Jetzt bin ich in Dresden!

Gruesse aus Deutschland! I am now in Dresden, eine sehr schoene Stadt. I arrived in Berlin on Friday morning and then came to Dresden on Sunday, and I will be here for a little less than three weeks.

My mother was with me in Berlin on Friday and we took care of some logistical stuff like getting a Handy (cell phone) and a bank account (which turned out to be an entirely fruitless pursuit--I now have a non-functioning account since I don't have an address or a student card yet). I also looked at an apartment in Prenzlauer Berg, which is a really lovely area of Berlin that I'd love to live in. On Saturday my mom went back to the U.S. (and was back in Frankfurt the next day--such is the life of a flight attendant) and I trekked all over the city. I first went from my hotel in Potsdamer Platz to Hackescher Markt to meet two girls who I am going to live with (we don't know where yet though). They were very nice and we had a nice chat. The best part is that they are active Christians (which is how we crossed paths). After I went to Reinickendorf in the northern part of Berlin to look at another apartment in an evangelische Gemeinde (Christian church that has some WGs upstairs). I think I will live there only for September since they have nice, fully furnished guest rooms. It is close to where I will be working, but a little less fun and even a bit more geared towards families (evidence: the Costco-like Kaufland next to my apartment).

After apartment-searching and a trip to the train station to buy tickets I went back to my hotel and moved my bags (I packed for 11 months, so I had to lug a lot!) to a hostel in Friedrichshain, which is apparently the center of anarchist activism (read: lots of black-wearing youth bums hanging out on the street). I didn't spend much time at all in my hostel because I had to go to Friedrichstrasse (despite the similar name, an entirely different part of the city) to meet Matt from my German classes at Harvard for dinner. We had a great conversation, a lot about politics as usual, and then hung out at some posh bar before I headed back. At that point I was exhausted because of jet lag, but I was surprised to find everyone in my hostel room (5 other girls I never said one word to) asleep when I got back at midnight. I thought I was the most boring person ever?

Sunday was great--after moving my luggage to the train station, I met up with the two girls from the day before and went to church with them. They had met each other at a Hillsong church in London and now they are starting one in Berlin. It is extremely small--there were only about 15 of us, if that--and they just listen to a recording of last week's message at Hillsong London. I had never heard of Hillsong but apparently it is huge in Sydney. It seemed exactly like something I would like. I am not used to house churches, but they hope for it to grow a lot. And it's all in English. A big plus, since I am not ready to worship auf Deutsch! Then the two girls took me to the train station and helped me with my bags. They are clearly very kind and so I am looking forward to living with them! Such a relief. Although we don't have an apartment yet, which is not a relief at all . . .

Although I got to Dresden on Sunday I still haven't had any classes. Yesterday we just got information and then today we had a placement test and then we got a tour of the Altstadt. Dresden is really pretty and the weather was great today! The tour was nice--it was especially good to talk to other participants. I am very surprised about how international the program really is. There are only four students out of 114 from the U.S., and I think one from the UK and one from Canada. My three flatmates are from Barcelona, Moscow, and Ankara, respectively. There are over 30 countries represented, Russia (17) and Italy (14) having the most. This means that there are several people who do not speak English as a native language, which I thought would be a good thing since we'd have to speak German all the time. For example, my Spanish roommate doesn't speak English and does not want to speak Spanish, so we only talk in German. But the problem is that there are some people who love to speak in really broken English instead of really, really broken German. I often can't understand them too well. I am also becoming increasingly frustrated with my (in)ability to express myself in German. There are so many things I want to say and talk about but I cannot. And even if I could, many of the students here are beginners or intermediate and thus they wouldn't be able to understand anyway!

Tomorrow classes begin. I will be doing a class called "Kultur, Gesellschaft und Sprache in Deutschland" (Culture, Society, and Language in Germany). We'll see how it is, but I just couldn't bear to do another grammar course. This one focuses on conversation and oral skills, which is what I need. There are also excursions and activities every day. Tomorrow I am going on a tour of the Gemaeldegalerie and then we have a party at the club on campus. Thursday evening we are going on a tour of the Neustadt (which sounds like it's going to turn into a pub crawl). Friday we are going to Schloss and Park Pillnitz and then Sunday I am going to Meissen, a nearby city that is famous for porcelain (I think). Saturday is a trip to Berlin but I am going to try to go to Leipzig. There are also language workshops everyday, such as Phonetik and Freies Sprechen, and I'll try to do those too.

Clearly I'm having a wonderful time with all this to do. And I found the time to write a perhaps too descriptive post. I probably won't be able to write as much in the future, so I might as well overdo it now.

Alright, I am going back into the city for dinner. Oh, will talk about die Mensa (dining hall) later!

Tschuess!