Berlin: Week 1 or How to Be Punched by a Native on Day One :)

Guten Morgen/Tag! Hello, everybody!

Since there’s so much I’d like to communicate and I know I have a tendency to ramble my way into excessive, boring detail I shall start off with a bullety-type listy thing of the journey up until this point. Oh, for clarification, Elise is my roommate here in Germany, and she’s pretty awesome.

·         Friday, April 27^th, the night before take-off

o   Plan= go to bed early

o   Execution= Failure. In bed at midnight, asleep at 1 am (must work on those time-managing skills I rather lack) totally worth it though, all things considered 'cause my mom and I were having way too much fun laughing at pictures and things

·         Saturday, April 28^th, last day on American continent (..till July)

o   4 am= Woke up

o   “5” am (maybe twenty minutes late :) =get to SLC airport, check bags, stuff excess into Elise’s because she’s practical and I’m the “experienced” traveler (cough always overpack cough), and then wait around 'cause SLC is so small and we get through security in no time

o   7am=TAKE-OFF!!! And finally understand that Elise wasn't kidding about her “phobia” of flying, dude, I thought she was going to rip the armrests off her seat!

o   3 hours later, land in Chicago, endure a surprisingly Internet-less 4-hour lay-over (woot for food and the Return of the King), then get on plane to London!

·         8 hours later, so Sunday April 39th nearing 1 am Utah time

o   land in London, where it is freezing and threatening to flood. Really, England, really? It’s been nearly nine years since I saw you last and this soggy day/night/morning in Londontown is how you greet me? Honestly, I was laughing. But this may have been a side-effect of fatigue kicking in, since I don’t sleep in planes, or really in airports and I’m nearly dragging Elise behind me, because she’s so exhausted from everything (hurrah for turbulence over the Atlantic) and she’s either about to cry from the cold rain that turns our next four-over lay-over into a five hour one and she’s from the dessert and hates this weather or she’s about to punch me in the face because I’m being positive.

o   Oh, ok, so then we finally get on the last plane, to BERLIN!!! And Elise thankfully passes out for the next two and halfish hours while I talk to this Englishman next to me about WWII, what to see in Berlin, the awesomeness of Tolkien, whose from his hometown, and mostly just history and authors and delightful things until the plane lands. It was really interesting! And really fun to watch his face as I told him that I was 19, and he realized he was old enough to be my father. He was only ever polite the whole time though guys, don’t worry! He was honestly just surprised that this random American in love with history and books wasn’t even half at least half his age. I laughed and gave him gum to distract him from the landing, because he was nearly as afraid as Elise. Anyway..see? tangents!

o   WE LAND IN BERLIN, where it’s like one in the afternoon or something by the time we find our professor who hands us bus passes and sends us on our merry way after giving us directions different from the one’s our host family did. Hehe, Elise isn’t good with directions but fortunately I wasn’t tired at this point, just numb so even though it took us twice as long as it would we eventually found our apartment! And oh how lovely it is!

o   Next mission: adjust to new time zone

§  this means that we can’t go to sleep until the natives would. So we’ve got to keep ourselves awake for the next six hours or so at the very least. We do ok, until about 7pm German time (...so 11am Utah time?), at which point I know the only thing keeping Elise from punching me in the face is the amount of energy it would require. So I’m cruelly forcing us to play another round of Kings, or Speed, or to go for a walk, or to eat another piece of chocolate, or something. She honestly is one of the sweetest people I know, but even I wanted to slap me at that point. I feel like it would have been really entertaining to hear our conversations; goodness knows they weren’t coherent.
9pm pass out while watching an episode of Chuck on Elise's flashdrive. She actually lasted loner watching than I did, but, hey, I was going off of 3 hours of sleep for the past...(ugh, doing math in my head...) for the past 33 hours or so?·       

  Monday, April 30^th

o   Woke up after 13 hours of sleep. Heck yes.

o   Breakfast=gorgeous muffins from a nearby backery (Bäckerei)

o   Mission= find Goethe Institut to take placement test

§  (this seemed really evil since we were still technically jetlagged)

o   Execution= ultimate success, got lost (hehe, its essentially just down the street so this is really pathetic) could hardly say anything auf Deutsch correctly, but oh well

o   Little side story here: so we’re walking out all prepared to go the school, got our bookbags on and everything now and we cross the street (legally, we waited till the little green walking policeman light blinked on) and as I start reading this German shop sign, it is as though the world slows down for a moment like in the movies and I see this guy ride his bike right in front of me, really close to me, and I’m still not completely done crossing from the street so my back is to it, and suddenly everything starts speeding up and I hear his bike bell ringing like mad and realize I must have somehow stepped right in front of him, so I stumble back a step and am promptly greeted by a swoosh of air passing my back as another bike rider passes right behind me, yelling something, but the moment isn’t over till it’s rudely shattered by a firm punch square in my back. What the crap!? I’m absolutely stunned, but in my utter confusion I think I kinda scared Elise, who saw the whole thing from a few steps back, and at whom I kinda cried out ”What the heck?! Why didn’t you say anything?” I was just so confused and it felt as though the darn little bells must have been ringing long before my slow-mo moment allowed me to hear properly. But there was nothing either of us could have done differently. I wasn’t hurt, I had the bookbag to protect me, but we then noticed that the outermost two feet-or-so of sidewalk in Berlin is a slightly different color brick. There’s a bike lane on the sidewalk! Counter-intuitive to an American, but logical, I must admit. I had apparently crossed this lane, when the first biker decided to go around me, and then stepped onto the edge of it when the other slugged me. We were told that Germans aren’t afraid to correct strangers, it’s not rude to them to do so, but this seemed to be taking it the extreme. Day one, and I just got punched by a native. Oh-ho-ho, this is going to be a good trip.

o   Next Mission= find church for Family Home Evening that night

o   Execution=success, but you better know we got way lost, because it’s halfway across the city, but we made and there was a free homemade dinner.

·         Fun Facts we learned/re-learned:

§  The U-Bahn goes UNDERground, and the S-Bahn is SCHNELL (fast in german) so it goes above ground

§  Really only the US has a blessed thing called free Wifi in airports

§  Suitcases don’t like cobblestone roads

§  German apartments don’t have closets, (and you better know half of the wardrobe space is taken up by shelves, happy thought indeed)

§  only German kitchens get a trashcan,

§  Germans love to ride bikes. Everywhere.

§  Sidewalks aren’t as simple as one would think (cough bikes get their own section cough)

§  two girls shouldn’t want more than three hangers between them

§  Plane food is only satisfying when you are desperate to take your medicine at the right time, strapped in place, tired of trail mix, next to a creepy Indian man who never says a word just glares at you inexplicably for 8 hours, and its too dark to read, and you’ve watched everything twice already

§  Movie timetables on planes always lie, always.

§  German keyboards switch the z and y keys, and you have to shift to use an apostrophe

§  French accents sound so cool on top of German, as do British, Greek, and Arabic ones!!! (This school is full of international students)

§  Traveling, like Honk’s Dollar store in Provo, is always and adventure, ALWAYS

§  BERLIN IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

§  But don’t mess with Germans, they’re so not afraid to tell you when you’re wrong…or perhaps punch you to clarify :)

·         Tuesday the 1^st , was the first day of class!

o   Wandered around a lot, ate some pretty delicious pastries and sandwiches

o   Saw part of the Berlin Wall (oh, dude, I’m living in what was East Berlin!!!)

So uh, how freakin' beautiful is this?! This is my new self-reorientation-marker (instead of the Wasatch). It's kinda hard to miss, and it lights up at night, the Fernsehenturm is right by the nearest S-Bahn station. Perfekt. No more getting lost, right?

·         Wednesday, the 2nd

o   Went to the Salvador Dali museum! 

DALI!!! Not my favorite, but I respect the guy. It's not every modern artist who can actually make me want to think about his work. His series for Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland and Tristan and Isolde were particularly interesting. Rachael, I missed you!

o   Ate my first Döner!!!

Katharina, Hailey, and I with our first Doeners! Man, you have to try them. Just do. I can't even explain.

·         Thursday, the 3rd

o   Went to the Neues Museum, with a ton of Egyptian stuff, including the bust of Nefirtiti!!! (Chloe I’ll tell you more later) and some Greek and Roman

o   Went to church for Institute and got more homemade food!

Ah, isn't he just gorgeous? Apollo, suitingly situated under a skylight, soaking up the sun (oh aren't I clever?) in the Neues Museum. He's at the end of the long corridor opposite, Nefirtiti, but you can't photograph her.

These uber-long beauties are from the Book of Dead!!! My mind was blown, and a desire to watch the Mummy suddenly surfaced...

·         Friday, the 4^th

o   Almost went to the Opera, took a raincheck, and instead did some grocery shopping and “made” dinner. (Frozen pizza…yeah…guilty, I know)

·         Saturday, the 5th

o   Went to the Zoo and aquarium! Elise saw her very first elephant and was so excited! Amanda P. I saw a panda!!
o   Ate my first Berliner. They’re a pastry, guys, don’t worry. But, uh, the wunderbar jelly/jam filling is always concentrated on one side, so make sure you attack it strategically when consuming...otherwise it attacks you in the end, like a proper German creation :)

Amanda P., this is for you! I realize this really couldn't look more racist, but...just...don't make me explain....SPECTRONIZER! (Had to, sorry ;)

Look, Mom! Social Grooming! (You know the quote?)

Pretty tulips! And then you look closer at the background....

There was bench with these little cut outs...inside each of which was a different tarantula!!! Best bench I have definitely ever sat down on

Inappropriate? Ok, yeah, but still funny. This is a statue in the Zoo! Just there, suddenly.

o   Saw Die Tribute von Panem (hehe, the Hunger Games in German!)
·        
Tuesday, the 8^th

o   Ate my first Currywurst (Doeners are better)

o   Went to the Pergamon Museum, where the Pergamon altar, Ishtar gate, and Miletus Gate are housed!!! (Amanda B., Chloe, and Rachael, I’ll definitely tell you guys more about these)

Elise and I in front of the Miletus Gate

Elise and I by the Pergamon Altar, which is so huge it's hard to capture!

Sorry, but please, just look at how awesome her boots are!

The Ishtar Gate, blue= lapis lazuli. That's it Nebuchannezar, flaunt your excess wealth cross the time and space, like a proper Mesopotamian king :) Oh, and those animals are aurchs and dragons, which meant power. Someone's a little proud...

Collapsing from happiness on the Pergamon steps, just sacrifice me now

Alrighty, I lied and I still rambled, sorry. (Es tut mir leid). I’m honestly having the time of my life here, and I’m taking the good, the bad, the ridiculous, and the wonderful into that opinion! I hope you find at least some of these stories as funny as Elise and I do. I think I could have died from happiness when I walked into the room with the Pergamon altar. It is gorgeous. By that point Hailey (our other good friend) and Elise had discovered that I’m a total history nut, and can barely conceal my euphoria when in these museums, so they were prepared and rushed ahead of me, to watch my face change as I walked into the room and took it all in for the first time. They weren’t disappointed, apparently. I was kinda doing this ridiculous little twirling dance thing when I thought they weren’t looking, but they definitely were, and were sorry not to have recorded me. Health-wise I’m doing pretty great, so no worries please! And the jetlag went away quickly thanks to our cruel/brilliant plan that first night, although it was undoubtedly the most exhausted I’ve ever felt. Most nights we go out as a group (the kids from BYU) and find something to do, but never too, too crazy or late. And Germans are uber-polite if they know you are trying to learn German. They will bend over backwards to help you then. And both and Elise and I have been asked if we knew any English! Bam! For a moment we were mistaken for natives….granted it was a short moment. Bis spaeter!

A rough (but more rude...and fun) translation of this Latin motto outside the Neues Museum is, "only a stupid person hates art". Danke, Berlin, danke.