Finally in Berlin and getting adjusted.,, Berlin is a very large city. It reminds me of the size of NYC and the character of NYC, but with the scale and greenery that Boston offers. Our apartment is in former East Berlin, and our studio/classes is in the former West Berlin… so it is about a 30-40 minute commute every day on the U Bahn.
German is everywhere. When we visited Sweden, Finland, and Estonia…pretty much everyone spoke English. Here it isn’t always the case because we aren’t always in touristy areas. For instance, Julia, Austin, and I were dumb and bough the wrong subway monthly pass, so we had to get it fixed, and it took a good 5 minutes with the guy for us all to understand. And another instance, when I bought my phone at Vodafone, the lady spoke very little English. So it is very frustrating, but I am starting to pick it up. We have language class twice a week, and pluse I have a general phrase book, so all together I should get it eventually.
Everything in Berlin is cheap. Food, alcohol, etc. Which makes it nice because the Euro is still a little bit stronger that the US dollar. I love it here though, every time you get off the U bahn and come up, you feel like you are in a new part of Berlin. Tonight I explored an area North of my apartment, and it just felt like I was walking the streets of the village. And today we walked down a Turkish street, and it felt like a street out of San Francisco. This city is just a hybrid of cultures and excitement.
School is starting to get into full swing. Today we start studio and visit our site for our semester long project. It should be interesting because we have to use the metric system, but we are working on an addition to a hostel.
Our apartments are very nice and big. I am sharing a room with Julia and Austin lives in the single bedroom. We cook here to save a little bit, grocery shopping is an adventure but getting the hang out it. I am not really home sick at all, but I do miss Houston. That is about it. I love Europe!
This week/weekend I am going to explore Berlin with my roommates and by myself, and really start to make it my home. There is SO MUCH to explore. Next Thursday-Saturday we are going to Prague, which should be amazing because I hear it is just such a beautiful city. Then the following weekend Julia and I, and a lot of other people are going on our optional travel long weekend to Barcelona. I booked the hostel, so we are right smack dab in the city.
sounds like an awesome time so far! i didn't realize you had this blog until now, yay! you should include pictures in some of your posts about specific things you talk about, it would make it really fun :)
ReplyDeletehaha okay I will for the future =)
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