The trip, arrival and first impressions…

To all those wondering, yes, I am in Berlin.

I’ll backtrack for a moment and explain how it went. Jessie (my roommate, both at school and here in our room in Berlin) and her stepmom came to pick me up at my house around 9:00 Thursday morning. We travelled the two hours to the airport and made it through luggage check and security without any problems, and snagged some lunch @ McDonald’s (since neither of us had breakfast) before boarding out plane. Everyone loaded up in time, but that didn’t stop us from being delayed on the runway, thanks to excessive air traffic. Once we got in the air our flight took less then 30 minutes and we arrived early, but of course that didn’t stop us from being delayed for over an hour on the landing strip. Another plane was parked in our hangar undergoing repairs and there was nowhere else for us to park, but they couldn’t bother to move it and there were no other hangar available until this plane was fixed.

ANYWAY, lucky for them we got to our terminal with another hour to spare before our connecting flight departed for Berlin. I woulda’ shat bricks otherwise. While there I picked up a book for the trip, after realizing I’d failed to bring anything to do on the flight. We boarded the second flight on time, but once again were delayed for over an hour thanks to air traffic. Eventually we took off and the pilot informed us it was a 7 hour flight, which was a bit of a relief, since I originally thought it was twice that long. It ended up being a bit of a problem, though, since I thought I’d have more time to sleep on the way over.

Me, Jessie and Kyle lucked out and ended up sitting next to each other on the flight, so we talked for the first hour or so. Afterwards I watched 27 Dresses and then read my book, and for the last four hours I tried to get some sleep. Tried being the key word here. It’s very difficult for me to sleep sitting up in an explosive tube of metal some tens of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Granted, I didn’t think much about the explosive-toilet-paper-roll-over-the-ocean bit very much, but the uncomfortable and cramped seating was enough. Next time I go overseas, I’m traveling first class. At least there wasn’t much turbulence and the landing was smooth, so I had no cause for worry.

We arrived in Berlin at 9:00 AM Friday morning, an hour behind schedule thanks to the original delay. We were met by Professor Pohle and his family, who’d gone ahead of us to make sure the apartments we were staying in would be ready. They got some cabs to take our luggage to the apartment, while we took both a bus and the U-Bahn to get there. For clarification, the S-Bahn is the train that runs on the street through the city, while the U-Bahn is the train that travels underground (like a subway). We had to walk a couple of blocks from the station to the apartments, where we took our luggage to our rooms. The Professors rented three apartments for all of us: the guy’s apartment is in the basement and houses the four male students, then there’s another apartment on the third floor which houses Professor Pohle, his wife and daughter, and seven of us girls, and finally there’s an apartment on the top (fifth) floor which houses Professor Holland, his wife and son, and the two remaining female students. I’m in the middle apartment with the Pohle’s and share a room with Jessie and another girl on the trip, also named Jessica. Why they put two Jessica’s in the same room… I’ll never know.

Anyway, we lugged our luggage up to the room and selected beds, and then were ecstatic to discover that we had an internet connection! Afterwards we got some lunch (sandwiches) and Pohle took us on a quick tour of the city. It was really, really crazy. It was like this odd combination of New York, Williamsburg and some districts of Tokyo (I’ve never been to New York or Tokyo, but I’ve heard of them enough to garner some impression). There were old, traditionally magnificent buildings from back-who-knows-when, brand spanking new architecture and skyscrapers, and such a colorful assortment of peoples and sights. Just walking past the museum island we saw several vendors and street performers, and afterwards we came across bike-cabs and horse drawn carriages. I can’t even remember everything I saw that day, but I’m sure I’ll see it all again at some point and get back to you.

When we came back we had some free time to unpack and relax and ate dinner (Becky and Shannon, the Professors wives, made us spaghetti!), and afterwards the Professors told us the schedule for the next few days. Afterwards we were invited to see some sights, but only the guys ended up going, since the rest of us were too tired to move. I’ll explain that now, you see, Professor Pohle told us the fastest way to get over the jet lag was to stay awake after we’d arrived in Berlin and treat it like a normal day, not going to bed that night until nine or later. It was very difficult to do, especially considering that our flight left around 6 or 7 the evening before and took another seven hours to cross the Atlantic. Most of us weren’t able to get much sleep in this time, so even though it was 9:00 in Berlin, it felt like one or two in the morning when we arrived. It reminded me of all-nighters I pulled my freshmen year (the few times I had enough energy to do so).

Reading my book (Memoirs of a Geisha!) kept me up past 10:30, so I was able to beat the jet lag for the most part. I woke up around 6:00 the next morning, but managed to get back to sleep until eight and was ready in time for breakfast and bible study at 9:30. We’ll be having a bible study for an hour every day except Sunday, when we’ll be going to church. Tomorrow we’re going to a German church…I’m not sure how much good it will do us, since the service will be in a language most of us don’t understand. Anyway, after Bible study we were told we’d have some free time to explore the city and buy lunch. All the girls in our apartment went out together to explore an area we’d seen the day before on our tour, a strip with some of the nicer shops, and get a bite to eat. We agreed that if we separated we’d meet up later at the corner of the street.

From there most of the girls went into the nearby H&M (a clothing store, I’d never heard of it before but I think the others had), but my roommates and I walked down the street to see what else was there. We couldn’t find many restaurants so we stopped in at a souvenir shop to look around and get a feel for what we’d be buying later. I spotted a tattoo parlor at some point and thought I might like to get one to commemorate the trip, especially since I’ve always wanted one and this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. If I decide to do it, I’ll want to get a silhouette of the bear, which in the symbol for Berlin.

Then the two Jessica’s and I settled for having sandwiches at a little bakery next to the souvenir shop. Mine was the most unusual sandwich I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t quite figure out what was on it, since the description was all in German. Even so, I went for it, and even though the cashier didn’t speak a word of English, we managed to make our order successfully. When we sat down to eat it turned out that mine was hard-boiled egg cut into thin slices and topped with lettuce and tomato with some kind of cheese sauce. It was very good, thankfully, so I’d like to return there someday and have it again!

After we browsed a bit more we went back to the meeting place and together our group managed to find it’s way back to our apartment. From there the Professors took us to what was supposed to be a three-hour tour led by one of the apartment owners, but when we met her she told the Professor they would have to reschedule for Sunday at 4:00. That was fine by us, so the Professors gave us the rest of the day off to explore on our own. Jessie, Kyle and I wandered around a magnificent fountain of the God Poseidon (trident and everything) taking pictures for the first hour or so, then met with some of the other girls from our apartment. We found some people our age who were dancing by the fountains and stopped for about half an hour to photograph them, then went to get some ice cream (since it started to rain). The rain had plagued us all of yesterday, but today it sprinkled only now and then. After talking and eating we decided to go shopping, and once again Jessie and I only browsed, though some of the other girls bought things. We lost Kyle at some point but I think we were boring him, plus he made it back to the apartments on his own, so it was okay.

On the way out of one of the stores we saw a couple of girls laughing and obviously drunk, play fighting over a bottle of beer. We laughed after they were gone and were a little upset that nobody had thought to get a picture of it. Lots of people in Berlin regularly carried around a large bottle of wine or beer to drink, it was kinda weird. We also spotted a guy propelling down the side of a skyscraper, and at first I thought he might be up there washing windows, but that wasn’t the case, and nobody outside our group seemed to notice or be bothered by him. Again, weird. The oddest thing we saw today, though, was when we were on our way back to the apartment. Outside the subway station there were a bunch of men in cowboy costumes and fake mustaches, sitting around a hot pot, drinking and making some kind of chili, I think. They approached Amy and tried to sell her some and even spoke to her in English, but she couldn’t get them to leave her alone until she gave them the impression that she was only 18 and babysitting the rest of us, saying we were underage (first she told them she only had a mastercard and couldn’t pay for the alcohol, which is how they figured she was at least 18 in the first place). I don’t know if they bought it, but at least they went away.

Then, a few steps away we encountered an old man on the street making bubbles with giants wands for a group of children. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen, even if he was a street performer (he had a hat set out for donations), and we got plenty of good pictures with him making bubbles for the kids. It was a good ending to our first day out on our own, so we came back to apartment to relax before dinner (ham and cheese casserole!) and then came back to our rooms to get ready for bed.

The Professors told us that classes will officially begin Monday and our free days are on Thursdays. This Thursday the Hollands are taking their son to one of the two zoos in Berlin and Shannon said I could come along if I want to. I need to find my schedule soon and figure out what else we’re doing this week.

I love Berlin so much now that I’m not sure I want to leave!  

P.S. If I have time tomorrow (we’ve been told we’re going to be busy) I’ll put up some pictures of the rooms we’re staying in.

Advertisement