Final days in Berlin

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By the time I am writing this blog, I have exactly two weeks left in Germany. I am a weird mixture of so excited to go home and incredibly sad that I am going to be leaving Germany. I am rushing to do all the last-minute things I want to do one last time before I leave. I am going to monuments, having picnics in parks and beaches, and eating a ton of Döner. There is so much I am going to bring with me back to America. The thing I am the most proud of is how much more confident I have become with my German and how independent of a person I have become. Spending 12 hours a week in a classroom speaking just German every week has most definitely improved my confidence in speaking German. I’ve also written more in German than I have ever before, which has definitely made it much easier for me to process what I want to say in German. I am also much more independent because I did some solo traveling. I went to Salzburg, Austria, and Paris, so I have definitely put myself out there and made some great memories because of that. If I could do something differently, I would have definitely explored more of Germany itself. I 100% want to come back and go to a bunch of different places in Germany. I would have also put myself out there more with the German students. They kept the study-abroad students extremely separated from the normal German students, so I wish I would have put myself out there to make some German friends. There are a lot of things I want to incorporate into my life back in America. I don’t think I can give up German breakfasts. The meat and cheese and bread are great and way better than my previous habit of just eating sugary foods for breakfast. Traveling around different countries has also made me realize that there is so much in the United States that I have never seen. People would mention so many cities in the U.S. and ask me what they are like there, and all I could say was I didn’t know because I’ve never been there. I’ve gone to a handful of states in the U.S., but I haven’t really been to the places I really want to go to, and there isn’t really any good reason as to why not. When people hear of all the places you have to go to in your life, they are almost all in Europe, but there is so much back at home that I have never seen. I have never seen the mountains in Colorado or Montana or been to so many places with beautiful nature. I want to do much more exploring and see new places in the U.S. I am extremely thankful for my time in Germany, though. I am so grateful for the friends I made and the memories I now have. Making friends in an environment that could feel really hostile in the beginning at times was a huge worry of mine. I’m so glad God blessed me with the friends I made, so I could really make the most out of this experience. I’m also glad that I had a semester to relax and not be quite as busy as I normally would be. And let’s be honest, being able to listen to Netflix in German was super cool! I think it was an enormous blessing to have a host that spoke Spanish because it made the beginning of being in Germany much easier to adjust to. It also enabled me almost never to speak English with my host. The advice I would give to future semester abroad students would be to be ready to put yourself out there. Being in a place where there is a language barrier is extremely difficult, but the more you step outside your comfort zone, the more you will learn. I’ve learned so much while I have been in Germany, and I would love for others to have a great experience or even better than I did!

Picture 1: This is my first sight of the Eiffel Tower in Person.

Picture 2: This is a picture from Austria of the Alps. (The hills were alive with the sound of music!)

Picture 3: These are five people I spontaneously met in Paris and spent the day with!

Halfway Done and Not Ready to Leave

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I just made it through midterms. My Art and Dictatorship Exam went well, and my German exam was pretty good. I am finding my listening comprehension to be a repeating difficulty. There are many words I still do not know, so it makes it difficult to understand. I talk much more German with my host now, but I only see her for an hour or two each day, so there is not much time to talk. So far, I think my experience in Germany has been great. In the beginning, there were a lot of ups and downs, but I think I have found a good place here. I miss MLC a lot, but I’m trying to really focus on and appreciate my time here. I feel a weird mixture of my time here is going slow, but it is also going really fast. I only have 62 days left, and I feel like I still have so much to learn. I have been focusing on being intentional about putting myself outside my comfort zone so that I can learn as much as possible. This is easy to do, though, because of the language barrier. I had many goals about improving my German and working on my faith while I am in Berlin. I think I have learned to be patient with myself. It takes time to improve in learning a language. It also takes a lot of faith to stand firm when you are put into an environment where you are different from others. My faith has definitely grown substantially since arriving here. I have been able to go to a church here, and I really like it. I’m sad that I won’t be able to go to it this Sunday, because I am on a class trip to Köln (Cologne), Germany. I have become friends with a Ukrainian refugee and her children, who go to the same church. I read the Bible on the way to school every day, and sometimes on the way back too. The 45-minute commute has made this incredibly easy.
In the second half of my time here, I want to speak more German with my friends. We all have varying levels of German, but I think it would be fun, and we would all get practice. I have also decided that I will go through some of the German materials I have from an online book from my German classes at MLC. So far, we have mostly just talked about grammar topics, I know, and I want to keep moving forward. I also want to ask more questions. By nature, I really like to listen to others talk, but as long as I’m here, and I have native Germans around me, I should take this opportunity to ask as many questions as I can.
While I’ve been here, I have definitely improved my confidence to speak German. I don’t think I’ll fully realize how much I’ve improved until I come back to my German classes at MLC. I have definitely become comfortable with parts of German culture. The most notable one would be the kind of community view of life in contrast to the focus on individuality in the U.S. It is really nice to be in a place where there is a lot of care for others around you. I also love the diversity of different cultures here. Most people here can speak three languages with varying proficiency, and knowing Spanish has made me feel like I fit in even more. Something that has surprised me is how attached I am becoming to Germany. I definitely do not want this opportunity to be the last time I am here. I am writing this on my class trip to another area of Germany, and I am really excited to be outside of Berlin. I hope to come back to Germany one day, and hopefully, next time, I won’t be alone!

Image 1: This is some friends going to an opera.

Image 2: This is the water that makes Museum Island.

Image 3: This picture is of my friends and I at Tempelhof Park, continuing to work on our slack lining.

Celebrations In Berlin!

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Today is International Women’s Day, so in Berlin, many stores are closed and no one has school. It feels like a Sunday because on Sundays almost everything is closed. On Sundays, most people stay at home, but today there were a ton of people out and about. I followed suit and did not spend the day inside my apartment. The sun was shining and my friends and I went to have a picnic in Mauerpark! Yesterday, we all went to Edeka to buy food, and today we met up to eat, listen to music and attempt to slack line. A lot of people at my university went to women’s marches and protests, and we talked a little bit about International Women’s Day in classes, but for me, it was a day of relaxation. I got to the park early and read and journaled. I am currently following a read the Bible in a year plan, so I read ahead on that. It was warm enough to not wear a jacket, and the park was packed with people of all ages. Most people drank and smoked, but that is very typical for a chill day in Berlin. There was even someone walking up and down the groups of people selling beer out of a box like they do in ballparks in the U.S., which I found to be hilarious. My friends and I ate fresh baked bread and croissants from bakeries with an array of different spreads, and we ate fruit as well. I like to think bread and sugar makes everyone happy. After that, we all sprawled out in the sun on the grass. When we finally were able to move, we ate a cake out of a tin that my friend, Becca, won in class, and then we packed up and went to find trees to set up Seth’s slack line. I found out that I am horrible, but I am now determined to get better. After the sunset, and it became cold, we all headed back to the S-Bahn station and parted ways. 

Today isn’t the only celebration this week. My birthday is also tomorrow! I am really excited to have my birthday here. I think it will be pretty chill. My host says I should go to a club because they are now open, but I don’t think that is going to happen. My friends might go just once some time to see what it is like, but I don’t think I will because I know it’s not going to be my scene, and I’ll want to go home early. I think this weekend, my friends and I are going to either each buy a bottle of wine and try them together while watching a movie or the Great British Baking Show, or we are going to go out to eat either Döner or Currywurst and then go to a bar we really like called Que Pasa. I think I am also going to buy an apricot pavlova from a bakery near my house as my birthday cake. I sadly have a test tomorrow, but hopefully, it will go well. My plans tomorrow are to call a bunch of my friends and family, so my evening will be very busy because of the seven-hour time difference. I really like celebrating things in Berlin, because it feels like there is a lot that you can do. I can’t wait to celebrate Easter here. I think it is really fun to see the differences in how Americans celebrate versus Germans.

Image 1- This is the currywurst we had for Jada’s birthday, two weeks before mine.

Image 2- This was the picnic we ate at Mauerpark.

Image 3- This is all of us enjoying the day and the food at Mauerpark.

Balancing Life and School

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Academics and university life is much different in Germany than in America. I am currently taking two classes from MLC and two from FU-BEST. The ones I am taking here are Intensive German B2/B3 and Art and Dictatorship. There are not many classes targeted towards teaching because many of the students are going into Economics, Law, Political Science, or Art. Even though I am not taking any teaching theory classes, I hope to be able to learn something from how the teachers here teach. You are not allowed to use your computer for notes in class unless you have a learning disability. I never use my computer at school, and I only use it for homework. For German, all my homework and notes are on paper. For my Art class, all of my notes are on paper, and my assignments are online.
We have Art and Dictatorship only once a week for three hours. On the first day of class, I learned something that really stressed me out at first. Our teacher makes our assignments very open-ended, in the sense that we don’t have a rubric or any specific requirements besides formatting. For reading responses, he lets us write whatever we want and for our presentations as long as it fits under the topic title. I am doing my first presentation tonight (2/22/22). The teachers do not like just having us stand up front and talk; they like us to have interactive elements, which makes it much more enjoyable for the audience and the presenter.
My German class is very intense. We meet four days a week for three hours each day. All of the class is spoken in German, and we have a lot of discussions. This is especially challenging for me because I’m not great at speaking German, but it is definitely helping me grow. We have to write a paper and do two presentations in German. My first one is this Thursday (2/24/22). I am hoping to come out of this class as a more well-rounded German speaker.
Classes here also have a lot of days when we spend the class period at a historic site or a museum. I have gone on an excursion to the Musée Futurium for my German class. I have an excursion to the Jewish Museum in Berlin and Topography of Terror next week for my Art and Dictatorship class. It also may seem that three hours is a long time to have class, but we get a fifteen-minute break halfway through German, and we get a ten-minute break every thirty minutes for my Art and Dictatorship class. During these breaks, we open the windows, talk, walk around outside; many people smoke or get coffee from a vending machine or the cafeteria (Mensa). After classes, no one hangs around campus. One of the directors of FU-BEST told us the general attitude towards school is more like going to work and leaving rather than hanging around and living on campus. The library closes at 4 pm every day, so my friends and I study on Tuesdays in between classes there. After classes, there is nothing really to do on campus, so we either go to a coffee shop to study or head back to our apartments. It is nice to go home at 12 almost every day. I have started going to bakeries to pick up something for my lunch on my way to my apartment. I have to study for a few hours, and then I’m done with my school stuff for the day. It feels like I am barely in school here, which makes it easy to be flexible with my days. I definitely feel very free with how I balance my life and school.

1. I visited the Berlin Olympic Stadium to write a paper on it for my Art and Dictatorship class.
2. This is me and some friends from my German class on an excursion to the Futurium.
3. This is me and my friends spending time in the library in between our Tuesday morning and evening classes.

She goes to Germany and speaks…Spanish?

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I tragically do not live in the picturesque part of Berlin. I live on a bustling street, but if I go walking out the back of the apartment(as shown in the picture), there are many beautiful German homes. I guess now is the time to note that I live above an Italian restaurant. However, my host has told me never to eat from there because it is too expensive. My host mom, or Gastmutter in German, is from Mexico. She speaks a little English but mostly Spanish and German. Because I am not very confident in German, we mainly speak Spanish. Ironic that I am in Germany, and I ended up being able to speak so much Spanish. I have only had one major miscommunication. I accidentally indicated that my parents lived in two different places and were divorced. When she asked if my mom had anyone new, I quickly cleared everything up!!! I have started classes now, and we will be speaking more German. My host provides me with breakfast and cooks my supper. She says you have to cook at least an hour to get anything good, and so far, everything has been fantastic. I told myself I would get in shape while I was in Germany, but my host insists that I eat more and more food, so I don’t think that will be happening anymore. My host is amazing, and she took me to the grocery store the other day, and it was so different. There were stands with so much fresh food and a very extensive bakery. My host says she goes grocery shopping several times a week so that no food goes to waste and it is always fresh. She also does not have a car, which is common in Germany, so doing the big American food hauls is not realistic. The apartment is really nice, and I like my room a lot. The bathroom has a towel warmer. It also does not have a fan, so you have to open the window for 15 minutes after someone showers. I also open the windows in my room very often so let in the fresh air. This is no problem because of how moderate the temperature is in Germany. All you have to watch out for is the dreaded rain. Everything is smaller in the kitchen. From the cups to the refrigerator and dishwasher, I feel ever so slightly like a giant. My host does my laundry for me, but it is normal for a house not to have a dryer, so we hang dry everything. One thing that has been difficult is knowing how much time to spend with my host. She is usually very busy, so I don’t see her until 5 pm. I have homework in the evenings, and I need to call my fiance, so I’m still figuring it out. She is very respectful of my space, so she is really considerate. I am getting more comfortable in my new environment. I’m no longer anxious when I leave the apartment, so slowly but surely, I am adapting. At some point, while I am here, I want to bake for her. Because there are so many bakeries, I don’t think many people do a lot of baking themselves. However, maybe you will see it in a future blog post!.

Culture Shock In Germany

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I have been in Germany for almost a week and it has been very interesting. There is a lot that has shocked me about being here. I knew bicycles were very popular but there is a specific part of the sidewalk just for bikes! If you go to a restaurant or in public and you need to use the bathroom it doesn’t matter if you are a customer or not, you have to pay to use the bathroom. It is usually around 50 cents or a euro. I was told that in Germany many places only accept cash but since I’ve been here I have been able to pay for everything with my credit card. This is good because credit cards are the way to get the best exchange rate. One thing that is very different for me is using public transportation to get everywhere. It takes me an hour to get to my university and that is very normal. It takes around 45 minutes to get almost anywhere because Berlin is so big. The sunsets around 5 pm and I am often out past sunset for orientation activities and so far, I’ve learned that because almost everyone uses public transportation it is very safe even when it is dark to take the U-Bahns (subways), S-Bahns (mix of a bus and a train) and buses. All of the forms of public transport are also very clean because everyone takes them. One thing that is difficult for me is to live in such an urban environment. I haven’t experienced so much noise and closeness of buildings before so that has been one difficult thing to adjust to. I did go on an adventure with some friends to Alexanderplatz and I found that because of Berlin getting split into four sections, it has many different types of architecture and areas. I felt very comfortable in Alexanderplatz. The weather is much cloudier and rainier than I expected. I did know it would be around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but I didn’t expect it to rain every day. Because it is warmer, when it doesn’t rain, everyone opens their windows. I had mine open almost all day until the rain got in my room. I bought groceries yesterday, and I forgot that if you want bags for your groceries or for anything in stores you have to buy them or bring your own. I have talked with my host a lot and she told me that teachers are paid well in Germany! Maybe I will teach in Germany. Haha! She also told me you have to pay a tax to be religious. That shocked me. I know the government supports churches, but I’m not sure if people give offerings or not on top of that tax. Another thing that has shocked me is the attitude towards non-sexual nudity in media. The language barrier has been difficult but it is interesting to see that many people in Germany speak around three languages. My host speaks some English and is fluent in Spanish and German. This blog has been pretty scattered, kinda like my brain. I am already starting to adjust more and more to being in Germany and I can’t wait to start classes!

Headed to Germany!

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I am still not in Germany quite yet. For now, I am working at MLC so I can make money to travel while I am abroad. I fly out on the 31st of January and arrive on the first of February. I will be studying in Berlin and a university called FU-BEST. So far I feel a mixture of dread and extreme excitement. I don’t want to leave my family, friends, and fiancé, but I am excited for this huge adventure. One of my main goals is to put myself out there and have many fun experiences.
I have high goals for my time in Germany. I fully expect to have a very shaky start because of the language barrier, but one of my main goals is to become much stronger in my ability to speak German. In the beginning, this will mean I need to be more comfortable making mistakes and laughing at myself. I have taken German for only three semesters, so I am still a beginner in the German language. I will be staying with a host that can speak German and Spanish. I am very excited about this because it fits well with my Spanish/German program at MLC. My goal is to speak the least English I can while in Germany. I have been emailing my host in German and so far it is difficult. I am excited for the challenge though.
I am so excited to learn and adapt to German culture. One of my goals is to ask a lot of questions and learn about German culture. I expect people to be not overly warm and inviting especially at first. I want to become close with my host and make some new friends at my university. I want to travel and have new experiences with them and make many memories. I plan to eat all the food I can in Germany. I want to try all the culture-specific foods and learn about the foods Germans eat on a normal day. I already know breakfast looks a lot different in German than in America and there are different customs in the house. I expect to learn a lot about German culture.
Sadly I fully expect to have to watch church online for most of the time I am in Germany. Our wels sister congregation is in Munich which is 3 hours away. I do plan on traveling to that church for Easter and maybe some other services. It all depends on how my Sundays work out for traveling. Another one of my goals is to prioritize my faith life because I know it will be difficult while I am abroad. I expect to not have many Christians to surround myself with. I am taking a BHL class online while I am in Germany and I will do many devotions with my fiancé. I would also like to see if there are any churches near me that have similar doctrine to the wels. I want to come back to the United States with a stronger faith in God.