Love at Second Sight

Berlin is not one of those romantic cities you instantly fall in love with. Upon arriving I was not immediately swept off my feet in the same way that I was by Rome last summer. But when it was time to leave last night, I wasn't ready to go. Four days flew by way too quickly.

When I arrived to the Tegel airport on Friday, Necco (who will be interning at earthfaves later this summer) was kind enough to skip his language class and meet me there. I'm so glad he did, because trying to maneuver through Berlin's public transportation system can be confusing to a first-time visitor. We ate lunch at the Mensa and then checked into our hotel near Potsdamer Platz. I met the rest of the orientation group and then we took a boat tour of Berlin on the Spree. The tour was nice, but it was so cold and windy! I'm glad they had blankets.

die Spree

nearly every surface of the city is covered in graffiti

Reichstag

Berliner Dom und Fernsehturm

After the tour, I went to a coffee shop with Stephanie (my roommate at the hotel) and Youlia (who will also be joining the earthfaves team next month). We met their friend Palmer and ate a leisurely dinner at this posh pizza place. We ended the evening with drinks and dancing at a club called Magnet. When I climbed into bed at 4 a.m. the sun was already starting to come up.

Three hours later...

It was Saturday morning and the official start of our orientation. We ate frühstück at the hotel and then transferred to the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the venue for our cultural seminar. Unfortunately, most of the information we got from the orientation would have been much more helpful to me two weeks ago when I was still in Texas. Afterwards I went to a Biergarten with my new pals from the College of Charleston. 

Palmer, Chelsea, Stephanie, & Me

the Berliner Weiße (rot) became my standard drink of the weekend

In the afternoon I met up with Moritz, a friend that I met at the Model UN conference in New York last month. He was so incredibly nice and offered me a place to stay in his flat for the weekend. An excellent tour guide, he showed me around the city, highlighting the major historical sights. We then met up with another MUNer from the Freie Universität, Simon, and ate döner kebabs under the Fernsehturm. It's always a surreal feeling when two worlds collide and you see people you know from one part of life in a completely different place. We discussed politics and our love for Moleskine notebooks. They humored my feeble attempts to speak German and we told lots of How I Met Your Mother jokes. It was legend--wait for it---dary!

Brandenburger Tor

Moritz's cool, artsy flat

On Sunday afternoon, I met Palmer, Chelsea, and Stephanie at the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark. This huge flea market is held every Sunday and has the most random stuff to buy. We shopped around, stopped for snacks, and watched karaoke in the park. This was definitely a highlight of my trip-- I think if I lived in Berlin I would be here every other weekend.

Flohmarkt

there were so many beautiful leather shoes & handbags

a cute, old ice cream truck & pink bicycle

a jewelry maker's paradise

one man's junk is another man's treasure

the energetic crowd at karaoke

I bought the coral woodland road scarf at the market

I had never seen so many hipsters in one place

Monday morning I ate breakfast with Moritz and his girlfriend and then we said our goodbyes as they headed off to class. I met up with the CofC gang and we spent the afternoon enjoying the sunny weather at the Wannsee. Since we both didn't bring swimsuits, Palmer and I just strolled along the man-made beach. Suddenly he said, "Hey look that little kid isn't wearing any clothes." When I looked up, I realized we were the only ones wearing clothes! Somehow we had accidentally crossed over to the nudist beach. We quickly turned around, feeling rather awkward. Sometimes Europe can feel like a different planet to me.

Strandbad Wannsee

that's me on the far right

I think Strandkörbe are so funny

My flight back to Saarbrücken departed at 9:05 pm. Saying goodbye to friends is always a difficult thing to do, even if you have known them for only a short time. My heart sunk a tiny bit when I watched the sun go down on my last day in Berlin from the window on the plane.

Berlin is unlike any other city I've ever seen before. It's been through so much and it always seems to be changing. It has its own distinctive style and yet I think anyone could fit in there, even more so than New York. I had a wonderful time in Germany's capital and I hope to go back some day--if not this summer than sometime in the future. 

Moderat--a group Moritz introduced to me. Great song.

"The bulk of the Berlin of today has about it no suggestion of a former period. The site it stands on has traditions and a history, but the city itself has no traditions and no history. It is a new city; the newest I have ever seen." -Mark Twain

(Photos 15 & 18 courtesy of Chelsea M.)

Samstag Snapshots

Weekends are a wonderful thing. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, so when I woke up at noon I decided to explore Saarbrücken--my new home for the summer. Here's a few quick snapshots of my day:

St. Johanner Markt (the area where I live)

a band playing in the street-- all the shoppers stopped and watched

My 2 pm breakfast-- apple pancake & a coffee frap. I don't normally go to
Starbucks for my morning coffee, but it was a frappuccino kind of day

what better way to tour Germany than on a bier bike?

I found the city park which runs parallel to the Saar River.
I spent several hours here just soaking up the sun :)

Elements of the park pay tribute to Saarbrücken's industrial past

When I came home, there was a mini fire brigade rally passing by our street.
From what I understand, the fire department is celebrating its 100th year.

Unfortunately weekends come and go too quickly. I realize this post is a couple of days late and I promise to try and get better at keeping up with the blog. After spending 7 hours on a computer at work every weekday, I usually just want to unplug and unwind on my time off. This upcoming weekend I'm going to Berlin and I couldn't be more excited! But more on that later...

"The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." -Eleanor Roosevelt

The Life of an Intern

Today I reached a small milestone on my path to learning what I consider to be a difficult second language--German. The German law requires all new residents to register with the local Bürgeramt within a week of moving into a new place and since today marks my first week here, I decided to go before work this morning. The building serves as a city hall and when you walk in, you have to take a number and wait for it to show on an electronic board before you walk to the appropriate cubicle, much like a bank. The man who helped me didn't speak any English, but I was still able to successfully answer demographic and psychographic questions so that he could complete my registration on the computer. I was probably only there for 10 minutes, but knowing that I could actually be understood gave me the confidence boost I've needed.

My internship has been going well so far! I am working at earthfaves and the office is only a 4 minute walk from my flat, which is really convenient. The company is a small startup that is on the brink of launching its website later this year. There are other international interns that I work with-- Ludivine & Frédéric (from France), Raafi (from India), Diego, Jesus, & Carles (from Spain), and Guy (from Cameroon). We are kind of a random bunch, working on either development or marketing. At almost any time of the day you can hear four different languages being spoken all at once (German, English, Spanish, & French). And since I am the only native English speaker, I've become the go-to expert for all questions regarding the language. I sometimes have to look up definitions when I am asked to explain the meaning of everyday words (such as the difference between may and might) The website is in English, so I will probably have the opportunity to do a lot of writing this summer.

The work environment is great. Everyone has a good sense of humor, so we joke around a lot. Today I learned how to play the Spanish, German, & French versions of Rock Paper Scissors. Tonight we had an interns night out at a diskothek called Kufa and even though there was not a lot of people there, we took over the dance floor. I must say-- the earthfaves team has some pretty crazy dancers!

this song is really big over here-- I hear it everyday.

Here Comes The Sun

It is currently 73 degrees Fahrenheit in Saarbrücken and my windows are wide open so that the sun's rays can reach me directly as it sinks behind the silhouette of a neighboring house. Today has been the first truly warm day here since I arrived last weekend. I suppose I packed for a Texas summer, maybe even Mediterranean, but certainly not for the cold, rainy days I have been experiencing. At night it can drop into the low 40s, and on Sunday night I was so shivery that I had to resort to wearing two pairs of socks and curling up with my bath towel just so I could fall asleep in my drafty room. I even had to delete Fort Worth from my saved locations on the Weather Channel website because seeing the two temperatures side-by-side was making me homesick. I know this might sound melodramatic, but I just don't do cold weather, especially when I only brought sundresses and sandals to wear. However, it seems that summer has finally arrived in Saarbrücken (even if just for today). The sun is now shining, the voices of a choir fill the streets below, and I am a happy camper. :)

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine- and shadows will fall behind you.” -Walt Whitman

Willkommen in Deutschland

After 24 hours of travel (from Houston to Miami to Berlin to Saarbrücken), I have reached my final destination. My flight to Berlin and Saarbrücken were both delayed due to some type of plane repairs. By the time I reached Berlin and made it through customs, my next flight had already left so AirBerlin rebooked me on a flight several hours later with LuxAir. When I landed in Saarbrücken, the first thing I saw out the window was a tractor chugging along the runway. I started to wonder what I had signed up for--did I just travel 6,277 miles to arrive in a German version of Sealy? I couldn't find my suitcase in the baggage claim, so I had to fill out a missing luggage report. When the woman helping me asked me to describe my bag I told her it was black and really heavy. "How much does it weigh?" she asked. "Fifty-eight pounds," I replied. Wide-eyed she said, "Fifty-eight! Five, eight?" She even wrote it down and showed me the number because she couldn't believe it could possibly be right.

Afterwards, I took the bus into town and found the street where my new flat is located. Since I had no key, I had to wait for one of my flatmates to come home, which gave me some time to people watch. My flatmates are really sweet-- two are from France & one is German. They showed me the main square in the city and we stopped and talked over coffee before going to Karstadt, a huge store that sells just about everything you could need. A taxi came with my luggage at 19:00 and I hauled all 58lbs of it up 54 steps. The flat is located above two restaurants in an old building that is really close to the center of the city. My room has 2 large windows from which I can see lots of rooftops, pidgeons, and 4 church steeples. The hourly bells remind me of TCU.

the windows

The view from my room

A sweet note that was on my door when I arrived :)

Though I was exhausted on my first night, I decided to go out with Erika and Cécile. We went to a disko which ironically enough was hosting a "USA College Spring Break" party. I couldn't stop laughing when we walked into a room that was covered in American flags. It looked like a scene from a tacky MTV show.

 

I've spent the last 2 days getting settled into my room and acquainted with the city. I have a lot to learn before I can stop feeling like a tourist-- starting with German. I have forgotten so many basic words of the language, but I hope I will remember many of them with time. Tomorrow is my first day on the new job and I have so much to do to get ready. Wish me luck!

Déjà vu

A familiar scene-- I'm up during the late hours of the night packing for a summer trip that I leave for in four hours. Exactly one year and a month ago, I was doing the same thing but for my study abroad trip with Semester at Sea. I have learned so much since the Summer 2010 Voyage. When it comes to international travel, "this ain't my first rodeo." However, this is the first time I have ever gone anywhere on my own without friends or family, and it will be my first time to stay in one place for longer than a week. Though I am excited for this new chapter in my life, I'm also quite nervous for the challenges that it will bring. Even if I had gotten an early start on packing, I would probably still be awake right now from anxiousness. I am quite convinced that my suitcase is over the 50 lb weight limit, and I still have last-minute items to cram in. Hopefully the person checking me in tomorrow is gracious and understanding. I intend to sleep the whole way from Miami to Berlin, which shouldn't be too difficult since I will not be sleeping at all tonight.

I'm about to embark on what is sure to be my greatest adventure yet. Follow my travels (simply click on the links in the right sidebar) as I experience new places and make new friends and blunders along the way.

“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.” — Annie Besant