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.