I'm a student again!

Yesterday was my first day of school! (For the 20th time in my life.)

My day started out the old-fashioned way with my host dad (Lutz) knocking on my bedroom door at 6:00am to make sure I was awake (little did he know I had set 3 different alarms...all set to begin around 6:05). Anyway, I got ready with plenty of time to spare and headed downstairs to grab something to eat. SURPRISE - Lutz had set out breakfast for me - complete with butter already spread on my toast!! How cute it that?! And he had prepared some cut-up vegetables for me to take as a midday snack along with an apple and bottle of water. I just thought that was great :)

I biked to the train station and joined the morning crowd on the S-Bahn (train) and then the Underground (subway) before walking a few blocks to GLS Sprachschule (my language school). I was there by 7:45am and was immediately instructed to take a placement test. I thought I did alright, and then it was time to wait for my "interview" (to make sure I can actually speak some German). I sat among other students who were all speaking languages I didn't recognize. Then I heard it! English! "Excuse me, are you American?" And that's how I made my first friend in Berlin. His name is Guy, and he is from London. We exchanged numbers and had lunch together yesterday. Wonderful - I'm meeting people outside my host family now! 

  German class was hard, but I'm happy to take on the challenge. I was placed in level A2 (it starts with A0 which are the absolute beginners and continues to C2 which is fluency...So A0, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). The classes are all instructed only in German. I have two different teachers who each teach my class for an hour and a half everyday. I love it. I'm really learning a lot, and my host family is helping me with my homework :)

Yesterday I also became a member at a local gym! The gym is about a 10 minute walk from my school, and it just opened on Thursday. It's honestly the nicest gym I've ever seen. I had a great workout. Tomorrow I'm meeting Anne there after school.

Hmm, what else? Ah yes - last night there was a meet-and-greet event for all students at my school. I made more friends! I met people from Switzerland, Sweden, England, the US, Netherlands, Brazil, China, and Korea. I'm loving it. Now I have people to text and meet for lunch ;)

Thank you for reading and leaving comments! I will do my best to respond to comments directly on the comment threads for each blog post. Gute Nacht!

(cute picture thing Mikaela made for me!)
 

Weekend blur

Hi everybody! My first week in Berlin has come and gone, and I have many things on my mind as I both reflect and look ahead to the future. This post may be a bit scattered as I attempt to collect my thoughts...I find that lists are always helpful:

1) Friday was a very lazy day for me. At night, I rode my bike over to Anne's (only got lost once) which is near the train station and then we met up with her friends at a bar in Berlin. It was a pretty chill environment with good drinks, nachos, and conversation with a girl who has been to Australia so we had plenty to talk about :) Thankfully, Sandro (Anne's boyfriend) drove me home so I didn't have to bike from the train station at 3am. 

Thought from Friday: Hanging out with Anne's friends has introduced me to a new way of acting around acquaintances. Hmm, I'm not sure how best to explain this. Basically, I don't contribute much to the conversations because I don't always know what people are talking about (it's all in German - always). However, even if I haven't talked to someone or even introduced myself, that person will come up to me when they are leaving to go home for the night and shake my hand and say "tschüß" (which means "bye"). I feel so included! It has happened many times now. I think I like it. It's just very different from what I am used to. For their closer friends, they brush cheeks and make a kissing sound. Everybody seems to do this.

2) Saturday was busy busy! Anne came over in the morning and we all (Barbara, Lutz, Jakob, me, Anne, and even Emma the dog) hopped in the car to meet Barbara's parents for lunch - it was Oma's birthday! It was fun to meet more of the family :) Pictures! (Thought from Saturday's lunch: This meal confirmed that everyone here eats much faster than me, and I'm not even talking during the meal!)

3) After lunch, the "adults" went back to Oma and Opa's place for Kaffee trinken und Kuchen (coffee and cake), while the "kids" took the train to check out a big kite festival. It was neat! Tons of kites in the sky - all shapes and sizes. Lots of people were there for the event. We took a lot of pictures, so I have more if you are interested :)

 
 After the kite festival, we made our way back to the others and joined in for delicious cake. Jakob took this awesome panoramic picture of the situation.

 4) Ok after cake, Anne and I went shopping in a nearby mall to kill time before our evening plans with her friends. We then headed over to a friend's place, waited for others to arrive, and then went to a steakhouse at midnight. We were the only ones there and it totally reminded me of going with my friends to Perkins at ridiculous hours of the night. After the boys had their feed, we went to a club. Let me tell you - this club was terrible, but we went for a good laugh. As Jakob told me this morning, it's a "kids' club". I would say the average age was 16. Ha! We danced anyway. It was fun. Sorry - no pictures from that evening.

Random thought: I've been trying to train myself to eat like a European by keeping my fork in my left hand when I'm using a knife, and it's hard. It's like trying to write with my left hand!

5) Got home at 3am last night. Woke up super late. Barbara and Lutz left breakfast out for Jakob and I, which we ate around noon :) I cleaned my room today and did laundry. I live here now! It's been one full week! I feel like part of the family. It's very nice.

6) Today Barbara and Lutz picked up 2 old bikes from Barbara's parents, and I get to use one of them to go back and forth from the train station. Yay - I'm like a real Berliner! Tomorrow morning I need to get up quite early, bike to the train station, and then take the train into Berlin for my first day of German language school. I'm excited!!!

7) Today I bought a train ticket that is good for a whole month. It's getting real now :)

8) I feel like I had more to write about, but I guess I don't. Today was good. Yesterday was good. Tomorrow will be good. I like it here.

Bis Morgen!

It just keeps getting better...

Yesterday (Thursday) was fun! Barbara drove me to the train station to meet up with Anne, and then we went to a secondary school in Berlin where Anne has had an internship all summer. Anne is studying to become a teacher and has specializations in English and Physical Education. Anne asked permission from the classroom teacher if I could come along with her and observe an 8th grade English class. I expected to sit in the back of the room and pretend like I knew what was going on - I was so wrong! Right away, the teacher announced that they had a visitor and asked me to introduce myself. She then instructed the students  to find Minnesota on the US map in their textbooks and then asked me to share some fun facts about Minnesota. Some of the students understood me, some did not... Anyway, the entire rest of the class period was spent with me walking around the room to help the students as they worked to complete their assignments. It was fun to help them learn English and also test my German at the same time (for example, if they didn't know what the word "aircraft" meant, then I needed to know the German word for plane so that they could make the connection). That was a neat experience.

After the English class, Anne and I met up with a girl named Moni who also works as an intern at the school with Anne. Anne and Moni had plans to bake muffins for the students since today (Friday) was their last day interning at the school. I went along to the grocery store to buy the ingredients, and then we went to Moni's place to bake for FOUR HOURS! These were some serious muffins. I had never even heard of half of the ingredients we added. When all was said and done, we had 60 muffins. Yum! Moni's apartment was so awesome. It was on the very top floor of a large building with no elevator. I think we walked up 6 flights of stairs. And with the high ceilings, these were long flights of stairs. I'm so glad I didn't have to be there to help on move-in day. UFFDA. Moni was great - she offered me some great travel advice and shared her own stories of traveling throughout Europe and South America.

I thought it was pretty cool to sit in the kitchen window and look out over Berlin from 6 floors up.  The bedrooms in her flat were HUGE, and she has lived with an international community of roommates.

After baking, Anne showed me more of Berlin including Potsdamer Platz (where there happened to be a movie premiere complete with the red carpet, bright lights, and the anticipated arrival of Tommy Lee Jones within the hour) and the German equivalent of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, the Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Reichstag (Germany's federal government building).  Along the way, I also snapped some photos of remnants of the Berlin Wall and the oldest traffic light in Germany (mostly for my Grampa). 

 

We then met up with Lutz and a couple of his colleagues for dinner. I had my first beer in Germany - a tasty raspberry-flavored Berliner Weisse! I was also served a piece of meat bigger than my head. It was delicious, authentic German cuisine :)

I am now registered to start taking German language classes on Monday in Berlin. I can't wait!!!! I just signed up for the online community of students for the language school and created my profile. It's like Facebook for German language-learners from all over the world! I'm sure I will be making friends in no time.

There was a slight change of plans, and so tonight I'm going to a bar with Anne. I'm not sure what to expect. I hope Jakob has fun at his party without me ;)

Thanks for reading!

 

Today I am thankful for my hands (gestures are a universal language)

I am so proud of my blogging dedication - look at me go! It is fun to reflect on all that I have already done during my few days since arriving in Germany. Today my host brother admitted to reading my blog during class :) At least I know somebody is paying attention!

This morning I went with Barbara to purchase some credit for my phone. Oh - here's what ended up happening with my phone situation (it breaks my heart a little bit): my iPhone can not and will not work here. Believe me, I've exhausted my options. It's just not possible. SO, I will wait patiently until I can join the rest of the world of smart phone users when I return to the US (if not before), and in the meantime I am using Jakob's old phone just for local calls and texts. I sure hope I make some friends here so I have somebody to give my number to ;) I will carry around my iPhone to use as a camera and for internet if I'm ever in a WiFi area. So, if you want to talk to me in live time, then Skype is your best option (christine.dornbusch) I'm always logged into Skype when I'm using my iPad at home.

Alright, then I got lost. It was good and necessary. I took Barbara's bike and a map of Panketal (the town where I live), and I went for an adventure to get a better sense of my surroundings. I re-visited both of the local train stations and the public library. I also had a döner, which is a type of famous German kebab - yum! Only problem was, I had to ask multiple people before I finally found the right place. Side note: whoever told me that everybody here speaks English was lying. I have not yet met a single person who speaks English outside my host family. It's really great practice for me!

As I was sitting outside on a bench enjoying my döner, an old man approached me. I had no idea what he said, so I told him (in German), "I'm sorry, I only understand a little German." He proceeded to talk to me, and I answered (again, in German) "I don't understand". Well, that certainly didn't stop him! He carried on, and we ended up having a conversation that included topics such as the weather in Minnesota, what I am doing in Germany, and his history of being shot at by police when he tried escaping from the East to the West during the time of the Berlin Wall (at least I think that's what he said). He was a nice guy, but it was a pretty choppy conversation given the obvious language barrier. Nevertheless, I was proud. Of both of us.

After my biking/döner/library escapade, I came home and Skyped with my Gram and gave her a tour of my home here. Then I talked for a while with Jakob about all things important: parties, drugs, and boyfriends. It turns out, I am going to a high school party on Friday night. Those 17-year-old boys have no idea what's coming. KIDDING.

Barbara made a delicious pumpkin soup for dinner (I am eating really well here), and then I biked with Jakob to his soccer practice. I watched for a while before heading back home to Barbara where I got caught up on news from back home thanks to my awesome Flipboard app on my iPad - try it out!

Alright, I think that's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to class with Anne and then we are baking muffins :) Bis dann!

Pictures from a day in the city with Anne

Ich liebe Berlin

Today started out a little different than normal. I woke up, looked at the time, and it was 10:52. Whoa, maybe next time I should set an alarm! Ha, I think my host mom was surprised I slept so long, and I will make sure it never happens again :) For now, I will blame it on the jet lag. 

Barbara then drove me to the train station to make sure I knew how to purchase my ticket. I went to meet Anne and her friends at a gym. It was my first time on the train, and I was alone! I did ok - not perfect, but I made it :) Anne met me at the train station and then we met her two friends, Jette and Jule, at the gym for a quality workout. I guarantee I will be sore tomorrow! I will probably get a membership at that gym and continue to go with them throughout my time here if all goes well. 

After the workout, Anne and I explored Berlin by foot. We made our way to Humboldt University where she goes to school. On the way, we took in the beautiful sites of the city including the Berlin city hall, a cathedral, museums, and many many shops and cafes. It was really nice of Anne to show me around and introduce me to part of the city. We enjoyed our time in the sunshine, and even took some time just to relax and sit and talk.

Now I am back at home. Jakob just left for soccer practice and Lutz will be late due to work. It's just Barbara and I, and it's time for supper! I hope you enjoy the pictures from my day  :) Bis später!

...ok I'm having technical difficulties at the moment, so the pictures will have to wait. Tschüß!

I'm here. I'm alive. I'm loving it!

I am so thrilled to be writing this from the comfort of my new home in Berlin! I have been here a little over one day now, and I have already learned so much. I will warn you now, this is going to be a long post...but I know some people are looking forward to all of the details (mostly my Gram).

My journey began Saturday evening when Mary and Mikaela dropped me off at the airport. Since Icelandair flies out of the smaller terminal at MSP airport, I had checked my bags and was through security in minutes - NO LINES! This was my first ever international flight from Minneapolis, and I was surprised to hear so many foreign languages as I waited at the gate.  My flight was a little under six hours, and I slept for most of that time. Thankfully, I had an aisle seat and the middle seat was open even though it was a packed plane :) Lucky me.

ICELAND! I arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland early Sunday morning - what a small airport. I followed the crowd to the passport checkpoint (where I was all nervous about needing to show proof of a return flight, so I bought a cheap ticket to London at the very last minute before leaving home and printed out multiple pages of documentation)...I only had to wait in line for about 3 minutes, and then the guy looked at my passport for 2 seconds, stamped it, and said "thank you". So, no worries there. Easy as pie. 

Next, I was starving - I couldn't believe they didn't give me a free meal on my 6-hour flight! So, I took a peek at the tiny food selection at the tiny airport. Since everything was in Icelandic, I took my best guess and grabbed an embarrassing selection of snacks: strawberry yogurt and [what I assumed to be] BBQ potato chips. When I went to pay, the lady said "700" for the total, so I swallowed hard, handed over my check card, and hoped for the best. Later I would come to find out that 700 Icelandic Kronur equals about $5.80 USD. Whew! A little expensive, but what else would I expect at an airport. 

Only about 15 minutes passed until I was ready to once again board the plane for my next destination: Copenhagen, Denmark.  Immediately after I found my seat, a lady asked if I would switch with her since I was sitting by her friend. Since the trade appeared to be an aisle seat for an aisle seat, I found no problem and agreed to switch. Well what I didn't know was that she had already traded with another person, and then I was in someone else's seat - anyway, I ended up in a middle seat next to a guy that sounded like he was hacking up a lung. Oh boy - more sleeping...

After just under 3 hours, I arrived in Copenhagan at a large airport that appeared to be more concerned with clothing than planes. Shops were everywhere! It was so big! There were even electronic signs to estimate how long the walking time was to different gates. I hurried along until I found my gate and had to force myself to look away from all of the merchandise for sale.  As I waited at the gate for my final flight that would finally take me to Berlin, I got to thinking about how fascinating airports can be. I am usually very excited to be at an airport because I associate flying with rewards/vacations/fun. Well, that is obviously not the story for everyone. Many people are traveling for regular work duties of course, but there are other reasons that might be more trying on a person's emotions: illness or death of a family member or friend, moving, deployment, or a job interview. I wondered about this as I looked around and listened to the babble of languages incomprehensible to my brain...Fascinating.

Fast forward, and my flight to Berlin was the shortest flight of my life. I swear we were only in the air for 25 minutes! I drank a cup of tea, and we were there. EXCITING! I felt kind of cool as I left the plane because I walked directly out of the plane door to a set of stairs going outside (just like the President haha) and once again followed the crowd to a bus that took us to the baggage claim area. I was relieved to be reunited with both of my suitcases right away (neither of my suitcases arrived in Australia when I studied abroad), and I was SO ready to see my host family. Since I didn't see them inside the airport near baggage claim, I walked outside with the hope that I wouldn't have to wait long. My flight did arrive 15 minutes early, so I knew I couldn't blame them ;) However, no worries, because they pulled up in less than a minute! They (Barbara, Lutz, and Jakob) quickly jumped out of the car to greet me with hugs! It was wonderful to meet them in person after our conversations via Skype.  

My oh my, this post is getting quite long. Ok, so then my host family drove me home and showed me their beautiful house and yard. I love it here. It is just so nice and clean and cute. My room is perfect. Ah, speaking of "my" room, I finally got to meet Anne! Anne is my 21-year-old host sister who lives with her boyfriend, and now I live in her old bedroom. She is excellent. She also lived in the US when she studied in Idaho for 6 months during high school (Idaho is so random, right?). Anyway, she speaks fluent English as well and has been more than kind to me. I really like her! I also met the dog, Charlie the cat that always bolts inside if the door is open, and the 3 chickens. This is my new family here :)

Sunday night proceeded with talking and eating. Barbara even prepared a delectable, traditional German food called rollladen that looks and smells like your typical pot roast, but it's actually meat that is rolled and stuffed with cucumbers, mustard, and I think something else but I forgot - ah, I should have paid more attention! It is difficult to retain all of the details about everything because I am constantly being exposed to new things. It is such a great place to be.

Today (Monday) was a full day. In the morning, I met Anne and her friend (Jette) for breakfast at a local cafe. I should have taken a picture of the beautiful plate of fresh food presented to me - no grease/nothing fried! I was presented with a delicious concoction of bread rolls, fruit, cheese, and meat served with yummy fruit tea. This was kind of a big deal because it was my first successful food order auf Deutsch (in German). BUT I had Anne there to help me, so I still consider myself a beginner ;) Ah, that's another thing - I don't know as much German as I thought I did. Don't get me wrong, I understand many of the things I hear, but it's so fast! I only catch a few words of each sentence. I will learn. I am already learning.
 
After breakfast, I went shopping with Anne and Barbara in a nearby town called Bernau. We talked to many phone store representatives to try and figure out how to make my new iPhone work here, to no avail. UGH. It's frustrating, but I think I've worked out a solution. More on that another day. It would be very difficult to do this on my own since the majority of the people we spoke with do not understand English.

We then stopped at a cafe for ice cream and walked around a bit, including going inside a very very old church. Barbara told me the history of the wall in Bernau that used to surround the entire city during the Middle Ages. Apparently when the French (? don't quote me on that) would try and attack the city, they got hot tar poured on them from the top of the wall. Yikes. Here are some pictures from our outing in Bernau...

Ok, so then tonight I spent some time with Jakob as he tried to help me with syncing all of my Apple products and getting hooked up to iCloud. I also went on a bike ride with Lutz and Jakob where they showed me both of the nearby train stations and the village of Panketal where we live. 

Tomorrow I am taking the train by myself into the city of Berlin to meet Anne and Jette at the gym. Wish me luck!

In case you are interested in contacting me directly:
Skype: christine.dornbusch (I am 7 hours ahead of Central time in the US)
Email: cmd928@gmail.com
Snail mail: Meraner Strasse 41   
16341 Panketal, Brandenburg GERMANY

I am seriously so lucky to have been placed with this family. I am doing well. Thanks for reading!

So, I'm really going... in 4 days!

Backpack purchase from Scheels - check
Exit procedures for my job - check
Several trips to the thrift store to get rid of excess possessions - check
Trouble with packing because I want to bring my entire scarf collection - check
Going away party preparations - check

I think I'm ready. This is it! Only 4 days. FOUR MORE DAYS. My life is about to change in the most dramatic way since before I can remember. Not only am I moving to Germany for an unknown length of time, but I am also leaving my job (with no plans for my next source of income) and moving out of my current residence (with a very gracious former professor). There is a lot to think about!

I'm trying really hard to be prepared, but it's hard to prepare for the unknown. Not hard - it's impossible. How am I going to be effective in teaching English to my host parents? Will I ever find a job while abroad? How long will I be there? Where will I travel? Who will I travel with? How expensive is all of this going to be? How can I legally stay in Europe even after my 90 days "visa" runs out? I have so many questions, and it's making the time fly :)

A couple of days ago (ok, so maybe it was yesterday but the days are all blurring together at this point), my supervisor asked me if I had set any goals for my upcoming adventure. I thought that sounded like a really good idea, but I hadn't really taken the time to put my aspirations into writing. So, here it goes. My first draft of my goals for my time abroad:

1)  Do my best to learn the German language. This involves speaking in German with locals, taking classes, and hopefully completing a test to figure out my actual proficiency level.

2) Develop and maintain a positive relationship with my host family. Get to know each family member by asking about their stories, their values, their dreams, and their fears.

3) Travel around Europe - use Couchsurfing.com to find free accommodation and meet interesting people who share my love for learning, discovering new places/people/things, and having fun. Meet up with old friends who I may have met in Australia (that's a stretch since it has been 5 years now) or past exchange students at MSU!

4) Keep family and friends updated with this blog and Skype chats. My good friend Mikaela has told me that I need to write every single day for my first week in Germany. We'll see about that...

5) Learn to cook. Seriously. I'm almost 25 years old and have no idea what I'm doing in the kitchen.

6) Make professional connections by visiting universities and American study abroad provider sites. Offer to volunteer, hand out my resume, and put myself out there! This adventure is the perfect opportunity to advance my career in international education.

7) Learn more about German history and understand the ways that historical events have shaped the current culture.

8) Become a soccer fan. I have to at least try.

9) Find a beer that I can stand the taste of. I'm going to be in Germany for Oktoberfest, enough said.

10) Most important goal of them all - make friends!!!

I will write again soon. I'm busy packing ;)