Alexanderplatz

I got out of class early one day and decided to go to Alexanderplatz, which is in the central Mitte (middle) district of Berlin and explore!  All of Alexanderplatz used to be a part of East Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down 25 years ago!

The Fernsehturm (TV Tower) is the second tallest structure in the EU. It is one of the most well-known landmarks and was intended as a symbol of Berlin when it was constructed in 1965-1969. 

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This is the Welzeituhr (Worldtime Clock). It displays the time for various cities around the world. 

I just thought this was a pretty place for a picture :) 

A pretty fountain!

This is the Ampelmännchen. It is the symbol you see on traffic lights signaling that one can walk across the street she in East Berlin.  Half of the time when I was walking around the city of Berlin I had no idea if I was in East or West.  In order to figure it out I would look for a pedestrian signal. It is one of the only surviving icons from communist East Germany. 

This Is Not The End

These last few months abroad have been amazing. I have new lifelong friendships and I have traveled and seen and experienced new destinations I had only ever dreamed. I have also consequently learned quite a bit.  I learned to book flights, trains, hostels, and tours all on my own. I have had the privilege and opportunity to travel to France, Italy, Czech, Denmark, and Austria without "parental supervision," but with new friends right along next to me. Surprisingly, I have grown the most right here in Berlin. For the first time I learned how to not be afraid to hop on a city train or bus on my own. I am fully capable to get from one destination to the next without worrying that I will become eternally lost. I have learned how to become more aware of my surroundings. Everywhere I look, there are new opportunities. Whether it is to visit a museum or learn a few more words in German. 

By the end of my time here in Berlin I'm really starting to feel like a local. I started being able to identify and be aware of the carbonated water and instead buy still "natural" water, I learned how to ask locals for directions in German while actually understanding their responses, and I even learned how to live in my own studio apartment.  It took me until I had my license and a little too many times getting lost to feel like I really knew my way around at home in California, but it only took a few months in a foreign country to learn my way around. I hope to come back and eventually become a real local (without that whole school thing getting in the way)!

Copenhagen

I went to Copenhagen for the weekend with Haley and visited a friend from home, Greg. This weekend in particular was extremely rainy, windy, and cloudy. Even with my beanie on my head tightly pulled down over my ears, it would fly away as soon as I would release my hands from holding it down!  Although it wasn't great weather, we still managed to do and see a large part of the city.

Out of all the places I have visited, Copenhagen was one of my favorites. It is on a beautiful port and has so many trees! Even though we visited at the end of November, some Christmas lights and festivities were already set up. While shopping, a marching band of little kids randomly marched through the street playing Christmas music! :)

The price of everything was incredibly expensive. To put things in perspective, a small fries from McDonalds (only halfway full) cost $4!!

It was really nice seeing a familiar face again. I hadn't known anyone in my study abroad program before I had arrived in late August.

Haley, Greg, and I

Christmas decorations

The Port

Legos originated from Denmark!

The Little Mermaid Statue

The view of the city from... (insert tower's name)

The elephant exhibit at the Denmark zoo has a fence that keeps it open to the public.

Oh so much wind!!

Christmas Time

Christmas time in Berlin is absolutely gorgeous!  All of the trees are decorated with bright lights and there are over 15 different world-famous Christmas markets. 


During this winter I managed to get to about 5 of them. The markets have booths with different Christmas foods like candy apples, sugary nuts, snowballs, and of course huge varieties of sausages because Germany loves its pork. They are very well known for their Glühwein which is spiced, hot wine. Although I'm not a big wine fan, I found that these actually tasted pretty good! 

Haley and I at the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market

Busses, Trains, and Subways! Oh My!

Before coming to Berlin I had never taken public transportation. Sure I had been dropped off at a train station where I had been either picked up by my sister in Davis or met up with friends in San Francisco, but those were special circumstances.  It wasn't every day life. 

I've discovered positive and negative aspects of taking busses, trains (S-Bahn), and subways (U-Bahn).

Positives:

• You never have to return to your start destination
• You never have to worry about finding a DD because nobody is driving
• It saves gas AKA money and less carbon emissions 
• You don't need to concentrate or worry about being distracting to a driver
• It is legal to drink and eat on trains
• During every hour of the day, I saw people with a beer in their hands
• It is easy to discover new places by hopping on and off a random bus or train
• If you don't feel like walking a mile in the rain with heavy groceries, you can take the bus for just one stop

Cons:

• Takes much much longer than a car because of the amount of time you must wait before it arrives or during transfers
• Sometimes you won't find a seat and you need to stand for extended periods of time
• Smelly people use public transportation just as much as everyone else- sometimes you need to get off and on quickly at a stop in order to be able to breath again
• Yes, this is based on a true story
• If it is freezing outside, sucks for you! You will just have to wait around in the cold until your ride shows up 
• During the cold evenings after class, every time I saw a big truck in the distance I remained hopeful that it would be the bus
• People will try to pick-pocket you if the train is crowded. Hold onto your things tightly!
• A man once grabbed my phone while I was texting. Luckily I sustained my grip and his hand hit me in the face as he ran off without anything. 

Going up and back to school everyday required taking the train (for two stops) and then a bus, a total of about 20-35minutes every day depending on if they were all running on schedule. If there is a train strike (which happened WAY too often!) It could take up to an hour via busses. 

Besides school which wasn't located near any cool destinations, it took me about an hour to get anywhere!  

-If you went to a club on the weekend you must leave at 11 to arrive at 12am and if you leave a club at 4am you won't get home until about 5am. Also, keep in mind it could take longer because at night time the U-Bahn and S-Bahns only run ever 15-30minutes. I witnessed too many sunrises than I am comfortable admitting. 

Back in California it takes about 40minutes without traffic and about an hour via CalTrain to get to San Francisco, but I had always deemed it as too far away.  I will not be taking much more advantage of the "short" distance. 

Everyone of all ages use public transportation.  I saw five and six year olds with cartoon backpacks traveling on their own to and from school. I would have really appreciated their knowledge and confidence when I first arrived.

Waiting for the U-Bahn to arrive

On our way to a Halloween Party! 

I'm Pippi Longstocking, or as the locals like to call her: Pippi Langstrumpf 

That is the sun rising in the distance...

Snow in Berlin

I have lived in California for the majority of my life- a place that does not snow.  As you can imagine I didn't know how to dress accordingly or know how to mentally handle to the cold that I had experienced in Berlin.  There were times when I was shivering and complaining about my red hands and nose that people around me in my program would just comment, "Oh yeah! You are from California!" I would try to smile back, but it didn't seem worth it- I was freezing.

The Wednesday of finals week, the weather changed.  It was snowing!  Although I had been up for hours the evening before, I couldn't stop smiling.  I was even getting strange looks from strangers on my way to school.  As I walked, I kept my hands out trying to catch every last snowflake that fell my way.  Each step produced a slosh sound along with discomfort as I realized my leather boots probably wouldn't hold me up if I decided to run.

Even though I had exams, there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel.  When I got to school there were about ten other people from my program dancing around outside- all California kids!! Of course I joined in :)


I attempted to take a picture of the snowfall, but since it was so light it couldn't effectively be captured in a photo...

Washing

These are the washing machines I have to deal with in the apartments.  Each wash load costs 3.50 Euros. You can get a gage of its small size if you compare the regular sized laundry soap with the washer’s opening.  In order to even get to the laundry room, you have to walk through three dungeon-like hallways. As you can imagine, I try to wash my clothing as few times as possible.  Instead of spending my money on the dryer, I have also started hanging my clothing all over my room.

One of the three hallways I must walk through in order to get to the laundry room.  The reason you can see it is because of the flash when taking the photo.  Normally, it is pitch black at night.

Our tiny, expensive washing machines

 My clothing and sheets draped around my room.

Initial Struggles

I’d like to compare my time here in Berlin to this simple sidewalk stain.  The first time I went grocery shopping, Haley and I faced many obstacles.  We hadn’t purchased reusable bags quite yet so we brought large paper and plastic bags to overflow with food.  Considering the amount of stuff we purchased, we had to take several breaks along the way home- it was all just too heavy.  At one point my wine fell out of a bag (yes, it is legal for me to drink here).  The bottle shattered as it hit the ground and the wine puddled everywhere. Haley then set her stuff down to help pick up the glass. As she lifted her paper shopping bag up again, all of her contents ripped through the bottom, including her olive oil.  There were eminences of this wine and oil spot for about two months.  As I became settled in Berlin, this stain began to disappear, much like my initial struggles in this new city across the world from home. 

Prague

I went to Prague directly after Nuremberg- it was included on my school trip.  I am incredibly glad that I was able to go with school so that I didn't have to worry about any planning. 

We went to see the Hradcany castle, which is said to be the biggest in the world.  There were so many different dimensions that I'm sure I missed parts of it. It was definitely gorgeous and cool to see. 

 

(The castle)

One of the craziest things I experienced in Prague that nobody warned me about were the metro system escalators!! I tried to take a picture of it, but I don't think it is possible to get a good one that could effectively capture the depth and speed of it.  I am not one who is easily scared, but I was definitely nervous riding it the first few times.

I found a video online that seems to do a better job at capturing this ridiculous experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNvNy4bj0g 

.... TO BE CONTINUED...

 

 

The Downers

Berlin has been amazing! I couldn't have picked a better place to spend an entire semester!

Since I have been sharing all of the positive experiences since coming to Europe, I thought I should share some of the bumps I have encountered along the way.


Bed Bugs:

"Don't let the bed bugs bite."  You've heard this all your life, as a way to wish someone to sleep well.  I hope I can experience the severity of this misfortune for you.  Bed bugs are terrible- really, don't let them bite!

The little red bumps didn't appear until about 6 days into my school planned Nuremberg/Prague trip.  It apparently takes 3 days up until 3 weeks for people to show symptoms- if they ever do at all.  A friend of mine that I was rooming with started showing symptoms the third day of our trip.  None of us could figure out why she had red bumps and quickly excused it as a rash.  Then a few days later the rest of us rooming together began having these red bumps.  For me, the bumps entirely covered my arms and legs (no spots covered by clothing).  The itch was terrible!! I did not want these bugs in my apartment. As soon as I got home, I ditched all of my belongings on my balcony and jumped into the shower.  My stuff remained on the balcony for a couple of weeks until I could acquire the laundry coins necessary to clean/kill the bugs.  Several pieces of clothing were shrunk by the hot temperature necessary to kill the bugs and some changed colors, but overall I had the best possible outcome considering the circumstances.

Below is a picture of my elbow, several days into the healing process. (All of the red bumps are bites!)

Nuremberg

We took a school organized trip to Nuremberg and Prague for a week.  We pretty much went to Nuremberg in order to learn more about the Nuremberg trials after WWII.

Although most of the history in Nuremberg is quite depressing, we still managed to have fun! :)

 "Hier" = here

Mini Nuremberg Oktoberfest. Our trip overlapped with two out of the three weekends of the Munich Oktoberfest, so we decided to make the most of this one.

Candid photo a friend took during a city tour

Vienna!

I took a weekend trip to Vienna with my friend Haley, where we met up with some of her friends from all over the world.  They were from France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland Israel, and Austria (of course).  I thought it was pretty fascinating because everyone was able to communicate to one another by speaking English since everyone had learned it in school.  Haley and I were the only ones with English as our first language. 


The group! :)
The Austrians took us around the "tourist route" so that we could see all of the famous buildings. 



I thought it was really funny how Austrian cops wore berets, so I saw a group of (cute) cops and asked if I could take a picture with them! ...I also made them take their hats out of their pockets and wear them for me :D


The day of departure I wanted to see even more of Vienna, so I woke up early and met up with Sascha who took me to see Schönbrunn Palace!

The Gloriette is featured in the background  


You could see the entire city of Vienna at the top of the hill near the Gloriette!


After learning German in Germany, it was an awesome experience to practice it in another country with an entirely different accent. 

Jewish Berlin- Tour

 Jewish Berlin- Tour

I was unable to take the Jewish Legacies in Central Europe class offered at my Berlin university because I was moved up a level in German.  I'm still interested in learning more about the subject so I decided to crash a class tour!

The first place we stopped on the walking tour- a memorial commemorating the German non-Jewish women who successfully protested their husbands' arrest (in this plaza), leading to the release of hundreds of men.  I had never heard this story before.  Many Berlin Jews married to non-Jews were saved because their spouses refused to divorce them.  The Nazis were afraid of losing some followers, so they did not break up families by removing husbands, wives, and children of mixed marriages from the area. 

Anna Frank museum, although she never lived in Germany

This was the home of the first female rabbi. Unfortunately, she was killed by the Nazis during World War II. It took 40 years before there was a second female rabbi.  This is an indication of the stunted growth of the Jewish community after the Holocaust.

Plaques in the ground indicate Jews who died in the Holocaust.  If you know to look for it, you can find them in the pavement all over Berlin.

This synagogue was built in 1866 and still considered the "new synagogue" of Berlin.  It was almost burned down time and time again.  It survived because it was used by the Nazis as a barn and storage site during WWII.