Arrival

First of all, did you know that when you go to Germany, Blogger automatically changes all your screen options ("new post" and "save now" are now "neuer Post" and "jetzt speichern")? Amazing. The word for "bold", as in the font type, is "Fett" which is also the word for nutritional fat.

I made it. Flights were long and when I got to Berlin at 10:00 A.M local time it felt like 3:00 A.M. due to the 7 hour time difference, but that was alright. In the Rochester airport, waiting for my flight to Detroit, there was a middle aged man sitting about 8 feet from me, and listening very loudly on headphones to "What is Love" (I think that's what it's called), the song from "Night at the Roxbury". I thought that was funny. He was not bobbing his head as in the movie.

Roch-Detroit I sat by a ph.D. candidate at Michigan State from China, so we spoke about learning new languages. On Detroit to Amsterdam, I sat next to an old guy who happened to have a German-English dictionary out as I sat down, so we automatically had stuff to talk about. He was an astronomy professor from the University of Michigan (U of M, he called it) and had done that for 50+ years, he said. I guess Michigan higher education was a popular seating buddy type for me. Anyways, we talked about German and school and my sister's physics degree. I didn't talk to the guy from Amsterdam to Berlin, but as we were landing, the girl behind me was hurling multiple times grotesquely. Overall, I got to roch. international airport at 8:05 A.M CST and arrived at TXL Berlin at 3:00 A.M. CST the next day. Food was actually pretty good, at least on the int'l flight, and they served me red wine (international flight, international rules, I guess). Also, nowadays you get a personal TV with about 30 movies, some games, and other gadgets. Jinhee Ha, a friend from college, was on my Amsterdam-Berlin flight.

When we got here, we took public transport to Heart of Gold hostel, looking like tourists all the way, and then waited for people. Eventually they got here, we ate, sightsaw, then slept (for 12 hours). Today, we got an orientation and met our host family. Mine is Uwe Scholz, a 40-something music producer with a nine-year-old son from a previous relationship ("eines Tages gibt es Lieb, und dann plötzlich Hass!" he said, or something like that, "one day it's love, and then suddenly hate!". He talks fastfastfastfast, like everyone else. I suppose just as we speak English). He seems like a cool guy. The apartment is pretty big. I showed him where Minnesota is on a globe, and he appreciated and liked the wild rice soup and Minnesota Twins t-shirt I brought him (good call, mom and dad). He lives in the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain area of Berlin, address Paul-Lincke-Ufer Straße 30. Nice place facing a canal.

Traffic is pretty crazy in Berlin, because streets are small and cars many. Also, even many of the boring buildings are much more interesting than the best Rochester has to offer, and the best buildings are fantastic. Overall, things seem great and exciting. The group is a lot of fun. I had planned to speak only German once here, but with the group, we don't, for practical purposes. That's okay, since I do with everybody else, and they're the ones who will really improve my abilities. The trouble is that English is extrememely prevalent here, far more than I thought, so people know it well. That's good when you don't know a word, but bad because I'm not here to learn English. It shouldn't be much of a problem, though.

I went to the bathroom in a Burger King, and on the way out passed a table with apparently a bathroom attendant and a tray with a few coins on it, and only after I passed it did I realize that I probably was supposed to tip her for doing nothing. I walked faster. Next time, I suppose I'll tip.

I've got some good photos, but will wait to accumulate more. Til next time, Tschüs!