So for those who have been keeping up with my haphazard
travels through Europe, you'll remember that I was in Berlin over January/February for 6 weeks
to participate in a language course organised through the DAAD (German
Academic Exchange Office).
That course ended more than a month ago, yet I am still suffering from terrible withdrawal symptoms and in my attempt to relive my amazing time in the German capital, I have decided to take a little trip down memory lane..
At the beginning of January, I arrived to Berlin and for the first week I cried every single night worrying about everything from 'will I make any friends?' to 'what is the deal with my visa?!' to 'Berliners are so rude!' and of course, 'how will I possibly survive in Germany for 8 months?!'. However, now as I sit here writing, the question I ask myself is 'how did the last 3 months go buy so quickly?'
My arrival in Europe was so surgical; one day I was saying goodbye to friends and family in Auckland, the next day I had landed smack bang in the middle of Frankfurt Airport without knowing a single person. After 32 hours of travelling, I lacked the physical and psychological strength to come to terms with what I had gotten myself into. Hungry and thirsty, I went to the local Le Crobag at Frankfurt Train Station to order a pretzel, only to be confronted with the question of 'normal' or a 'laugen' pretzel. Dumbfounded, I just pointed at what I wanted instead. I have been learning German since I was 14 and I consider myself fluent enough to get by day-to-day...but this first pretzel setback really shocked me into just how alien I felt in this country.
I eventually boarded the train to Berlin with my ridiculous stack of luggage and a few Germans were nice enough to help me get my stuff onto the shelf. I sat opposite an extremely tall German man, who spent the whole train ride reading a very intellectual looking philosophy book and I think I spent the whole time perving at him (also thinking - are all German men so perfect?!). Less exciting was trying to ask the 7 year old German boy sitting next to me in German if he could let me through and having him yell "WHAT?" at me and look as if I had spoken some alien language. German level - zilch.
I fell asleep on the train and woke up to a darkness pierced by the lights of Berlin. Before I got off, I started getting a nosebleed and had to awkwardly get off the train, tilt my head up and lift about 25 kgs of luggage behind me. I eventually found the taxi stand, embarassed myself by standing around and letting others push in front of me and heaved the biggest sigh of relief when I finally got into the taxi. I tried speaking some German with the driver, but I was so nervous that my German was atrocious!
Eventually we arrived at my accommodation on Paul-Zobel-Strasse (Bezirk Lichtenberg), which was situated in former East Berlin and so retro, that it was like "living in the DDR Museum". I waited sheepishly outside the building, when I met LENNART for the first time. LENNART was an employee of the language school who was shepherding us around that night. If you want to know why I have to type his name LENNART in caps, you must understand that he was BANGING. Like, I mean 'lifting every day to get smexy arm muscles and a 6-pack' BANGING. Anyway, he showed me into the building and I finally got to relax because all the hard work of arriving here had been done.
I remember the people who were in the same room as me when we were welcomed. Amy, Douglas, Daniel and I sat together and listened to Jörg's spiel and we introduced ourselves. It seems so funny looking back and thinking how these strangers on the first night became such good friends by the end of the 6 weeks! It is a really strangely nostalgic feeling, as I think about the amazing journey we ended up sharing together.
I was showed to my room by a lady called Aizhen, who was a Chinese student doing her Masters in Berlin. We spoke Mandarin to each other - such a surreal feeling to be speaking German in this dimly lit apartment in East Berlin. I eventually unpacked my stuff, simply lay down on the bed and was so happy to finally have a place to call home (albeit only for 6 weeks).
My flatmate did not arrive until an hour later. Her name was Laura and, although I didn't know it then, she ended up being the most amazing, kind, caring and supportive flatmate and friend I could have ever hoped for - without her, I would have absolutely floundered in Berlin. She was always there if I needed to talk to someone about something, to console me, to laugh with me, to dance and sing with me, to cook and eat with me and above all, to make me feel less lonely in Berlin. I did not know it when I showed her around the apartment, or when I first bought some food with her from the petrol station or even when I went with her to school the next day, but Laura ended up being a rock for me in Berlin. If you are reading this Laura, thank you for patiently putting up with my issues and shit!!! Our memories in Paul-Zobel are some of the best of my life and I hope they are some of yours too!
I eventually took a shower and ended up going to bed at 10pm. Exhausted, I lay in bed and cried because I was scared about what the first day of the course brought and whether I was going to be able to make friends. From the 8th storey, Berlin looked so vast, cold and alien to me. I felt so out of place, so isolated and longing for the familiarity of home. I definitely had regrets that night about what I was doing. I didn't sleep well that night and woke up at 5am. As soon as I woke up, I cried as I gazed up at the foreign ceiling in this strange room. I tried falling asleep, unsuccessfully, until 7am. I revised some German grammar for the placement test while I was lying in bed and waiting for the sun to rise.
My first breakfast in Berlin that morning was a cheese and ham croissant and some of my Chinese herbal tea. I dressed in my trusty orange docs and plaid dress and went downstairs to meet Charly, who would be shepherding us to BerlinerID. Laura and I were late (typical :P) but we ended up waiting about 10 minutes for late stragglers (also typical). There was a huge throng of new faces which greeted us and I felt the knot form in my stomach as I looked around. It seemed as if everyone had friends already and the fear of feeling unwanted and friendless was especially strong in the first few days.
Once we arrived at the school on Ackerstrasse we finally received all the information we had been so sorely lacking - where can I buy my sim card, where can I get a USB internet stick, how do I separate German rubbish, why are no shops open on Sunday etc. It finally felt as if this whole adventure was underway. We sat the placement test and afterwards ate our first meal at the Mensa (cafeteria) - half a bowl of lentil soup. Afterwards a group of us headed to Alexanderplatz to buy a USB stick. It took us more than 3 hours because no one knew what a strange USB internet stick contraption was and we found it incredibly strange that such things existed. When we finally headed home, we got lost in the nightmarish labyrinth that is Berlin public transport. 'S-Bahn? U-Bahn? M8 Line? Nordbahnhof? What is even the name of the stop opposite our apartments?!' Such questions were not uncommon in the first week and although it was incredibly frustrating to deal with, I look back fondly at all our misadventures and cluelessness with a warm and affectionate nostalgia.
We stopped at Roederplatz and visited Netto to buy groceries and I was bowled over by how cheap everything was! As always, it was food and shopping which lifted my spirits. I finally had routine and as Laura and I planned some meals for the week, I felt as if my life had structure. It was so satisfying being able to buy cheese and ham for 1 Euro per pack and I seriously could not believe how cheap meat was! In general I was blown by the cheapness of German living costs: most items were under 2 Euro and the ALCOHOL, OH MY GOD THE ALCOHOL. It was like 2 Euro for a bottle of reasonably tasty wine. I think the moment when I died was when I saw Jaegermeister being sold next to the bubblegum at the counter for 2.50 Euro a pop.
We had our first Stammtisch that night at 8pm. A Stammtisch is a German term for an event where people gather, talk, eat, but mostly drink beer. As usual everyone was running late and it wasn't until 9pm until we got going. I remember talking to the students as we made our way to the bar and feeling really good that I was actually able to strike up conversations with a few people. Again looking back, it is crazy to think I had so much fear of talking with these people, as by the end of the 6 weeks there was nothing which I could not tell them.
After being foiled by the public transport system yet again, we finally made it to the bar. First order of business was ordering dinner. I really wanted to hit the ground running with my conversion to being German so I ordered a Thuringer Bratwurst with sauerkraut. Unfortunately I was really hungry and ate the food so fast that I felt sick afterwards (might also have been because I ate a massive sausage and pickled cabbage...). I was being a bit of a goody-good and didn't order any alcohol to drink. Instead I just enjoyed talking to people although I was dead tired.
The class lists had also been released and I was really happy to discover that I had been placed into the C1.1 class. It was affirmation for me that my German was good and that I could be confident in my abilities. Although the company was excellent I had to go home quickly because I falling asleep and my stomach was still topsy-turvy from the bratwurst. I felt like I was missing out by leaving the event early, but my tiredness reasoned me into doing the sensible thing.
At home I fell asleep immediately because I had to go to class the next day at 9am. I was nervous about the first day of class, but at least now everything was starting to fall into place. Slowly and tentatively, Berlin and Germany became more and more familiar to me.
So...that was far longer than I expected and way too boring and detailed. I am mostly writing this for myself in an effort to consolidate and reflect upon the crazy few months that have gone by. It has been the most amazing, tiring, frustrating, emotional, fun, crazy and worthwhile journey and I think I would hit myself for just lazily letting these memories recede into a hazy abyss. The next few blog posts about Berlin will be actually interesting and about Berlin...I promise! :)
Ruohan xx
That course ended more than a month ago, yet I am still suffering from terrible withdrawal symptoms and in my attempt to relive my amazing time in the German capital, I have decided to take a little trip down memory lane..
 |
| The Brandenburg Gate - quite possibly the most amazing thing to see at sunset. |
*****
At the beginning of January, I arrived to Berlin and for the first week I cried every single night worrying about everything from 'will I make any friends?' to 'what is the deal with my visa?!' to 'Berliners are so rude!' and of course, 'how will I possibly survive in Germany for 8 months?!'. However, now as I sit here writing, the question I ask myself is 'how did the last 3 months go buy so quickly?'
My arrival in Europe was so surgical; one day I was saying goodbye to friends and family in Auckland, the next day I had landed smack bang in the middle of Frankfurt Airport without knowing a single person. After 32 hours of travelling, I lacked the physical and psychological strength to come to terms with what I had gotten myself into. Hungry and thirsty, I went to the local Le Crobag at Frankfurt Train Station to order a pretzel, only to be confronted with the question of 'normal' or a 'laugen' pretzel. Dumbfounded, I just pointed at what I wanted instead. I have been learning German since I was 14 and I consider myself fluent enough to get by day-to-day...but this first pretzel setback really shocked me into just how alien I felt in this country.
I eventually boarded the train to Berlin with my ridiculous stack of luggage and a few Germans were nice enough to help me get my stuff onto the shelf. I sat opposite an extremely tall German man, who spent the whole train ride reading a very intellectual looking philosophy book and I think I spent the whole time perving at him (also thinking - are all German men so perfect?!). Less exciting was trying to ask the 7 year old German boy sitting next to me in German if he could let me through and having him yell "WHAT?" at me and look as if I had spoken some alien language. German level - zilch.
I fell asleep on the train and woke up to a darkness pierced by the lights of Berlin. Before I got off, I started getting a nosebleed and had to awkwardly get off the train, tilt my head up and lift about 25 kgs of luggage behind me. I eventually found the taxi stand, embarassed myself by standing around and letting others push in front of me and heaved the biggest sigh of relief when I finally got into the taxi. I tried speaking some German with the driver, but I was so nervous that my German was atrocious!
Eventually we arrived at my accommodation on Paul-Zobel-Strasse (Bezirk Lichtenberg), which was situated in former East Berlin and so retro, that it was like "living in the DDR Museum". I waited sheepishly outside the building, when I met LENNART for the first time. LENNART was an employee of the language school who was shepherding us around that night. If you want to know why I have to type his name LENNART in caps, you must understand that he was BANGING. Like, I mean 'lifting every day to get smexy arm muscles and a 6-pack' BANGING. Anyway, he showed me into the building and I finally got to relax because all the hard work of arriving here had been done.
I remember the people who were in the same room as me when we were welcomed. Amy, Douglas, Daniel and I sat together and listened to Jörg's spiel and we introduced ourselves. It seems so funny looking back and thinking how these strangers on the first night became such good friends by the end of the 6 weeks! It is a really strangely nostalgic feeling, as I think about the amazing journey we ended up sharing together.
I was showed to my room by a lady called Aizhen, who was a Chinese student doing her Masters in Berlin. We spoke Mandarin to each other - such a surreal feeling to be speaking German in this dimly lit apartment in East Berlin. I eventually unpacked my stuff, simply lay down on the bed and was so happy to finally have a place to call home (albeit only for 6 weeks).
 |
| The view from my bedroom window. It was mostly industrial but there was something so quietly beautiful about it... |
I eventually took a shower and ended up going to bed at 10pm. Exhausted, I lay in bed and cried because I was scared about what the first day of the course brought and whether I was going to be able to make friends. From the 8th storey, Berlin looked so vast, cold and alien to me. I felt so out of place, so isolated and longing for the familiarity of home. I definitely had regrets that night about what I was doing. I didn't sleep well that night and woke up at 5am. As soon as I woke up, I cried as I gazed up at the foreign ceiling in this strange room. I tried falling asleep, unsuccessfully, until 7am. I revised some German grammar for the placement test while I was lying in bed and waiting for the sun to rise.
My first breakfast in Berlin that morning was a cheese and ham croissant and some of my Chinese herbal tea. I dressed in my trusty orange docs and plaid dress and went downstairs to meet Charly, who would be shepherding us to BerlinerID. Laura and I were late (typical :P) but we ended up waiting about 10 minutes for late stragglers (also typical). There was a huge throng of new faces which greeted us and I felt the knot form in my stomach as I looked around. It seemed as if everyone had friends already and the fear of feeling unwanted and friendless was especially strong in the first few days.
Once we arrived at the school on Ackerstrasse we finally received all the information we had been so sorely lacking - where can I buy my sim card, where can I get a USB internet stick, how do I separate German rubbish, why are no shops open on Sunday etc. It finally felt as if this whole adventure was underway. We sat the placement test and afterwards ate our first meal at the Mensa (cafeteria) - half a bowl of lentil soup. Afterwards a group of us headed to Alexanderplatz to buy a USB stick. It took us more than 3 hours because no one knew what a strange USB internet stick contraption was and we found it incredibly strange that such things existed. When we finally headed home, we got lost in the nightmarish labyrinth that is Berlin public transport. 'S-Bahn? U-Bahn? M8 Line? Nordbahnhof? What is even the name of the stop opposite our apartments?!' Such questions were not uncommon in the first week and although it was incredibly frustrating to deal with, I look back fondly at all our misadventures and cluelessness with a warm and affectionate nostalgia.
We stopped at Roederplatz and visited Netto to buy groceries and I was bowled over by how cheap everything was! As always, it was food and shopping which lifted my spirits. I finally had routine and as Laura and I planned some meals for the week, I felt as if my life had structure. It was so satisfying being able to buy cheese and ham for 1 Euro per pack and I seriously could not believe how cheap meat was! In general I was blown by the cheapness of German living costs: most items were under 2 Euro and the ALCOHOL, OH MY GOD THE ALCOHOL. It was like 2 Euro for a bottle of reasonably tasty wine. I think the moment when I died was when I saw Jaegermeister being sold next to the bubblegum at the counter for 2.50 Euro a pop.
We had our first Stammtisch that night at 8pm. A Stammtisch is a German term for an event where people gather, talk, eat, but mostly drink beer. As usual everyone was running late and it wasn't until 9pm until we got going. I remember talking to the students as we made our way to the bar and feeling really good that I was actually able to strike up conversations with a few people. Again looking back, it is crazy to think I had so much fear of talking with these people, as by the end of the 6 weeks there was nothing which I could not tell them.
After being foiled by the public transport system yet again, we finally made it to the bar. First order of business was ordering dinner. I really wanted to hit the ground running with my conversion to being German so I ordered a Thuringer Bratwurst with sauerkraut. Unfortunately I was really hungry and ate the food so fast that I felt sick afterwards (might also have been because I ate a massive sausage and pickled cabbage...). I was being a bit of a goody-good and didn't order any alcohol to drink. Instead I just enjoyed talking to people although I was dead tired.
The class lists had also been released and I was really happy to discover that I had been placed into the C1.1 class. It was affirmation for me that my German was good and that I could be confident in my abilities. Although the company was excellent I had to go home quickly because I falling asleep and my stomach was still topsy-turvy from the bratwurst. I felt like I was missing out by leaving the event early, but my tiredness reasoned me into doing the sensible thing.
At home I fell asleep immediately because I had to go to class the next day at 9am. I was nervous about the first day of class, but at least now everything was starting to fall into place. Slowly and tentatively, Berlin and Germany became more and more familiar to me.
 |
| View of the TV Tower in Alexanderplatz from the Berliner Dom |
*****
So...that was far longer than I expected and way too boring and detailed. I am mostly writing this for myself in an effort to consolidate and reflect upon the crazy few months that have gone by. It has been the most amazing, tiring, frustrating, emotional, fun, crazy and worthwhile journey and I think I would hit myself for just lazily letting these memories recede into a hazy abyss. The next few blog posts about Berlin will be actually interesting and about Berlin...I promise! :)
Ruohan xx
No comments:
Post a Comment