance street show. Anna thinks she got it on video, but we aren’t sure lol. We then walked to the museum, and after a few hours of waiting for Marybeth (who apparently did show up, but had forgotten her phone and thought we were supposed to meet downstairs) we went out to get some food. We ate some sausages on a TINY brotchen. Marybeth saw us and got one herself. Her sausage was super long and looked ridiculous in the tiny bun lol. Totally wish I had a pic of that! We ended up going through as much as the museum as we could before 4, because we had been invited to eat cake with Marybeth’s host family. Kristin is the mother, Peter is the father and they have 2 children, Felix (13) and Charlotte (11) (LOVE THAT NAME!). We ate the cake, a wild cherry jelly cake that Kristin had made from scratch. Then Charlotte hopped on her UNICYCLE and she and her mom brought us to the wall. They showed us where it had been and gave us a little background on the neighborhood. After we took some great pics, Anna had to go, so she could cook the fish her guest mother (Rosemarie) had left out for her. I stayed and went on a walk to the park with them and played on the trampolines with Charlotte. This girl is absolutely adorable!!! She started to pose and play model which Marybeth and I completely indulged and took lots of pictures. Afterward Kristin invited me to dinner and Marybeth and I helped by slicing and dicing the carrots. The meal was OMG fantastic! Pork in some sort of gravy (made from the juices) with mushrooms and then carrots and potatoes! After dinner Kristin and Peter pulled out the Pastis’ a French liquor that tastes like anis and we talked a lot about German and American history and politics. It was SOO fun! I love hearing this stuff from the German perspective. I then stayed the night with Marybeth, given it was so late, I the Pastis’ is pretty strong, and we had already had wine.
Speaking of nights of drinking, our first Thursday, Anna, Marybeth, Perot (Marybeth’s savior from the first day), and I went out to Oranienburger Strasse. That evening was truly PHENOMENAL! We found a totally random and AWESOME Indian restaurant and had some great food and cheap drinks there. Perot was getting a bit tipsy and very outgoing. Then we went a few doors down and got a few more cheap drinks there. And Perot got much tipsier. After a while there we decided we ought to go home, but when we got to the S-bahn station the gate was closed. Completely shocked we eventually got a taxi and went back to Marybeth’s. Perot was just ridiculous at this point and kept insisting on going home. Since he lives not far from me which is about a 40 minutes by train from marybeth’s we made him stay in her apartment until the trains opened at 4:30. He apparently still had all of his homework to do.
On Tuesday Anna, Marybeth and I went to the zoo and took hundreds of pics of the awesome animals. We also found ourselves getting very lost and at the end of the day we found everything we wanted to see except Knut. How sad is that I went to the Berlin Zoo and no Knut . Well not too bad because it was fantastic anyway. After trapsing the whole day through the zoo we decided we wanted to get more pizza and drinks at our fave café. I instead of beer got a fantastic Pfeffeminztee which had fresh mint floating inside and honey in a jar. It was absolutely delicious!
OH OK so again with Marybeth’s family. This past Monday, they invited all of us (me, mb, and anna) to see a play at Charlotte and Felix’s school. The play was hysterical even though I didn’t understand the words most of the time. At the intermission we went out to get some snacks and they were serving WAFFELS with nutella and applenut sauce. It kind of tasted like apple cider. Totally delicious and unexpected, Thank you Kristin! After the play, Charlotte invited me to come for a “show and tell” in her English class with Marybeth. We were basically going to teach a class on America and our two states. We gave the presentation Friday and the class LOVED IT! They asked tons of questions and were really excited about talking to us. Definitely one of the best experiences I have had here! Later that night I went with my family to see Maibritt’s choir concert. It was really cool. They had the band and choir perform in the same evening. They sang lots of American songs from musicals, for example Mama Mia, All I Want, and Summer Days. They also sang a Jewish song, which is pretty significant. 60 years later and Jewish songs are being performed by German students. After that we (the fam, their friend christiane, and Maibritt’s friend lili and I) all went out for drinks.
OK soo I haven’t put everything in order here, or even gotten all of the wonderous details, but this is the best of what I have done thus far. I will try to update every few days from now on. The biggest problem I am having with it is the unsteady internet… even now I am having problems connecting. Ok well check back soon for more updates and pics

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!
Tschuss!

OOOOH also if I am being negligent once again in my blog Marybeth is doing a Fantastic job with her’s and I am in almost all of the posts. SOOO check hers out at http://petescma.blogspot.com/ her blog has lots of those fun details mine is missing right now.

And it Begins...

OK sooo i had written quite a bit here, but then Firefox crashed... soooo I'll write a shortened version. On Thursday I got to the airport with my mom at about 3 pm. Security and everything went super smooth and once I got to my gate I got to talk to a few friends before I left. All in all pretty good. I get on the plane and after the flight attendants announce boarding is finished I realize no one is sitting in the seat next to me. BOOYAH!!! So I start getting settled for the 8 hour trans- atlantic flight when not an hour in air the pilot comes on and tells us we are having a technically difficulty and they are not sure what is wrong, so we are going to return to Dulles immediately. When we land several fire engines swarm under the plane and disappear. The pilot tells us that our breaks are too warm so the firemen are hosing them down. 20 minutes later we taxi to a gate and several firemen come down the aisles and rush to the back of the plane. People start taking picture and calling family to let them know what's going on. About 20 minutes after that we are told that we are going to leave the plane and should take all our belongings with us. So we get off and wait or about 3 hours and they us that we are going to leave tonight, but the problem was with the oven so they are giving us 20 dollars to use at the restaurants in the terminal. I go and get some pizza and drinks down the way since everyone went to all the closer places and the lines were ridiculous. As I am walking back they say over the loudspeakers that is is final boarding call, and everyone starts to freak out! They had never had a first boarding call! Turns out the attendants thought it would be cute or funny to do that to get us back faster, and that this was hopefully the final boarding call for our flight. haha. SOO finally we do get on the plane and everything is working just fine. I couldn't sleep, but that had nothing to do with anyone else. In the last hour of the flight the begin to tell us what and where our connecting flights are. My flight from Copenhagen was now supposed to be at gate D4 at 14:15 ( or 2:15 pm). When we land I go with basically the rest of the people on my flight to the transfer center to get my new boarding pass. Unfortunately my US phone wasn't working as I had hoped and wouldn't keep a signal. The German phone did work, but I had no minutes on it so I was stuck and had to somehow let my host family know when my new flight was. ( I had e-mailed them before, that my flight had problems and would now be arriving later.) I did eventually get to text my dad the info so no worries, but at the time I had no idea if he had received it and shared it with Alexander (dad in host fam). I get to the gate and wait 3 hours with another girl from my flight headed to Berlin. We chatted a bit she was really nice. We notice that no one is coming to our gate and it is almost time to leave so she runs to look at the departures board. We then both realize that our plane is at a gate at the complete opposite end of the airport and we only have 10 minutes to get there! So we get all our crap and haul some seriously exhausted ass to the other gate. Thankfully we see as we get closer that it is full of people and have not yet begun boarding. The attendant tells us after she swipes our passes that our flight is being delayed due to... you got it, TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES! So we just look at each other and laugh. Thankfully this wait was only about half an hours so not too bad. Finally I get on the plane and arrive at Berlin-Tegel with shockingly all my luggage and as I exist the baggage area Alexander greets me and takes some bags. So in the end not too terrible lol.

The Horns live in Zehlendorf, it seems kinda like a suburb of Berlin, but since Berlin is HUGE it fits well within the limits. They have a 2 story home with second story used for students like me and as Elisabeth's office. The parents (Alexander and Elisabeth) sleep in the basement, the kids (Jannik 16 and Maibritt 13) sleep on the middle floor with the kitchen and living/dining room, and I sleep in my loft upstairs over looking the awesome backyard (pictures to come soon). Alexander has so far done all the cooking and is REALLY good at it. The first night he made 4 diffrent pizzas from scratch, dough and all! And last night he made this really awesome potato, bacon and egg dish, kinda like quiche with no crust. It was OMG awesome and for breakfast this morning we had rolls with cheese, Nutella, butter, and or strawberry jelly. Some of you may have notice I skipped a few meals, that is because I slept until 4 yesterday. Jet lag really bothered me lol. Today I am going to meet up with Marybeth at the Uni (short for university) for our orientation. OK well That is basically all that's happened so far... bis später!

Tschuss!!!

Packing!

I am so not a fan of packing! But I love the shopping :-P. I leave in 2 days and I just can't believe it! It still feels like a dream that I'm going to Berlin for 6 weeks with Marybeth! I have been dreaming of going with a friend since I started german in 7th grade!

ANYWAY... I have been packing for quite some time now and now that both of my bags are almost completely done I just want to get on the plane already! I have a few things coming in the mail still, aka my new camera. I might change my smaller bag for a slightly bigger bag. I have 30 more lbs. I can use with that bag if I want. The only real problem I am having began this morning. My computer decided to go nuts and will not allow me to use internet. EVEN if I have a wifi or ethernet connection! Hopefully my dad can figure out why it is doing this. BUT I found out I. Can still use my phone's wifi in germany so I can still blog and facebook! However, when I get over there I am only going to speak german except for on the 4th of July and during blogging. I figure one day of full english will not undermine the trip :). Well I best be off to finish off my last bits of packing. Check back frequently for updates from Deutschland!!!

One year later

Last year's trip was absolutely amazing! Truly a memory I will will last a lifetime! I got to see the small town german life and festivals and then I got to visit the big cities of Frankfurt and Berlin. It was an absolute whirlwind of a trip. I can never thank the wohnigs enough for those experiences and their generosity. A lot has happened since last year though. I have taken more german courses, I have been accepted into my Education Program, I turned 21 and my little sister got her driver's liscence. About a month ago my official favorite Aunt Joy, offered to send me to Berlin for a six week program at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. I am beyond excited about this trip and opportunity. I am going with one of my very good friends Marybeth and another german student Anna, and I am certain we are going to have the most amazing time ever! We are all staying with Berliner Host families and can't wait to meet them!!! I am going to blog on my trip as often as I can since will have very limited access to everyone from the US this year. I have 10 days until I leave, so until then I will be packing and planning like crazy.







RIP Robert Crosser,Jr.