I really hope that's right. If it isn't, I'm going to feel very stupid later. =)
Anyway. I'm here!! In Berlin! And it's beautiful! Ok well, actually it's cold and rainy, but who cares?! It's awesome!!! I've only been here since Sunday and already I have fallen in love with Germany.
Oh. Before I forget. I'm officially a double major! It's French teaching (with a German teaching minor) and German Studies. I would have just done the straight up teaching double major thing, but it was complicated and would have added another semester, which I couldn't afford. So now it's done and I will graduate in April 2013.
But anyway, back to the point. FREAKING BERLIN!!!!! <3
So I started class at the Goethe-Institut this morning. It goes from 8:30 until 13:00, but we get 3 breaks so it's not as intense as it sounds. Though it's still pretty intense. =D There are quite a few English speakers in my class, but thankfully we don't speak English at all. German all the way! I still speak English with some of the other students outside of class, but that's because my German speaking ability isn't very high. I always understand at least 1/2 of what's said to me (unless whomever is talking really loves talking a kilometer a minute). That's pretty good, I think, considering I've only taken German for one semester, but I still wish I were better at it. At least I can understand at least the general idea of what's going on if not all the details.
Today, a bunch of us from school (and by that I mean the University we go to in the US) went out to eat and then to museums and stuff. The first one was an art museum. I can't remember too many specific things we saw because there were three floors, each one big enough to be its own museum, but I do have one in particular that I remember the name of because it was one of my favorites.
Click here to see it! =D
It's called "Der Zug des Todes" which roughly translates to "The Train of the Dead." I know the image is small, so I'll explain. Death is leading a train or a parade of people, ringing a bell as he/she goes along. Old people, young people, rich and poor, powerful and not are all obediently following death. I liked it because no matter where you are in life, we all end up in the same place. That's how Nathan explained it anyway. Everyone follows death, whether they want to or not. I thought it was cool.
After that we walked around the city for.... 5 hours? That was killer, especially because I had my computer with me and by the end my shoulders were killing me! I'm alright now but I'm very tired. I don't think I'm completely over my jet-lag yet though, which is unfortunate. But it shouldn't take much longer to get over I don't think, since I'm keeping a very regular schedule (22:00-6:00 is when I sleep).
I'm starting to make friends already! Most of them are from my school, but there are a couple who aren't. The most notable is Petter, a boy i met from Sweden. He's very patient with me when I either don't understand what he said or when I have a hard time answering him. I hope I have the chance to get to know him better. He's in the level just above me for classes so I doubt I'll see him often.
Sadly, I don't get the internet at home and sticking around at school to get online isn't a very fun idea. I'm not going to take my computer around anymore in case of more random escapades like the one I had today. My shoulders just can't handle the stress. Plus I didn't have my camera today, which was way sad considering all the awesome stuff we saw. I even touched part of the Berlin wall! And I want to have it with me from now on, but that's heavy too and I can't carry both. I could barely carry one (between my computer and my camera, I mean) so I don't know how often I can update this. Hopefully I won't be to exhausted next time and will be able to add more detail (and pictures!) from my life and sightseeing, but we'll have to see. I'd much rather be out experiencing things than writing about them. So I may have to settle for a bi-weekly or even just weekly update. Like I said, we'll have to see. We're not going to be doing so much the whole trip, so once some of the excitement wears off it might get easier.
In any case, I'll update when I can.
For now, I'm going home - a 45 minute commute by S-Bahn - and eating dinner. Then I will take a shower and very gratefully crawl in to bed.
Well, at least I got my exercise in for the day. =P Not that I have many calories to burn haha. I haven't been eating much. I had cornflakes for breakfast, a half-sandwich thing and some bread for lunch and that was all. Now I think I'll go finish off the soup from a couple days ago from the Vietnamese restaurant Marion ( the woman I'm staying with) took us (me and my room mate Rachel) to our first night - Sunday. Since it's now Tuesday, I figure I better eat it.
We have a grocery store just down the street - maybe two or three blocks? - from our apartment, which is so nice. It's very small, but also fairly cheap. It cost about 10 euros for food for the week, tissues, lots of water, and a notebook for school. So yeah. Very awesome. And since we're in charge of feeding ourselves, I don't explain to gain weight like I did in France. My host mom loved cooking food for 4 sons (which she has) but who, most of the time, were not living there. So Paul - who is 14 - and I had to eat it all. It was so hard and not appreciated. I loved the food, but the 10 pounds I was forced into was not so much fun. Now, when I'm not hungry, I can stop eating. Yay Germany! lol.
Don't get me wrong. I still love France and (for the most part) French culture, but the food thing was awful! Oh well. =) It's all lost again now, so it's all good.
....I don't know why I think you all care. Oh well! =D I shared it anyway.
Now, time to do some homework, go home and do the things I already said I was about to do.
Tschüss!
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