Hamburger in Hamburg!

This last week was pretty cool and fun.  As a group from school, we went to the Jewish Museum here in Berlin.  The architect designed it in a special way so that the architecture represents history and the sad events that took place.  The building is very jagged and has a zig-zag pattern throughout the museum.  I took a few pictures which will be loaded onto Facebook at some point along with others.  Once again, I'll have to mooch off free internet somewhere to do that so I'm not using up a lot of data on my internet stick.

On Friday, Kelleen, Olivia, and I went to Hamburg to visit the friends I have there.  It was great!  We were invited to stay at my friend Tim's house where his parents live.  I've stayed there before when I was in Germany previously.  Jan, Tim's dad, picked us up in Berlin.  He was on his way home to Hamburg, so that worked out perfectly for us.  The drive was only 2 hours or a little more.  They live in a village 30 minutes outside of Hamburg, so it's pretty convenient to travel into the city.  Our little group for the weekend consisted of Tim, Birte, Max, Kelleen, Olivia, and I.  

Friday night we had a big family dinner.  Anja loves to cook and was cooking away when we got to the house.  Jan demonstrated the little robot they have that cleans the kitchen.  It was entertaining to see it maneuver around the kitchen and then go back to its charging station.  Jan asked if we wanted to play the German version of Sorry, so we did!  It's a fun game to play, and took a while to finish our game.  After dinner we socialized for a bit before heading to bed.  Olivia and Kelleen were amazed with the heated floors that the Schlotawa's have in the house.  The next morning we ate a huge typical breakfast before heading to Hamburg.  

My friend Max, who is how Michael and I met, came along with us.  It was great to see him here in Germany!  We walked around the city and ate lunch at Jim Block, which is a burger place.  We had a hamburger in Hamburg!  It was delicious!  We saw the harbor where Max told us interesting historical facts about the harbor and a ship that was nearby.   After seeing the harbor briefly, we stumbled upon the City Bikes.  Max rented two and Birte rented one.  There was a total of 6 of us and only 3 bikes.  I rode one of the bikes in a few circles and was told I passed the test.  I then said I have no balance and would walk to St. Michael's and someone else could ride the bike.  I took photos of people on the bikes and also a video.  Birte, Olivia, and I walked while the other three rode the bikes to St. Michael's.    We saw a few churches and climbed the 453 stairs to the viewing point at St. Michael's.  Tim, Olivia, and I threw paper planes off the platform, but theirs didn't fly that well.  Mine flew for a pretty good distance and then crashed into a chimney.  Everyone decided unanimously to take the elevator back down and then continue our site seeing of Hamburg.  We continued walking around to see the different things in the city.  It was a pretty productive day and it wasn't even over yet.  So far, we had seen the Rathaus (town hall), St. Petri, St. Michael's, and the harbor.  Later that night we would do Dialog in Dunkeln (Dialog in the Dark).  My host mom had asked me to bring back some special tea that Hamburg is known for, so we got that, which is a whole other story!

Olivia and I had been a little skeptical about Dialog in the Dark.  We weren't sure exactly what it was other than the fact that we would be in complete darkness and have to use our other senses, such as a blind person does.  It was entirely in German, but it wasn't too difficult to understand!  It was our group and then a couple in our group for the "tour".  It was 90 minutes long and there were different situations throughout the exhibit.  We had our blind man's stick and visited a market, crossed the street, visited the harbor and went on a boat tour, a music room, and finally a bar.  These were all inside the building.  Everyone had to lay down in the music room.  You felt the music along with hearing it.  That was probably my favorite room and part of it all!  The bar was difficult because you can't see our money at all.  Before we started the tour, I put 2 euro coins and some smaller change in my pocket so I knew exactly what coins I had with me.  I had to memorize the size and feel of each so that I could pay later at the bar.  Dialog in Dunkeln was really cool and everyone enjoyed it!  Afterwards, we went to the Reeperbahn so that Olivia and Kelleen could see what it is like.  We weren't there late enough at night to really see the nightlife there, so not a lot was going on.  A friend of Kelleen's sister met up with us and joined us at a bar for a drink or two.  Max called Michael over Skype on his phone, so I was able to talk to him for a bit while we hung out at the bar.

Everyone got pretty hungry after that and we got some food at the Hauptbahnhof and then got on the train to head back to the car.  It was a late night and we had plans to go to Luebeck and also see the Baltic Sea the next day before heading back to Berlin.  Luebeck was great and interesting.  We visited a few churches and saw some historical parts of it.  Once again, Max told us historical facts throughout the day.  We visited the Baltic Sea where Olivia and Kelleen put their hands in the water.  It was a little too chilly to go swimming!  Max and Tim were determined to have us try Fischbroetchen (Fish rolls).  We found a place and everyone, except for me, got one.  Well, Kelleen and Olivia shared one and didn't really like it.  I absolutely do not like fish, so I didn't partake in that task of the day.  We had to be home for lunch since Anja was making typical goulash for us.  She also made homemade ice cream!  There was raspberry and blueberry ice cream for dessert.  Delicious!  We had to get our stuff ready for Tim to take us into the city to the bus we would take back to Berlin.  We said our goodbyes and Anja gave Kelleen, Olivia, and I our own bottle of shampoo to take home.  She's a hairdresser and cut all of our hair while we were there.  I gave her a cookbook and she and I both began to tear up a bit.  It had been 3 years since I had last seen her and the rest of the family.  Anja hugged me repeatedly and we walked outside to the car where Anja came up to me again and hugged me.  She said I was welcome back anytime I want and that I could come back before I head home to the states.  Anja and I hugged again and got in the car.  

We weren't really sure where to get our tickets for the bus that we had reserved, so Tim helped us.  We got our tickets, said goodbye to Tim, and got on the bus.  After a 3 hour bus ride, we were back in Berlin!

We got back to Berlin after 9pm and all went our separate ways to where we live in Berlin.  The weekend was great and I'm missing Hamburg and the people there already!

Free Wifi doesn't exist

The start of week 8 starts tomorrow.  Holy cow!  I can't believe it's been 7 weeks already!  This is crazy.  I almost feel like a true Berliner.


This past week was pretty good.  On Tuesday, a group from school went to Berlinale.  We only went to look, but could buy tickets for films if we wanted.  Unfortunately, there weren't any stars around when we were.  I guess that isn't exactly true.  The cast from one of the german films for Berlinale arrived as we were there.  They were all brought to the red carpet my a BMW.  The germans around me seemed to love the cast, but I had no idea who they were.  I took pictures anyways.  I got a tickets to a couple of films for the festival.  I went to one last night with my friend Olivia.


During class, vertigo struck again.  I was feeling pretty well so far throughout the day.  I blew my nose and all of a sudden things started spinning.  I immediately grabbed my purse to take my medicine and shut my eyes.  The spinning stopped shortly after and I slouched in my chair.  I rubbed my head for a good portion of class and wished I could take a nap.  I'm done with my antibiotics for my sinus infection, but my ear is still plugged.  Hopefully this time my ear won't remain plugged for 4 months.  That was no fun and I absolutely hated getting vertigo often.


On a better note, Olivia and I saw En kongelig Affaere (A Roy Affair).  It was a danish film with english subtitles.  Thank goodness!  The movie was a lot longer than I had expected.  It lasted 2 1/2 hours total.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a period piece and the costuming was amazing.  I loved the clothing a lot.  It had comedy, love, and of course tragedy.  I was completely exhausted after the film and headed home.  I immediately fell asleep and that was how my day ended!


I'm currently at Starbucks, probably the ONLY place in Germany that offers free wifi, updating my blog and being a good little student.  My next test is in 4 weeks, but I'm going to start preparing for it early, hoping it will help with my inability to take tests.  I'm perfectly fine when it's a regular test in a class, but when it's a standardized test or something close to that, I'm horrible.


The weather has gotten warmer and the sun decides to peek out every now and then.  Next weekend I'll head to Hamburg with Kelleen and Olivia to visit friends Anja and Jan have offered for us to stay at the house with them, which was great and helps us save money!  My friends are helping plan what we should do, which will be fun.  I can't wait to see my friends, who I haven't seen in 3 years or so!  Once again, it's just crazy how time flies by so fast!  


I'm going to continue sipping my chai latte and get started on homework.  Tschuess!

Berlinale!!

The first words out of my host mom's mouth this morning while at breakfast, "Whitney Houston ist tot."  WHAT?!  I asked her to repeat what she said, thinking that I had misunderstood her.  She repeated it, "Whitney Houston ist tot."  I said, "Nein... echt?"  She then told me that she had been found in her hotel room.  The rest of breakfast was pretty quiet.  We usually have a huge breakfast on Sundays and no lunch really.  Tonight we had chicken with cooked potatoes and carrots.  Delicious.  My host mom even took out the Dorothy Lynch and set it next to me.  "I know how much you love your dressing when we have chicken!"  She's exactly right.  It's delicious!


It's Berlinale!  It's also very cold and not fun to stand outside at all.  I'm going to tough it out and wait in line for tickets for some films tomorrow and also hope to see some celebrities that I know are in town.


Well the highlight of this last week was probably getting vertigo for the first time while here.  I thought I had been doing a good job to avoid it, but apparently not.  The weather here hasn't helped my health at all, so I ended up getting a sinus infection.  Whenever I get a sinus infection, it causes my left ear to plug horribly.  My left ear is always the one that gets plugged, never my right one.  Odd.  Anyway, during class on Wednesday I got dizzy all of a sudden and froze. I mumbled medicine and immediately grabbed my purse.  Emily who sits next to me in class looked at me strange for a minute.  I told her I needed medicine and that I'd be fine.  I took my meds for vertigo and thought "yes! Crisis averted!"  Little did I know that vertigo would come back to haunt me later that night.


Our UNL class went to the dome like I mentioned in my previous post.  Before we went, I went into another classroom with Kelleen and Emily.  Kelleen knows about my vertigo since we had two classes together last semester and would be absent due to vertigo.  She gives wonderful massages and was nice enough to give me one before we went to the dome.  She also bought be gummy bears.  Thank you Kelleen! =)  The dome was cool and incredibly beautiful.  Afterwards Kelleen and I needed to meet with Olivia about our upcoming trip to Hamburg.  Olivia had plans after the trip to the dome, so we had to wait until later to meet up with her.  Kelleen and I wandered around and stumbled upon one of my favorite places... the Ampelmann store!!  Oh how I love the Ampelmann.  The little green and red man on the street lights that tells you when you can and cannot cross the street.  He's all over Berlin, but not every crosswalk has him.  It varies, especially with where you're at in Berlin.  We then went to Dunkin Donuts and hung out until Olivia could meet up with us.  We met, chatted, came up with a rough plan for a plan and all headed home.


I had dinner like usual, did some facebook creeping (creeping is caring!), and homework.  I went to bed at a decent hour.  The next thing I knew I was waking up really confused where I was and everything was spinning.  Crap.  Vertigo was back.  I immediately shut my eyes and forced myself back to sleep. I told myself not to look at the clock and just sleep.  I woke up again, but this time nauseas.  Great.  I waited and stayed very still in bed hoping I wouldn't have to run to the bathroom.  I forced myself back to sleep.  This happened about 3 more times.  The next morning I woke up to every single one of my alarms and fell directly back asleep.  I hadn't gotten much sleep and had already decided I wasn't going to school.  Birgit (my host mom) came knocking on my door to wake me up for breakfast.  Ah, I was late to breakfast too?!  I stumbled out of my room and into the kitchen.  I sat down and she immediately asked me "Alles gut? ohh nein.  Alles ist nicht gut... was ist los?"  (Everything good?  Oh no, everything is not good... what's wrong?"  I told her I had woken up multiple times with vertigo and didn't sleep well at all.  She asked me what happened and told me that I should've woken her up.  Any time I don't feel well, I'm supposed to wake her up, no matter what time it is. She wanted to know what had happened exactly during the night and I apologized and told her it would be "auf englisch".  She told me that was fine and I then began to explain what vertigo is exactly and why I get it.  She had been notified by school saying that I had an "illness" to be aware of.  After I was done explaining, she told me she had a doctor appointment for her eye later that morning and that I would go along and see the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist.  Birgit asked for my teacher's number, who is here with our UNL group, so she could call her.  She called her and explained that I had woken up with vertigo and wanted me to see a doctor before the weekend.  Priscilla handed me the phone and we spoke English.  She told me she wouldn't be able to make it to the doctor with me in time and asked if I'd be ok with going and able to handle the situation.  I told her I felt I was capable to do so.  She asked if my hostmom spoke some English and I told her she did.  "Oh good!  That pleases me!"  I told Professor Hayden-Roy I would keep her updated on how I was doing.


German doctor offices are one of the scariest places I have ever been to.  Metal instruments everywhere!  The doctor was nice and spoke English.  Thank goodness.  She took a sonogram of my sinuses to prove I had an infection and used about 4 different tools to look at my throat, nose, and ears.  It was by far the most expensive doctor visit of my life.  I knew I had a sinus infection and only needed the medicine to clear it up.  I'm not taking antibiotics and an allergy spray to help keep my sinuses clear.  Hopefully I'll be feeling healthy again soon!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Hey there!  Sorry it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the last update. Nothing much exciting has really happened since the last update.   We went to the Stasi-Gefängnis a couple weeks ago. It was really interesting because our tour guide was a former prisoner. He told us his story and it was unbelievable.  I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there.  Once again, it was a pretty depressing experience.


I can't believe it's already February 8th!  Man, time is just flying by here.  We all feel like we're in high school again with our schedule and such.  I'm not loving it, but it makes time go by faster at least!

My new class started last week!  It's more challenging, but not too bad.  I found out that if I were to pass the highest class, which is called C2, I would be a certified translator.  Unfortunately, I won't be here long enough to get through the course.  I'll get through about 4 weeks of C1.


Last night, a few of us went to see a Russian opera.  It was very... different.  It was all in Russian with German subtitles.  They call them "Übertitel" because they are shown above the stage.  I understood almost everything.  It was very abstract and strange.  Oh, it was also really long.  


Today as a class from our UNL group, we went to see the Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome).  It's absolutely incredible!!  The church is beautiful and huge!  We had a personal tour led by one of the members of the church that does the tours for fun.  His name was Andre.  He was really nice, funny, and made sure we were understanding as he spoke since the tour was entirely auf Deutsch!  I took a few pictures while we were there, but will mostly be stealing the ones that Kelleen took.


Berlinale starts tomorrow!! That's the Berlin Film Festival.  I'm pumped!  A bunch of celebrities are in town.  I'm going to try and see a couple films at least. Some things were being set up today around the city for the film festival.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see just how the city looks!  I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of it all!