Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh: Mein 1. Tag in Berlin

Okay, well it’s not just my first day, but i guess it’s my first 24ish hours in Berlin... So I left Saturday from OKC at 4pm and arrived in Berlin Sunday at 2pm. It was not 22 hours though, because there is a 9 hour time difference, however, I don’t remember if that is from Oklahoma or Seattle. The food on the plane was disgusting. I flew with Lufthansa though and it was quite nice, other then my Pilz-filled vegetarian food. The plane was HUGE too, a double decker! Crazy, I’ve never been on a plane with two stories before! So far I love Germany. Frau Guenther warned me that Germans are not overly friendly like Americans and they are very frank, etc. However, everyone that I have talked to has been SO nice to me! I get a little annoyed when some of them speak English to me, but I think those that do are just trying to help me out. Many people think I am German though, I had a German man ask me some question, about directions I think and on the airplane the Stewardess would speak to me in German initially, however I noticed that when she talked to some other people she spoke English from the get-go. Needless to say I am pleased with this. I attempted to bring my “European” looking clothes on this trip. It is still pretty obvious though in my opinion that I am American. I am soooo fat compared to the Germans and I don’t smoke. I’m comparing almost everything here to Spain, since that is the only other European country I personally know, and there are a lot of similarities and differences. First of all, my face, hair, and skin do not stand out like a sore thumb as much here (since I am half German) compared to Spain where everyone is so dark. It is also much richer I would say here. There are many fancy stores like Dolce & Gabana and I saw a Farrari and a Bentley car dealership. There are still quite a bit of homeless people. Not as much as Seattle, but still it is noticeable. I also saw two Starbuckses!! Yes, I know I should go to a local store, and I will, but I just wanted some so bad. They didn’t have peppermint syrup though for my Americano, sad day. Also, instead of Half and Half they had whole or low fat milk. Not as good, but it will suffice. Anyways, here is what I have done so far. When I arrived in Berlin I took the correct bus from the airport and got off at the correct stop AND took the right UBahn and got of at the right spot. Damn I’m good. (not for long though, as you will see). The public transit here is tight. Then I went to my Hostel and checked in, I stayed in a room of 8. It was interesting, but still nice. Very modern inside and everyone was so friendly. I then walked around semi-aimlessly until I got a 0.5L of Becks and a Falafel Wrap. I returned to the hostel and slept until the Germany vs. Spain soccer game. Everyone and there dog in Berlin were DECKED OUT in German flags. It was awesome! I had another Becks and a tomato and mozzarella sandwich in the Hostel’s café. I watched half the game but then I got bored and went upstairs and read. After the game my roommates came in and played poker and smoked weed. The asked me to join, but I declined. There were very nice too. They also asked if it bothered me and if it did they would leave, but I didn’t care. I slept through most of the night, I did wake up around 6am but feel back asleep kind of until 9 something. I then took and awkward shower, because it was very small and you have the push the water button every 30 seconds or so. Then I ate some bland muesli and packed up my stuff. I had a little bit of trouble finding my school, but the starbucks lady helped me. Everyone was new today there, unlike at my school in Spain. This was nice. I personally checked in with a woman for a few minutes, then met up with another who talked to me about the Culture program. She gave me a cool notebook too. Then I took a long placement test including multiple choice, an essay, and an interview. I did alright on the test, I don’t know about the interview though. I don’t think I’ll be in the highest class, but I think I will be in one of the higher levels. I briefly talked to an Italian girl, her name was SO difficult to say though, I can’t remember it. Here everyone says my name wrong anyways, same with Spain. They always emphasize the “-say” part of my name: “linD-SAY” instead of “Lin-zee”. But, oh well. After I was done with everything at school, I left my stuff there and wandered the city for a few hours. I walked by many famous sites too. Everything I did was on the East side. I walked to Brandenburg gate, but, get this, there was a wall and die Polizei blocking me and everyone else from getting over there. Hahahaha, irony. This was just because of some big event they were having there, but I have no clue what it was. I took my time walking, which is not something that I normally do and I walked by some things that my dad had in his old pictures. Although in his pictures there are DDR guards marching outside, but today there are people with ice cream cones and flip flops. After a while of scoping out the town, which is HUGE, 8x the size of Paris! I went back and got my stuff but had so much trouble finding where I was supposed to go. In a nutshell: 2 SBahn rides, 1 Ubahn ride, ENDLESS amounts of walking, and one taxi ride until I got to my new home. I feel so dumb though, when I finally got fed up and into a taxi, it was ONE block away from where I was supposed to go. OI VEY! Also, my phone was not working when I was calling Susanne, the lady I am with or when I called the school. I know that it is not because my phone doesn’t work here, because it does, I even pick up T-Mobile, it’s just that I think I am dialing it wrong somehow. I keep getting the German operator. When I finally got here I was so hot and my feet hurt, but not HALF as much as my back. OMG my back hurts so badly. I had my mom’s military backpack on and my back still hurts, and probably will for a few days. Every muscle is so tight, I need a good massage. Her apartment is SO cute. It’s a but messy I suppose, not really messy actually, just cramped, but I really like it! Everything is small except my room. My room is quite large!! She also has a HUGE D&G poster with a half naked sweaty man which I think is hilarious and I can’t stop starring at it. Hahaha. I can’t decided if I like it or not though. Speaking of half naked sweaty men, I’m in the “gay district” I think. I read it wikipedia and also when walking the streets, I saw many rainbow flags and even a rainbow “men’s sauna” lol. Humboldt university also had a Rainbow flag on it’s main building. It is probably because they just had their Gay Pride this last weekend. The woman I live with, whom I’m going to avoid calling her by name because it is too informal her to call her “susanne” but she is so young looking that I don’t want to call her “Frau ___” plus, I don’t know how to pronounce her last name. It doesn’t seem very German. Although she is, she even grew up on the East side during the cold war! She speaks English and French fluently, but I don’t like how much English she is speaking to me. She has a 5 year old son who is, well, the typical 5 year old. Susanne is so beautiful too. Almost everyone here is. God I love Germany. So I don’t know when I will put this up, because her wireless internet doesn’t seem to be working. She is downstairs right now at the neighbors asking them how to get it to work, since they use it too. Also, hopefully when you see this it will have my cell phone pictures, but as of right now I can’t find the cord to plug my cell into my computer…

Tomorrow is my first day of school! 8:30am! Omg. I’m going to have to wake up early because I’ll have to leave around 7:30am because we are supposed to get there around 8 since it’s the first day. Oi vey! I want to sleep but I feel lame, even though its 10pm, but it’s still semi light outside!

First day of class:

Okay it has been a day since this blog, I haven’t been able to post it online until now. Class was great! I have 2 friends now! Katia from Russia and Aimee, a grad student at Columbia. I am still very tired and I think after I post this blog I will take a nap or watch German MTV.

The Kitchen

The very narrow bathroom

Balcony

Moi

other side of the balcony

The woman and her son's rooms both have high beds, its crazy! i kinda wish mine was high too... she says that many people in Germany have high beds like this