Stinky Cheese

So yesterday I went to Ikea with my new friend Conor. I'll spare you the details, because, as it turns out, Ikea is remarkably similar here. I ended up buying a new trash can, a towel, some new sheets, blah blah blah. 

Today was my first real day of classes. I went to class yesterday, and only had to do an oral interview (auf Deutsch, natürlich) and placed into the equivalent of German 102, which is perfect since my last year of 101. And then after my midterm exam, it turns into 201...Hopefully I'll swim, and not sink. There are 10 people in my class! It's amazing. I haven't had a class that small since high school, and my teacher seems nice. I have the class for 3 hours a day Monday-Thursday. We played a game akin to musical chairs, but apparently the German name for it is "a trip to Jerusalem."

Yesterday I had lunch at the Veggie Mensa, and it was a lot more manageable than the giant one. It had better food, too! Today we ate at a Turkish sandwich stand near the mall. Then I had the class I've really been looking forward to: Art and Dictatorship. My professor seems awesome! I think I'm really going to enjoy the course.

Currently I'm dining on a grilled cheese. I bought two new cheeses from the market last night and I opened the scarier looking one just a few minutes ago, and excuse me for what I'm about to say, but it smelled like a fart. Not in an immature way. It smelled like a real life, human fart. Gross. Did I try it anyway? Yes. And do you know what it tasted like? Fart. I decided to go with the second of the cheeses for my sandwich.

For the next post, I'm going to start an ongoing list of all the things I've noticed about Germany that's different than the US. I think it'll be a good read.

Hannibalism

I feel like so much has happened since my last post! I went out with the group on Friday night to Hannibal, which is a low key bar in Kreuzberg (kroytz-berg), where we met our student assistant leaders. It was a lot of fun, and I met a lot of the people on the program. I opted for cocktails (I KNOW, MOM, I'M LEGALLY ALLOWED TO DRINK HERE) because they were all €3.90. One of the girls I was with, Hannah, ordered a beer with sprite in it. Apparently it's a thing here. She couldn't finish it, so I had that, too. A bunch of people in the group decided that they wanted to go to a dubstep club, just 4 transfers away. Sehr schön. I went because it sounded like a good time, but it ended up being a lot of white boys with dreads awkwardly dancing...suffice it to say, it was not my scene. Hannah and I decided to leave together, and realized that not only did we not know how to get back to the apartments, we actually didn't know where we were. We eventually got back with the help of our deus ex machina.

Yesterday I was schlubby all day. Becca came over and we exchanged battle stories from the night before, and then made dinner together...and I'm still looking at a sink full of dirty dishes. I'll deal with that later. We decided to go back to Hannibal last night, and had a great time! It was a lot easier because we made all of our connections and it wasn't as crowded as the night before. We got home a lot earlier, too. Hannah and I went back to Becca's apartment and we made grilled cheese together. It was perfect.

This morning, getting up at 8AM was rough. I blue baseball capped it, so we know what that means. I went on a walking tour of Berlin with our program director, Dirk. It was chilly, and grey and it drizzled a little bit, but I'm so glad I went. We saw the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor, and many other famous sites in Berlin. I feel much more acquainted with the city now that I did that. I got some great photos, too!


The thing I noticed about Berlin is how sparse the city center is. There aren't a ton of buildings everywhere like New York. Berlin is absolutely sprawling, too. It's huge! It's 8 times the size of Paris. Nothing is built up, and the tallest buildings I've seen are about 10 stories. Another thing I noticed is that they have a completely different concept of shoveling here. The streets are covered, and I mean covered with ice and snow. The sidewalks are covered in sand, too, which makes for a messy apartment when you come home.

Becca and I tried to go to Ikea on our way home from the tour, because I need a pillow, some towels, and now light bulbs and a new bathroom faucet...whoops. Unfortunately, we didn't even think of this, Ikea isn't open on Sundays! Bummer. We went to Euro McDonalds for the first time today, and they have delicious veggie burgers here! And it was super clean. As Becca put it, "Well, for us, the whole point of McDonalds is that it's disgusting." Untrue here!

Forms and Functions

1/6/11
I didn't update yesterday for a couple reasons. I was completely zonked, and ready to do absolutely nothing for the evening. We gathered as a group yesterday for the first time, in one of the few lecture halls that Freie Universität has, and essentially filled out forms for the whole day. We took a break, and ate at the Mensa, which is the school's cafeteria. It's really great food, and it's highly subsidized, so a large meal there is inexpensive. Though, when I went up to buy my food the woman who rang me up asked me something about the salad I made very quickly in German. I was not prepared for this, so I did that thing where you just smile and nod. The man behind me was clearly displeased, and gave an audible huff, and the woman just totaled the order, and I guess I paid less than I should have...

After a long day, a few of us went to the mall and bought "surf sticks" for the internet. Picture 15 Americans walking into a store demanding internet sticks in broken German. It was presh. 2 hours later (because we travel as a pack) we came home. I was at the point where I thought I would be willing to murder someone to have 10 minutes of uninterrupted interwebz (addiction?). I popped my one frozen pizza into the oven and prayed that the internet stick wouldn't give me any problems. Thankfully a monkey could have set it up, so I was on the internet in no time.

1/7/11
Well today was our walking tour of campus. I found out that there is an entirely vegetarian Mensa, which I was really happy about. We also took a tour of a defunct bunker (the ONE day I decided it wouldn't be worth it to bring my camera!). It was interesting for 10 minutes before I realized the entire thing was filled with mold, and had an allergy attack...Whatever.

Anyway, tonight I'm going out with the program to a Turkish restaurant. I guess they need to socialize us. I was supposed to be in the group that went last night, but I ended up passing out at 10 last night!

If anyone is interested, here is a 20 minute video about my program. I watched it, it's pretty good. http://vimeo.com/10228827. Also, I'm finally attaching one of the pictures I took, but I'm not going to write about it yet.

City Center

1/5/10

Last night I looked for a place to eat. I walked for about a mile to find a reasonable place, and I found a good Italian place. I had a giant pizza for 3.50 Euro. 

So 13 hours of sleep later, I decided to venture into the city center. I went to the most familiar sounding place: Potsdamer Platz. I walked out of the train station to find myself in front of the Ritz-Carlton, and I knew that I had come to the right place. After walking around in the freezing (and I really mean freezing) cold, looking for a place to eat I decided to get Subway. Subway! I’m in one of the most metropolitan cities in the world, with any choice of food at my disposal and I choose Subway. I guess I was just that hungry. The coke tastes like it’s made with real sugar, though, which makes it worth the 1.70 Euro. Whatever. And so far this has been my most expensive meal. I’m worried, though, that I won’t find my way back to my apartment…oh well. 

*Also, pictures to come. Soon. I just need to not be absolutely exhausted. 

Berlin!

Traveling to Berlin was uneventful and easy. I met a few kids from Jersey on the plane, had a window seat with no one sitting next to me, and I took an anti-anxiety pill so I had a restful flight. I awoke to a beautiful Berlin outside my window. It must have snowed last night because there was fresh snow on all the cars. A few of us split a cab to the FU-BEST headquarters, where we got our photos taken (after 12 hours of traveling!) and we had a small orientation. But best of all, we were told that we were going to move in to our apartments, and we have tomorrow off to do whatever we want around the city.

I unpacked all of my things, and made friends with my apartment. I love it! It’s the perfect size. I made my bed (which is meant to double as a couch, but I don’t see that happening). I then, by chance, met up with two other FU-BESTers and we decided to take a look around the city. We were starving, so we decided to take the train one stop north toward the city. Mind you, public transportation in Berlin is free for students, so I’m going to get used to the transit system really fast.

 We stopped off at a Turkish deli, and, of course I had no idea how to order. On top of all that, all three of us are vegetarians, and on top of that, we had absolutely no clue how to order! I spotted “Falafel” on the menu, hoped it was a direct translation (ha!) and decided to order that, and a Heineken. All that was about 4 Euro, and it was delicious and filling. After that, I decided I had had enough exploring, and decided I should get back to the apartment.

I moved around the furniture, hung up my clothes, and crashed hard. I fell asleep for two hours, thinking that I had set my alarm for only one. I awoke and it’s dark already at 6! I took a beautiful, hot shower and brushed my teeth, ready for the day at the crack of 6:30 PM.

So here I sit. In my apartment, where I can choose to clean the sink in the bathroom, or scrub the toilet. I am sitting in my apartment in Germany, where I can use as many italics as I like, and keep the light on if I don’t feel well, and listen to my music and make a cup of tea, all by my self. I can keep the door open if I feel like being friendly, and I can keep it closed if I don’t. It’s wonderful.

New Year, 2011

This is my pilot post for my new travel blog. This is for my friends and family to see what I'm up to during my time abroad. This will also serve as a travel diary for me, because I'm terrible at writing daily. The goal is to post a new picture every day which will serve as a prompt. With a little self discipline I can reach my goal!

I'm leaving for Berlin, Germany on Monday, January 3, 2011, and I figure that now is a good point to start documenting my journey. I'm going to be studying at Freie Universität, and hopefully picking up German along the way. Today started the mountain of laundry I've been putting off since Thanksgiving and I dug my suitcase out of the depths of the basement. I put my socks in, and called it a night. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive...but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm going to be up at 5 on Monday morning, desperately willing the dryer to dry those 12 pairs of jeans a little faster.

Anyway, Monday can't come fast enough. Until then!