Okay so I saved my last post as a draft and I thought I had published it too, but it turns out I hadn't, so I just published it today. However, I also really wanted to write about my day, so I am double-posting. But definitely read the last post! It's my list of Americanisms and Germanisms. Incomplete of course, but it's what I could pull out of my brain as of yet.
So, my day today. First of all, an appalling experience. So, Friday is excursion day during the BCGS language practicum (i.e. we don't have class and instead go on field trips). Suzy and I got there really early this morning, so we decided to find some breakfast. We saw a Starbucks. Some of the people in our group are anti-Starbucks, but Suzy and I aren't, so we thought we'd check it out. So we go over there, but it doesn't open until 8 and it's about quarter till, so we go to a little bakery type place next door and we pick out stuff there to eat, planning to then go back to Starbucks to get beverages. However, when Starbucks finally opened, we went in, looked at the menu, and were appalled. The prices were outrageous!!! I didn't sit down and do the math, but I think most drinks there were about twice as expensive as they are at Starbucks in the U.S. I was shocked. Europeans make good coffee. I would think the competition would keep prices down. But not so. So we went back to the bakery and got cappuccinos there instead. :)
Anyways, the more important part of the day. Our trip today was to the Reichstag, which is more or less like the Capitol. It's where the German equivalent of the Senate - the Bundestag - meets. It was way cool. The first we did was sit in on an actual session for 1 hour. Way cool. It was so cool to watch the German government system in action! It's very different from the US in many ways, but also similar. Discussions got heated, people got a little rowdy with each other - good times. What was also really cool is that we saw Angela Merkel - the Chancellor. It was really just a stroke of luck that she happened to pop in on the Bundestag when we were there, and of course she didn't speak or anything, but it was cool to say we saw her and were in the same room as her!
Part two was our own private question-and-answer session with some important guy. I couldn't really tell you his title, he has more than one and I don't really know what they mean, but basically, he knew his stuff, and we got to ask him anything we wanted. That was pretty cool. We mostly asked him about the stuff we heard them discussing in the Bundestag, since we all wanted to make sure we knew what we had seen and heard. The topic we heard discussed was Elterngeld - literally "parent-money" - which would allow a parent to receive around 70% of his/her income for the first 14 months after having a child, while they take time off from work to be with the child. It was proposed by the CDU (could be compared perhaps to the Republican Party) and also supported by the SPD (could be compared to the Democratic Party). The Germans, however, do not have a 2-party system. There are 5 major parties that are represented in the government - the two I already mentioned, plus the FDP (similar to Libertarian Party), PDS (the Socialist party), and the Green party. CDU and SPD are the biggest ones though. However, since no single party has a majority, they have to form coalitions in order to elect someone Chancellor. It is very rare for the CDU and SPD to form a coalition - I don't think it's happened since the 70's - but about a year ago, they did indeed form a "Grosse Koalition" ("Big Coalition") which made Angela Merkel the new chancellor. So currently, the two big parties which are usually competing with one another quite a lot are working together much more than they normally would. So we heard representatives of the CDU and the SPD speak for Elterngeld and the FDP and PDS speak against it. (We had to leave before we got to hear what the Green party thinks about it.) It was strange to hear "libertarians" and socialists expressing similar opinions about something. But interesting, nevertheless!!
Part 3 was the tourist-y part; we got to go up on the roof and walk up the big spiral walkway inside the glass dome on top of the Reichstag. I'll include a photo. Unfortunately I forgot my camera - the view from up there is amazing. The history of the building itself is really cool - it is very closely tied with Germany's history. The building in its current form is only about 8 years old.
Okay, I don't know why I can't upload a picture here, so here's a link to a picture of the Reichstag: http://www.aip.de/image_archive/images/reichstag.jpg
Well folks, it's late. More updates shall come soon. I move into my new apartment on Tuesday! Exciting... I miss you all though. Much love!
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
You might be German if...
Okay, I'm sure there will be additions to this list, but I just couldn't wait any longer to share some of the little Germanisms (or at least Berlinisms) that I've noticed, and also the Americanisms that stand in contrast to them. All of these things come from my own personal experience and observation. Enjoy!
You might be German (or at least a Berliner) if:
-You can't drink water unless it's carbonated.
-You pay more for your beverage than for your food.
-By American standards, you are perpetually dehydrated.
-You put butter on your sandwich.
-Salad doesn't have to have lettuce to be a salad.
-Ketchup packets cost 15 cents.
-You see by far more ads for Coca-Cola than for anything else... except maybe political candidates.
-The "walk" and "don't walk" characters on stoplights are trendy.
-You drive a Smart-Car.
-You're a guy who wears man-capris or has a "feaux-hawk"
-You're a woman and you're either 6 feet tall or know at least 3 women who are.
-You wear your wedding ring on your right hand.
-"How are you?" is not just a polite thing to say - it is a question which demands a detailed, truthful answer. When an American asks you this, you just say, "Thanks."
-If the stoplight says "don't walk" but there are no cars in sight, you still wait for the light to change. You could lose your driver's license if you didn't.
-Almost everything is closed after 8pm.
-You have to pay for a plastic bag to put your groceries in.
-You sort your trash into at least three categories.
-You only turn the water on in the shower when you need to rinse.
-At the movies, you have a choice between sweet popcorn and salty popcorn.
-You always wear trendy sneaker-type shoes but you never wear athletic tennis shoes unless you're jogging.
-You tend to dress warmer than the weather--scarves in September, for example.
-You don't wear flip-flops in September, regardless of the temperature.
-You sunbathe naked in the forest. (Yes, I've seen this! unfortunately...)
You might be an American in Germany if:
-You think water should be free.
-You put ice in your beverages.
-You are perpetually dehydrated, or else broke from paying for beverages.
-You've only eaten döner once.
-You would be wearing flip-flops for at least another month, but you don't want to stick out as an American.
-Germans are amazed that you can speak German, though it's nothing to them that they can all speak English.
-When you do speak or write in English, you try to put all the verbs at the end.
-You're fascinated by the variety of Haribo candies.
-You wear athletic tennis shoes regularly. Maybe they identify you as an American, but comfort is worth it.
-You enjoy not having to ask them not to put mayonaise on your sandwich.
-You're wondering where all the SUV's are.
-You ask the cashier at the cafeteria for a recipe instead of a receipt because you got the German words confused. (Yep, I did that.)
-You've been asked, "Is it true that in the US, you have to pay for college? How in the world do you afford such a thing?"
-You were warned not to get arrested for stealing ketchup packets.
-You're missing Mexican food, barbecue sauce and cheddar cheese right now.
-Peanut butter is a staple. You'll find it somewhere.
-You say things like, "Danglish rockt meine Welt."
-You're still thirsty.
Some "rough translations" (as in, what German things play the same role as certain American things):
peanut butter = Nutella
white bread = "schwarzbrot" (literally black bread, very rye-tasting and grainy)
sausage of all kinds = cold cuts of any kind (especially turkey)
peanuts (in candy) = hazelnuts
cookies 'n' creme ice cream = stracciatella (creamy with little chocolate specks)
butter = mayonaise (on a sandwich)
a Philly cheese steak (a staple/guilty indulgence) = döner
Mexican food and Chinese food (Indian too in the north) = Turkish food, Asian food and Indian food (most common international foods)
soft rolls = hard rolls
peanut butter as a flavor = hazelnut
Cheetos = peanut "flips"... same shape as cheetos but a little smaller, and yes, they're peanut-flavored... sounds weird, but they're dangerously addicting
lettuce and/or pickles on a sandwich = cucumber slices on a sandwich
You might be German (or at least a Berliner) if:
-You can't drink water unless it's carbonated.
-You pay more for your beverage than for your food.
-By American standards, you are perpetually dehydrated.
-You put butter on your sandwich.
-Salad doesn't have to have lettuce to be a salad.
-Ketchup packets cost 15 cents.
-You see by far more ads for Coca-Cola than for anything else... except maybe political candidates.
-The "walk" and "don't walk" characters on stoplights are trendy.
-You drive a Smart-Car.
-You're a guy who wears man-capris or has a "feaux-hawk"
-You're a woman and you're either 6 feet tall or know at least 3 women who are.
-You wear your wedding ring on your right hand.
-"How are you?" is not just a polite thing to say - it is a question which demands a detailed, truthful answer. When an American asks you this, you just say, "Thanks."
-If the stoplight says "don't walk" but there are no cars in sight, you still wait for the light to change. You could lose your driver's license if you didn't.
-Almost everything is closed after 8pm.
-You have to pay for a plastic bag to put your groceries in.
-You sort your trash into at least three categories.
-You only turn the water on in the shower when you need to rinse.
-At the movies, you have a choice between sweet popcorn and salty popcorn.
-You always wear trendy sneaker-type shoes but you never wear athletic tennis shoes unless you're jogging.
-You tend to dress warmer than the weather--scarves in September, for example.
-You don't wear flip-flops in September, regardless of the temperature.
-You sunbathe naked in the forest. (Yes, I've seen this! unfortunately...)
You might be an American in Germany if:
-You think water should be free.
-You put ice in your beverages.
-You are perpetually dehydrated, or else broke from paying for beverages.
-You've only eaten döner once.
-You would be wearing flip-flops for at least another month, but you don't want to stick out as an American.
-Germans are amazed that you can speak German, though it's nothing to them that they can all speak English.
-When you do speak or write in English, you try to put all the verbs at the end.
-You're fascinated by the variety of Haribo candies.
-You wear athletic tennis shoes regularly. Maybe they identify you as an American, but comfort is worth it.
-You enjoy not having to ask them not to put mayonaise on your sandwich.
-You're wondering where all the SUV's are.
-You ask the cashier at the cafeteria for a recipe instead of a receipt because you got the German words confused. (Yep, I did that.)
-You've been asked, "Is it true that in the US, you have to pay for college? How in the world do you afford such a thing?"
-You were warned not to get arrested for stealing ketchup packets.
-You're missing Mexican food, barbecue sauce and cheddar cheese right now.
-Peanut butter is a staple. You'll find it somewhere.
-You say things like, "Danglish rockt meine Welt."
-You're still thirsty.
Some "rough translations" (as in, what German things play the same role as certain American things):
peanut butter = Nutella
white bread = "schwarzbrot" (literally black bread, very rye-tasting and grainy)
sausage of all kinds = cold cuts of any kind (especially turkey)
peanuts (in candy) = hazelnuts
cookies 'n' creme ice cream = stracciatella (creamy with little chocolate specks)
butter = mayonaise (on a sandwich)
a Philly cheese steak (a staple/guilty indulgence) = döner
Mexican food and Chinese food (Indian too in the north) = Turkish food, Asian food and Indian food (most common international foods)
soft rolls = hard rolls
peanut butter as a flavor = hazelnut
Cheetos = peanut "flips"... same shape as cheetos but a little smaller, and yes, they're peanut-flavored... sounds weird, but they're dangerously addicting
lettuce and/or pickles on a sandwich = cucumber slices on a sandwich
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Pictures!!!
Finally, I have photos for all to view... I've put together two albums on Webshots, so I think the easiest thing to do is to just give you links to those albums. They are:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554312726SyJlSq ("The Honeymoon Phase")
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554313024NyOEWY (Alexander Platz, Prenzlauer Berg, Cecelienhof)
Enjoy! More photos to come soon; I need to get new batteries for my camera. :)
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554312726SyJlSq ("The Honeymoon Phase")
http://travel.webshots.com/album/554313024NyOEWY (Alexander Platz, Prenzlauer Berg, Cecelienhof)
Enjoy! More photos to come soon; I need to get new batteries for my camera. :)
Friday, September 22, 2006
Ich bin not homeless!!!
Hello everyone!
First of all, some very exciting news: I have an apartment!!! The one I mentioned in my last post turned out to be great - I visited it today and met my new roommate, Jeannie (short for Janina), and she was super friendly and we had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. The apartment is in Charlottenburg, a nice part of Berlin and not too far from the university and from the big places in town like Kurfürstendamm (ritzy shopping), Potsdamer Platz (umm, everything), and the subway, which will take you anywhere. My room is a little on the small side but that's really okay with me - I'd say it's about the size of my room at Penn freshman year. We have a nice bathroom and kitchen and a small spare room with a little table, good for socializing or entertaining guests perhaps. Internet, phone, TV, everything included... might I also mention it's cheaper than anywhere I could live at Penn. But most of all, I'm excited that I found someone fun and friendly and my age to live with!!! God is so faithful!!! I move in on October 3. :)
Other news: the movie I saw last night was incredible. It's done so well here that it is sure to make it over to the U.S., and you should all see it. It's called "Das Leben der Anderen", roughly translated "The Life of the Others". It takes place in East Germany in 1984 and follows two main characters: a writer who is being spied on by the East German police (the Stasi), and the man who is primarily responsible for the spying. It shows very poignantly how the lives of ordinary citizens were so deeply impacted by the Stasi and all that they did, and it also gives a rather insightful look into the life of a member of the Stasi - a perspective often forgotten. I highly recommend it.
Along with that, last night was a lot of fun. First of all, it was exciting to see a movie here in Berlin for the first time, of course all in German - we were proud of ourselves. :) Plus, afterwards we went out to eat and that was a lot of fun too. I really really love the people in our study abroad program. We formed such a tight bond so quickly and it's so cool. It's really fun to be with people who love German and who love Berlin as much as I do. :)
Now, unfortunately I will not be uploading my photos tonight because I have to do that from my laptop at an internet cafe, and my internet cafe here is closed. But fear not, photos will come tomorrow. I'm also working on a list of Berlinisms and Americanisms I've observed thus far through my experiences. Be excited. :)
Love and miss you all!
First of all, some very exciting news: I have an apartment!!! The one I mentioned in my last post turned out to be great - I visited it today and met my new roommate, Jeannie (short for Janina), and she was super friendly and we had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. The apartment is in Charlottenburg, a nice part of Berlin and not too far from the university and from the big places in town like Kurfürstendamm (ritzy shopping), Potsdamer Platz (umm, everything), and the subway, which will take you anywhere. My room is a little on the small side but that's really okay with me - I'd say it's about the size of my room at Penn freshman year. We have a nice bathroom and kitchen and a small spare room with a little table, good for socializing or entertaining guests perhaps. Internet, phone, TV, everything included... might I also mention it's cheaper than anywhere I could live at Penn. But most of all, I'm excited that I found someone fun and friendly and my age to live with!!! God is so faithful!!! I move in on October 3. :)
Other news: the movie I saw last night was incredible. It's done so well here that it is sure to make it over to the U.S., and you should all see it. It's called "Das Leben der Anderen", roughly translated "The Life of the Others". It takes place in East Germany in 1984 and follows two main characters: a writer who is being spied on by the East German police (the Stasi), and the man who is primarily responsible for the spying. It shows very poignantly how the lives of ordinary citizens were so deeply impacted by the Stasi and all that they did, and it also gives a rather insightful look into the life of a member of the Stasi - a perspective often forgotten. I highly recommend it.
Along with that, last night was a lot of fun. First of all, it was exciting to see a movie here in Berlin for the first time, of course all in German - we were proud of ourselves. :) Plus, afterwards we went out to eat and that was a lot of fun too. I really really love the people in our study abroad program. We formed such a tight bond so quickly and it's so cool. It's really fun to be with people who love German and who love Berlin as much as I do. :)
Now, unfortunately I will not be uploading my photos tonight because I have to do that from my laptop at an internet cafe, and my internet cafe here is closed. But fear not, photos will come tomorrow. I'm also working on a list of Berlinisms and Americanisms I've observed thus far through my experiences. Be excited. :)
Love and miss you all!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Hello from your favorite Blog-Slacker
Hello everone!
So sorry you haven't heard much from me lately. The internet at my host family's house has been acting up, so I haven't been able to use it as much for entertainment purposes as I would normally like to. But here is a long-awaited update...
The last two/three weeks I have been primarily preoccupied with my language practicum, my apartment search, church activities, and hanging out with my host family. So...
#1. The Language Practicum.
It's going rather well. Had quite a character of an instructor for the first half (that is, up to today - we change instructors next week). She was nice and... a character. All that really means is that I found her personality entertaining. I also first heard from her the Berlin dialect, which basically means that the word "gut" (which means "good") is pronounced "yoot." Totally awesome. At first the practicum was a little frustrating because it didn't seem to be quite as stuctured as we'd hoped, but as things went along the goals of the course became clearer and I feel like I am learning a lot. Every day I think my German gets a little better, and it's really quite exciting.
#2. The Apartment Search.
Up until a couple days ago my only comment on this subject would've been, "Ahhh!!!" The apartment search is definitely a frustrating process, particularly because for some reason it is really hard to find people to live with who are close to my age. A lot of people here go to college later in life, and a much smaller percentage of the population actually goes to college, and somewhere in the middle all the 20-year-olds vanish and then don't reappear again until they're 26 or older, still studying something random and living in WGs (a WG is basically an apartment in which individual rooms are rented out) with a cat or two. Yeah... that basically summarizes my problems: no one my age, no one who particularly struck me as a fun and exciting person to live with, and no one who didn't have a darn cat! (I'm allergic, in case you didn't know.) I have visited 6 different apartments to date (and emailed or called at least 20) and I only liked one of them, and I didn't get it, they picked someone else. But, no worries... I am going to visit one tomorrow, and I've been in touch with the girl for several days and she's 20 years old and sounds really friendly, and she's given me the impression that if we meet each other and like each other, I can have the room. So, cross your fingers for me! Time is ticking away, and the majority of us still don't have apartments.
#3. Church Activites.
Ummmm AWESOME. I love the people at this church! I also had the incredible blessing of getting to spend time last week with a group of seminary students from Hessen (another state in Germany) who were at our church for two weeks doing sort of a practicum with our pastor slash mission project. They put on a series of evening talks/discussions with worship music, which were intended for believers and nonbelievers alike, and they invited me to sing with the worship band. I had so much fun! They were the nicest and most hilarious people (mostly guys) and I absolutely had a blast. They made me feel so at home here and we just had such a good time. All of their talks were awesome too and God has been so faithful to answer my prayers to be able to understand sermons. I was so blessed. I'm a little sad that they're gone now, but through the events I also got to know more people at the church better, and that's been awesome. Super awesome.
#4. Host family.
My host-dad is really cool. He seems to absolutely love taking me around to random places in Berlin and having all kinds of thoughtful conversations, often about politics but also other stuff too. My host-mom and host-sister are nice too, but I especially enjoy the dad. And I've had some pretty cool meals here. Last night we had tacos for dinner and I thought, "Tacos in Germany? Yeah right!" but they were actually amazing! I also had some great pumpkin soup, this really tasty casserole type dish with green beans, pears and bacon (sounds weird but it was awesome!) and some other stuff too... they get such good fruit and vegetables here. Yum.
Okay, I have to go now because a group of us are going to see a movie. More updating soon! And PICTURES too!!! Love to all!!!
So sorry you haven't heard much from me lately. The internet at my host family's house has been acting up, so I haven't been able to use it as much for entertainment purposes as I would normally like to. But here is a long-awaited update...
The last two/three weeks I have been primarily preoccupied with my language practicum, my apartment search, church activities, and hanging out with my host family. So...
#1. The Language Practicum.
It's going rather well. Had quite a character of an instructor for the first half (that is, up to today - we change instructors next week). She was nice and... a character. All that really means is that I found her personality entertaining. I also first heard from her the Berlin dialect, which basically means that the word "gut" (which means "good") is pronounced "yoot." Totally awesome. At first the practicum was a little frustrating because it didn't seem to be quite as stuctured as we'd hoped, but as things went along the goals of the course became clearer and I feel like I am learning a lot. Every day I think my German gets a little better, and it's really quite exciting.
#2. The Apartment Search.
Up until a couple days ago my only comment on this subject would've been, "Ahhh!!!" The apartment search is definitely a frustrating process, particularly because for some reason it is really hard to find people to live with who are close to my age. A lot of people here go to college later in life, and a much smaller percentage of the population actually goes to college, and somewhere in the middle all the 20-year-olds vanish and then don't reappear again until they're 26 or older, still studying something random and living in WGs (a WG is basically an apartment in which individual rooms are rented out) with a cat or two. Yeah... that basically summarizes my problems: no one my age, no one who particularly struck me as a fun and exciting person to live with, and no one who didn't have a darn cat! (I'm allergic, in case you didn't know.) I have visited 6 different apartments to date (and emailed or called at least 20) and I only liked one of them, and I didn't get it, they picked someone else. But, no worries... I am going to visit one tomorrow, and I've been in touch with the girl for several days and she's 20 years old and sounds really friendly, and she's given me the impression that if we meet each other and like each other, I can have the room. So, cross your fingers for me! Time is ticking away, and the majority of us still don't have apartments.
#3. Church Activites.
Ummmm AWESOME. I love the people at this church! I also had the incredible blessing of getting to spend time last week with a group of seminary students from Hessen (another state in Germany) who were at our church for two weeks doing sort of a practicum with our pastor slash mission project. They put on a series of evening talks/discussions with worship music, which were intended for believers and nonbelievers alike, and they invited me to sing with the worship band. I had so much fun! They were the nicest and most hilarious people (mostly guys) and I absolutely had a blast. They made me feel so at home here and we just had such a good time. All of their talks were awesome too and God has been so faithful to answer my prayers to be able to understand sermons. I was so blessed. I'm a little sad that they're gone now, but through the events I also got to know more people at the church better, and that's been awesome. Super awesome.
#4. Host family.
My host-dad is really cool. He seems to absolutely love taking me around to random places in Berlin and having all kinds of thoughtful conversations, often about politics but also other stuff too. My host-mom and host-sister are nice too, but I especially enjoy the dad. And I've had some pretty cool meals here. Last night we had tacos for dinner and I thought, "Tacos in Germany? Yeah right!" but they were actually amazing! I also had some great pumpkin soup, this really tasty casserole type dish with green beans, pears and bacon (sounds weird but it was awesome!) and some other stuff too... they get such good fruit and vegetables here. Yum.
Okay, I have to go now because a group of us are going to see a movie. More updating soon! And PICTURES too!!! Love to all!!!
Monday, September 04, 2006
I can good Danglish speak
Did anyone notice that last sentence of my last post - "Just for now, while everything so new and fresh is..."? Sound a little like Yoda? Welcome to the phenomenon of Danglish. Actually, I might be stretching the meaning of this term - I first learned it as the sort of mixed German and English that Americans learning German often speak with each other when there aren't any Germans or other Americans around. It's basically the language of German-learners. I'd like to also use it to refer to the messed up way that thoughts come into my mind right now, since I hear and speak German all day long but am definitely far from fluent. So when I think, I think in this wierd mixture of German and English, and when I type, apparently I sometimes combine the languages in odd ways. There are also a lot of German expressions that I really want to use in English but they don't really exist. So if I say something that seems weird to you, you can bet it's probably an awkward translation fo something in German. (For example, in German we say "also" all the time, which means something like "that is to say" or "therefore" and other things too...)
Also! (OK!) back to the update...
Day 4: We slept really late... like, till a little bit after noon. When we woke up, Suzy had two new roommates. One was sleeping; the other, Molly, was hungry for some lunch, so the four of us went to the "Berliner" cafe (where I ate on Thursday). After that we wandered around a ritzier part of town where there were lots of expensive windows to look in (Burberry, Gucci, etc.), then headed back to the hostel for naps before everything started at 7. We met Carmen Müller, the director of BCGS, and a professor from Princeton who is here with the program. Basically all we did was introduce ourselves, then we went to dinner together at a local Italian/pizza restaurant. Why pizza, I have no idea!!! We should've had Wienerschnitzel with Spätzle and Sauerkraut or something, at least in my opinion. But of course, no one really asked me.
The other kids in the program are very nice. We all are sort of at varying levels in German - some have taken it only for a few semesters, others since 7th grade. Of course, how long we've taken German doesn't really have that much to do with how good we speak it - one girl has only studied German for a year and she basically kicks all of our butts! She's sooooo nice though. Everyone is. And actually, I thought it would be really weird to speak German with each other, but we're pretty much required to and so everyone does it, and it's actually not so weird. It does get a little annoying after awhile to hear so much not-so-perfect German. I don't mean that in a bad way - my German is also not perfect, so I contribute to the problem! - but what I mean is that I'm used to hearing more correct German (that is, from a teacher/professor) then I hear incorrect German (the other comments in class from us students). But of course here, I hear German everywhere, not just in German class like in the US. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Right now it kind makes my brain hurt, since I am always hearing not so good German or really good but really fast German - I feel like I'm always either annoyed or confused (or at least having to concentrate really hard!).
Okay, back to the recap! After dinner, about 2/3 of us went to a sort of bar/biergarten sort of thing (since, of course, all the people who just got there also wanted to try German beer). It was okay. And it hasn't actually been awkward (at least so far!) not to drink here. It is a little funny though because here, when you order a beer you usually get a pretty big one (normally 1/2 liter, basically a pint) but when you order water, you get 0.2 liter (less than an 8-oz. cup) and they only rarely will give you tap water - it's usually from a bottle, usually carbonated, and you have to pay for it (and thus you can't just get as much as you want). It looks pretty funny when we all raise our glasses, and theirs are all ginormous and mine is super tiny. I always finish first too. But that's really OK with me.
From there, of course, to bed.
Day 5: We all (unfortunately) had to get up early, get our stuff out of the room and put it in a special luggage room, eat breakfast, and then the orientation began. It was really not so much fun. I mean, I shouldn't complain, it wasn't bad, but it was not so easy on a Sunday morning so get up that early to sit there and listen to Dr. Müller speak German really fast about all the things we had to do, especially while I would've much rather gone to church in Pankow! We had lunch in the hostel, then more "orientation" - this time it was all about stuff we needed to know about staying with a host family, which was much better. After that, we went upstairs for "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake), where our host families came to meet and greet us and take us home with them.
My family is very nice. It's a couple - Eddie and Ingke - with two kids, one of which is in Peru for a year with something like our Peace Corps, the other is Hannah, 17 years old. They live in a very nice part of Berlin, not far from Wilmersdorf, called Schöneberg. Eddie seems to really enjoy pointing out cool stuff to me. We took a little walk through town and he showed me how some of the apartments are really old - built in the early 1900's - but others are called "Nachkriegswohnungen" ("after-the-war apartments") because they were destroyed by bombs during the war and had to be rebuilt in the 50's. Also, the town used to be a town where a lot of Jewish people lived, so as a memorial to the Jews they these little signs everywhere that have pictures on one side that are symbolic of something and on the other side some sort of text from sometime between 1933 and 1945 (a quote from a law prohibiting Jews from this or that, part of a message saying that one had to report at a certain time and place, a quote from a letter written by a Jew to a friend when they had to leave, etc.). There are at least 100 of them throughout the town. I think it's really a wonderful memorial. (Eddie thinks so too.) Eddie also pointed out to me the place where JFK gave his (in)famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech!
A friend of Ingke's invited us over for dinner, so that's where we went after the walk. It was pretty cool. Ingke's friend is Turkish, which was really cool for me. (Ingke told me later that her friend's father came to Germany as a guest worker. She moved here when she was 10. It's so cool to study something and then actually see - in this case meet! - it!) It was a total of seven people - me and my hostparents (Hannah stayed at home because she was really tired and had to go to school today), Ingke's friend and her husband, and another couple. They cooked an amazing 4 course meal!!! I felt so spoiled!!! It was fun. It was a very lively bunch. I didn't understand all of the conversation, but that was okay with me because I was really tired. After that we went home and it was time for bed.
Speaking of "home," I guess I should describe where I'm living! My host family has a beautiful apartment - one of the super old ones, which are normally much nicer - and my room here is bigger than my room at home! The apartment isn't huge, but the rooms are pretty big. I'm staying in their son's room, Hannah has a room about the same size (with her own little porch!), they have a big room that is sort of a living room but with a computer, piano, etc., a kitchen with a nice big table, a bathroom with a shower, and then the master bedroom, which has it's own bathroom with a bath tub (but no shower). It's actually kinda interesting how some things - the fridge, washing machine, oven, bathroom, etc - are a lot smaller than in the US, but the rooms are bigger! My room and Hannah's also onl have twin beds, so there's really a ton of space. Hannah has a couch in her room too. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - there are books everywhere in this place. My room, the hallway, the master bedroom, and the living room all have tons of shelves which are completely full of books. For the next month, I really don't need to go to the library!
I also forgot to mention that on the way to the friend's apartment for dinner, Eddie chose a route that took us right through the middle of the city and pointed out sooooooooooooooooooo much stuff to me. I felt like a kid in a candy store! In less than 10 minutes I saw the Brandenburg Gate, bricks in the street that indicate where the Berlin wall was, Alexanderplatz, tons of important government buildings, two of the opera houses here in Berlin, the famous radio tower that you always see in pictures of Berlin... I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff too. It was so exciting!
Day 6: Today was Day 6, although I should actually that was yesterday since it's now already Day 7. Not too much to say about today - I spent most of the day at the university doing more orientation-ish stuff and taking care of logistical things. The campus is absolutely beautiful, but not in the same way that I would say a lot of American universities are beautiful... that is, in America, at least half the time, universities are pretty because the buildings are pretty. The Free University of Berlin (or as we call it, the Freie Uni or simply the FU, pronounced "eff-ooh", not the way that an American might find offensive!) was founded in 1948 and thus most buildings were built in the 50's or 60's, and you can tell. (That is, they're not exactly pretty!) But the campus is so green - there are so many trees, and it's all so thick... like, the buildings are still close together, so all the green stuff is rather dense, instead of being spread out over huge frequently-mowed lawns like in the US. It's also relatively far from the center of Berlin, so there aren't any tall buildings or anything - it's sort of its own pretty little town.
One of the guys in the program turned 21 today, so most of us went out for Kaffee und Kuchen after we were done with all our orientation stuff. After that I went home, and I had dinner with Ingke. We ate these wonderful roasted potatoes that came from their own garden at their house out in the countryside, some kind of ginormous mushrooms that are supposed to be quite a delicacy which they also picked themselves (she cooked them with some sort of seasoning or something), sliced cucumber, and baked apples (almost like fresh apple sauce, but with huge apple chunks!). We had good conversation over dinner. Eddie wasn't there because he had to go back out for something - I don't know what - and Hannah was at gymnastics. Ingke said Hannah has done gymnastics for 10-12 years and now she actually teaches gymnastics for little kids! I spent the rest of the evening on the internet, mostly searching through ads for apartments.
As soon as possible, I will post pictures, since they're probably more exciting than my rambling. :) Now I really need to go to bed though because tomorrow I have take a test to see which level I will be in for the language practicum!
I miss you all!
Also! (OK!) back to the update...
Day 4: We slept really late... like, till a little bit after noon. When we woke up, Suzy had two new roommates. One was sleeping; the other, Molly, was hungry for some lunch, so the four of us went to the "Berliner" cafe (where I ate on Thursday). After that we wandered around a ritzier part of town where there were lots of expensive windows to look in (Burberry, Gucci, etc.), then headed back to the hostel for naps before everything started at 7. We met Carmen Müller, the director of BCGS, and a professor from Princeton who is here with the program. Basically all we did was introduce ourselves, then we went to dinner together at a local Italian/pizza restaurant. Why pizza, I have no idea!!! We should've had Wienerschnitzel with Spätzle and Sauerkraut or something, at least in my opinion. But of course, no one really asked me.
The other kids in the program are very nice. We all are sort of at varying levels in German - some have taken it only for a few semesters, others since 7th grade. Of course, how long we've taken German doesn't really have that much to do with how good we speak it - one girl has only studied German for a year and she basically kicks all of our butts! She's sooooo nice though. Everyone is. And actually, I thought it would be really weird to speak German with each other, but we're pretty much required to and so everyone does it, and it's actually not so weird. It does get a little annoying after awhile to hear so much not-so-perfect German. I don't mean that in a bad way - my German is also not perfect, so I contribute to the problem! - but what I mean is that I'm used to hearing more correct German (that is, from a teacher/professor) then I hear incorrect German (the other comments in class from us students). But of course here, I hear German everywhere, not just in German class like in the US. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Right now it kind makes my brain hurt, since I am always hearing not so good German or really good but really fast German - I feel like I'm always either annoyed or confused (or at least having to concentrate really hard!).
Okay, back to the recap! After dinner, about 2/3 of us went to a sort of bar/biergarten sort of thing (since, of course, all the people who just got there also wanted to try German beer). It was okay. And it hasn't actually been awkward (at least so far!) not to drink here. It is a little funny though because here, when you order a beer you usually get a pretty big one (normally 1/2 liter, basically a pint) but when you order water, you get 0.2 liter (less than an 8-oz. cup) and they only rarely will give you tap water - it's usually from a bottle, usually carbonated, and you have to pay for it (and thus you can't just get as much as you want). It looks pretty funny when we all raise our glasses, and theirs are all ginormous and mine is super tiny. I always finish first too. But that's really OK with me.
From there, of course, to bed.
Day 5: We all (unfortunately) had to get up early, get our stuff out of the room and put it in a special luggage room, eat breakfast, and then the orientation began. It was really not so much fun. I mean, I shouldn't complain, it wasn't bad, but it was not so easy on a Sunday morning so get up that early to sit there and listen to Dr. Müller speak German really fast about all the things we had to do, especially while I would've much rather gone to church in Pankow! We had lunch in the hostel, then more "orientation" - this time it was all about stuff we needed to know about staying with a host family, which was much better. After that, we went upstairs for "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake), where our host families came to meet and greet us and take us home with them.
My family is very nice. It's a couple - Eddie and Ingke - with two kids, one of which is in Peru for a year with something like our Peace Corps, the other is Hannah, 17 years old. They live in a very nice part of Berlin, not far from Wilmersdorf, called Schöneberg. Eddie seems to really enjoy pointing out cool stuff to me. We took a little walk through town and he showed me how some of the apartments are really old - built in the early 1900's - but others are called "Nachkriegswohnungen" ("after-the-war apartments") because they were destroyed by bombs during the war and had to be rebuilt in the 50's. Also, the town used to be a town where a lot of Jewish people lived, so as a memorial to the Jews they these little signs everywhere that have pictures on one side that are symbolic of something and on the other side some sort of text from sometime between 1933 and 1945 (a quote from a law prohibiting Jews from this or that, part of a message saying that one had to report at a certain time and place, a quote from a letter written by a Jew to a friend when they had to leave, etc.). There are at least 100 of them throughout the town. I think it's really a wonderful memorial. (Eddie thinks so too.) Eddie also pointed out to me the place where JFK gave his (in)famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech!
A friend of Ingke's invited us over for dinner, so that's where we went after the walk. It was pretty cool. Ingke's friend is Turkish, which was really cool for me. (Ingke told me later that her friend's father came to Germany as a guest worker. She moved here when she was 10. It's so cool to study something and then actually see - in this case meet! - it!) It was a total of seven people - me and my hostparents (Hannah stayed at home because she was really tired and had to go to school today), Ingke's friend and her husband, and another couple. They cooked an amazing 4 course meal!!! I felt so spoiled!!! It was fun. It was a very lively bunch. I didn't understand all of the conversation, but that was okay with me because I was really tired. After that we went home and it was time for bed.
Speaking of "home," I guess I should describe where I'm living! My host family has a beautiful apartment - one of the super old ones, which are normally much nicer - and my room here is bigger than my room at home! The apartment isn't huge, but the rooms are pretty big. I'm staying in their son's room, Hannah has a room about the same size (with her own little porch!), they have a big room that is sort of a living room but with a computer, piano, etc., a kitchen with a nice big table, a bathroom with a shower, and then the master bedroom, which has it's own bathroom with a bath tub (but no shower). It's actually kinda interesting how some things - the fridge, washing machine, oven, bathroom, etc - are a lot smaller than in the US, but the rooms are bigger! My room and Hannah's also onl have twin beds, so there's really a ton of space. Hannah has a couch in her room too. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - there are books everywhere in this place. My room, the hallway, the master bedroom, and the living room all have tons of shelves which are completely full of books. For the next month, I really don't need to go to the library!
I also forgot to mention that on the way to the friend's apartment for dinner, Eddie chose a route that took us right through the middle of the city and pointed out sooooooooooooooooooo much stuff to me. I felt like a kid in a candy store! In less than 10 minutes I saw the Brandenburg Gate, bricks in the street that indicate where the Berlin wall was, Alexanderplatz, tons of important government buildings, two of the opera houses here in Berlin, the famous radio tower that you always see in pictures of Berlin... I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff too. It was so exciting!
Day 6: Today was Day 6, although I should actually that was yesterday since it's now already Day 7. Not too much to say about today - I spent most of the day at the university doing more orientation-ish stuff and taking care of logistical things. The campus is absolutely beautiful, but not in the same way that I would say a lot of American universities are beautiful... that is, in America, at least half the time, universities are pretty because the buildings are pretty. The Free University of Berlin (or as we call it, the Freie Uni or simply the FU, pronounced "eff-ooh", not the way that an American might find offensive!) was founded in 1948 and thus most buildings were built in the 50's or 60's, and you can tell. (That is, they're not exactly pretty!) But the campus is so green - there are so many trees, and it's all so thick... like, the buildings are still close together, so all the green stuff is rather dense, instead of being spread out over huge frequently-mowed lawns like in the US. It's also relatively far from the center of Berlin, so there aren't any tall buildings or anything - it's sort of its own pretty little town.
One of the guys in the program turned 21 today, so most of us went out for Kaffee und Kuchen after we were done with all our orientation stuff. After that I went home, and I had dinner with Ingke. We ate these wonderful roasted potatoes that came from their own garden at their house out in the countryside, some kind of ginormous mushrooms that are supposed to be quite a delicacy which they also picked themselves (she cooked them with some sort of seasoning or something), sliced cucumber, and baked apples (almost like fresh apple sauce, but with huge apple chunks!). We had good conversation over dinner. Eddie wasn't there because he had to go back out for something - I don't know what - and Hannah was at gymnastics. Ingke said Hannah has done gymnastics for 10-12 years and now she actually teaches gymnastics for little kids! I spent the rest of the evening on the internet, mostly searching through ads for apartments.
As soon as possible, I will post pictures, since they're probably more exciting than my rambling. :) Now I really need to go to bed though because tomorrow I have take a test to see which level I will be in for the language practicum!
I miss you all!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Ich bin ein Berliner!
Hello everyone!
To those of you who have been waiting for me to post something, my apologies - up until now I had to pay to use the internet, so I tried to minimize my time online. (Blogger is not a good place to be when you want to minimize your online time!) So, if you haven't already heard, I made it here to Berlin. I was delayed a bit and of course very tired, but I'm pretty much acclimated now, at least physically! Mentally, everything is a bit crazy. There's just so much to take in! But I shouldn't get ahead of myself here. Let me first give an update on what one of my new friends here calls "the honeymoon phase" - that is, my first few days in Berlin. You could also call it "the unabashed tourist phase."
Day 1 (some mixture of Tuesday and Wednesday): I arrived in Berlin sometime in the early afternoon - I really don't remember exactly when. My flight out of Nashville was delayed due to weather, so I missed my original flight to Berlin and instead was put on a flight to Frankfurt and then another flight to Berlin. Miraculously, my luggage made it too. I was greeted at the airport very warmly by Manu (short for Manuela. Manu and her husband Timo are pastors of a new church in a part of former East Berlin called Pankow. I found their church website at the end of last year and have been in contact with them throughout the summer. They were soooo nice to offer to greet me at the airport - it was especially nice after my longer-than-planned-which-still-would've-been-long journey. She was there with her brand new baby girl (whose name is Heidi!! so cute!!) holding a sign that said, "Welcome Christina Lordemann." Everyone here spells my name with 2 n's. :) Manu was sooo friendly, and she drove me to the youth hostel where I was staying, made sure I got checked in okay, gave me a few subway maps and showed me how to get to the church. After she left, I called my mom at home (the signal was amazingly clear!) and then took a nap... a 6 hour nap that is. I woke up around 10, got online for a little while, then went back to bed at midnight and slept until almost 9:30. I didn't sleep especially well, but I slept long, and that was probably what I needed most! So, Day 1 was Sleep Day.
Day 2: Breakfast at the hostel was from 7 to 9, so I missed it of course, having woken up closer to 9:30. I took my time getting ready - I had a lot of fun with the shower, which was very confusing! Not all of the showers here are like this, but the shower in my bathroom had extremely high water pressure, but you turned it on sort of like you turn on a faucet in a public bathroom - you push a knob, and then after about 30 seconds it shuts off. Also, the tempurature is controlled by knobs that are on the wall outside the shower. So it took me a little while! But I finally got it to the right temperature, and actually I think the whole 30-second thing is pretty smart because it wastes a lot less water. You only turn it on when you need to rinse. You also shower faster that way. It's really quite efficient.
After that interesting experience I went out in search of food and drink, since I hadn't had a real meal since I was on the airplane. (Fear not - I did eat this amazing pretzel that I bought in the airport that had cheese and ham on it - wunderbar!) Fortunately there was a little cafe just down the street, so I went there. While I was there I heard the song "Hotel California," which I thought was funny. They also had these great ads on the window for Berliners. A Berliner is something like a jelly-filled doughnut. Of course whenever anyone hears the word Berliner, everyone likes about JFK's infamous speech, when he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (which would be something like saying, "I am a jelly doughnut"). Pictures coming soon.
From there I decided to wander a bit. Everything was really new exciting. Berlin is an absolutely beautiful city. Especially where the hostel was - a part of town called Wilmersdorf - there are TONS of trees, and the buildings are mostly much lighter in color (and often also prettier!) than they are in other cities. I can't really compare it to any American cities that I've been to. It's really pretty.
When I checked into the hostel the day before, they told me that another girl from the program (BCGS - Berlin Consortium for German Studies) was already there, so just before lunch time I decided to find her. Her name is Suzy - she's really nice. We decided to get lunch and found this great cafe where they had really good tomato soup and really good ice cream too! Ice cream here is amazing - it's more like gelato, so it's not quite as creamy but richer in flavor and thus you eat less (and it's cheaper too!). After that I took another nap (a shorter one this time!) and then headed out to Pankow to go to a sort of small group meeting at the church.
It was a really nice evening. It was a small group - just me, Timo, and three others, plus one of them's son who is 6 years old. We had "Abendbrot" together (literally "evening bread," that is, a light dinner, more like lunch - cold cuts, bread, etc.) and of course much conversation, sang some songs together, which was totally awesome, since some of them were German translations of English songs ("Herr Dein Name Sei Erhöht" = "Lord I Lift Your Name On High," much better in German than in English, and also "Shout to the Lord" in German), had a time of prayer and then Bible study/discussion. Toward the end (that is, the Bible study part) it got harder to understand, and it was cool to pray in German but I wasn't ready to pray out loud in German - the thoughts didn't come naturally in German and it was distracting to translate myself. But it was a really nice evening and it was amazing to see God at work in these people's lives. Everyone who came is new to the church and just started coming after their big evangelism event they had about a month ago. It was so awesome. And everyone was sooooo friendly! I wanted so badly to go to church there this morning but I had stupid orientation stuff at the same time as church started. (How dumb is that? On a Sunday!)
Day 3: On Friday Suzy and I got up early and were the first ones at breakfast. At breakfast we met a girl from Barcelona named Olga - whom Suzy had actually already met - who is here for a year to study architecture at the technical university. We planned to meet up later in the day with her and one of her friends who is also from Spain. After breakfast Suzy and I wanted to go shopping and/or try to the find the university, but it was raining and neither of us had umbrellas, so we took naps instead. :) When I woke up, I had a new roommate - Jamen - but she was ready for a nap, so Suzy and I made our way slowly out to Kreuzberg, where we were meeting Olga and her friend, Eva. Kreuzberg (another part of Berlin) is really cool - and really Turkish! We had an awesome Turkish lunch for way cheap. Çok güzel! From there we split up again and Suzy and I headed for Kurfürstendamm to do some shopping.
Sure enough, we found exactly what we were looking for - an H&M! This part of town was sort of like 5th Avenue. Just like in NY, there was an H&M on every corner - we saw three all on one street, less than a block apart from each other! We also saw our first Starbucks in Germany. :) After buying jackets at H & M (since it's already cooler here than it was back home) we visited the Kaiser Wilhelms Gedächtnis Kirche (memorial church). It was built just before the turn of the 20th century, but almost completely destroyed during WW2. Only the main tower is still standing, but there's a new building next to it where they have services and such. After that we thought we should go back to the hostel and see if Jamen wanted to go to dinner.
Sure enough, that was the case! Jamen and Suzy were wanting to try their first German beer, so we asked the guy at the front desk if there were any good bars around and we got about a 30-minute answer! We picked one of them because he said they had live music, so we went there and it was actually pretty nice. They had a cafe upstairs and bar downstairs. We ate dinner upstairs and then decided just to walk around for a bit instead of going downstairs since it was really smoky there. We found a great little ice cream stand! After that we were, of course, ready for bed.
Since I have written an absurd amount tonight and I doubt no one really wants to read a novel right now (at least not one written by me!) I will stop for now and continue with Day 4 tomorrow. On Day 4 (yesterday) the program started, so I've basically covered the honeymoon phase. Fear not - I will not be giving you a play-by-play every single day! No one wants to read that! Just for now, while everything so fresh and new is...
Time for sleep. I love and miss you all!!!
To those of you who have been waiting for me to post something, my apologies - up until now I had to pay to use the internet, so I tried to minimize my time online. (Blogger is not a good place to be when you want to minimize your online time!) So, if you haven't already heard, I made it here to Berlin. I was delayed a bit and of course very tired, but I'm pretty much acclimated now, at least physically! Mentally, everything is a bit crazy. There's just so much to take in! But I shouldn't get ahead of myself here. Let me first give an update on what one of my new friends here calls "the honeymoon phase" - that is, my first few days in Berlin. You could also call it "the unabashed tourist phase."
Day 1 (some mixture of Tuesday and Wednesday): I arrived in Berlin sometime in the early afternoon - I really don't remember exactly when. My flight out of Nashville was delayed due to weather, so I missed my original flight to Berlin and instead was put on a flight to Frankfurt and then another flight to Berlin. Miraculously, my luggage made it too. I was greeted at the airport very warmly by Manu (short for Manuela. Manu and her husband Timo are pastors of a new church in a part of former East Berlin called Pankow. I found their church website at the end of last year and have been in contact with them throughout the summer. They were soooo nice to offer to greet me at the airport - it was especially nice after my longer-than-planned-which-still-would've-been-long journey. She was there with her brand new baby girl (whose name is Heidi!! so cute!!) holding a sign that said, "Welcome Christina Lordemann." Everyone here spells my name with 2 n's. :) Manu was sooo friendly, and she drove me to the youth hostel where I was staying, made sure I got checked in okay, gave me a few subway maps and showed me how to get to the church. After she left, I called my mom at home (the signal was amazingly clear!) and then took a nap... a 6 hour nap that is. I woke up around 10, got online for a little while, then went back to bed at midnight and slept until almost 9:30. I didn't sleep especially well, but I slept long, and that was probably what I needed most! So, Day 1 was Sleep Day.
Day 2: Breakfast at the hostel was from 7 to 9, so I missed it of course, having woken up closer to 9:30. I took my time getting ready - I had a lot of fun with the shower, which was very confusing! Not all of the showers here are like this, but the shower in my bathroom had extremely high water pressure, but you turned it on sort of like you turn on a faucet in a public bathroom - you push a knob, and then after about 30 seconds it shuts off. Also, the tempurature is controlled by knobs that are on the wall outside the shower. So it took me a little while! But I finally got it to the right temperature, and actually I think the whole 30-second thing is pretty smart because it wastes a lot less water. You only turn it on when you need to rinse. You also shower faster that way. It's really quite efficient.
After that interesting experience I went out in search of food and drink, since I hadn't had a real meal since I was on the airplane. (Fear not - I did eat this amazing pretzel that I bought in the airport that had cheese and ham on it - wunderbar!) Fortunately there was a little cafe just down the street, so I went there. While I was there I heard the song "Hotel California," which I thought was funny. They also had these great ads on the window for Berliners. A Berliner is something like a jelly-filled doughnut. Of course whenever anyone hears the word Berliner, everyone likes about JFK's infamous speech, when he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (which would be something like saying, "I am a jelly doughnut"). Pictures coming soon.
From there I decided to wander a bit. Everything was really new exciting. Berlin is an absolutely beautiful city. Especially where the hostel was - a part of town called Wilmersdorf - there are TONS of trees, and the buildings are mostly much lighter in color (and often also prettier!) than they are in other cities. I can't really compare it to any American cities that I've been to. It's really pretty.
When I checked into the hostel the day before, they told me that another girl from the program (BCGS - Berlin Consortium for German Studies) was already there, so just before lunch time I decided to find her. Her name is Suzy - she's really nice. We decided to get lunch and found this great cafe where they had really good tomato soup and really good ice cream too! Ice cream here is amazing - it's more like gelato, so it's not quite as creamy but richer in flavor and thus you eat less (and it's cheaper too!). After that I took another nap (a shorter one this time!) and then headed out to Pankow to go to a sort of small group meeting at the church.
It was a really nice evening. It was a small group - just me, Timo, and three others, plus one of them's son who is 6 years old. We had "Abendbrot" together (literally "evening bread," that is, a light dinner, more like lunch - cold cuts, bread, etc.) and of course much conversation, sang some songs together, which was totally awesome, since some of them were German translations of English songs ("Herr Dein Name Sei Erhöht" = "Lord I Lift Your Name On High," much better in German than in English, and also "Shout to the Lord" in German), had a time of prayer and then Bible study/discussion. Toward the end (that is, the Bible study part) it got harder to understand, and it was cool to pray in German but I wasn't ready to pray out loud in German - the thoughts didn't come naturally in German and it was distracting to translate myself. But it was a really nice evening and it was amazing to see God at work in these people's lives. Everyone who came is new to the church and just started coming after their big evangelism event they had about a month ago. It was so awesome. And everyone was sooooo friendly! I wanted so badly to go to church there this morning but I had stupid orientation stuff at the same time as church started. (How dumb is that? On a Sunday!)
Day 3: On Friday Suzy and I got up early and were the first ones at breakfast. At breakfast we met a girl from Barcelona named Olga - whom Suzy had actually already met - who is here for a year to study architecture at the technical university. We planned to meet up later in the day with her and one of her friends who is also from Spain. After breakfast Suzy and I wanted to go shopping and/or try to the find the university, but it was raining and neither of us had umbrellas, so we took naps instead. :) When I woke up, I had a new roommate - Jamen - but she was ready for a nap, so Suzy and I made our way slowly out to Kreuzberg, where we were meeting Olga and her friend, Eva. Kreuzberg (another part of Berlin) is really cool - and really Turkish! We had an awesome Turkish lunch for way cheap. Çok güzel! From there we split up again and Suzy and I headed for Kurfürstendamm to do some shopping.
Sure enough, we found exactly what we were looking for - an H&M! This part of town was sort of like 5th Avenue. Just like in NY, there was an H&M on every corner - we saw three all on one street, less than a block apart from each other! We also saw our first Starbucks in Germany. :) After buying jackets at H & M (since it's already cooler here than it was back home) we visited the Kaiser Wilhelms Gedächtnis Kirche (memorial church). It was built just before the turn of the 20th century, but almost completely destroyed during WW2. Only the main tower is still standing, but there's a new building next to it where they have services and such. After that we thought we should go back to the hostel and see if Jamen wanted to go to dinner.
Sure enough, that was the case! Jamen and Suzy were wanting to try their first German beer, so we asked the guy at the front desk if there were any good bars around and we got about a 30-minute answer! We picked one of them because he said they had live music, so we went there and it was actually pretty nice. They had a cafe upstairs and bar downstairs. We ate dinner upstairs and then decided just to walk around for a bit instead of going downstairs since it was really smoky there. We found a great little ice cream stand! After that we were, of course, ready for bed.
Since I have written an absurd amount tonight and I doubt no one really wants to read a novel right now (at least not one written by me!) I will stop for now and continue with Day 4 tomorrow. On Day 4 (yesterday) the program started, so I've basically covered the honeymoon phase. Fear not - I will not be giving you a play-by-play every single day! No one wants to read that! Just for now, while everything so fresh and new is...
Time for sleep. I love and miss you all!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
