Willkommen in Berlin!

I'll start off by thanking all (any?) of you that are currently reading my blog and will take the time over the course of this semester to check it out.  As I sit in my apartment and reflect on my experience thus far in Germany's capital city, I can't help but to be excited for the upcoming three and a half months.  Although my time thus far in Berlin has been short, it has felt like I have lived here for weeks.  My days here so far have been packed with new and incredible experiences at places that just a week ago existed only in books, films, and on the internet.

It's probably best to start this off by explaining the inspiration for this blog.  In the spring, my cousin Colin kept all of us back in the States updated on his time abroad in London with an awesome blog, something that I hope to mimic with my own entries.  He popped the initial idea of writing about my European adventures; my fellow teachers at the Y.A.L.E. School this summer, Ms. Maurer and Ms. Jackie, convinced me that a keeping a blog would be a good idea.  I hope I can give each of you a small taste of my endeavors in Europe with each of my entries.

I guess I didn't think long enough about a name for the blog because it took until my second day here to come up with something acceptable enough.  As I stood in the shower Tuesday morning in my hotel room in the beautiful Kurfürstendamm area of Berlin, it hit me all of a sudden that I had actually just woken up in Berlin, an experience that I will be repeating every day for the next couple of months.  In a more philosophical sense, I hope that my time in Berlin will be an awakening of sorts for myself so that when I return home, my experience in this new and different culture will have led to greater maturity and global awareness.

Recap so far:

Hotel in Ku'damm

I flew out of JFK Airport in New York City last Sunday evening after being delayed about an hour due to thunderstorms.  After arriving in Berlin Monday morning, I took a shuttle with a few other people in my program to the Lindner Hotel in Kurfürstendamm, known locally as Ku’damm.  Ku’damm is a beautiful part of the city known for its high-end shopping, hotels, and restaurants.  In about a stretch of 4 blocks I saw Rolex, Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton stores, among several others. During the Golden Twenties period in Berlin under the Weimar Republic, Ku’damm was a hub of activity day and night.  In between initial orientation sessions I strolled down the avenue while getting my first taste of German culture.  That evening my program’s director invited us all for dinner at a biergarten in Tiergarten, which is basically Berlin’s central park.  The food and beer were delicious and the dinner served as a good opportunity to get to know a few of the people that I will be sharing my time in Berlin with. 

My room

The next morning the small group at the Lindner Hotel transferred to the center where the program’s classes will be held, which is basically a large converted home in Steglitz, an expensive residential area of the city.  After a basic information session, I took a taxi with a few other students to the apartment complex that I will be living in for the semester.  My room has lots of living space, including a bathroom, kitchenette, and balcony.  Since I am on the ground floor I don’t have much of a view, but the large balcony is a nice feature nonetheless.  The apartment is all in all pretty nice, but the hallways remind me of a prison, especially since the lack of carpets make even the littlest sound echo throughout the hall.  After getting food at the nicest Burger King I have ever been to since it’s within walking distance from the apartments, I went into the Mitte (center of Berlin) to check out the city.

Bode Museum with Fernsehturm and Pope's Revenge
looming behind it

The rest of the first week mostly consisted of doing touristy stuff during the day and exploring different parts of the city at night.  On Friday the program went on a boat tour on the Spree River, which runs right past such famous sites as the Reichstag building, the Fernsehturm (huge TV tower), and a long stretch of the Berlin Wall.  Fun fact about the Fernsehturm: on clear days, the reflection of the sun makes a distinct cross on the TV tower's steel dome.  This effect was called the "Pope's Revenge" because the secular East German government and the tower's designers never desired such a phenomenon.  Immediately after the tour we went to the largest Soviet War Memorial in Berlin, located in Treptower Park.  Created in 1949 to commemorate the 80,000 Soviet soldiers killed in the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II, the memorial contains the remains of 5,000 soldiers.  I was really taken aback by the enormity and beauty of the memorial, an emotion I didn’t anticipate to feel when I went there. 

5,000 soldiers buried beneath the grass

Huge statue of Soviet soldier saving a child
and crushing a swastika

Classes started for me yesterday with intro German, Themes and Issues in Transatlantic Relations, and German Cinema before 1945.  After an off day today I will be back on my grind tomorrow with a history class called Totalitarianism and the Human Condition.  On Thursday I will have German class again, followed by a class about German media politics.

Some basic observations:

- Berliners are a very ordered people.  Many Berliners have dogs, which are all very well behaved, and they take them all over the city on buses and trains.  On a similar note, most natives will not cross the street unless the green light indicates they can, even if there is not a car in sight approaching.

-Cutting in line is common and almost acceptable.

-Public transportation is extremely efficient and easy to use.  Having an S-Bahn station around the corner from the apartments has been crucial.

-Stores and restaurants very rarely accept anything other than cash.

-Most stores are closed on Sunday, which was really inconvenient when I was down to just bread and jelly this weekend.

-Punctuality is extremely important, even more so than in the U.S.
-It gets cold way too early in the summer.  The first few days of Berlin were around 90 degrees; since then, the temperature has been hovering around 60 during the day.

I had so much more that I wanted to say but at the moment I can’t remember so if I do those thoughts will be included in my next post.  Sorry for the wait but thanks for reading.  Until my next post, bis später!