{"id":174,"date":"2017-02-10T15:32:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/?p=174"},"modified":"2017-02-10T15:32:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T15:32:00","slug":"weeks-1-and-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/2017\/02\/10\/weeks-1-and-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Weeks 1 and 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello from Berlin!<\/p>\n

It has been 12 days since I arrived in the exciting and historic capital of Germany, and the experience so far has been incredible. Having gotten over the jet lag, acclimating to the new culture, and becoming familiar with the transportation system, I am finally beginning to feel “moved in.”<\/p>\n

The first week\u00a0was filled with orientation activities, which included hours of meetings, but also guided walking tours of parts of the city, where I got to see the historic district with the Brandenburg Gate and various governmental buildings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is so cool to finally be in the city and be able to visit famous sites whenever I want!<\/p>\n

This past week was my first week of classes. Everybody in the program has German language instruction from 9-12 each morning. This is longer than I am used to, but we get a break halfway through which helps\u00a0it move along. The first sessions of my other classes, music history and 20th century German history, also went well.\u00a0Both are areas which I think I will very much enjoy studying. For the music class, the requirements include visiting various orchestra concerts in the city and writing critiques. For the history class, we will be visiting some of Berlin’s many museums outside of class.<\/p>\n

A few days ago after German class some friends and I went to the remains of the\u00a0Berlin Wall, called the East Side Gallery. Though it once divided Germany, today it is left standing as an international memorial to freedom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There is still so much more of the city to see.<\/p>\n

My host family has been extremely\u00a0nice and helpful. I think it will be a great experience living in a home-stay, gaining the opportunity to really learn the culture of a German home life. My “host parents'” names are Hermann and Heike. They both know English well, but we speak German when possible. I am looking forward to seeing how my German progresses from now to the end of the semester. I occasionally\u00a0watch soccer on TV with Hermann\u00a0– Berlin’s team in the Bundesliga<\/em> is called Hertha BSC. They play in the Olympiastadion, the home of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I will have the opportunity to attend 2 games there during the semester!<\/p>\n

The apartment, in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, is about a 40-minute transit from the Freie Universit\u00e4t. To get to campus, I\u00a0take a combination of the U-Bahn (underground rail) system and a bus.\u00a0Here is a picture of the street I live on:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The general architecture of Berlin is one of my favorite parts of the city so far. It is so completely different from what I am used to in the United States. The food is also great, nat\u00fcrlich<\/em>. I bought\u00a0a d\u00f6ner the other night, and maybe it’s just because I was really hungry, but\u00a0it might have been\u00a0the most\u00a0delicious thing\u00a0I’ve ever eaten. Outside of my mom’s kitchen, of course. If you ever go to Germany, you HAVE to\u00a0try one.<\/p>\n

Next weekend, some friends and I will be going\u00a0to Hamburg, which is in the northern part of Germany. The bus ticket and hostel fee for the weekend is cheap compared to what it would be in the United States, which makes traveling easy! I look forward to seeing the famous\u00a0Hafenstadt<\/em> – harbor\u00a0city – whose port is the second largest in Europe, and also the newly completed\u00a0Elbphilharmonie<\/em>, an $800+ million concert hall project finished\u00a0last month. A picture from Google images:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That’s about all for now! Many more pictures will be posted on my Facebook page throughout the semester, and blog updates will continue every couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

I thank God that I have arrived in Berlin safely and that everything has gone smoothly so far. I am beyond thankful for this life-changing opportunity.<\/p>\n

Tsch\u00fcss<\/em>,<\/p>\n

Collin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello from Berlin! It has been 12 days since I arrived in the exciting and historic capital of Germany, and the experience so far has been incredible. Having gotten over the jet lag, acclimating to the new culture, and becoming familiar with the transportation system, I am finally beginning to feel “moved in.” The first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Lhdr-2O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/study-abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}