Last week in Germany

This is my last week in Germany. Its been a tough but absolutely worthwhile experience. I made a brief list of things I will and won’t miss.

Things I won’t miss

Living in a dorm/sharing a bathroom and kitchen with about 10 other people: this wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t only two toilets and two showers for all of us. And don’t get me started on dirty dishes! It gives me the heeby-jeebies just thinking about it.

Not being able to interact with people as easily: it gets old after a couple of weeks of going to lunch with your colleagues and not being able to contribute to the conversation because they’re speaking a different language.

Sitting at a computer for 6 hours a day doing research: I probably sit at a computer for this same amount of time during school but it just seems so much longer when its 6 consecutive hours.

German keyboards: What is up with them!?!? The z and y are switched, the parentheses are in totally different places, and there are symbols on here that I don’t even know how they would be used.

Things I will miss

Public transportation: I get a decent amount of time on the bus during school but its different here. I obviously don’t have a car so I either have to walk everywhere or take the bus or subway. I’m only looking forward to driving in my car again so I can sing loudly and horribly and not worry about anyone hearing.

Cafes: There are so many types of cafes around the city. I haven’t been to a bad once since I came off that plane.

The buildings: I don’t know if it’s the country or I am just now become more aware of buildings, but there are some crazy-awesome structures throughout the city. Also, the architecture seems simpler and cleaner than what I’m used to seeing.

Fashion: Pretty much everybody has a sense of style here. When I wear a nice t-shirt and jeans, I feel like I’m walking around in my pajamas. That’s how awesome the fashion is here.

I have learned from my internship in multiple ways. I have done research and made case studies on metropolitan regions all over the world and have seen that they are all trying to achieve the same goals: live more sustainably. Not just environmentally but socially and economically too. I have also enjoyed participating in the operations of a German research facility. I think it’s interesting and valuable to know how research is performed in other settings and hopefully what I’ve learning will be used in the future. I am even going to go down the cheese-y road (wouldn’t that be awesome if that was a real thing!? A road made from cheese? Probably would get messy on a hot day though. Or would just a really good day to make nachos. Where was I?…o yea) and say I have grown from this experience. It’s an amazing feeling to know that I can live in a foreign country for 3 months with minimal knowledge of the language or not really know anybody. I’m not saying it wasn’t difficult or that I wasn’t lonely at times but I survived and will always have that.

For who ever is reading this: if you ever want to study or work abroad, I would love to help or give advice if you want it. I had a few people to talk to before I came and they helped where they could so I would like to return the favor and do so for other people.

I am very excited to go home and see my family, friends, and puppies. I am a little nervous about the transition back to American culture which is funny because I’m American gosh darn it! (said with a Texas accent) Thinking about driving everywhere is kind of weird after having to depend on the subway and bus system for the past 13 weeks. But I’m sure everything will be dandy, hopefully as dandy as Yankee Doodle :D

Keep it green!

Brianne

Realizations

This past week or so I have had several realizations, some good and some bad. 

1. I will not able to be hand model

Due to burning my hand last week, I realized that I will not be able to be a hand model EVER! This revelation came to me while at work and it took a lot of strength to not just break down and cry. But I held it together and I'm still recovering. Now I just have to think of some other ridiculous profession to have as a backup plan.

2. Convinced Judith to go to a baseball game

This isn't really a realization but more of an accomplishment. My boss, Judith, will be going to the States after I leave and she asked what she should do that is American. Instantly my response was go to a baseball game. She seemed a little hesitant at first but as of yesterday she was going to surprise her boyfriend with a Yankees game. Upon her telling me this, I became jealous and regretted suggesting it. How can a German enjoy a baseball game but this American can't!?!? 

3. How fast and slow time at work can go

Some days at the office, there isn't that much to do so I spend/waste time on blogs and other silly websites. For some reason, it seems that doing this makes time go by soooo much slower and when I actually do have something to do the day whizzes by. I guess this is just motivation to do work. (Sigh)

4. I'm in like with blogs

While taking little breaks at the office (see previous realization), I have come across a couple of cool blogs. The first is HelloGiggles. It was developed by Zooey Deschanel and two of her friends. Its focus is towards women but there are also posts on there that both genders could enjoy. It’s hard to describe the content so I advice just take a peak if you have a little bit of time. The other blog I just found the other day and it’s called Life is Not Real: Anecdotes, Advice and Awkwardness. It is written by 5 college aged friends and is pretty sweet! It’s mostly girly stuff but there are some funny stories on it as well.

5. It’s becoming harder each day to remember if I’m speaking proper English

Having been here for almost 3 months now, it has occasionally been a challenge to speak proper English. Writing this post seems to take longer because I have to really concentrate on my word usage and sentence structure. Maybe it’s because I’m much more aware of language and the barriers it can have. Just thinking about it makes my brain feel mushy!

That’s it for now. Until next time:

Keep it green!

Brianne

Half way done (?)

For some reason the title of this post doesn't sound grammatically correct but I'm just going to leave it. There aren’t any pics today just because it’s more of a “this is what’s going through my head right now.” So just enjoy the ride and I apologize for the turbulence.

Anywho...This is the 7th week of my internship so that means I am a little more than half way done. I have learned a lot so far about urban spatial planning and about how I see my future. Seeing that regions in Europe and the United States are trying to become more sustainable makes me hopeful for the future. I now know that there are opportunities in the States to do what I am interested in. This job has also shown me that there is more to learn which leans me toward going to grad school next fall. But then I wonder if I can learn on the job. Who knows? I’m not going to worry about that stuff too much right now.

With only a few weeks left in Hamburg, it’s very easy for me to get excited about coming back home. I miss my family and friends. I miss Ann Arbor. I miss being able to hold random conversations with people. Well…maybe not that last one so much. There are a few things I want to do here before I leave so I’m trying to focus on them and not counting down the days until I go home.

The work I’ve been doing has allowed me to see various examples of regional development plans that I hope Detroit can have someday. It is becoming more efficient and sustainable to plan for a region instead of just a city and I think this could benefit Detroit immensely. Seeing how these plans are made, it makes me curious about what is going wrong with Detroit. I’m guessing it’s the political system that is holding it back as well as its bumpy economic history. I think there is a way around all of that and hope to be a part of it some day.

Until next time:

Keep it Green!

Brianne

Heidelberg

Yesterday I got back from a conference of all the students involved in the same program as me, RISE (Research in Science and Engineering aka Nerdfest). There were just over 300 kids there and it was a funfilled, busy 3 days! DAAD, the host of the conference, threw a nice welcome dinner for all of us at a German bar. It was buffet style so you can only imagine how long it took for all of us to eat! Of course, my table sat in a corner but we tried to wait patiently. Also during our wait my voice diminished to a sexy croaky-ness for the week due to my sinus infection/cold/allergies so that kind of sucked. Anywho… The next day was company visits. All the students were separated into groups depending on their project and studies. I was in a group that went to Frankfurt and we got to see a lot of cool stuff!! We started at a power plant that burns the garbage from the surrounding area to supply heat and electricity to the homes and businesses in the area. It was smelly at times but I’m not sure if it was worse than the waste water treatment plant I went to last semester for school. The results are in inclusive and further studies are being done.

Next we had a very delicious lunch and presentation about how Frankfurt is hoping to become Europe’s Green Capital. I won’t go into to details but they are doing different developmental things to improve their sustainability while supporting a growing population. After that we went to a natural history museum and I actually liked it! I know, I know. You may ask “Brian, you had fun at a MUSEUM?!” And my response is that I had fun because the tour guide was very good. He wasn’t just any old tour guide, oh no. He was a Ph.D. student that is a tour guide on the side. So he was very informative and knew where all the good displays were.

Wait a minute...

Then after that we went to the headquarters of a major bank here in Germany, Commerzbank. The building used to be the tallest building in Europe until Russia had to be all Russian and take all the glory. Geezzzz. The building is unique because it has open gardens every 4 floors and uses environmentally friendly technologies to reduce energy required for heating and cooling. After that very long day we got back to the hostel a little later than planned and almost had no dinner. But thankfully we did because we needed fuel for the fun filled night. Most of the kids at the conference all met at a nearby park and drank and just hung. I will say it is weird being allowed to have open alcoholic bottles/beverages in public spaces. But everybody behaves themselves so it all works out.

The next day was our last day (awwww) but we still had some presentations to go to. Once those were done and everyone had taken a nap during them, we had a tour of Heidelberg. It wasn’t the best tour but I still got some nice picture of some of the town.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend. I got to meet and hang out with cool people on someone else’s dollar (Euro?). It was nice to hang out with people my own age and who speak pretty good English. A couple of us have started to speak German-English which probably won’t last but is still funny. It was sad to leave and have to come back to work where I sit at a computer most of the day and don’t really talk to anyone. I’m looking more and more forward to going home and starting classes. I really miss Ann Arbor and all that goes with it. 

HafenCity

Last week I did an official tour of HafenCity. The tour guide had a lot of good information about the development of the area and the planning process. There was also a really cool building there that has information about the type of architecture in the area, the history of the ports, and how it will expand the city center. Here is a really cool building in HafenCity:

The layer on the outside is there to protect the building from wind and harsh weather. Work has been pretty much the same for the past week and a half. Just working on the case study of Amsterdam's regional and city vision/plan/scenario. There are so many ways they describe it that it gets confusing. Speaking of confusing, I got lost again last Friday. There must be something about Fridays because I get all kinds of lost on those days. They just be called Lostday! Right?!? Right?...

While I've been here I've realized when school starts back up I'm gonna have to start studying for the GRE. I'm glad I figured this out now so I can figure out my schedule and get prepared. I also realized I'm gonna have to take the FE in the winter semester so I have two standardized tests to look forward to in the next year!! Yippee!!

Last night I had dinner with a girl from the States that is doing research in Hamburg as well and we had some good conversations. We both are wondering what it is going to be like to understand the people around you and do regular everyday things without a language barrier when we're back home. I didn't realize how much I take that for granted. We also talked about how some days you count down the days until you're going back home and others you don't even think about it. There are definitely good and bad days.

Next week I'm going to Heidelberg for a conference hosted by the program I'm in. I plan on taking lots of pictures so keep an eye out for those!!

Until next time:

Keep it green!!
Brianne

Bieber Street

This past week was pretty routine. On Thursday I got to meet with a group of planning students from Prague that were visiting. My boss's boss invited me to join them since they would be discussing Hamburg in English and I'm very glad that he did. We talked about Hamburg and the benefits and drawbacks of planning in the city. We also got to walk around this area of the city that has been taken over by artists. There were buildings that weren't being used so they squatted in them and the city has made a deal with them so they can stay. There is amazing art on all the buildings in the area. I don't need to go to museums, just show me where there is some street art.

A couple of days ago I moved into my final apartment. It was a challenge to get here but I finally made it!! Thank goodness my boss was helping me. I unpacked all my stuff today and am all moved in. The place where I am is like a dorm for international students. The room is like any dorm room: small but bearable. The community kitchen is something to get used to so I've figuring that out has the days go by. I do feel very accomplished because I did laundry today all by myself!! The directions were completely in German but my clothes are clean and semi-dry so I'm saying it was a win.

At work I've been transcribing a few interviews that my boss did in Amsterdam. They are about the new structural vision for the city that they hope to have completed by 2040. Its a really cool project and I'm glad I get to learn about it and do some work on it. It seems that I will be able to work with some other people in the office once I have these interviews transcribed. But I that just depends on what Judith can find for me to do.

Another picture from the walk around the art commune. I just had to snap a picture!!

Almost forgot about the title of my post. The street I live on now is called Bieberstrasse, meaning Bieber Street. And I'm proud to be a resident on this street!!! O yea, I have Bieber fever!!!

Until next time:

Keep it green!
Brianne

First days of work

Started my job on Tuesday and I am liking it so far. On my first day I met my boss, Judith, who is a Ph.D. student working at/with HafenCity University (HCU). Here is picture of where HCU will be when its all completed:

It looks pretty lame now but in a couple of years its suppose to be done. They also said it was going to be done in 2012 when they started so who knows when it will be completed... But this year Hamburg was titled the European Green Capital! I don't know about you, but I was pretty impressed. I got some information about tours they do to show why they got this so I will definitely be doing that!

Back to business: Judith also advises students and does lectures for some classes. She is nice and really helpful with getting settled here and starting work. In the afternoon on Tuesday we tried to get some errands done but were completely unsuccessful. We started at the post office so I could register in Hamburg and she needed to get a new passport. We got there and received the number 215 and 216 while they were on #176. So we sat down and filled out some paperwork. After a while we were told by a woman sitting by us that she had already been there for 2 hours and still had about 20 people ahead of her. We thought we could go to the bank and try to open an account but once we got there we were told I needed to be registered in Hamburg to open an account. So back to the post office we went...only to find out there were still about 25 people ahead of us. We declared Tuesday a bust and went our separate ways home.

On Wednesday I sat in on some presentation that students were giving that Judith had to evaluate. They were all in German but I was just interested to sit in because the students were about my age and I wanted to see what type of work they were doing. After that we went back to the office and celebrated Judith's boss's birthday that was last week. Here, if it is your birthday, you supply champagne and I think usually some type of food. So I got to have some champagne at lunch!! I was pretty stoked but didn't want to seem like a totally newbie so I contained my excitement. After lunch I actually got to start working! Judith explained to me what her dissertation is about and what type of research she is looking at. Right now I am reading articles about spatial strategic planning. It is some cool stuff and it actually makes sense to me. I'm definitely improving my reading of articles skills and boy did they need some work!! I have never been good at that kind of reading and I definitely think this will help.

Today was more reading and summarizing of the articles. I finally made an appointment to get registered so hopefully I can open a bank account soon. HafenCity University seems like an amazing school! They have different levels of degrees in Urban Planning, Urban Design, Civil Engineering, Architectural Engineering, and (my favorite) REAP, which stands for Resource Efficiency in Architecture and Planning (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

That is basically what I want to do which I have never been able to put a title on. I am really excited to be working at this school and Judith said she can help me set up some meetings with people if I want. I will probably do this I just have to get my mind straight about who I would want to talk to first!!

Until next time:

Keep it green,
Brianne

Back in Hamburg

Hello all! I'm back in Hamburg after visiting my friend Maya for a view days in Stuttgart. I had soooo much fun there and was sad to leave. After arriving we got ready to go out on the town. We went to a beach bar, then got dinner, and ended the night at a pub, Biddy's. We had a good time even though we got tied up in other people's drama and got rum and coke spilled all over me without an apology. The next day we did some shopping and then a photographer came to Maya's parent's house to do a photo shoot. I got to watch Maya, her sister and her mom get their hair and make up done and get their picture taken multiple times. After that eventful day, we decided to do something a little more relaxing on Friday so we went to the zoo. It was a very nice zoo and a lot of the animals were active. We saw the monkeys go a little crazy and some llamas stalk a couple of dogs walking through the neighboring park. Here's one of my favorite pics from the day:

During the day Saturday we took it easy so we would have enough energy for the night. It was Maya's sister's  boyfriend's birthday and we wanted to have a good night!! Which we did!!

We started at the club that the party was taking place and then went to a big, ridiculous dance club thingy. It had 5 rooms that each had a different theme and we ended up dancing in the room that played hip hop music from when I was in high school. We knew it was a good time to end the night when they played the opening song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Then came Sunday when I had to leave and come back to Hamburg. :( After a long train ride, I thought it would be beneficial to get lost multiple times since I was carrying my 80 pounds of luggage. But that was just a warm up to the 5 flights of stairs I was to climb to get to the apartment (once I found it).

Today I'm just hanging out and resting before I start work tomorrow. I'm glad I get to start working again so I can have that structure and something to do during the day. I hope I'm prepared enough for the job and that I don't get too confused with everything on the first day. Fingers crossed!!

Until next time:

Keep it green!
Brianne

Scheiße and Giggles

The past couple of days have had their ups and downs, hence the title of this post. My last few days in Berlin were uneventful. Simone helped with my luggage to the train station and saw me off. I was nervous on the train because I thought I might be in the wrong place and have to move, which would have been difficult with all of my stuff. But everything was fine and I enjoyed my first long-distance train ride! I arrived in Hamburg safe and sound. Yesterday was a holiday so I did some sight seeing. To start my day off right, I had a nutritious breakfast:

After that delectable meal, I did a self-led tour through a historic church St. Michaelis. I went all the way to the top of the spire and saw an amazing view of the city. After that, I met up with some girls who are also working at HafenCity University this summer. One of them, Katie, has been here in Hamburg for a little bit so she was our tour guide. We walked around a lot of the city and saw some really cool things. HafenCity in itself is RIDICULOUS!!! The architecture for each building is really different yet it all works together. Here is one of the buildings:

Even though it is amazing aesthetically, some of the locals aren’t too happy about HafenCity being built. I don’t know too much about it but I plan on doing some research as to why this is. HafenCity University isn’t actually built yet so I will be working at their temporary site but I did get to see where it will be built. I hope to be able to come back someday and see it all finished.

At the end of yesterday I was pooped so I planned on today to be a relaxing day. That kind of happened…I started my day at about 6 in the morning by being woken up my a wild boar that was let loose in my room. O wait, that’s not a wild boar you say but a man snoring?!?!?!? You had me fooled. I was going to get up early anyways because I had to go to work to sign my contract but I wasn’t going to get up THAT early. I also realized how loud I can be when trying to get ready quietly. After all of that excitement, I set out on my journey to find where I will be working for the next 10 weeks. So I got on the train and of course, I was heading in the wrong direction. So I got off and found out that there is construction being done on the line I need to take so I had to get off again and find the bus that is used to compensate for this. But I finally made it! I found the office perfectly fine and signed my contract. I was supposed to meet with one of my co-workers but she got tied up at home and couldn’t make it in. After all of this I waved my little white flag, came back to the hostel, watched a movie and took a nap. I’m going to try to get to bed early tonight because who knows when I’ll be woken up by the wild boar again.

Tomorrow I leave for Stuttgart to go and visit my friend Maya!!! I am über excited and can barely contain myself!!! 

Until next time:

Keep it green!

Brianne

Moving on

I was very tempted to title this post "I dislike cats" but I decided not too. For those of you who are unaware of why this is currently important, stay tuned. I think mentioning it in the first line is much more effective. Anyway...this was my last week in Berlin…I had a really enjoyed my time here but I am super excited to go to Hamburg. I was talking to Simone about it yesterday and she said that Hamburg is nice because it is by the water and there are less people. I’m leaving on Sunday by train and should get the Hamburg at about 3:30pm.

The last couple of days I’ve gone to a couple more museums and just hung out. On Tuesday I went to a display called “Topography of Terror.” It mostly is about the history of the Nazi party and also includes an overall history of Berlin. There was so much information and a lot of pictures.

Funny little story: on my way to the Topography of Terror I got off the train at the wrong stop. I didn’t realize it until I had walked around for 20 minutes trying to find the museum. I was getting mad because I couldn’t find any of the streets on the map, which was because I’m blond and didn’t know I was in the wrong area. Oops!!! Haha. On Wednesday I went to the Museum of Design.

It is based in an old design school that included classes for architecture and art. It was very modern and different and I spent most of my time the architecture portion.

Yesterday (Thursday) I came home after my language class and had to do laundry. I’m glad the cat that peed in my suitcase has good timing and I was going to do laundry anyways. So there cat!! You’re not going to get the best of me!! Other than that I had just planned on hanging out for the rest of the day. In the afternoon Simone asked if I would like to join her, her friend, and her friend’s kids for dinner. I graciously accepted and had a very nice time. We had potatoeswith yogurt sauce, sautéed fennel, and salad. It was all delicious! Most of the time during dinner, I just sat back and listened to everyone else talking German. I could only follow the conversation by body language and a few words I knew. After dinner, Simone’s guests left and we sat at the kitchen table and talked. We discussed the financial situation of the U.S. and Germany, office politics, family, and some other things. By 11:30 I was tired so I said guten Nacht and went to bed.

Today was the last day of my language class. I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it. I learned more grammar than actual words but my teacher made a good point that you can learn the language on the street but you can’t learn the grammar there. After class we all went to a Biergarten and hung out for a little while.

As I said before, I am really excited to go to Hamburg on Sunday but I’m even more excited about going to Stuttgart on Wednesday and seeing Maya!!! We’re going to have so much fun together and will be nice to see a familiar face.

This may be my last picture from Berlin (tear) so I wanted it to be pretty (yes I took this and if I can say so myself, its not too shabby!).

Keep it green,

Brianne

Ach...

So this weekend was kind of a bust. I tried to go to a museum thingy on Saturday but since it was the weekend the Tram was running differently. Long story short, I didn't make it in time for the English tour. I did go today but more on that later. Since all I ended up doing on Saturday was walk around trying to find something to do/take up time and having no luck, I just stayed in yesterday because I didn't want to deal with the hotness and mostly everything is closed on Sundays anyways.

Today after class I did make it to the museum (?) that I really wanted to go to. It was a prison that was used by the Soviet's after WW2 and then the West Berlin police (Stasi) from 1945 to 1989 (I believe). It was more of a torture facility than a prison though while the Stasi used it. People would be picked up by the Stasi (who dressed in plain, commoners clothes) and then come to the prison to be questioned. They were most likely tortured psycologically and not physically. That was a totally different story while the Soviets used the facility. It was an interesting tour and my tour guide did a very good job of telling us a good amount of facts but not too much where we would be overwhelmed.

I've been here for about a week now. I still really like it and am glad I'm getting to know the public transportation system. On the ride back from the museum today, I was comparing our bus system in Ann Arbor to the Tram system here. I came up with two very obvious differences: (1) The stops/stations are much farther apart here. I accidentally got off the Tram this morning one stop too early and it resulted in an extra 5-10 minutes walking. If this would have happened in Ann Arbor, most likely I would have only had to walk a couple of minutes to the next stop. I would like to know the reasoning as to why the stops are so close to each other in Ann Arbor. I'm guessing the efficiency of the system would be greater if there were fewer stops. Also, (2) the tram system has its own lanes. They operate in the middle of the road, in place of a median. This enables them to stop without disturbing traffic and reduces the amount vehicles on the actual roads. I hope someday we can have a system like this in Michigan, whether its in Detroit, Ann Arbor or even East Lansing (I know but we need change somewhere).

As far as culturally speaking, I am still a little overwhelmed by the language barrier. I feel bad when people come up to me asking for directions in German and I can't do a thing for them. My classes have been going well and I've been kind of hanging out with my classmates outside of class. We're all different so there is a nice mix of people but they like to do different things than I do so we don't exactly click. Not everybody has to be best friends though, right? Haha.

Until next time:

Keep it green!!

Heeyyyoooo!!!!

I'm just hanging around so I thought I'd do my thang.

Wednesday started off with my language course. Slowly but surely we are all learning Deutsch. After class I was walking with some of my classmates and one of them asked "What is your name again? The teacher keeps calling you Brian but that can't be your name." Haha. Whenever Katarina says my name it does sound like Brian but I just told her I'm used to it (Thanks JJ crew). After class we went on a boat tour down the river Spree which was nice. Now this wasn't your typical boat tour where you sit on an open boat in plastic lawn chairs. We got on this really nice boat with tables, chairs, tableclothes, and centerpieces. This is what a top notch German boat tour looks like:

After the boat tour, I took a nice, long walk around the Hauptbahnof. This really was because I was lost but we don't have to tell anyone. Of course once I was lost I had to go to the bathroom but found they charge 0.80 euros to use the toilette so I just held it until I got home.

Yesterday (Thursday) was a bank holiday/celebration of Men. I guess it is a day for guys to celebrate being guys and give them an excuse to go to the beach and get drunk. Haha. Our language school arranged for us to go to the Alliierten Museum.

Once there I realized how much Scheiße Berlin has been through! it was interesting and put me on the fence about museums. Only time will tell if we are meant to spend time together. Once we were done at the museum, we were all hungry and parched so we went to a....Biergarten!!! Thats right kids, whenever you have an excuse to go to a Biergarten, you go. It was quite busy since it was a holiday but it was on a lake which was pretty. To get back to the main part of Berlin, we had to get on the S-Bahn (the above ground rail system) which was a lot farther away than we expected. We all went our separate ways and I headed back to Simone's apartment but first I needed to find something to eat. Since it was a holiday, almost everything was closed. I had to just walk aimlessly about and hope that something was open. Thank goodness I found a burrito place similar to Chipotle. I ate my amaazziinngg burrito then pretty much called it a night.

Today has been a slow day. Went to class, had lunch, went to the grocery store, and now just relaxing. OOOOOOO!!! I did ride the rail system for the first time Wednesday and I'm now hooked. It is pretty amazing. They have three, yes 3, different systems working to get people around Berlin. There is the U-Bahn (the underground rail), the S-Bahn (surface rail) and the Tram (which is like a bus system but runs on tracks). Today I bought a 7-day pass so I can ride which ever one as many times a day I want until by pass runs out. It is totally worth it too. Hopefully someday we'll have something like this in the States. It seems really complex put the people know how it works and deal with it really well. I've only had one incident so far and that was today. I was sitting on the Tram and the man in front of me thought it was the right time to immerse himself in body spray. Of course it went all in my mouth and was disgusting smelling. Then a couple of minutes later he remembered to spray his underarms so I got another wonderful dose of spray.

That's it for now. Until next time:

Keep it green!

p.s. Here a picture of the front of the my language school's office. I lerv graffiti so I HAD to snap a pic. Enjoy.

Blisters

By the title of this post, I'm sure you can figure out my biggest dilemna: blisters. It all started when I went to see where my language course was on Sunday. Then today they just got worse. I'm resting for the rest of the day so my feet can rest and I can catch up on this blog!

Any who...yesterday was the first day of the language course. My teacher's name is Katarina and she is very nice. She talks fast but I think it is helping us with the process of learning German. After class yesterday we went to a biergarten (thats beer garden in German. See, I'm catching on!). It was fun and the beer was good. After I bought my beer, my teacher informed me that it is the beer that only tourists buy. I was a little bummed because I want to be like a native but the beer was delicious so I didn't really care in the end. Here is a pic of my bier:

Today after class I went to a place which they call Museum Island. It is was it sounds like; it is I think 4 museums in close proximity to each other and they all have different artifacts and paintings. We went to Neues Museum which has Egytian artifacts and other cool old stuff. The museum has a cool background story: it was heavily damaged during WW2 so it has been closed until the last couple of years. Here is a picture from google of what it looked like before restoration:

And here is one of what it looks like now:

I discovered today that I'm not a huge fan of museums (sorry Sister). My feet were killing me but even if I had the right shoes on, I think the hour that I spent there today still would have been enough. I payed more attention to the building itself and its architecture rather than the priceless (well not exactly priceless...) pieces. So after a painful walk back to Simone's apartment, I took care of my little piggies and am now just hanging out.

The next few days are going to filled with a couple more tours so I hope I can get some more good pictures to post. And I wanted to leave you all with this picture of Zen (copyright The Daily Show).

Keep it green!!

I'm Here!!

Hello All! I made it safe and sound to Berlin. I'll try to put the events leading up to arriving in order but don't hold it against me if they're not. So here we go:

I prepared for this trip for at least a month before leaving. It was ROUGH! Well...kind of rough. Lots of emails, shopping trips, and other preparatory things (basically boring stuff). After the buckets of tears shed (I'm talking about you Dad) I was off. Going through the airport was fine but got a little cold during the strip search (just kidding). The flight to Philadelphia was good. Sat next a nice guy (Hi Kai!!) and left 30 minutes later than was scheduled. This resulted in me having to use my fast-paced walking skills to get to the next gate for my flight to Frankfurt. I made it just in time and got to enjoy all the free movies and complimentary meals. Only slept for about 15 minutes but the guy next to me was insisting on me sleeping on his shoulder. I told him thanks, but no thanks. On arrival in Frankfurt, I found out that I was going to be on a plane with about 20 French middle schoolers. This made me a little nervous since at the gate they were pretty loud and rambunctious. But once on the flight I was perfectly distracted by the awkward public display of affection from the couple next to me. At least I got a free candy bar out of it.

Finally, made it to Berlin. Took a taxi from the airport to the apartment that I will be staying at for the two weeks that I'll be here. Here are a couple of pictures:

I know, I know. I took the picture of my room this morning so my suitcase is open and my stuff is already all over the place. My host's name is Simone and 20 minutes after she greeted me, she had to leave for 3 days to go and visit her parents. I'm here on my own for the next couple of days so I'm going to get the feel of the land. Yesterday I didn't really unpack or anything because I almost had a mini-tantrum since by electricity adapter/converter didn't work on my laptop charger. So I made a trip to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

It is the main railway station in Berlin and is filled with cool food places, shops, and is just a cool building overall. I did get my adapter and had a nice dinner there. The walk there was about 30 minutes and I got to see a little of the city. After I got back from my excursion I got in my pajamas, turned on Friday Night Lights and passed out!

So today I'm just been catching up on some stuff and now I'm going to see where my language school is at. I'm still a little tired even after getting about 12 hours of sleep but everything is going good so far. The people that I have encountered here for the most part speak English which is awesome. I was worried that the first few days here I would feel stranded since I don't speak the language and Simone is gone. But I've got my maps and I'm ready to do more exploring!!

Keep it green!
Brianne