/*Google Analytics code

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

But I Just Had To Look

I swear I didn't fall off the face of the Earth. Two days after my last post I got incredibly sick. Food poisoning or something. It was not a fun three days. And being sick made me miss home so much more, which in turn kept me from getting over whatever it was as quickly as I normally would. Being sick in a foreign country is really not fun. There's no one around to take care of you and all those home remedies and comforts that you've developed over the years are generally just not an option here. The only good thing I can say about being sick was that it happened on the weekend that the local public transportation union was on strike, so I wouldn't have really been able to go out anyway. Also, I had a really good day up until I got sick, so that was nice. I went on this self guided art walk that I found online. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt for street art. I saw some really sweet paintings. And the sun was out, making it the first really gorgeous day we've had since I've been here. I did not fail to appreciate that :) Near the end of my walk I decided to cross over the river I had been walking along because there was a cool painting on the other side that I wanted to get a closer look at. That turned out to be a great decision. I actually accidentally stumbled across the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall. It is a very neat section of the wall that has been painted by several different artists. It's a huge tourist attraction. I was there last time I was here and I was a bit disappointed to see that when I compared the old pictures with the new, you could see that they had repainted the paintings and repaired damage to the wall. I guess I understand the reasoning, but it still makes it seem less legit. Also, my favorite painting that I saw that day wasn't even one from the art walk, it was the one that I crossed the bridge to get a look at! You can see a picture of it on my Flickr page (the link is at the bottom). It's the painting that says I Heart Berlin.

So after my little excursion into miserable, feeling-like-death land, I did next to nothing notable for the whole next week. My language classes started up again (finally!) and are going really well. I worked a lot again and saved up a little money so I'll hopefully be able to go on a pretty decent trip in April. Martina and I are thinking maybe somewhere warm, with beaches and nightlife. Perhaps Croatia or Greece. That would be sweet. I could use some sunshine, for sure.

The only other interesting thing that happened last week was that we had Fasching on Tuesday at the Kita. Fasching is the German Carnivale celebration. Everyone dresses up, a lot like Halloween, only without the scary factor. I dressed as a cat because I came up with my costume last minute and had to borrow M's cat ears. It was a really fun little celebration. We had a big breakfast with all three of the little kid groups and then a song and dance party with the whole Kita. I really do love working there :)

And speaking of children, I know I don't talk much about my host kids. That's mostly to protect their privacy. But I do want to say that things are getting better and better the more time I spend with them. I think we are starting to understand each other a little better (Mentally, not linguistically. They're both quite fluent in English.) Some days are really hard, but that's just part of life when you work with kids, particularly in a foreign country.

This last weekend I spent with Martina and a couple of other new friends. Friday morning Martina and I had tickets to the wine festival because her host parents had a booth there representing their vineyard. It was a little high class for our tastes, but it was a fun new experience nonetheless and it was free! Plus I got to taste a bunch of different kinds of wine so I can work on having some class and actually figuring out which wines I like. We had a little get together on Friday night to meet someone that was visiting from England, which ended in us watching Chicago and all singing show tunes. Then Saturday we went out to another club and danced until the wee hours of the morning. I successfully turned down dancing with a Justin Bieber look alike by telling him I was with my boyfriend and pointing to the nearest person from my group, which happened to be a gay man, all while speaking in German. Finally, at 6:00am, Martina and I embarked on our ridiculously long hour and a half trip home. When we got off the bus at my house at 7:30am my host dad was standing in the yard. He just laughed and said the least we could have done was to bring fresh rolls from the bakery. It's nice to have a really understanding host family, lol. And I've really come to appreciate the friends I have here too. We just always have a good time together and the socializing comes so much easier for me with them than it ever did at home. This is just one of the changes that I've noticed in myself. Berlin, the city and the people, have done so much to me. My speech, my fears, my personality, my everything... It's all changed so much. Sometimes I wonder if the people back home would recognize me like this. But then I remember that it doesn't really matter, because I'm happier now than I have been in my whole life.

There's probably more to be said. I mean, life here is never boring. But right now I'm really tired because we had an au pair meeting last night at 8:00pm an hour and a half from my house. At least the Indian food we ate was delicious! So I'm gonna go get some sleep and look forward to my weekend. Mexican food (keeping my fingers crossed that it's legit!) and a birthday party for a friend are on my agenda. I'm looking forward to a good time and some decent dance music because the club we are going to has an indie rock floor. I sincerely hope the foot cramp that I've had for the past 26 hours goes away by then though!

Today's title comes from A Day in the Life by the Beatles, which was so kindly suggested by Martina. And you can check out pictures from my art walk here. 

PS Happy Leap Day! I tried to explain the reason behind Leap Day to my six year old host kid and I'm not 100% sure he got it. We did draw a pretty sweet treasure map together though!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Dresden Pics, Sorry About the Wait!

I realized that I forgot to post a link to Dresden pictures for those of you who aren't friends with me on Facebook. You can find those here.

I know I haven't been taking/posting very many pics, but I have good reasons. First of all, when I go out it is usually in the evenings at a bar or club, and there's absolutely no way I'm taking my camera to a place like that. Secondly, it's been far too cold to take my camera when I go out during the day. The cold is really hard on my camera, particularly the battery. But I can sense that spring is coming and I'll start working on my photography again soon!

This Could Be Paradise

Here it is, almost two weeks since my last post. Sorry about that. It's partly due to the fact that I have gotten crazy busy, but I also just haven't known what to write about. I've done so much over the last two weeks, and many of those things have felt monumental to me, but when I start to think about what to write they just seem so... ordinary. I'm building a life here in Berlin, something that I'm incredibly proud to be able to say. I'm working really hard at settling in and getting a routine. I spend a lot of time at the Kita and a lot of time with my host kids, especially last week and this week, because AM has been gone a lot for work. When I'm not working I go to the gym or I just go exploring. One of my favorite things to do is just to get on the train and go somewhere that I haven't been before. I still have a lot of major sights to see in Berlin, but right now I'm really enjoying getting to know the less touristy facets of this city. Last week Martina and I went to Kreuzberg to find this secondhand clothing store that sells clothes by the kilo. That ended up being an adventure because I forgot to write down the address, lol. The place turned out to be a bit of a bust (their dressing rooms consisted of curtains that you could pull around you in the middle of the rows of clothes), but we still had a great time. I also love that I'm starting to develop favorite places in the city. We find ourselves spending a lot of time at certain coffee shops, something that I consider to be very European. We also go to some of the same restaurants over and over again because we know they are good or cheap (or both!). I still like to force myself to go to new places every so often though, because this city is enormous and I'll never be able to experience it all.

I think I've identified one of the main reasons that I so love this city though. As I meet more and more people, I can see that they all (especially the foreigners who've moved here) think just like me. There is just such an international presence here and everyone is so open to love and life and learning. I have had conversations with complete strangers and laughed with new found friends. And I can already tell you that the friends I'm making here are friends that will last the rest of my life. Even though we will all go our own separate ways some day, I can feel that we are connecting on a level much deeper than just proximity and convenience. I'm surrounded by this absolutely gorgeous city with so much history and culture that I can't even begin to experience it all, and I find half my joy in just sitting and talking with people. I have noticed my vocabulary changing a bit though, since I'm spending a lot of time with non-American English speakers.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do with my future. Sometimes it feels like I'm being pulled in a dozen different directions. Other times I feel like I have no direction at all. This city does that to me. It all depends on how successful I am feeling on any particular day. I do think I'd like to spend more time here though. One year does not feel like enough. However, whatever I do from here on out is going to depend on my ability to find a job. And that is one stressful thing that I do not even want to begin to think about at this moment. Right now I'm really itching to get back to my German classes. They start up again next Monday. I want so badly to be good at German already, but I'm still struggling to get over the fear of speaking in German. I've been told this is the most difficult hurdle in learning a language. Eventually I guess I'm going to just have to jump in and deal with the inevitable embarrassment of screwing up these people's language for awhile.

I'd also like to say that it's been cold here. Way too cold for my tastes. I couldn't tell you how cold though, since I'm failing at converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, lol. I finally went and bought some warm socks and leg warmers and everything, but now I hear that it's supposed to start warming up by next week. I guess I should be glad though. The five minutes it takes to wrap yourself up in multiple layers before going outside is a huge pain. As is getting the kids to keep their gloves, scarves, and hats on.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so I should get some sleep. But I'd like to end this by saying that I've finally gotten to experience a real club and I am in love! I am just so into dancing these days... And ladies nights, because free entry rocks :)

And today's blog title is from this song. Paradise by Coldplay. Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot! Happy Valentine's Day to all of my readers and all of the people that make me feel so loved! It's not a very big holiday here in Germany and we didn't really celebrate, other than doing some heart art projects with the Kita kids. Fasching is coming up though, so I'll make sure to tell you all about that later this month! 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Dresden!

Dresden was amazing :) I've been back for a few days now, but I'm hoping I can remember everything still and get it written down here so that I'll always have it to look back on. Our big adventure started on Thursday night, when Martina came to stay with me. It was Australia Day (we have a lot of Australian friends) and we thought about going out, but I have been fighting a cold so we just stayed in and got a few hours of sleep. Friday morning we got up at 4:30am so that we could be to the train station plenty early for our 6:30am train. Not gonna lie, the train looked very shabby. But it got us there safely, so I guess that's all that matters. Also, I sort of accidentally stole a spoon from the train. I borrowed it from the kitchen with the full intention of bringing it back, but we arrived at our destination before I had a chance to return it. Now it is one of my favorite souvenirs though anyway!

Before going to Dresden, I knew very little about the city. We arrived at 9:00 am on a Friday morning with no plans in mind. And we quickly learned that Dresden does not wake up before 11:00 am. So we dropped our bags at the hostel and went exploring. We bought a day ticket for the tram, but Dresden is actually extremely compact so we ended up walking all over the place. We would just pick a direction and walk, which was exciting because every corner held a new surprise. And without looking for anything in particular, we were also amazed at the things we found. Now it's important to know that Dresden sits on either side of the Elbe River. The Neustadt (New City) is on one side and the Altstadt (Old City) is on the other. Our hostel was in the Neustadt, since that is where the younger people hangout and where the nightlife was supposed to be. But on the first day we ended up right in the middle of the Altstadt. And I have to say, it was absolutely amazing. There is so much history in that little area. The large majority of the city was leveled during World War II. All of the old buildings that are still standing are blackened, though I'm not sure if it is from age or the war. They stand in contrast to the brand new buildings all around them. Half of the time we didn't even know if a building was famous, we just knew that it was old and had a history that neither of us could imagine living through. That first day we ended up seeing the Japanischer Palast, the Dreikönigskirche, the Baroque Quarter, the Procession of Princes, and the Frauenkirche. We probably saw a lot of other things too without realizing it. The Japanischer Palast was interesting mostly because it was strange. It was a museum, but there was no real advertisement or structure. We just stumbled into this building and walked around because no one told us not to. They had a bunch of mini exhibits about random things that had nothing to do with each other. Some geology, a bit of biology, and a couple exhibits about people I'd never heard of. Just getting to see the building was worth the adventure though. The stonework was gorgeous and they had all of these statues of Asian men holding up the building. Plus, free bathrooms! That's something I've learned not to take for granted, lol. We also went inside the Frauenkirche that day. The Frauenkirche was destroyed in the war and was only recently rebuilt. It was the only landmark that I knew of in Dresden and I was very excited to visit it. It wasn't open when we first got there, so we hung around and had a very delicious (and very German) lunch. When we finally got to go inside though, we were surprised, to say the least, at the interior decoration. It kind of looked like somebody went crazy with Easter egg dyes. Pictures weren't allowed, so I can't show you, but you can Google it. Normally I would have quietly taken pictures anyway, but Martina said something vaguely sacrilegious and we couldn't stop laughing so we were already drawing enough attention to ourselves. And that leads me to another point. One of the things I will always remember most about this trip was how much I laughed. I just generally had an amazing time and I couldn't have picked a better travel companion.

So by Friday afternoon we had done a ridiculous amount of walking. We ended up just getting on a tram and riding way out to the edges of the city. Then we got off and rode a different tram back. It was like a free bus tour! Plus it is kind of liberating to ride without a destination. I also had my first experience with an Apotheke that afternoon. That cold was kicking my butt so I went to get some nasal spray. The thing about Apothekes in Germany is that you can't just walk in and buy stuff. It is all behind the counter and you have to have a clerk help you to decide what you need. Between my bad German and the clerk's bad English (as well as a little miming) I managed to find this amazing saline spray that totally worked. And then we went back to check into the hostel. We met one of our roommates there. His name was Matt and he was from Norway. We tried to be friends with him, but I think we might have been a little overzealous and we probably just ended up scaring him. Also, every time we saw him that weekend we were either eating or on our way to eat, which really made him think that we never did anything else. But in our defense, the food in Dresden was amazing! Both Martina and I get cranky when we get hungry, so we would just end up walking around and picking the first place that looked decently priced. And not once were we disappointed! The first day we had German food for lunch, Mexican food for dinner (which is incredibly hard to find in Germany), and burgers for a late night snack :) The second day we went to an American/British store and talked to this really cool lady. She suggested a ton of places to eat, including the shadiest looking restaurant/bar I've ever seen. Seriously, it was just a doorway with a red light bulb over it. We went to a cafe instead and had the "New Orleans" breakfast. It consisted of Spiegelei (which are eggs but I don't eat eggs at home so I don't know what the equivalent is, maybe over easy?), REAL bacon, ham, hashbrowns, and what they called American pancakes. Now let me tell you, it is not easy to find a breakfast like that around here and we were super stoked. Of course, the pancakes were not American at all, but they were still delicious. They were deep fried! I don't know why everyone thinks Americans only eat deep fried food... I also had some of the most delicious fresh pressed orange juice that I've had in ages. Soooo good. Right before leaving Dresden I actually bought a post card that I felt summed up our entire eating experience there. It says "Ich suche nicht, ich finde.", which translates to "I don't search, I find." Thanks Picasso, I couldn't have possibly said it better myself :)

So we spent the rest of Saturday walking around again. We found the Martin Luther Kirche and some really sweet street art. We stumbled across some awesome little stores. I bought a new wallet in one of them that I absolutely love. It's very German, because the coin purse is built in, lol. We also went by the Semper Oper and Zwinger. Zwinger is an old palace and it now holds a couple of museums. We had a great time in the Rustkammer, which is an arms and armor museum. We also went to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (old master's gallery), but it was huge and we were tired by that time so we didn't get to see all of it. We did find some pictures that completely cracked us up though. And then there were some that were truly scary. It's amazing what some people can do with a bit of paint and a brush. That night we ate at an Italian place that was super delicious. I had spaghetti carbonara with real white sauce! I've been craving it since I got here and this place did not disappoint. They also gave us these garlic stuffed olives which were delicious and free! You never get stuff like that here. The Mexican restaurant didn't even give us chips. We also ran into our new roommate from the hostel at dinner. Poor boy probably thought we were stalking him. His name was Louie and he was from Australia. And he told us it was only going to get colder here, which came true, so now he is on our bad lists, lol. After dinner that night we went out looking for a club. After getting used to Berlin's crazy nightlife we found it annoyingly difficult to find a good party spot. While searching we did manage to stumble across the Kunsthofpassage though. I had read about it before, but forgot to actually look up where it was in the city. It is this super neat area between the buildings that has been completely decorated by artists. My favorite part is where they've attached all these pipes and funnels to the whole side of a building. It's supposed to sound really beautiful when it rains. I'll have to go back and see someday. But we did end up finding a really sweet place to hang out. It was this club called Groove Station. I really wish it was here in Berlin or even at home, because I fell in love with the place. The atmosphere was awesome. They had super awesome old school film decorations, definitely my kind of place. Plus the music was amazing! The DJ was playing all of this English indie rock and I could not have been happier. We ended up dancing for several hours. Dancing is new to me, because I never realized how much I loved it until Earline's wedding this summer. But the best thing about Germany is that no one can dance! So I didn't stick out! I just had a great time and really enjoyed myself.

Then came Sunday morning. We were pretty tired and had achey feet thanks to all the walking and dancing from the previous two days. We went to this little cafe that was having a breakfast buffet. These buffets are really common here, especially on Sunday mornings. They aren't like at home though. It is usually just one table with whatever the place feels like serving. Generally breads, fruit, meats, cheeses, and hard boiled eggs. We ended up sitting at that cafe for about four hours, until they closed the buffet. It wasn't that we were hungry or even eating that whole time, we just loved the relaxed atmosphere and the music there. In Germany they will never just bring you a check for your meal. You have to practically force them to let you pay. I guess that is because they are used to Germans sitting around for hours when they go out to eat. I've learned to accept that it's not bad service, just a different mind set. I also had a hot chocolate at this place that was crazy good. It was legit hot chocolate. All we ended up doing the rest of that day was going back into Altstadt to search for some postcards. Even though it was really quiet and laidback, I had a really great time that day. Martina and I never seem to run out of things to talk about. We are just too similar, which is sometimes a bit creepy, lol. I was glad to get on the train and go home though. It had gotten really cold and we were just plain exhausted. We saw so much in just three days. As my first Germany trip outside of Berlin, I really have to proclaim Dresden to be a success. And now I am even more excited about all the other trips I will hopefully be taking while I'm here :)

On an end note, I'd like to mention just a couple of things I've done and/or thought about since being back in Berlin. On Monday I had nothing to do since my host family is still on vacation. I ended up riding the train to a shopping area because I had seen a sign for TK Maxx there (I have no idea why it is TK here instead of TJ, it just is). Turns out that is not as cheap of a place to shop here as it is in the US. I went to Woolworth's too though and found myself a new shawl for just 53 cents! Even in Germany I am the queen of good deals :) I also went to a Euro store and managed to find a coloring book. Finally! No crayons though, since they don't have those here apparently. I did get a big thing of colored pencils, which will have to do. And I found a store called Idee, which was like heaven to me. Two whole floors of craft supplies! I bought some scrapbook paper and I'm going to start making frames of a sort for my photographs that I brought along, so that I can hang them up a little nicer. I'm trying to make my room real feel a little more like it is mine. So if anyone wants to send printed pictures or anything let me know!! I'd love to have them!

And finally, I just want to say that I can actually notice my vocabulary growing every day. At the gym I've been watching some TV in German and I'm amazed at how much easier it is for me to understand than when I first got here. Speaking of which, I've been here a month already!!! Time is going way too fast. That's just proof of how much I'm loving it though I guess :) Ok, well this is already ridiculously long. I'd better stop while I'm ahead or I won't have any readers anymore. I'm sure next week's post won't be nearly as detailed, since I plan on having a nice quiet weekend. Bis später!

P.S. I'll post pictures as soon as I finish editing them :)