In Berlin!

I got into Frankfurt at 5.55am on Saturday, August 23rd. From there I took an hour ride on an airbus to Tegel. I was stuck there for a while, until 1pm. Globalinks did a mass pickup, then took us to Hotel 103. Hotel 103 was pretty nice, although the male receptionist was a total jerk. We did plenty of city tours, and then on Tuesday we went to the FU-Berlin campus in Lankwitz. They enrolled us, and took our pictures for our Visas. Then they had taxis to take us to our apartments. Our apartments are pretty nice, mine luckily overlooks the backyard. I have a view of the train that comes past every few minutes, and graffiti of a jelly fish and a sign that says "The bums will always lose." That week FU-Best took us on even more tours to get us used to the city. This was helpful as I got lost in Friedrichstraße, and ended up in some weird area that started with an M. I honestly have no idea where that was. I ended up taking a taxi home. Lukcily, the guy was an older gentleman who spoke English. A few days after we had a welcome reception at the Botanical Gardens, in one of the green houses.

So I have been here for a while now. I'm enrolled in classes which I love. I had to take a German placement interview and I placed in A2 Intensive (It is all in German-No English). Over here the levels are experimental, experimental intensive, A1, A2,B1,B2,B3, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2. Half way through the semester we move up a level. So in late October I will be in B1. So come winter semester, when I take the placement again I should be in B2. Then have way through THAT semester should be B3.

I live in the Steglitz area which is a really quiet area, and my apartment is around the corner from our S-Bahn stop. I go two stops on that, and three stops on a bus and I'm at school which is really great.

So far I've been on a bunch of tours, the DDR Museum, Checkpoint Charlie (awesome by the way), the "death section" of the wall, The underground bunker tour at Alexanderplatz, The Nikolai area, Alexanderplatz, The Brandenburg Gate, Memorials, Kreuzberg, a boat tour of the Spree river, and the Memorial for the Roma victims of the Holocaust. Anyone who comes to Berlin should go there. A few days ago Lizzie and I went to the Olympic Stadium. This is where the Hertha BSC plays. I got tickets to their upcoming game October 12th against Hamburg. This is also the stadium where the 1936 Olympic games were held. The Nazi buildings are still standing. Their pool is now used as a public swimming place. It is quite popular.

I was also supposed to go to Potsdam on Friday, but I ended up misreading the directions so I missed it. Instead I decided to go back to Kreuzberg and hit up the Turkish Market. However, I could not find it and so went back home. Kreuzberg is really beautiful though, so it is not as if the day was wasted. I love all the food options. There is a huge Turkish population, so there is no shortage on Döner!

On Saturday I went to the zoo with Lizzie. It's pretty impressive to think in the middle of Berlin there is a zoo. We didn't go into the aquarium but the zoo kept us occupied. The most amusing thing was watching the penguins. I never knew they were such bullies. Afterwards we went back into Kreuzberg for some Döner.

Today we went to the Mauerpark Flea Market. It is held every Sunday, and is the biggest Flea Market in the city. Everything is so cheap, and the food is amazing. I got Börek with meat. It was pretty good, lots of bread though. I had to resist the urge to buy some things, but I am making a point to stop there again. There was a ton of "Hipsters" there though. This seems to be the place where the most interesting people seem to shop.

So this week I have a class excursion to Berliner Straße I believe. I also plan on finding that 4 floor Humana with Lizzie.

I should probably stop blogging now, as I have two pages of German for class tomorrow. Next post should include pictures. I also apologize for any misspellings. I have a German laptop, and I'm not used to the keyboard setting.

Tschüß!