Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I'm really living here now!


Sooo I'm finally here and living here!

My homestay (so far) has been really good! I live with Manfred who's 64 and his daughter, Sira, (prounced Ziira) who's almost 17. They're really nice and we live in Licherfelde which is like a subarb in Berlin. We live in a house that's really cute and small. I love it! Its super old and creeks, but they have this thing called the Wintergarten that I'll have to take a picture of b/c its like a greenhouse sort of room that they use all the time for dinner. Manfred makes dinner every night from scrach and its SO nice! Also they have a big fat cat named Lollo who thinks my bed is his nap place.


Here's my room (above) and the wonderful Wintergarten eating place (below).


Ah I've just had SO many experiences and things its hard to fit it all in one post. So orientation was interesting. One big cultural rule is to be on time… ALL the time. Its considered really really rude and disrespectful to be late. So of coarse day one I leave about an hour early than I thought I needed to and then I ended up walking around for about 40 minutes in the freezing cold totally lost in a foreign country in an area I have never been before. That was fun. The orientation was pretty boring, but I met a bunch of nice people so that was good. Dirk, the director, is Mr. Rules. Its really a German thing to follow rules. I swear. Almost no one crosses the crosswalk when its not time, even if there’s absolutely no cars coming. Also there’s no gate to check tickets on the U and S Bahn and no one really goes without a ticket. (there’s these crazy people though who are all dressed up in normal clothes and every once in a while, usually during rush hour, they walk in and ask everyone to see their ticket) Yeah also buses and U bahn’s are soo efficient, everything is usually on time to the minute. Anyways Dirk, the director of the program, is very much a product of following the rules. He’s not trying to be rude, but he’s very brisk and straightforward which I think Americans take as rude.

On the second day of orientation we went to bunkers used in WWII which was really cool and creepy. I met Vivian though who was a life saver and speaks German really well and helped me get my phone. Also she told me about grunwied, or something like that, which is this spiced wine that’s hot. Ah, I can’t wait to have it! Later that night Manfred had talked to his friend Andres, who also has a student, if we could have dinner together. So we went to Andres’ house and I met Pat, Andres’ student. The meal with Andres was AMAZING! It was FOUR courses annnd it was all hand made with amazing presentation! Pat is soo lucky! Afterwards Pat and I went to shstamtiz which was a meeting of students to get them to met at a bar and just hang out. That was really fun b/c there were a bunch of people I had met all there and we had a really good time exploring the Orianianstrasse, which is an awesome place. Ah the only thing I really wish is that I spoke more German! I’m really going to learn though b/c everyone that’s here speaks well and is really into how awesome Germany is.

The next day of orientaition we had a walking tour of the historic parts of Berlin. Yeah it was like 30 degrees and basically a blizzard. I was wearing 5 layers, my thick long jons, and my ski gloves and I was barely warm. It has been SOOO cold. The worst part is that I picked up my snow boots at home and thought, “Hmm should I take these?... No it’ll be too much to carry and won’t be that snowy.” HORRIBLE MISTAKE! I do not have a pair of shoes here that can withstand the snow. My boots do rain, but not the snow. Everyday I end up with wet feet and once you have wet feet its all over. Tomorrow or maybe the next day I’m thinking of buying snow boots b/c its totally worth it and I’ll wear them everyday b/c they’ll be the only thing that doesn’t get wet. Anyways yeah the weather has been really really cold and snowy. It supposed to be -7 by the end of the week and then more snow!! Eek! Let me tell you, waiting for the bus for 8 minutes in the cold with wet feet is probably the worst.

The public transportation here is really good. Its nice not to have to drive anywhere, but the downside is waiting for U Bahns and buses. I’m lucky b/c my bus is 24 hours, but at night it only comes every 20 mins. Still it can get pretty annoying to leave from hanging out at 9pm then only be able to get home by 9:40 or 10. Still, all of the students are in the south so we’re all far away together.

Classes started yesterday and I learned to say really important things like, Hi. My name is… and other really boring stuff like that. It should get better though.

Anyways that’s all I can think of now, so I’ll write more later and put more pictures up.

Tschüs!!

(that means bye haha one of the only words I know)

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