Weimar

I'm really getting quite behind, but luckily (aside from a presentation) nothing very important happened besides last weekend, so I can catch up. My photos do a good job recording most of the important things that I leave out of this blog.

Welcome to Weimar! (credit: Google Auto-Awesome)

This past weekend I traveled to Weimar for the second weekend trip with the university. The same bus driver with the same bus came to pick us up at the same place, but he took us somewhere completely different than the previous weekend: the city at the center of German culture. The bus ride was very fun, because I found some people that I at least recognized from either lunches or the previous weekend, and we easily started talking. It took about 4 hours to reach Weimar from Berlin, but I remember it passing quite quickly.

Göthe's statue inside an outdoor stage

Weimar is a small little town of 70,000 or so people. It is really quite amazing how small it is when you learn about how much German history has taken place in this town. We jumped off the bus and loaded our bags into the locker room of the hostel again (I had packed even less than last time, so I just kept my backpack) and then we headed off to the center of town, where we were going to meet our tour guides after a short break. 17 people who had bought tickets had decided not to show up, so we were a much smaller group. After a quick lunch at a restaurant on the central square (I didn't have the famous Thüringen Bratwurst, and I am going to be regretting that for a while), we met up with the tour guides.

Because the group was small enough, they were able to split the groups up into a German language group and an English language group. I happily chose the German side, and he immediately began telling us all about Göthe, the most famous of the people from Weimar. He then told us about Schiller, Beethoven, Nietzsche, and more while we walked through the city. It is a pretty beautiful city, and I enjoyed hearing all the tour in German (and understanding most of it), but the most obvious thing I noticed is that all of the most famous houses were yellow. I had a lot of fun, but that was the part that stuck out to me. We then had some ice cream (I had my first "Heiß und Eis" where they have ice cream with hot berries...it was great, but not as good as I remember. I'll keep trying) between the tour of the city and the tour of Göthe's house.

His house was FILLED with statues

Our second tour of the day was through the famous house and collections of Göthe. This was fun, but not very interesting to me. After the tour we went back to the youth hostel and checked in. Then a bunch of us went across the street to try to get some dinner or drinks (water for me). The drinks were there, but it turned out to be only a tapas bar. Still, the chairs were really comfortable and we were sitting around a huge round table, so I enjoyed it. We talked a bunch and I tasted some cheese that literally tasted like the way a cave smells. One of the more surprising things about the trip. After the biergarten, we trecked back into town in search of food. We ended up spending some time at a good Turkish place. Tired, we tredged back home (after laughing and talking for hours) and went to sleep.

Perfect weather for a concentration camp

The next day, we packed up and headed to the more depressing part of our trip: Buchenwald. The weather was perfect: drizzly and grey. I had been looking forward to getting the opportunity to visit a concentration camp. I have been very interesting in how all of this could possibly happen. This time I chose the English guide, in order to understand absolutely all of what was said. (Though I realized halfway through that I am about adept enough at German that I get about the same information: either the guide stumbles through English and I understand everything, although he can't convey everything perfectly; or I stumble through German, and I catch about the main points. It was a fun realization.)

The US Army showed up at 3:15 on April 11, 1945. The clock at the
entrance to the camp is stopped to that time

The guide was excellent. he made everything very real, and must have been an actor as well, because he was able to finish off his talks about different things very well. He even would re-enact some things regarding the camp, like calling the prisoners to the gate, which made a strong impression. He also imparted some special tidbits which were very interesting to know (for example: the name for a concentration camp in German is Konzentrationslage. Normally, when you abbreviate words in German, you take the two first letters of the word, so here K and L, and that is your abbreviation: Kl, and thus all of the official papers in the SS had Kl written on them. The Germans realized, however, that if they abbreviated it Kz for KonZentrationslage, it sounds much more evil. The way to say those two letters in German is "Ka-Tzet". Much more intimidating to the ear, and thus that was the abbreviation used for the populous.).

It looks creepy no matter how you see it

During our tour, we saw the layout of the camp, the crematorium, and a recreation of a place set up to exterminate Soviet soldiers. Buchenwald was just a labor camp, so there were no big extermination centers like at Auschwitz. The area was much less developed though, giving it the impression of being more real. Very very intense. I found it all very interesting, but it did take me some time to cheer up after leaving the place.

All in all, a great tour and a great trip. Less than two weeks left until the end of this term! Man does the time fly by.

Hamburg

Yes, this is a belated post, but I have had a lot to do this past week and haven't totally felt like sitting down to write about it.

The Bus

Last weekend we travelled to Hamburg. We rode in an absolutely beautiful bus which was all inclusive. There were wood floors between the seats, a bathroom, curtains, a button to make the seats a little wider apart if you wanted to...even a button to call an attendant for drink service (didn't work, sadly, but trying it was a nerve wracking experience). I sat next to Claire, a girl from my class, and behind Varun, another classmate. Claire, as I fully discovered through the eyes of this trip, is absolutely full of energy. Varun on the other hand, is practically silent. This made my Saturday very interesting and somewhat confusing. The bus left at 7:30, so I had to get up at about 6:15, which meant I was exhausted. I am not totally sure why it hit me so hard that weekend, but I was out for the count.

The bathroom was a little small

Nonetheless, I stayed awake throughout the car ride, and the rest of the day. We drove about 3 hours until stopping for a small break (mostly to buy food apparently, though many people used the bathrooms that you had to pay for instead of the one on the bus...I'm not totally sure why). We finally got to Hamburg at about 11-ish and unpacked our bags into the luggage room at the youth hostel so we could explore the city before the check-in time of 4:30.

We then walked to the middle of Hamburg to get our train passes and have some lunch. The chaperons had some trouble initially getting the train passes, so we went off to lunch first. Varun, Claire and I travelled around the square a bit looking for a good place to eat before choosing a fun Italian restaurant where you get a card when you enter and for each thing you get from the counters of chefs preparing your pasta in front of you, you hold your card up to a thing and they say what it is. After the ordering you go back to the cashier and pay. Very cool. I had some good pesto pasta.

Where we waited for the tour guide

We then went on a tour of the city. I wanted to do a German tour, but there weren't enough people who could speak good enough German to take a tour in it. The tour guide was great regardless. He was very funny and very approachable. We learned all about the city, the fire, and more. We ended by some docks and then headed back to the youth hostel to check in.

After checking in, Varun and I wanted to collapse in bed, but Claire's endless energy compelled us to go out to visit Michael's church. This is a very famous church in Hamburg, but sadly it was closed when we tried to get in. Varun and I were about ready to collapse, so we got some food (and he got some coffee) before deciding what to do next. We wanted to watch the Germany game, but we didn't want to stand the whole time or it be really loud. We found a fun place in a plaza to watch, but it was very loud. In the end we went to a café on the side of the plaza to watch. It got really cold and we headed inside to another tv.

After the game (which ended in a tie) we went back to the hostel to sleep. Claire was planning on waking up at 6 am the next morning to explore the town but both Varun and I opted out of that one.

The Queen Mary II is a big ship

After a great breakfast at the hostel, we went on a boat tour of the harbor. This was very very cool because there were many HUGE container ships (which made me think of Captain Phillips) and even the Queen Mary II was in the harbor. This is just a massive ship building, and ship holding area, and it was fun to experience. We even got to watch tug boats maneuvering a ship through the harbor.

The big ship and me!

After a long bus ride home, in which we watched "Easy A" and then got to see the GPS on the TVs somewhat like in an airplane, I collapsed into bed. I got a little sick on that trip, but I have since mostly recovered and just have to blow my nose every once in a while.

Hamburg and more

This past weekend I traveled to Hamburg. It was the first of two excursions I am doing this term, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing I would have changed was how early we left on Saturday, because I think that I would have enjoyed it even more with a little more sleep even if it meant sacrificing an hour of our 2 hour long lunch break.

I last wrote on Wednesday, so I have a lot to catch up on...

After school on Thursday, I watched a movie called "Soul Kitchen," which was about a man who owned a restaurant in Hamburg. I liked it more than the movie before, but not as much as the first movie. It was funny at parts and overall a good movie, in my opinion.

On Friday, I had a "Zwischenprüfung," or midterm. It was much more difficult than I had expected, and had some questions that I had absolutely no clue on (afterwards I found out that they went over those before I was in the class...so I don't feel too bad about that). It consisted of a listening element, where we listened to the news from the day before and answered some questions about it; a vocabulary element, which I considered pretty hard because some words were on there that I had no idea I was supposed to know; a grammar element, which I found pretty easy except for a conjunctions fill in the blank; a reading element about sleeping; and an essay element, where we were supposed to write 150 words about something. All of which in 90-100 minutes. Luckily I test quickly.

We received our grades on Monday, and I received a 77%, which while it was lower than I have ever gotten on a German test, I think it is also very representative of the amount of material I learned so far. I think learning almost 80% of the new material in 3 weeks of intensive class is good. I like the German grading system more because it is more representative of the amount you learned, and gives me a higher goal to attain. The American system makes it far too easy to get an A, in my opinion.

After school I had a meeting with the gym trainer, Sebastain, to check out how fit I am. After doing the test I am convinced they give bad grades to make people think they should come in. They measured height, weight, body fat, bike endurance, balance, strength, and flexibility. He was very serious about the whole thing, and had me make an appointment for Monday (yesterday) to create a fitness plan. While I was laughing over the judgement process, I was looking forward to getting a plan, as I expected some pretty intense elements to result from such harsh grading.

Sadly, I was disappointed. We made some random plan, not at all focusing on my goals for the summer (build endurance and continue to get faster). I will give it about one day's worth of effort then go back to the plan that Matt is making for us.

I was thinking about writing about Hamburg as well in this post, but I have lost the energy, and wouldn't be able to give it the recap it deserves. That will wait until likely tomorrow.

A Mauer Video

Later today (hopefully) I will write up a new post about my weekend in Hamburg, but first I wanted to share the video about the Berlin Wall that I really like because it has a computer generated depiction of all of the measures installed in the wall. I first saw this one in 2010, and then again when visiting the museum at Bernauer Straße. I am currently writing an essay about the wall, so I wanted to find it for myself, and happily I did!

Busy Days

Well, it has been a combination of busy days and the WM at night keeping me from updating this blog. Spain just lost to Chile in a very interesting game after the Netherlands beat Australia! Now Chile and the Netherlands are guaranteed in to the bracket play, while Spain has been eliminated. My host family is psyched about this because Christa is from the Netherlands.

I haven't written anything since Sunday, so there is much to catch up on!

The crowd was huge

On Monday we had class, but then directly afterwards we took off to Fanmeile to join the crowd watching the Germany v Portugal game. Fanmeile occurs on the street between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate. Basically the city sets up tons of huge TVs and lots of vendors show up, and tons of Germans watch the game there. It was a great atmosphere, and I picked some some fun Germany gear as well. Germany won, which made it even better, although I would have preferred a better game. They do this for every Germany group game, and every quarter, semi and final after that, so I will have another chance to go, if I want.

Half of the Deutsch-swag I got

On Tuesday after class, I went to practice with the ultimate team here, Wall City. On Tuesdays the second team (which I am "on") plays the first team. This was a ton of fun, and I played very well, though my quads tightened up and I stopped 2/3 of the way through the game because I didn't want to strain anything. We ended up winning the game, which I found very odd, seeing as that must imply the second team is about the same caliber as the first team. People were really trying to, so I am a bit confused about the team dynamic here. What was very fun was they actually use what is called the "German offense" (in the States) as a play...and it works great! I played very well the first couple of points until I put it a bit on the back burners because of my legs. Sadly I won't be able to play another game like this because I am not going to any of the tournaments. The team wants to keep these Tuesday practices for only full members of the team. I will still go on the Fridays when I can though.

Hamburger Bahnhof

Today we visited the Hamburger Bahnhof, which is a train station that has been converted into a modern art gallery. Now, I know that I am not much of an art person, but it is REALLY tough to know what is going on when you are looking at some of these pieces.

I spent 10 minutes with a classmate trying to figure out
if this was a chair or an art piece. Still don't know.

I mostly enjoyed the exhibits, though a couple really freaked me out. After the museum we went to a great Indonesian-Thai place and had a huge lunch for only about 6 Euros (although I added on some Guave nectar because it tastes amazing, so that brought me up to 11). After that I went to a fitness studio here and signed up for a 2 month contract. This was the only one that I could find that allowed me to do a contract less than one year, and they look good. They have some odd things going on though: As with all German fitness places, they have a sauna and shower that the people can use. HOWEVER, even though they have a sauna, it would cost me 10 euros more a month to use the TAP FOR WATER. It literally has a key that you need to use to use the tap. UNBELIEVABLE. I think they are including some personal training sessions and developing a plan with the price though, so all in all I really don't understand German fitness places. Very expensive, but very odd with what they are giving out.

This one was sort of cool, but the title was
"I think this was a pine tree." Artists are odd creatures

Friday is my  midterm, so I will be preparing for that tomorrow, but I am meeting with the fitness studio to do a physical (yeah, they wanted to do that too) after school on Friday, so that will be interesting. It is at 6, so depending on how long it takes, I might go to ultimate afterwards.

Another Day on the Town

After spending all of yesterday at home relaxing, I figured it was time to head out to the city again today. I am extremely sore from ultimate on Friday, so working out wasn't in the cards today, but a friend from high school, Charles, was in town for the weekend so I went to go meet up with him

I found the most gorgeous cemetery near my house

We met up at the Mauerpark Flea Market. He was hanging out with some other freinds from MIT, so we all started wandering around searching for food. Sadly we didn't spend much time looking at all of the goods, so I will need to go back for that, but we did get to see a pretty amazing sight: kareoke singing which goes on every Sunday and TONS of people were watching. It was pretty amazing juts how many people were watching, and how people were still going up with almost no skill and singing. It is one thing singing in front of a bar of 20, 10 of whom you probably know, but this was a crowd of 300-400! The first woman was great, but the next two weren't excellent. Props for trying though.

She sang Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machines

After that, I showed them the Mauer memorial that I raved about on Wednesday and then we headed over to the Tiergarten. I got a replica Germany jersey on the way so I can wear it tomorrow for their game against Portugal. The Tiergarten was relaxing, but the very exciting part was going up the Victory Tower. It turns out there is actually a museum inside of it, and for 3 euros (2.50 if you're a student), you can go in and also go up to the top of it. It has a spectacular view of Tiergarten and the Berlin skyline.

After this I headed home to rest and start the daily watching of the WM: France v Honduras

Language Classifications and Course Woes

So I was wondering about these language classifications such as B1 and B2, and why I had never heard of them, but it appears most everyone over here has. It turns out that they are the CEFR European Language Levels. There is a widely considered institution called Europass which can make CVs and "Passports" for people's "skills and qualifications to be clearly and easily understood in Europe". The language levels are methods of reporting how fluent someone is in a language, and is mostly a self assessment. I like how they have made it pretty objective so classes such as the ones I have been looking into at Humboldt University can say "Requirements are B2 fluency in English" or something like that. Feel free to self assess yourself if you have a foreign language under your belt. It is cool to compare across languages. Based on the self assessment, I think that I am:

• Listening Understanding: B1. We are working a lot with the TV news in our class, probably so we can get better at understanding it. I don't know enough vocab and I can't understand when they speak as fast as they do on the news currently, so I am definitely B1. I can understand the main points though, so I think B1 labels me to a T.
• Reading Understanding: B1. Again with the Vocab. If I understood more vocab, I could easily be B2. I have no problem following trains or thought in texts, but I just don't know enough vocab to be able to follow most literary prose.
• Spoken Interaction: B2. I think that I am able to converse with every day people as long as they speak slowly enough in return. I didn't think that I was this B2 but since having many conversations with my teacher, host parents and brother, and classmates, I think that I might be. The people yesterday at Ultimate didn't have much trouble understanding me either, though admittedly they use a lot of English words while playing. I think that my main trouble is loss of confidence when speaking with strangers, and when the other people speak too fast for me to be able to understand them.
• Spoken Production: B1. While I really want to think that I am B2, I have a lot of trouble coming up with the right helping verbs, or using the correct cases while talking. Often I have to go back to adjust which helping verb I used. The problem with German is it either takes a ton of preparation for each sentence or a ton of intuition. Since I don't have the intuition yet, it takes a ton of concentration and time for the preparation. I can see this getting better though, and hopefully it will be at B2 by the end of the 6 weeks.
• Writing: B2. My writing is definitely my strength. All of my instruction has been heavily focused on grammar, and while it takes me a little while to do it, I have always been complimented on it. I still can't easily select a "style" for the reader, as is the goal in C1, but I am able to clearly describe what I want, with varying sentence structure and transitional statements.
• Overall: B1. I think that my comprehension and speaking errors are holding me back to being a B1. Luckily, that will always improve with more and more integration. 

I am very ticked off that I won't be able to immerse myself in German the second term of the summer, as I am this term, because I think that would help me really progress to B2 if not C1, where I would love to be. I am very tempted to take a semi-intensive class or an intensive class next term, but the Hitler class is very very interesting to me.

The class, titled "Seduction and Terror: Hitler's Germany" sounds like such an opportunity to learn about how it was in and before WWII. This is one of the reasons I chose to learn German, to hear just what he said and how he became such a powerful leader while using such inhumane tactics. He must have just been a ridiculously charismatic and powerful speaker.

This Hitler course is an "A-track" course, so it runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, which means I would have to pair a "B-track" course with it. This worked perfectly because the German speaking course was a B-track course, but now that it is cancelled it is very inconvenient. The semi-intensive courses are also A-track courses, so I can't double up with that, as I would prefer. If I decide I wan't the language instruction more than the Hitler course and switch so I have a semi-intensive course, then I might as well just do another intensive language course, because none of the B-track courses sound more interesting to me than more language classes (especially if I can manage to have this teacher again. He is spectacular). So, I am faced with a quandry. I am going to look into other universities to see if they have Tuesday/Friday courses taught in German (which seems unlikely to me, but what do I know?), but I will be faced with a tough choice this week for sure. The course offerings are here, in case you feel like offering any advice.

The End of the Second Week

A fairly uneventful couple of days followed the awesome Mauer day. Yesterday I watched some of the first WM game (World Cup...its just easier to say WM for Weltmeistershaft).

Today I had my first practice with the German ultimate team. They are nice, and about the same level as the Inception B team I was on last summer. I will be able to practice on Fridays, but not Tuesdays unless I plan on going to a tournament with them. They are very unorganized while playing, but they have some fairly good players. It is enough to play with them, but it would be nice to play with the better team if I could. I don't think they have "practice players" here, so I will just have to make do.

The German speaking course I was planning on taking next semester got cancelled due to low enrollment (which is strange as it is the ONLY German speaking course offered). So, annoyingly, I have to choose a different course to take. I think that I might not be able to a minor in German now, but that isn't so bad because I will still have the certificate. Very annoying, but it's fine.

I'm quite tired, so I might come up with more to say later, but that's all for now!

The Berliner Mauer

Well, yesterday turned out to be the first day I didn't post, and it was because the picture below summed up about all of the interesting things that happened to me yesterday.

This dude is in the U-bahn station about once a week playing a saw

But today was the best day yet in the city. Every Wednesday (except the first and last ones), our class will be making an "excursion" out into the city. Basically a field trip. Today was the first one, and boy was it awesome. We went to the memorial for the Berlin Wall on Bernauer str. My day started out a bit tough because the S42 (which runs in a counterclockwise ring around the city) was stopped up for some reason. The train arrived...then someone said something over the loud speakers that I didn't catch...then people started getting off. I was planning on getting to the start of our excursion 15 minutes early, but that time gap quickly evaporated as I went down to the U-bahn station, then rode it somewhere, then got onto another one, then on an S-bahn. I got there just before 10, 15 minutes after we were supposed to meet and 30 minutes after I was planning on arriving, but luckily still before the movie started. My teacher didn't mind.

We watched two films about the Mauer. The first was more about the history of the wall, and what it was like living inside the wall. The second was a digital reconstruction of the wall and all of the measures used to keep the people in. I remembered the second video from watching it Junior year in high school, and liked it very much. I was also glad that I watched a YouTube video of the Modern Marvel's episode on the wall, because I knew a lot about the generations that it had gone through. After the videos, we exited the main building and went to the Bernauer straße memorial. 

The gaps in the wall were filled with these stakes...also disconcerting

This memorial ran along Bernauer str., one of the most famous streets due to the fact that some apartment buildings were right next to the wall when it first went up, and people used them to jump to the west until the Soviets bricked up all the windows and evicted the residents. The memorial is about 1 km long, and includes the spot where a church was in the middle of the Death Strip (the grass you see above is the Death Strip between the two walls) until it was destroyed by the Soviets to make escaping less possible.

A cool map of the area

Being this close to such recent history was really impressive. This was easily the most intense thing I have seen here, and it really was a feat of engineering that made this wall so effective. It is unbelievable that a country, in order to keep its people in, actually constructed a WALL around its entire border, and in the most popular place to cross made it nearly impenetrable.

At one end of the memorial was a preserved section of the wall, including a watch tower, death strip, both walls (3rd and 4th generation) and the posts where the electric barbed wire was. That was the most powerful thing for me. It was just so impenetrable. And so real. So crazy.

You could see it through the far wall, and above the wall. The side of the memorial was slightly reflective giving the impression of an infinite wall in both directions

After the wall, we went to a cafe on a nearby street and had some great German food. It rained some, but that didn't effect us much because we were under a very large umbrella. Mavia had to charge her wheelchair a bit, so we hung out there waiting for the rain to pass.

The Intensiv B2 class: (left to right) Varun, Melissa, Claire, Xiner, Helena, Mavia,
Georg (the professor), Cam, Nick, Logan

After the rain and a short ice cream break, we went to the East Side Gallery. It is a just longer than 1 km long section of the wall that has been painted by many professional and amateur artists. This was a very interesting exhibition of paint and freedom, with many iconic photos and paintings. 

Many awesome works of art. I took pictures of a few of them.

After the wall, the excursion ended, but Xiner and I decided to visit the Stasi museum. It was located in the actual office of the chief of the Stasi (Erich Mielke). For me it was mostly very interesting to see all of the spy gadgets they had engineered. It was amazing how much they could do with some very small cameras.

Including a trashcan camera!

I finally made it back home and collapsed. My legs were spent, and my stored up happiness too. Time to recharge for another day of school tomorrow. On Sunday, I am going to go on the official FUBiS Wall Tour, so I am excited to see what else I can learn while on that!

Many pictures have been placed in my album, the link to which is now located on the side of the blog at the top.

The Beginning of the Second Week

The hot streak continued today while I had one of the quietest days yet. It seemed like the entire city was sleeping, especially at the time I was going to school. It was somewhat eerie to have the halls of the school completely empty while we had class, but none-the-less we endured. We got some fans to help air out the room a bit, but even with them, it was pretty hot. AC is not a common thing in Europe, so we had to just deal with an open window.

The most exciting thing that happened today was getting to have a chocolate tasting in class today. On Friday, we heard a presentation about Ritter Sport chocolate...a famous chocolate maker that is based in Berlin. This made us all want chocolate so much I proposed a tasting. I had brought some Boulder Chocolove chocolate as a part of the large assortment of items I could give to my host family, so I figured I could use it instead in class. We had a large tasting with 8 different chocolates, and started ranking them according to our favorites.

I organized mine to make the ranking easier

The boulder Raspberry-dark chocolate won, but it was closely followed by the Orange and the Iced Coffee flavors.

"Chocolate-tasting-world-championships"

After this contest we were very full and contented while we watched the news and a part of a 24-hour documentary on Berlin. We also watched Rhabarberbarbara (A video over how insane the German language can get by combining words...the title means "Rhubarb Barbara")

A Very Hot Sunday

Today was a very hot day. It probably reached 95 or so, with a decent amount of humidity. Despite that, I was out and about most of the day.

Including riding in the top of a double-decker bus! Another first

I woke up somewhat late today, and worked a bit on some homework before departing a bit early for the planned excursion to the Reichstag builing. I didn't totally know where the entrance was, so I made sure to get there 20 minutes early just in case. Because I got there so early, I had a chance to look around that area a bit, and saw a line of bricks representing where the Berlin Wall ran. Being so right on top of all of this history I have learned about is really something else. It really hits home, but also seems not quite as important in a way. It is weird how used to this history the people here must have become, because they don't acknowledge it as much as I feel like I do.

The path of the wall

We then lined up and visited the Reichstag building, the equivalent of the German Capitol Hill. It is interesting because the outside is so old, yet the inside has all been renovated after 1990, so it is incredibly new. They took away my Frisbee, saying I could have it back after the trip, which was a bit of a let down. We then listened to a woman talk about the parliament and how it works and such before heading up to the top of the building to look at the dome. It was a pretty spectacular view of the city, and the dome was nice, but we didn't stay for very long because it was like an oven. The heat was incredibly intense up there, especially inside the dome, so we headed down after only about 15 minutes of sightseeing.

Hot, but it had a great view

A large group of us then took off to find Karneval des Kultures. This is a massive street festival that takes place in Kreuzberg. It was HUGE. Tons of people and tons of music and stands. After wandering around it for a long time (and ingesting a couple of ice creams to save myself from heat stroke), we headed back home. This was a very long day, and very hot, but it was fun meeting people and seeing even more of the city. I now need to go look up more and more things about the Berlin wall, because it is so hard to imagine it running through this city.

The packed streets of Karneval

A Lazy Saturday

Today was a nice relaxing day. I woke up late and then had some good breakfast cereal. Then I went by S-bahn and U-bahn to the BUM, or Berlin Ultimate Mitte. It is a beach tournament that goes on in the middle of Berlin. The team I hope to be playing with this summer played in it, so I wanted both to see them and to see some ultimate. I had a lot of fun watching, and really wanted to play. There were soo many German national team jerseys there. I am sure by the end of the summer I will figure out a way to get one of their jerseys or shorts. I need one so badly.

One of the fields

I didn't do very much other than that, besides eating a Brat. Short post today, I know, but it was a fairly uneventful and relaxing day. I made some minor changes to the blog to include a calendar of what I am doing here and the link to the photos.

It was a good brat at that, though rather hot

The End of the First Week of School

This post is a bit all over the place, because I haven't done many concrete things in any certain order...

Well the first week is done. It went by extremely quickly. I love this class because it is never boring. He avoids large grammar sections, and we never work alone. The little we talked about grammar today was done as a group. Since there are only 10 people in the class, it makes it very easy to do so.

Today we had our first presentation. Some people were better than others (I was definitely not the best, but not the worst either). He let us freely choose our topics, so there was a pretty diverse selection. I spoke about how environmental Boulder is compared to Berlin. My point was that in Boulder we care a bit more about the trash we make (Das Abfall...which reminds me we should change the Oktoberfest signs to Müll if we haven't already), but Europe is much more concerned with energy conservation. I had done an essay on it last semester, so I knew many of the words (this is the reason I chose it), but it was still difficult to talk about continually. Other people talked about history, architecture, locations, food and more. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

This weekend is Karneval, so every German in the city has Monday off...except us. My host family is off to the Czech Republic for the weekend, and all the shops will be closed on Sunday and Monday, but not us. There will be one door open at the FU, and the Mensa (cafeteria) won't be open. I must remember to get some lunch food tomorrow at some supermarket because I won't be able to eat anything else.

I walked with Mavia back to Dahlem-Dorf for the U-bahn after class. I thoroughly enjoy talking with her because it has to be done completely in German, but she is also a foreign student to Germany, so she can understand my difficulties (and has some of her own). With American students I can cop out and explain something in English, so it is fun to do everything in German. Hopefully when I meet some ultimate players, I can also do this. She also speaks slowly with words that I know, so it isn't too difficult to understand (because those are the words that she knows as well!). I talked to her a bit about her wheelchair because she wasn't in class this morning due to a drained battery. The battery can last about 2 days of normal use, she said, which I am impressed with. If I was her, I would charge during class...so maybe it requires more than just a cable. She can go about as fast as a jog, too, so she doesn't have trouble keeping up with anyone. She is very happy to have an electronic chair because in Peru there are only manual ones, and she would get very tired if she had to roll everywhere herself. The U-bahn seems very accomodating, and the driver went and got a ramp so she could get on (because at the old stations the train is not flush with the platform).

This weekend I am looking forward to seeing the BUM (Berlin Ultimate Mitte) which is a large beach ultimate tournament that occurs in the middle of the city. Wall City, the team I am hoping to play with, is seeded 3rd in the tournament, so I hope to see them play. I am also looking forward to seeing the Reichstag building on Sunday, and hopefully finding somewhere to celebrate Karneval. It is pretty cool that we get to celebrate both Karneval and the WM (world cup) while I am here. I just wish I knew a group of people with whom I could go. I now know a lot of people but don't have any method of contacting them.

I am going to work on commenting a lot of photos on the album, so that it is a little bit more explanatory.

The End of the First Week

It's hard to believe it is only been a week, but I left at about this time on Thursday last week (left from my house that is...). So far so good!

Today I woke up to a cloudy morning, but the temperature remained the same: 60. After having their version of Raisin Bran (basically raisin oats...and possibly homemade), I stepped outside to see the ground slightly damp. I turned around and grabbed my rain coat (Regenmantel), thinking - as Coloradan's do - that there would be more rain later in the day. There may have been one or two slight drops on the way to the S-bahn and U-bahn, but other than that I needn't have brought it. The rest of the day was like all the rest of the days so far, sunny and 65ish. I love this weather.

I really enjoy this German class. The teacher is very friendly and is willing to change the topic of conversation based on what comes up. This means that we can have some great conversations. We have  almost not (fast nichts) focused on Grammer at all. It is purely a speaking course, which is spectacular for me. I have my grammar down pat, and I can at least correct myself when I say something incorrectly, so the intensive conversation class is perfect.

I met Mavia, a student from Peru, today at lunchtime. She speaks only Spanish and German (though she says she understands most English...she just can't remember how to speak it after learning German). This is wonderful because it means all of us have to practice our German with her, because she can't converse with us in English. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with her and learning all about what she is doing here. She has been here for three months, and as far as I can tell, knew almost no German before coming here. She has been taking German courses for only three months, and to me sounds almost fluent. I am very impressed with her and I like that she was able to improve that much in just three months. I am also impressed because she is in a motorized wheelchair, and yet she still has come to a different country. I believe she is a GI doctor, and is taking a break after working for a couple of years. I got a little lost in that part of the conversation so I am not super sure.

 I am going to be here for almost three months, so I can see that being really good for me. In fact even now I can feel some German rolling off the tongue easier. I definitely am understanding more and more every day. I can converse almost completely in German with people who are also learning the language (Fremdsprachler). I find it more difficult to converse with native speakers...maybe because I am intimidated or embarrassed. It is getting better and better though, the more I talk with my host family and classmates.

After lunch we had some more class, including going over the news again. This was again very informative. The projector's fan broke, but he played the audio and then went over it with us again. He is so patient it's amazing. We spent probably about 20 minutes on 5 or so sentences, because he would make sure that we understood each word before moving on (because he only explains it in German, it can take some time, but it is very good for us to learn). He also spent some time going over idioms or connotations associated with words or phrases. It is very interesting to learn about, and it is also a good way to get introduced to the news.

Everyone here is much more interested in the news than in America. The two state-funded channels (channel 1 and 2) broadcast 15 minutes of uninterrupted news in the evening. Channel 1 broadcasts (senden) from 8 - 8:15 and channel 2 broadcasts from 9:45 - 10. We watch even more abbreviated versions in class, which are condensed to 100 seconds. Today we listened to a broadcast by Deutsche Welle which has slower speaking than normal. It also has the transcript written out. This is probably one of my favorite parts of the day.

After class a few of us stuck around to see the first film, Fack Ju Göhte (F*** You Shakespeare). Every Thursday, FUBiS is going to put on a German film with English subtitles. This is was, in a word, hilarious. It was about a criminal who discovers that his friend buried the money he had before going to prison in a plot which later became a school. He gets a job as a teacher at the school so he can dig for the money. He uses very unconventional methods (including a paintball gun and taking the kids on a field trip to a crack house) to get a handle on the crazy kids. It was one of the funniest movies I had seen, though mom certainly wouldn't have liked the language in it.

I then came home to a wonderful South African meal (very Indian though, with curry and yellow rice) with Sebastian (the last kid I hadn't met) and his girlfriend. The sun is setting (sunset lasts for about 3 hours here...from 6-9ish) and the birds are chirping. I have to prepare a Refarat, or speech, for tomorrow. I am going to talk about the differences in how we take care of the environment in Boulder and in Germany.

First Day of Intensiv B2

Well, today was a whirlwind of activity but I thoroughly enjoyed it all. On my travels I seem to have taken almost 200 pictures today, which I find somewhat impressive given that I was only tourist-ing for 5 hours or so. I suppose that is more than I have previously though, so I can see why I took so many. I think that I might start editing out the lesser pictures from my album when I have the time, because I can see it growing very quickly. I will start with old photos though, because I like you all seeing all of my new ones...even the ones that aren't completely in focus.

The Berlin Cathedral, one of the many photos taken today.

My day started a little bit earlier than yesterday. I got up at 7:45 this morning because I had to leave a little bit earlier for class. My new class is on the main campus of the FU, right next to the big library. It takes me about half an hour to get there from my house. (It is a bummer that you can only see the map on the link I give you. On the app on my phone, you can replay the trip on google earth, which zooms you across the land. It offers a really interesting perspective of your walk, because you usually can see over the trees with Google earth. I believe if you download the file and have Google Earth on your computer, you can open it up in there and see what I mean. I don't have it on my computer, so I can't try it out first. If someone does try this and it works, let me know, because that would be very cool).

Luckily the people in my new class were very nice before the teacher came in, and he was just as nice. He was one of the ones who interviewed me on Monday, which made me think he thought I shouldn't be in the class. I spent the first bit of the class trying to prove that I should be there, and I believe that I know a similar amount to others in the class. This one will be challenging and I believe that I will learn a lot.

I really liked the class because we had a lot of conversation, and I don't believe the teacher even speaks English. We have students from India, China and Peru in the class as well, which is very interesting. We learned a lot in the first part of the day, and then a small group of us went to Dahlem-Dorf for lunch. I didn't want to go to the Mensa again, so I was a strong supporter of that decision. I also seemed to be the only person who knew how to get around, so they used me for my directions. I had some schnitzel in bread, which was very good. I also tried a new soda, which is a mixture of Fanta and Coke, and thought it was good.

My lunch with Cam and Xiner (I think thats how you spell it) in the background

We then had class for the second part of the day, which included going through the news segment produced by the government. I really enjoyed this because we could go sentence by sentence through the news and understand what they were saying (the teacher helped us with many of the words). I hope that we do that a lot more often.

Uncomfortably anatomically correct benches (?) at Dahlem-Dorf

After class a small group of us decided to be tourists before the river boat tour in the evening. Xiner (again, not sure if that is how you spell the name) and two others, whose names I have already forgotten (this is rough) joined me in taking the U-bahn all the way to Potsdamer Platz, where we got out so we could explore the Brandenburger Tor. We wandered around for a while, stopping in one tourist shop to get some postcards, and and then hopped on a bus to go to Alexanderplatz, which is near where we were going to meet up with the boat. After walking around the area for a bit (and getting some ice cream), we headed over to the boat.

Ein Erdbeerbecher (cup of strawberries and ice cream)

After navigating around some construction (they are building another U-Bahn line, the first to East Berlin), we got on the boat which was going to take us around the Spree river, which runs through the heart of Berlin. I was very excited for this, because I have been here almost a week and have done very little sight-seeing. I was not disappointed, because we traveled past many many beautiful buildings, such as the Berlin cathedral, museum island, the Reichstag building (which I get to tour on Sunday, including a trip around the dome on top), and many more.The boat tour lasted about an hour, but we saw many awesome buildings. After the tour we went to a burrito place near Alexander Platz and ate some pretty good burritos. The whole restaurant was San Francisco themed, which was odd. I really wanted to eat some Brats, but the rest of the group wanted to go to the burrito place. I will get my brats eventually.

Museum Island

Reichstag building

I have taken a TON of photos, and you can find them here. Just let me know if you don't know what something is and I will figure it out. As always the location data is shared, so you can see where I took all of those pictures. The light was perfect from the west, because they have a sunset that lasts from about 6 to 9 (the sun sets at about 9:15 to 9:30). Sadly, most buildings and statues are best viewed from the East, so the pictures were darker than I wished.

The First Day of Intensiv B1

I woke up at 8 to a cloudy but still warm morning. I had another delicious breakfast of bread with butter and cherry marmalade (I only know how to spell that word in German, apparently). I then took the S- and U-bahns to get to Brentanostr. for my first day of school. The link is to the map of my route. I discovered the train travels at 50 mi/hr almost exactly. Sadly I don't believe speed to be in the information presented online. The straight line from Heidelberger Platz to Breitenbach Platz is when I was travelling by U-bahn. You can somewhat see the actual track to the right of the straight line.

 We started immediately with instruction but much to my dismay it was all stuff I knew before: Perfekt, the past participle. I settled in hoping new information would be presented. I enjoyed talking with the instructor and the people in the class, and we had some fun games and such that made the class fun. We were in class from 9 to 10:30, and then had a half hour break. Not having anything to do, I caught up on email and then talked with some classmates. We then had class from 11:00 to 12:30 and another break from 12:30 to 2. During the break I went with some other classmates to the Mensa, or cafeteria, on the main campus of FU. It is quite a trip, and I don't believe the food nor prices were worth it. It was good meeting more people though.

After our 2-3:30 session (our last of the day) I talked with the teacher. We had received back our essays, and I had gotten a ++ grade, which further confirmed my suspicions that I should be in the next level up. I'm positive I got placed at the lower level because I can't speak the language very well, but I went to her to check. She agreed that I could try the B2 class and took me to see another man. This man repetedly warned me (in very fast and (to me) unintelligible German) that it would be difficult and that even though I am switching books, if it is too hard I can drop back down to B1. I agreed and got my new book and got told of my new classroom, which turned out to be on the FU campus, almost a mile away.

My ++. Almost no problems with it!

I decided to set off to see where that classroom was before having to find it early tomorrow morning. The paper originally said it was on "Grundstock." or the ground floor, but the teacher said basement. I searched all over the building's basement without luck and then went to the FUBiS office for help. After kindly offering to excort me there, the woman there just showed me a map of how to get there. It turns out it was on the ground floor, as originally wirtten, and that the "29" in the name dealt with the Straße involved. All the pieces of the puzzle connected and I thanked her for the help. It turns out they label their hallways like streets, and have addresses like my classroom: 29/135 which means Straße 29, nummer 135. I found the classroom and am prepared to find it tomorrow. Sadly, it takes 10 more minutes to get to there than the last place, so I will probably have to wake (aufwachen...another word that I relearned today. Participle is ist aufgewacht) a little earlier.

I am slightly nervous about once again getting a new class with new people in a new building, when I was close to making friends with many people in the last building. I'm sure that with tomorrow's Spree river boat tour (which I have been convinced was happening since Monday...and was wrong every time) and the movie on Thursday, I will have plenty of time to meet many more people. I am really looking forward to exploring the city of Berlin, and can't wait to meet people so I can go with them and explore after class. Hopefully the homework won't be insane.

We had a good dinner with pork and potatoes and white asparagus (der Spargel...what a weird word), grown by a friend of the Bäckle's and freshly picked. The asparagus were litterally covered with a mixture made from butter and breadcrumbs...that's it. Sounds like mom's dream, but it actually was somewhat stomach-upsetting. I sadly couldn't finish the veggies, but I enjoyed the rest of the meal!

Pork, potatoes and asparagus.

Interviews and Exploring - Day 1 of School

Today was the first official day of classes. Being here it hasn't really sunk in that I actually will be expected to do school work, but I am glad that there is something to fill the day or else I would likely become very bored. Since I am taking an intensive language class, the first day was filled with first an interview and then waiting to see how we spoke during the interview. I didn't worry about this much because all of the subjects I am taking are just bonuses, so I wouldn't mind if I got put in a lower class.

A relaxing breakfast

My schedule said to arrive by 9:45, so I left my apartment at 9 after a nice breakfast of fresh cherry marmalade and butter on bread. I was getting off at a different U-Bahn stop than yesterday, so I wanted to make sure to be early.

The new station

It took me half an hour to get there, which will shorten slightly with practice, and I waited with the other students to get called. They eventually called me at 10:30 (not the most punctual) and I talked to two teachers about my life a bit in German. I was quite happy with how I did, and went back to wait for the tour of the campus to begin at 10:50.

I was happy that a kid that I met yesterday, Ramsi, also had his interview at about the same time so he would be on the same tour group as I was. You can find the map of my tour here. I have started using "My Tracks" so I can see where I go during some explorations, and I have been very happy with it so far. The tour really went form Bentanostr 52, where my class is, to the main office of FUBiS and the cafeteria. I then headed off with three other students, Ramsi, Amanda and Lea (I am fairly sure about their names) to get lunch. We exited through the opposite door than we were planning to, so it took some figuring out to get close to resaraunts. We ended up eating at a döner place right outside of the Dahlem-Dorf station. I had some amazing schnitzel. This is where the map linked above ends.

The schnitzel

After lunch we explored a bit near the Bentanostr. classrooms, and then went back to the buildings. It was there that I discovered that I had been selected for Intensiv B1, which I believe is what I expected. We had a small bit of class and then I came back home. I was under the impression the river boat tour was going to be today, not tomorrow, so my host mother currently believes I wont be home for dinner. Hopefully she will be all right with the change of plans.

More photos can be seen here.

Orientation

Today was Orientation Day. It started at 2 o'clock, so I had plenty of relaxing time in the morning. The Bräckle family makes their own granola, so we had some of that for breakfast with some fruit. It was another amazing 60 degree sunny day. The temperature varies by at most 15 degrees throughout the whole 24 hour day, and the sun as so far never not shone. I believe some rain is on the way the next couple of days, which will be a bummer.

The silent street-car

I rode the Straßenbahn for the first time today, and I must say I was very impressed. The cars were perfectly oiled, didn't shake in the slightest, were perfectly clean, smelled good, and were very punctual. The U-Bahn stations were gorgeous, and I felt like I was in a fairy tale walking into the ones near the university.

Where are the hobbits?

I got on the Straßenbahn at Innsbrucker Platz, which is only a 5 minute walk from my apartment. The trains travel in a circle around the city, so I chose the clockwise-headed S45 to get on. I got off two stops later at Heidelberger Platz, which is a station that serves both the S-bahn and the U-bahn. I went down into a glorious subway station, which was very elaborately decorated.

Only a little piece of the Heidelberger Platz station

I rode this similarly silent car to Dahlem-Dorf, which is the station I showed above. This is at the northwest end of the FU-Berlin campus (which is really spread out over a VERY large area). I could have gotten off at the next stop and had a shorter walk, but I was early and wanted to see the area.

Pictured: a befuddling house

It turns out it is a gorgeous area with some really interesting houses and a lot of trees. The university is a mix of very modern with very old, which I like. Some of the houses were befuddling and others looked like quaint little family homes. After about a 15 minute walk, I arrived at the Rost- und Silberlaube, where the meeting was held. The buildings are so named because they are rust and silver colored...a very interesting mix in the middle of middle earth.

Rost- und Silberlaube

The orientation was fine, and we had some spätzle, but mostly uneventful. I have an interview tomorrow morning to determine what class I should be in for the first six weeks of language instruction.

We got a fun satchel for school though!

I came home to Christa cooking some fresh cherry marmalade (frische Kierschemarmelade) with the cherries Thomas picked yesterday. She has a lot of jars of it, so I am very excited to eat them during our coming breakfasts.

My breakfast being cooked by my host mom

As always, there are more photos in my Google album, here