Hello from Berlin!

We have been here for a little over three weeks now, and the experience has been incredible. Now that the jet lag is long gone and our lives are becoming a bit more routine we can start looking back on everything that we have done and seen since we got here. The day after we arrived we were already on our way to school to begin the orientation week. Our first week of “school” was just a series of meetings, and syllabi reviews but it was intermingled with various tours around the city. We took a boat tour and a walking tour during our first weekend which really helped us get our bearings and showed us a little of what Berlin has to offer.

One of our favorite things about Germany is the food. Berlin is a melting pot of so many different cultures and with that comes the best food from each. Döner is a Berlin staple and it may be the greatest thing I have ever eaten. There are food stands everywhere here and not only is the food amazing but its cheap and quite a few stands are open all night.

Karl and I live with the same host family about an hour away from our school by public transportation. Having to take a train, the subway, and a bus to get to class every morning has been a very new experience. Everyone starts off the school day with a three hour german class from 9-12 every day. Afterwards Karl and I have two and a half hour long subject course in the afternoons on Monday and Thursday. We are taking Exploring Classical Music and Themes and Issues in Transatlantic Relations. Those classes only meet once a week and its kind of nice to get it all out of the way at once. There is no school on Friday’s with the exception of occasional field trips near Berlin. The three day weekends make it much easier to do long distance travel throughout Europe.

Karl and I live on the far west side of Berlin in a district called Charlottenburg. Our host parents’ names are Drago and Maria and they have two daughters who are already out of the house. They have been very understanding of our busy and chaotic schedule and love to help us practice our german around the house. They both speak english well and have taught us quite a bit of conversational german. As we get a little further into our german studies we are going to try to switch over to only german with our hosts but for now we’ll stick to a few words and phrases. We are both excited to see how far our german progresses over the course of the semester.

 

Karl and I haven’t ventured out of Berlin yet but we have some big travel ideas coming up in the following weeks so look for another blog soon!

Tschüss,

Henry