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!