Friday, August 31, 2012

Highlights

Highlights of Wednesday:
- I had breakfast with my host's friend. We also watched a couple of videos on oldjewstellingjokes.com, which were hilarious.
- At IES, we had a walking tour of Mitte, including Hakescher Markt, Museuminsel, and the Friedrichstrasse train station. About half of it was new to me, and I remembered loads from when I was here two years ago.
- I went and spoke to IES's housing coordinator, who is worried for me because I'm sort of on my own for the rest of the week. When I left, she told me I talk like someone who's already lived here for six months. :)
- I understood the vast majority of the (rather dull) German tv I watched.

Yesterday:
- Street food from Hackescher Markt for lunch. I can't remember what it was called, but it was sort of like a tortilla, folded in half with meat in the middle, then turned into a burrito with a mustardy sauce and salad greens.
- We had a meeting to talk about living with a German host. Everybody is jealous that my host has a dishwasher and a cleaning lady.
- I accidentally took the S2 home instead of the S1, which is an easy mistake to make because they arrive at the same place and their first four stops are the same. Fortunately I noticed, so I just hopped off, went one stop west around the big circle that three or four different train lines all make, and got on the S1. It probably added 20 minutes to my commute, though.
- I went to Edeka, which was described as being "very big." By American standards, it was pretty small for a "supermarket," but they had lots of things and plenty of selection, especially when it came to sausage. I just bought enough to get me through the next couple of days. Normally I'd go through and get a pile of non-perishables, but I guess it hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to be here for a loooong time.

And today:
- I definitely have a cold. I went to an Apothecke and got sold something herbal. I'm not altogether surprised. My herbalist friend says most of the herbalism literature comes from Germany, because Germany actually studies this stuff and has standards for it.
- We had our placement test for the intensive German course. I imagine they'll tell us where to go when we get there on Monday morning.

I think I'm having a delayed jetlag reaction. I was fine for the first couple of days, and now I can't get enough sleep even though nothing we're doing is particularly tiring.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Landed!

I landed in Berlin this morning without any trouble. In fact, I nodded off during takeoff while I was waiting to reach cruising altitude so that I could listen to my iPod and I awoke as we touched down with a candy bar that had randomly appeared (courtesy, of course, of the lovely Lufthansa folks). (And this was my final flight which was just an hour long, not the eight hour transatlantic flight.)

The jetlag isn't looking too bad. It's 9:15pm and I'm still awake, so it could be much worse. I'm going to unpack as much as possible and then crash. My room is beautiful and gigantic. The kitchen is not very big but it does have a dishwasher, which is all kinds of wonderful. My host, Lisa, wasn't able to pick me up today because she hurt her foot, and she was out of town for the weekend, so she's still out of town. It might be a few days before she'll be back, so her good friend Suli is looking after me. Apparently they've been told not to leave me home alone for the first few weeks.

IES dragged us around, ignoring our exhaustion, and we got month passes for public transportation and cell phones. I haven't activated my phone yet because I haven't activated my SIM card yet, because we ran out of time to do that today and they're going to have us do it together tomorrow. I'm going to try to set up my phone to work with my Google Voice account. If it works, I should be able to do call the US pretty cheap, so I'll keep certain people (like my parents) updated about this.

I'm happy with my placement and happy with the city. It's not as ugly as I remembered it being. Suli took me to a restaurant for dinner. Apparently they go there quite often, because they immediately brought out two large bones for the dog who came with and at the end, they gave us each a shot of Schnapps "from the chef." Suli and I had a great conversation and I was heartened to find I understand quite a lot and was able to express myself pretty well, especially given how tired I am.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Flights!

The terror is subsiding and reality is setting in. I'm still a bit on edge and although I'm dreading saying goodbye to my parents, I'd really like the traveling to be underway so that I can stop worrying about whether it'll go smoothly.

My first flight is leaving tomorrow afternoon, and it's a United Airlines flight. My second and third flights are through Lufthansa. Lufthansa, of course, will not allow me to print my boarding passes because the first flight isn't a Lufthansa flight, and United won't let it. United, of course, will not allow me to print my boarding passes online because it's decided my name (Ms. Eleanor L. P____) is actually Eleanorlms P____. Hopefully it will cease to be a problem when I go to the airport tomorrow and scan my passport into the kiosk, as their website says I must do, but all in all it's nerve-wracking.

I'm not quite entirely packed, but I'm close, and I do have a couple of items my parents will be shipping me (such as my boots and coat for winter). As it stands, my suitcase is definitely overweight, so I'm going to try to move heavy non-liquids to my carry-on and personal item.

And for the twentieth time, no, I do not need my visa in order to enter the country.

EDIT: I got my boarding passes fine. The airport has wifi but I'm about to sign off-- boarding is soon. They scanned my hands for explosive ions! It was cool! I love science.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Getting ready to go!

Today is Sunday and I'm leaving on Monday! That's tomorrow! The excitement has given way to terror. I know I'll be fine, but that's not helping right now. I wish I had more time to be at home because I'm not fed up with it yet. I think it'd be easier to leave if I were well and truly sick of being home first! I've only had two weeks here and I've been careful to go through my bucket list of places to go to and friends to visit with.

I'm mostly packed, but I still need to figure out last-minute things like where I left my shampoo, which nail polish to bring, and whether I have enough room to pack all the shoes I want to bring. You know, the important things. I spent the last hour or two putting together a bunch of pictures to get printed so I can put them up in my room in Berlin. I'm excited about that especially because I can't take posters with me.