Ich bin hier!

Hi! I have finally made it, albeit however miraculously, to Berlin!

I am sitting up in our hostel with my friends Morgan and Liz. We might be feeling a little of the jet lag, because we were exhausted the past two days at 4pm but totally up at 1am. Jet lag or not, we are having a great time. I am really enjoying just being in Germany and I am so excited to get down to Regensburg on Monday and get situated.

The flight over wasn't too bad, save for the screaming 5 year old who never managed to fall asleep. I landed in Frankfurt and then got over to Berlin by 9:30. I was really really overwhelmed when I arrived at the airport while I was trying to figure out where the busses were and if I could even get on the bus with all of my luggage. Finally I stumbled on to one and made my way to the train station. The first thing I noticed about Berlin is the schrecklich (terrible) weather. It was, and still is, absolutely freezing. I had stood outside searching for my gloves for only five minutes, and by the time I found them my hands had cracked and were bleeding from the cold. When I arrived at the Hauptbahnhof, I was extremely sad because the entire thing is just like a big open warehouse. It actually felt colder inside! I had all of my baggage and was lugging it around until I found a checked luggage office and I dropped my suitcase off. I then learned a second lesson about Berlin: Don't hang around train stations. Crazy people kept coming up to me asking for money. I was already absolutely terrified that I would be mugged and have all of my stuff stolen, so I was having a fit. I wandered around the station until noon, when Morgan and Liz finally met me. I was so happy to see them and know that I wasn't completely lost. We walked FOREVER (seriously, like 3 miles or so) back to the hostel they had stayed at.

The hostel is interesting. We are in the dorm room, so we are staying with strangers, but its turned out okay so far. We have lockers for our stuff and then our own bed with fresh linens. A strange couple who we have lovingly renamed "Big Boy and his Wife" showed up and that's when we weren't so into the hostel thing. He was very large, made grunting noises, wore all black with chains, and had an interesting hairstyle. However, all turned out well and we survived the night in the hostel. We had spent the afternoon just making our way around Berlin and navigating the subway system. Eventually we got hungry, so we looked for a traditional German place. We stumbled upon this tiny little place where we awkwardly walked in and tried to figure out how to get food. This table full of German 50 something men and women immediately gave us the stink eye and we were so uncomfortable the whole time. We ordered something that we thought was wurst, which ended up being pork schnitzel. I ordered the only beer they had, which I hated, but I drank it anyways. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel and relaxed until Morgan and Liz's friend Rene came and took us out for a drink and a short tour of the city. It was really fun and we figured out some more places to go in the city. We headed back to the hostel for a lovely evening with Big Boy and his wife.

This morning we got up, showered in the strange hostel shower, ate free breakfast, and headed out on the town. We found a great subway pass and then spent forever trying to get to the Museuminsel. We went to the Pergamon Museum first and got a great deal on a 3day museum pass- only 9.50 for over 60 museums! The Pergamon, quite simply, was the best museum I have ever gotten to experience. I was in awe over everything we saw and I luckily took a lot of pictures so you can see some of them soon. The museum houses the Pergamon Alter and a huge collection of artifacts, constructions, and artwork from classical antiquity. I just took a class at Transy similar to this called Alexander to Cleopatra, so it was absolutely amazing to see all of the things that had been a part of the lives of the people I studied. We also saw the Ishtar Gate and a lot of other great things. We saw the Egyptian Collection at the Neues Museum, which was also fantastic.

We wandered around looking for a place to eat wurst, failed again, and ended up eating a strange sausage roll thing. It was pretty… mediocre. After dinner we got absolutely lost. It was just fantastic. We ended up at the Brandenburger Tor and then got on what we thought was the U-Bahn, ended up at the Hauptbahnhof where I decided to check out my luggage, and then ended up walking over a mile to find a U-Bahn station. About an hour and a half later we made it back here. We went out with another friend of theirs for the night and had another relaxing evening.

Things are great so far, but it is definitely a challenge. Speaking German here is so difficult, because as soon as people pick up on the fact that you are an American, they either act rude towards you or switch to English. It makes it hard to learn and hard to be confident in speaking, but hopefully this will change at school. I am looking forward to a great weekend and then Monday we head to Regensburg!

Love Ashley