Willkommen In Berlin!

Well, I managed to make it to Berlin all in one piece, so mission one was a complete success.

The flight over was actually really good. My connectors to Cleveland and then New York all went smoothly, though I had to do some terminal jogging to make sure I wasn't late for boarding. Even though I don't know a lick of German, the passport visa process was really painless, and none of my luggage got lost. I couldn't really ask for more.

The airport in Berlin was pretty cool. Instead of having one huge customs check in line and one huge baggage claim area, each gate had its own customs desk and baggage claim. It made getting things taken care of much easier. I managed to find Kristina Bognar, our liason, very easily virtue of a sign she made for incoming students. It all felt very cliche, which made me enjoy it all the more.

I ended up having to wait at the airport with Ryan Pramer, another U of M student on my flight and coincidentally my roommate for the program, because two other students had landed just before us and Kristina's car was in no way big enough to support 4 student with luggage. In fact, virtually no cars in Germany are suited to hold much at all. It's definitely a trend to have small cars, and the extremely little smart cars are quite common. I mean, you know a car is little when it can back straight into a parallel parking spot and stay inside the lines. Another funny thing was that almost every cab I saw at the airport was a Mercedes Benz, and they're all painted this subtle cream color. It's quite the jump to think of such a luxury car as being so common, even though Germany is the home country of Mercedes Benz and it shouldn't be too surprising that they can get them for much cheaper than in America.

Eventually though, we made it to our apartment, which is in a building (or group of 4 buildings rather) known as the House of Nations. It's a very common student apartment complex, and almost all of our neighbors are Korean or Chinese people studying in Germany. We see very little of them, but I think my neighbor is studying to be a musician because some days I get to listen to hours and hours of classical-jazz-vaudeville-whatever-mashup on his/her piano. Luckily I'm not in long enough for it to get annoying. Ryan and I got extremely lucky with our room. About 1/4 of the rooms in this building are handicapped, and we got put in one. Suffice to say its massive. Sure, all of the tables and door handles are really low, but I consider that a fair trade-off.

I've now also become acquainted with the other 15 people who are studying here in Berlin with me. 16 people is a huge group to keep organized and get around, but somehow we manage. I haven't met a single person I haven't gotten along with yet, so all in all this should be a really fun trip. I also haven't managed to get a group shot together, but I'll be sure to get one up as soon as possible.


One of the shopping districts in Berlin by our apartment. This is as close as I have to a group shot of the kids in the program yet, haha.

Where to start about Berlin though. First of all, I don't think I could see all that this city has to offer if I had a year, let alone the entire country of Germany. Between Germany's history, architecture, and culture, there are hundreds of things to see. Of course, the food is great. Admittedly, I haven't strayed too far in terms of dellicasies, but the things that I've had so far have been great.

Probably the one food I've eaten the most are Doner Kebaps, which are much like gyros, except they are in a bread pocket instead of a rolled pita and they have lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, and different sauces. Doner Kebaps are actually a Turkish food, not German. Most people don't know that Germany has a large Turkish population, but almost 10% of the German population is Turkish, and many of those people live in Wedding, the district in which we're staying. As you might guess, their food, culture, and language (as if it isn't hard enough to learn one) are everywhere.
On the more traditional German side, I've also tried currywurst. It is essentially a German sausauge cut into slices and covered with a mild curry sauce (a thick tomato base with just a bit of spice). It's also quite common for currywurst to be served with french fries on top (German french fries tend to be a bit thicker, but they're pretty close to their American counterparts). Finally, I've had some very good, authentic Italian food. It's hard for me to know exactly what I'm ordering at most Italian resteraunts, but I haven't seen anything that looked bad anyhow. I typically eat my food too fast to take any pictures of it, but I'll work on that.


U-9 Train on the way to our building

Another huge part of our life in Berlin is the train. There are actually three different types of trains in Berlin. There are the S trains, which are above ground city trams, the U trains which are below ground subways, and T trains which are trams that run on the roads (though I don't think I've seen a T since I've been here). The trains and stations are all kept very clean, which I find amazing considering how many dozens of stations dot Berlin. While there are the occasional beggars, for the most part it is just a relaxed riding experience. The one big downside is that there are very few signs at the stations. It's important that you know exactly where you're heading when you get to the station, otherwise it's very easy to get lost.

Since being here, I've got to see two notable things. One was the museum at Check Point Charlie, which was the checkpoint of the American portion of the Berlin wall. While the museum appeared small in stature, it spread out a vast distance and contained limitless knowledge about the construction of the Berlin Wall, the effect it had on Germans and the people of Berlin, how the world reacted, and of course the eventual destruction of the wall. It was amazing to me to see the ways that Germans living in East Berlin would conceal and transport themselves to get across to West Germany and the technologies that they created to aid them in their goal.

Secondly, we went on a riverboat tour of Berlin with our Professor in Germany, Professor Behrendt. It was a great chance to see Germany, relax with the other kids in the program, and eat things without having the slightest clue what they were. I was slick enough to forget my camera for the boat ride, but as I get photos from other people I'll put them up.

For now, we're just hanging out, finding out more and more about the city, and working our way into the German class we started today (4 hours of language a day can be tiring). Tomorrow we're heading to the Berlin Zoo, so I'll make sure to get some good pictures and talk more about that later. Til then!