Goals and Expectations

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I’ve been in Berlin for 3 days and my understanding of Berlin and Germany has changed so much already. Things I thought I knew are completely wrong and I’ve had to face things that I never would have thought of. In terms of expectations for the semester, most of mine have been upended, but I still have a few. One is to get a LOT better at German. My host family, Dorlies and Hermann, have been talking to me almost entirely in German. I think that they’re dumbing down their vocab and talking slowly for me, but that’s fine with me. It’s hard enough already. However, I already can feel it getting easier to listen to German and recognize the words. I don’t talk to them a lot yet, but I try using what I can. They’re very nice about correcting it. Another thing I expect is to really broaden my view of the world. So much about this is different from MLC. Just about no one besides me and Josiah are Christian. Some people are hostile to Christianity. Most people don’t understand what we’re studying or why we’re studying to be a pastor. Even the college, religion aside, is so different from what I’m used to. The campuses are spread out all over Berlin and thousands of people go to school there. Going to a big college is going to be a very different experience.
I’m here for 16 weeks, which seems like a long time. But seeing how fast the time goes, you realize how short a time it is. I don’t want to waste a single minute of it. To do that, I’ve set a couple goals for myself. One is to do something every single day. The most class I have is 5.5 hours a day, and public transit makes it easy to get around in my free time. My list of things to do in Berlin is growing every day. This is my first time living in a big city and the amount of opportunities is almost overwhelming. I want to see as much of my new home as possible. Another goal is to get better at German. I know I will, just by virtue of taking classes. But living in a German city, my opportunities are so much more than just classes. I’ve already started ordering in German when I can. However, I want to get more confident in speaking German to strangers. I also want to be able to have in-depth conversations with my host families, instead of being a passive observer. My other goal is really to immerse myself in the city. I don’t want to be a tourist here. Instead, I want to feel like I live in Berlin. Some things planned, like operas and soccer matches in town, should be good for that. Other things, like living with a host family and going to school here, will also help. But that won’t be enough. I’m going to try and really get out in the city and try some things that I would normally never try, like food and events.
Since I’ve hit the 500-word limit, that’s all for now. As the Germans say, “bis spät!”.

Nur Deutsch!

/in
Sunset in Dresden

This phrase was ringing through my ears as I sat at the dinner table, yesterday, trying to have a nice chat or even communicate with my host family! I have been in Germany since August 27th, and it has all been “Nur Deutsch”! I apologize in advance to any readers of this blog that this is not a true anticipatory blog in all its purity, since I have been in Germany for a couple of days already. Another disclaimer that this blog may read similarly to David Rutschow’s, who is also study abroad in Berlin. Although, I pray, being different people, we would have slightly different takes on our time in Berlin. These past few days have truly been a rush but before I get into the meat and potatoes (which are especially delicious in my host mom, Fe’s GurkenSuppe) of my brief time here so far, I should at least try to write down some of my thoughts coming into the semester abroad.

The week before my departure to Berlin was a busy week full of RA training at MLC and cramming all of the “must-do” New Ulm activities into a week, so I had very little time to stop and think about my semester abroad. In all honesty, I blocked the semester from my mind entirely and occupied my time so I wouldn’t have to think about it. Even during the plane ride over to Europe, I hardly comprehended the situation at hand – “I am going to be living in Germany for a semester without the many luxuries, connections, and familiarities of America.” Only then, at the dinner table last night, did that phrase “Nur Deutsch” trigger whatever thoughts I had been blocking out to come to the forefront of my mind. Before my trip over here, my Dad had been joking to me and David about speaking only German the week before we took-off so that we would be familiarized with the language. And his favorite phrase to say was “Nur Deutsch” (meaning “only German”). Even with only a couple days under my belt, that phrase rings true. I truly am excited for my semester abroad and have already seen so much of the country in which I will be living for the next four and a half months. This past weekend I crammed a weeks-worth of sight-seeing into a couple of days thanks to the always helpful, Logan Pankow, who is studying at the Evangelisches-Lutherische-Frei-Kirche (ELFK) Seminar in Leipzig and lives with his wife, Louisa, in Zwickau. They so graciously housed David and me for a couple of days and served as a our tour-guides as we went about the cities of Leipzig, Zwickau and Dresden. Each city had a different, yet special quality about it, and each one of them screamed “German”. I think having Logan ease my way into the German way of life and culture has helped tremendously even in these first couple of days.

Ach so! I have almost forgotten to talk about my expectations for the semester, and they come in three categories – (1) culture, language, and perspective. First, I hope to grow culturally aware of the German culture and the comparisons to be made with the American culture. I would like to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for those subtleties in each of our cultures and how that is translated to the other. Speaking of translation, I hope I develop a knack for the German language and that I can do more than talk to the German people, but actually speak with them. I hope to let a conversation take its course rather than limit it with my own incapabilities, be it a lack of vocabulary or structure. And finally, the structure of my perspective is something I am hoping can be changed for the better. A growth in perspective will aid in my quest to better my toolset for ministry. All of these and so much more are my expectations, however, most importantly I know I will grow in my faith as long as I stay in the Word. So please send your thoughts and prayers and any encouragement for David and me on our semester in Germany! Tschüss for now!

T