Jumbled start to the term

(Picture: sunday city tour, approaching the Museum Island)
Last time I wrote my timetable was all sorted, and was ready to have my first run through a university week... how wrong I was. This week has involved quickly joining in what I've heard termed 'course shopping' - visting every course you might concievably want to do, and then decide if its right. I've had a taste for the levels that the German courses are at, and what I might be able to do, so I've now realised what might work out. Hopefully this week will be confirmation of this.

For those interested about academic systems...
I'm doing a German language course, linguistic introdution auf Deutsch, then language change, and language variation. The biggest difference from Edinburgh is the inclusion of presentations in assessment, and 'Hausarbeit'. While an essay simply represents other people's information, a Hausarbeit is a question of your choice, which explores a new issue or new data. The whole idea is that you contribute something new to the academic community. I can really appreciate how the whole set up of classes and assessment encourages you to do more than just churn out info, but research things to a deeper level and learn about things for your own interest (a point to university study that can sometimes be lost in ticking boxes).

Otherwise this week....

Last Sunday was a particularly lovely wind up to the pre-semester time. A few of us coursemates went for brunch, and then on the free city tour, unfortunately only available in English on that day, but quite glad that I knew I could understand it all. It was very very good. The guides work for tips, so only the true entertainers can last long in the job. I recommend it very very much, various times in the day from outside Brandenburger tour Starbucks.

I've been to my first aerobics class last Thursday! Not nearly as tiring as me or the other girls there thought it might be, but a good muscle stretch. Thank goodness for finally doing something active. Especially good to remedy my shock from the German lingustics seminar which was above my head - I'm taking an easier course, so long as they let me in on the uni system.

I've also been on a 'freizeit' (time away) this weekend, with a church community called 'Junge Kirche Berlin', which was really good. It was in Gussow, which is by a lake 30km south of Berlin. It was a great time of being away from city bustle, getting to really spend time reading the Bible, praying with God and worship, and of course getting to know people in the community. I have decided to get stuck in to JKB, not only to have a community of faith (etc), but also its quite good for making me speak more German. I nearly joined the new church 'plant' in Berlin by an English family I know, which is brilliant too, but meets less often, and I knew I'd not use so much German. I will definitely be staying in touch with that brilliant bunch of people too though.

I am rather ashamed at my occasional near-vandalism of the German language this weekend. Wanting to communicate sometimes resulted in a jumble of assorted verbs and nouns merely related to the point I was trying to make, and then asking 'do you know what I'm trying to say?' (auf Deutsch). Sorry deutschsprachige Leute. I definitely want to learn more German, and this is exactly the kind of situation that gives you motivation for going over and over irregular verb conjugations and vocab and grammar. I will need to keep reminding myself that!

I am now getting very excited about a week Wednesday. Luke comes to visit - need I say more? Yes, my boyfriend! Ok now I don't need to say any more. I'll be testing my tourist knowledge... In addition, miss Rachel will be in the city too in that week, with her architectural friends! And theres a few birthdays to boot. All this calls for a week of particularly earnest academic endeavours. Hopefully I can then have a bit of space for manouvre the following week.

With that, bye for now.

My third home and starting a new section

My Saturday seems to have dissappeared today, mainly because I approached my street last night as the sky was tinged with deep blue and dusky pink of the morning, post Abschied(farewell)party. We have just finished our language course this week before the start of the winter semester next week. So one chapter is ending, and another is starting here. The trees are most definitely autumnal and there is icy mist in the mornings (the picture on the left is in the nice southern area of Dahlem, at the university)

Pre-party we were in a Weinerei - you pay 2euro entrance for a glass, drink what wine you fancy, and pay your estimation of wine cost on your way out (and for any food they might have put on and you ate). It was a pretty quirky place, decor was lots of trinkets old and new - see the picture on the right (Maybe like Nacy's bordello in Newcastle, though I've never been) and I liked it, and the system seems to work well overall. You get so many little places like that in Berlin. You need to get to know the streets a bit, something I'm not so speedy with.

I've started to feel way more at home now, the culture shock is wearing off. My brain doesn't recognise new unfamiliar faces and attire and attitudes like it did at first - I wasn't used to hearing so much turkish, seeing so many spikes and black leather on one person, so many bottles of beer in the hands of people on the UBahn (its legal here), being told things in such a blunt way (the Berliner schnauzer - 'harsh but not harshly meant', theres even a campaign about it - not just German directness), so many unkown food items in the supermarket, and so on.
I'm noticing myself finding all the strange and new things are now the things I am fond of, that I belong to just a little more, as I get to know the routines and patterns of the area, of the city. Home number three, if only for a year.

I now have my timetable pretty much sorted, and am quite happy with it. A bit in uni each day, apart from Friday, and hopefully the courses should be good too. 'Kulturelles Leben in Berlin' (German language learning topic, naturally in German), English historical syntax + Chaucer (in Eng), German orthography (in German). I finally knew when I was free for sport, and of course so many courses had filled up by then, meaning rather than intended dance I'm doing beginner's aerobics! We'll see what that is like, and well, the semester in general. Sunday still to come, then the first week of Wintersemester 2010/11...

Kish.

University in sight

This week has involved more stuff with university, namely two days of language course replaced by 'orientation days', which informed all exchange students about stuff we'd been told on the language course already, plus a bit. And application for courses opened on Monday. Its been a little quieter, in a nice way. The picture is from last Sunday...




Out and about...
Today is a crisp clear day, autumn freshness, its beautiful. I have been sorting my room and checking out more course info (nearly there with course applying), so less of note to say about the city (oh yes, still need to apply for sport.. and I'm not doing the choir, decided).
Last Sunday was 'tag der Deutschen Einheit' - when the governments rejoined post DDR and Mauer (I think?!). There was a big street festival in the day by Brandenburger Tor, which I quickly whizzed through. Crepes-hats-Wurst-Schnitzel-jazz stage-Bier-Crepes-Wurst-Cocktails-bags-Bier-Wurst-sweets.. It was incredibly tourist packed, and talking to my flatmate it appears that Germans don't pay much attention to the day generally. It seemed so odd, to see 'sponsored by Coca cola' on the banner, makes you think of the anti-capitalism stance in the old east that has struggled to remain.
As last weekend was similarly gorgeous weather, I discovered Treptower Park on Saturday, one stop away from me, which has a few monuments and an island and boating. As I went en route to shopping, no camera, ah well. I savoured it. It was good to be a bit more active too! So much U bahn travel. I actually now have the loan of my flatmate's bike, which is quite cool. I have to fix the reflector and bell first, and work out the cycle codes, but still.

Britishness...
An English coursemate cooked cottage pie for American/Hungarian/Spanish/German bunch of us, to celebrate her birthday, and they were all impressed and left praising British food, so the national pride has been firmly reinforced. A rare treasure of squeezy golden syrup was one of our pressies, and similarly was tasted with rave reviews. Side note: thank you Abbey, who returned from her trip to England with a box of sainsbury's fairtrade tea and yes, a tin of golden syrup! I was excessively excited about that. I have even now taken a picture. Anyway... The rest of the evening heavily involved American-English comparisons, including this website (click here, nabbed from friend who found it, though its definite slang ie v senstive don't bother looking!), and also some points of serious confusion - Americans use a very misleading term for the Biritsh 'bum bags'. Apparently 'bum bag' is wierd to them too though.

Flat...
I'm now in my semester 1 room, as my until now flatmate has left for her apprenticeship in Spain. Other flatmate returns from France tomorrow morning, so I've made sure I've moved out my stuff from her room, and given it a clean. I'm really enjoying having a more cosy room, and I've decorated it a bit too. I rattle around in big rooms (sorry yawn for some, its my new thought of the moment). I'm very grateful to be able to have things like a stereo and sellotape and towels and bedding, from my flatmate who left. We'll see how mystery residence in semester 2 works out for such things. Film night tonight with a few, auf Deutsch and English subtitles :)

Thats all for now.

Rythms in Berlin

Its all starting to blur, the days are going quicker - must mean I'm getting used to a tiny corner of life here in Berlin.

At the weekend, me and a couple of friends were going to see jazz... and ended up dancing away to Jewish folk music in the Kutlurbrauerei. Such is Berlin. I was able to see the Ritter sport mini museum/cafe, and wandered around a flohmarkt on Sunday (had my obligatory currywurst now, and enjoyed it well enough!), before skypes and church service (another church visited). Inclusive in this was walking past a storm trooper queueing for his ticket at the UBahn Brandenburger Tor (see picture). It was busy there this weekend, as the marathon was on (rollerskates on Sat, running Sunday). Its one of the five biggest marathons in the world, I chatted to two competitiors on the S-Bahn post event. It was a miserably wet day for it, unfortunately, but you can't be put off by rain if you're serious enough to do a marathon!

This week, classes as usual, went to the choir again (unsure), visited my friend at the student halls in the south of the city. I had a lovely curry meal last night with my flatmate and some of her friends, it was brilliant to just have an easy going food and chat evening, getting to know my flatmate and her friends a bit, especially in German. Its really good to be able to get a spell of pure German language, which can so easily be interrupted here in an international city and language course (and by myself, like now!). Not a great week in wellbeing, but that passes. Found I needed some space in my diary, so Saturday has purposefully been made less empty. This sunday is the 20th anniversary of the mauerfall, and I had no idea until i had already filled it with non-mauer-celebration events! I'll try find a space to celebrate in some way, and I'm looking forward to the meet ups and skypes that I'll be doing anyway :)

We had a brilliant tour of Kreuzberg by one of the tutors this afternoon. I learnt some bits about Berlin at the time of the Mauer. Apparently, there was a strip of the wall, where actually some DDR land was on the west side of the wall, so west berliners out of favour with the police set up their make shift abodes on this few hundred metres of land. Similarly, the DDR owned the SBahn, and West Berlin the Ubahn - hence, the Zoo/something station, split into Sbahn above and Ubahn below, was perfect for drug dealers to zip up the stairs to DDR turf when the west berlin police came. The turkish markets in Kreuzberg are pretty well known too, great to see, despite having to do the whole shoulder-to-shoulder thing most of the way down. I have been most informed about my food options here by reading the wikipedia article on turkish cuisine. Its pretty tasty, hot and greasy, as well as special breads, from what I can tell.. I've only tried lahmacun so far, and a taste of, um a boereck maybe? Wikipedia has the answers.

The University introduction days for (only exchange?) students are this next Wed and Thursday, and course options are open for application as of next week (need to work that out). I have to retake the language test too, to show i can do the next level German as foreign language course. Oh, and sport course applications too. Maybe a dance class?

I think that might actually be all. God bless!