May Day is the best kind of day

I made it to Berlin! 


My journey here was surprisingly stress-free. I sat next to a man named Dave on the way to London. He has dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K. and was really nice. We talked for about  3 hours which helped the time go by. After that I slept and before I knew it, I was there! After a quick lay-over and 1 hr. flight to Berlin, I met my room mate Katharina at the airport and we used public transportation to find our host family's house. Relatively painless.

My host Mutter is really nice. Her name is Petra,  she has a 15 year old daughter, and a dog Lucky. I wonder if this dog is my old dog Lucky reincarnated to punish me for letting my parents give him away... We have a really big room and a balcony with a view. 

 So yesterday we found the Goethe Institut (the school where we are studying) and took oral exams so they could place us in different classes. Then for the rest of the day Katharina, Kristen, Katelyn, and I explored the city. The Brandenburg Gate was beautiful. I took a picture with real Soviet and German guards!

We also hung out in a park called Unter den Linden. It is gorgeous and I feel like a scene in a romantic comedy should be filmed there. Oh and there was a statue of a lion family. I freaked out a little over the baby lions. 

 After a lot of walking we were tired so we each bought a Döner (essentially a gyro) and plopped down in front of a liquor store to eat and people watch. As we were sitting there I decided that European men dress a lot better than American men overall. However, they also fulfilled any stereotypes I had about them. Black v-neck? Check. Tight pants? check. Edgy haircut? Ja. It is definitely a different culture here. This was my view from where I was sitting. There are a lot of beautful buildings in Berlin.

Oh just so you know, I don’t look like a tourist here. Yesterday, a German couple asked Katharina and I for directions! A German man asked a group of us to talk on a tv show for 45 minutes about politics. So in the words of JFK “Ich bin ein Berliner” already!

Today was May Day. The song from Camelot was stuck in my head (lusty month and all that). Because it is a German holiday, all of the stores were closed! A group of us had a picnic in this huge park that use to be an airport! We picked flowers and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I earned some hippy points by spending an hour weaving myself a flower headband.

 We got some delicious ice cream and spent the rest of the day exploring the city.

 We thought about seeing the Avengers but it was 14 Euros so we decided that we could wait. Oh! I saw my first piece of the wall today. Check it out. 

So overall it has been a really good past couple of days. Although I have loved the two days off, I am excited for school to start. I think that doing productive things will make my free time more valuable. Life is good here!