Welcome back to another week in Berlin! Monday was the first day of classes which was very exciting but also a bit tiring. My earliest class is at 9am so I woke up early and grabbed a quick breakfast on the way out the door. The first class I had on Monday was my german class. The professor is the same as last week but there are a lot of new faces in the room. Many people got moved around during the intensive classes last week and the students not in the language program don't have to take german classes. After class, I walked to a café near my apartment and got delicious brunch! It was a bit pricey (which I expected) but worth it for checking out a new spot. After brunch, I went back to the apartment and got a grocery list together then walked to the store. I checked out the Aldi instead of Edeka this time and it definitely was cheaper! However, I couldn't find a ton of variety and missed a couple of things I meant to buy. Part of this is probably because the Aldi I was at was pretty small but it was nice to check it out. In the afternoon, I headed back to the IES center for my first official classes taught in German! I had Germany and the EU and the German Welfare State (deutsche Wohlfahrtstaat) today with the same professor. Both were great classes and sounds like they will be super interesting, if a bit repetitive from classes I've had at Bates. Since my class got out at 6pm (sooo much later than I'm used to!), I went back to my place, made dinner, and did some homework.
Tuesday I got to sleep in a little bit and eat breakfast with Petra in the morning. I headed to my next set of classes - Wirtschaft Deutsch (Let's talk business) and German Pop Culture. The "business" class is actually more of a practical discussion class based around vocabulary from the professional world. It sounds like we'll be doing a lot of speaking and presenting which will be good for reinforcing vocab and sentence structure. Pop culture also seems really interesting and I'm excited for some of the field trips (Ausflug) on the syllabus. After class I made a late lunch then met my friend Paige at IES to do some homework. To be honest, I'm not really in a super academic mindset yet so the homework was a bit slow going. I'm also much slower reading articles in German since I have to read every word carefully and look up some of the ones I don't know. After some work, I headed back to my apartment to make dinner. When I came back, Petra was meeting with a friend of hers before going out with some of her friends from a language school. Javier, the friend she had over, is from Spain. They speak a little in German, English, and Spanish! It was really great meeting Javier because I felt like I could actually hold a conversation with him! I felt confident speaking to another person in German for the first time which was really special. After they left to meet other friends, I ate dinner, called my family, then had a relaxing rest of the evening.
Wednesday morning was a bit brutal because I didn't sleep well. Something must be in the air because Petra was also awake much earlier than she anticipated after her late night! We ate breakfast together then I went to German class. Unfortunately, most of my friends also have class right after German so I was looking for something to do with my 4.5 hour block between classes. Luckily, my friend Willa let me know the Berlin Philharmonic has free "lunch concerts" every Wednesday! I met her there and we listened to about an hour of a trio playing a few different pieces. It was really lowkey and such a great way to enjoy some high culture! After the concert, I met my class at Unter den Linden for a walking tour/class about some important German history in the area. We talked a lot about the sites and I got some great pictures of cool buildings and statues. For my next class, I have the same professor and we did a walking tour in the other direction. It was nice to have class outside the classroom but I was definitely feeling tired by the end of 3 hours walking around
outside. Luckily, the weather is much cooler now! Wednesday evening, I went to a homestay students reception at IES. This time, the hosts were invited too! Petra and I had a lovely time and it was great to chat with other people in homestays and their hosts. Petra and I kept up a pretty long conversation on the S-Bahn ride back and I think she is proud of how much I can contribute to conversations after just over a week of living with her!
Some pictures from the homestay reception:
Thursday, I had a casual breakfast, then headed off to class. I was a little early, so I got myself a snack at the cafe near the IES center and chatted with some friends. After classes, I ate my lunch packed and then headed to the Berlin state library to do some homework. The building was so beautiful and a great, quiet place to study. Afterwards, I headed back to my apartment and made dinner. Pretty chill day!
Friday, I don't have any classes so I was able to sleep in and have a chill morning. After a late breakfast, I planned out some of my day then took myself on a tour of some Hunger Games film locations! I also took my camera along to take pictures of the locations and cool buildings along the way. I started with the Messedamm underpass which is shown in Mockingjay pt. 2 and it was SO COOL. I was definitely fangirling very hard. After walking around that area, I went to the olympic stadium which was the exterior of the arena in Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I know they also filmed some of Songbirds and Snakes in the Olympic park so I might head back there another time! Then, I went to the Tieranatomisches Theater where they filmed the classroom scenes in Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The theater also looked almost exactly like the movie! After that, it was getting a bit late so I decided to do the rest of my film tour another time :) Stay tuned for more filming location visits. I made myself some dinner, then had another chill night in.
Some of my favorite pictures from my adventures:
Keeping with the chill weekend theme, I slept in, did some homework, and read a little on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, I went for a short walk, then picked up some snacks and drinks at the grocery store before going to meet some friends. We walked to an art museum and saw some cool sculpture art! Then we got dinner at a Persian food place before heading back to my friend Paige's apartment. We played bananagrams, some drinking games, and chatted for a while! Since Germans are pretty strict about quiet hours in apartment buildings, we relocated to Alexanderplatz and walked around that area for a while. It was a really fun night and I'm definitely getting to know my friends a lot better. I hope we keep going on more adventures like this one!
Saturday night was a late one so I slept in a LOT on Sunday morning. I made some brunch, then worked on my homework for the week. Still trying to ease back in to the academic mindset so homework has been going a bit slow. Thankfully, I've got a fanta, my "happy folk pumpkin spice sunday afternoon" daylist on spotify, and lovely weather for a walk outside later to keep me going. Stay tuned more more updates about life in Berlin!
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