**NOW WITH PICTURES! Herbst ist meine Lieblingsjahreszeit (Autumn is my favorite season)

Hello again! True story - I think about what I want to write about on my blog every single day. When I'm riding my bike to the train station in the morning, when I'm walking to school, when I'm sitting on the train, when I'm in class...seriously all the time. Believe me, I have great ideas :) But then, I get busy and don't write as often as I would like! I'm taking advantage of the time I have right now. I just got home from school and the gym. I'm dirty and need to shower. I also need to pack for my weekend trip to the Netherlands, and I also need to eat. Too bad, I'm writing this post.

I thought of a few more "differences" between home and Berlin/Germany:

1) Beer on the train and on the street. It is legal to drink from an open bottle in public. So that means I see people drinking beer on the train at all hours of the day. I actually think it's "against the rules" to eat or drink on the train, but that doesn't stop these people. I joined in and drank straight from a champagne bottle when I went out with Jakob. I suppose it's a way of "pre-gaming" on the way out to a bar or club. Anyway, enough about alcohol.

2) Not that it's super interesting, but light switches and toilet flush buttons are different from at home. To flush a toilet, you press a big button that's on the wall, not on the toilet. Even at home!

3) I still can't get over some of the things people wear at the gym. Guys wearing swimtrunks. Guys wearing pants with belts! Shoes of all sorts. Fascinating.

4) Fanny packs are cool here. 

5) The calendar week starts on Monday instead of Sunday.

6) Everybody seems to work by the 24-hour clock (what I know as "military time"). Last night I tried clearing the microwave display because I wanted to know what time it was (it said 00:33), and so I thought someone had just failed to clear their leftover seconds from the latest nuking. Nope, it was 12:33 am. Ha, I felt dumb. 

7) Instead of using indoor curtains/blinds to block out sunlight in the morning or keep the peeping Toms away at night, German houses have outdoor blinds that you can control using a pulley system from inside. Strange, but they work great!

8) Milk comes in a small cardboard box instead of a huge plastic jug. The milk is like butter (1.5% fat). I love it!



K, can't think of anything else at the moment. What the heck have I been up to? I'm so glad you asked!

Last weekend I visited Stefan and Sara in Erlangen - a 4 hour cruise on the fastest type of train in Deutschland. I had a very relaxing and fun weekend. We went out to dinner, caught up with fluent English conversation (so unbelievably refreshing), and toured the city of Nürnberg. The city is very old and has beautiful buildings along a river. We also went into a large church and then played in the leaves :) I am so grateful to Stefan and Sara for letting me stay with them (let's just say it was a tight squeeze in their one-room apartment) and showing me around the area. It was fun to kick back, relax, and reminisce about the good ol' days in Mankato ;) **I also found a kind of candy that I don't like! Sara had me try her Swedish "salt candy", and I found it absolutely disgusting. Candy is supposed to be sweet! I felt like a cow sucking on a salt cube, and then the inside kind of tasted like black licorice. Never again. An important learning experience nonetheless :)

I arrived back in Berlin on Sunday night, which happened to be the final night of "Festival of Lights", which is an annual 12-night illumination/light design festival where Berlin's most famous landmarks are lit with amazing colors and some buildings feature light projection "shows". I guess it's a little hard to explain, but it sounded like a big deal so I wanted to make sure I experienced it.  There were SOOOO many people there, it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, I only had time to see the Brandenburger Tor. It was neat!

When Monday rolled around, it was back to school for me. Boy this week I learned so much grammar that I think my head is going to explode! I took a test today to see how much I actually managed to comprehend, and I'm a little scared to see my score. Needless to say, I'm learning A LOT. But it is fun. 

I really like my class. We are beginning to become a little family. We went out to lunch together a couple of times this week. Well, not everybody from my class joined in, but it was me and 3 people from Switzerland and a girl from Italy. 

On Tuesday after lunch with my classmates, I went with the girl from Italy (Sabrina) to visit the Reichstag - Germany's main government building. We got to walk in the big glass dome at the top of the building and overlook Berlin. Best of all, it was free! And I got an English audio guide, which I always appreciate. I get tired of reading sometimes :)

What else? Ah yes, and then last night (Thursday) I went to Humboldt University to a stammtisch for international students. Let me explain. Humboldt Uni is where Anne goes to school. She recently got a job working in the international center there. Part of her role as a student employee is to help organize events for the international students. Stammtisch is a popular concept in Germany. It's basically a regularly-occurring gathering of people. For example, my school has a stammtisch every Monday night at the restaurant/bar on campus. It's an organized opportunity to meet new people. Anyway, Anne invited me to the stammtisch for international students at Humboldt (even though I'm obviously not a university student). It was yet another great opportunity to try my luck with my ever-evolving German proficiency. I even got a free glass of wine! Oh, right - enough about alcohol.

Tonight I embark on an international adventure! I'm taking a bus to the Netherlands to visit my good friend Hylke. The ride will take 8 1/2 hours. I arrive at 4am. Ha! This should be interesting...Hylke got us tickets for the largest theme park in the Netherlands, and we are going to ride rollercoasters! I'm excited.

Thank you for continuing to follow along with me as the details of this adventure gradually unfold. I have heard from several people that they really enjoying my writing, and I honestly feel honored that anyone would want to read about my day-to-day activities and find them thrilling. Ok, so maybe nobody used the word "thrilling", but I'd like to think there's something that keeps you coming back for more ;)

As a reminder, you can contact me any of the following ways:

1) Comment on my blog.
2) Write me an email to cmd928@gmail.com
3) Skype with me: christine.dornbusch - I'm always on!
4) What'sApp. My number here is +49 152 556 91401 (if you don't know what I'm taking about, just ignore it).

Peace. Love.