glücklich

Well, I should write on this thing more often about all the bad things happening to me. Remember how the first time I wrote about not having an apartment yet and then someone called me up and told me I could move in? (the apartment I decided not to take) Well, right after I wrote the last post, I got another call saying I could have a room in an apartment! So I am no longer obdachlos. Yay! My apartment is right in Mitte, on Weinmeisterstrasse, about 30 seconds from the U-Bahn line that will take me directly to my school in six stops (no changing lines!). God is good, ain't He? Well, even if I were homeless, He would still be good. All the time!

But I just discovered that I will have to pay a fee for registering myself more than a week after I moved in. So I decided just not to register myself at my current address and just register when I move in to my new place. Except I have to prove to Humboldt on Friday that I am registered (the government wants to know where you are living at all times, once again I love America even more now). I wasn't sure how that could work out, and in fact, I've been having minor panic attacks about it, since I shouldn't be messing with the German government. I caved in and went all the way to the registration office today because I figured it was better to just pay a fee than get in big trouble, and when I got to the door I just turned around and went home because the cheapskate in me won my inner battle (two things: I'm kidding lying--I couldn't find the door to the building, but I figured it was a sign from God that I was not meant to register yet even though I am 2.5 weeks late; and I taught my students the word "cheapskate" today). I am a terrible person.

I also discovered that I gave the wrong bank account number to the organization that is paying me, which is why I have not gotten paid yet. Which means I keep having to withdraw money from my American bank account. WHY IS THE EXCHANGE RATE SO CRAPPY? Actually, I kinda hope it gets worse because when I get paid in Euros it will be awesome to exchange them to dollars. That is, if I have any Euros left when I return to America. Not looking likely, especially because of the numerous amount of vacations I have. Starting with my "vacation" to Munich this weekend. Which reminds me, I should get off this thing and study for the first time today.

I hope that the next time I post will be from the comfort of my very own room. Post-LSAT, post-registration, post-matriculation-at-Humboldt, post-bank-account-clearing-up, post-visa-obtainment, post-everything-that-is-stressing-me-out! Oh yeah, and post-law-school-apps. One of my recommenders just wrote to me asking to see my personal statement. As if I've even started to think about what I am writing my personal statement about!

UGHUGHUGHUGHUGH!

Yes, I have not updated in a while. It is because I have no stinkin' Internet, in addition to no time to write anything. I am so ready to get settled in, but it's impossible because I have no place to live! I am fed up with trekking around the city in every direction trying to find a room in an apartment. All of you still at Harvard, never ever take for granted how housing works there.

Also, studying for the LSAT has been nearly impossible, considering my apartment-search schedule. I hope I don't fail. That is, if I ever find a place to stay when I get there. Argh argh argh! And I need to register at Humboldt on Friday, but I also need to go to Munich at the same time . . .

I also still have not registered myself in Berlin (so the government can keep track of me, I suppose), or gotten my visa, both of which are no-nos.

As you can tell, I am feeling a bit stressed and frustrated right now. But I suppose in the grand scheme of things life is pretty good. I've had a constant stream of visitors the past three weeks (which kinda is bad timing, considering the whole LSAT thing, but it's prevented me from getting lonely). And my work is going pretty well, although technically I haven't started teaching.

Alright, that's about it for now. I expect to have Internet around the beginning of October (if I get a room somehow!) and then I will be able to write something more substantial about my experiences in the past couple of weeks.

Oh, a glaring error. Apparently Fräulein is neuter, and I put it as feminine in my blog post. How embarrassing.

"In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl."

Mehr

Today I visited a couple of 11^th-grade classes and the boys are really rowdy! Really no different than the boys in my own high school, although you’d think that since they are in 11^th grade and in a Gymnasium they’d be a little better-behaved. I was asked a few times if I was single (one boy asked if I was married and then what his chances with me would be). They also love that I am from “near LA”—that’s what I tell them, and maybe it’s too misleading. I was asked if I’ve seen Brad Pitt and Paris Hilton, and I tried to explain that no one famous comes near where I live, but they just kept thinking of more celebrities to ask me about. The students misbehave, but none of them seems to be malicious, which is a good thing. Right now I’m just observing the courses, but sometimes I really want to yell at the kids to be quiet and stop passing notes and throwing wads of paper at each other. I thought German teachers would be disciplinarians, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I have to remind myself also that when I was in high school I was basically just in honors classes with a bunch of goody-two-shoes, so for all I know these kids could be angels compared to the average American high school student.

Last night I looked at my first apartment and it was a good enough place. My two potential roommates and I talked for two hours, which I hadn’t expected but I assume is a good sign. The downsides are that the place is a little far from my school, and one of the roommates is a 40-something-year-old cleaning lady from China who has been in Germany for 20 years but whose German I swear is just about the same as mine. The other roommate is a German girl about 25 years old who needs a lot of peace and quiet to study, which I guess is ok. I just want roommates who are willing to hang out with me since I have no real friends here and want to experience what life in Berlin is really like. The two women are both really nice though and I think I would get along well with them. I haven’t been offered the place yet, but if I am, I don’t know whether to accept it. Another problem is I haven’t looked at any other apartments because no one is replying to my inquiries, except when the room has already been taken. This is not a fun experience!

Wow, this is really weird, but just as I finished writing the above, one of the roommates called me and offered me the room in the apartment. Now I really have to think hard about this . . . which means I have to ask my mother for her opinion!

I really need to find a good library here because I am getting sick of watching the two English-language channels I have—MTV and CNN. I can’t believe I ever watched MTV when I was younger. I keep turning it on hoping to find some music videos for German or at the very least European singers, but all that I find are really trashy American shows with German subtitles. At least I am learning how to say disgusting things in German. And CNN really sucks because it plays the same news over and over again and it is extremely anti-American. I don’t care if that’s a point belabored by conservatives—every time I watch it, they have someone talking about how bad America is, especially after the Petraeus and Crocker testimonies before Congress. All that I have besides TV are my LSAT books. I’ve been doing some work every day, but it’s getting so boring. I swear that every other question is about global warming or some other scientific topic and for some reason all the reading comp passages are about Native Americans. Can’t they find a wider variety of topics?

Endlich in Berlin!

(Warning: This is really, really long post since I wrote it over time and it covers part of the past two weeks or so.)

I am finally in Berlin! FINALLY! It seems like it was an eternity between when I was accepted to do the Fulbright and when I got here, especially since there was always something in the way, be it graduation, my summer internship, or my program in Dresden.

I left Dresden last Friday (August 31) after a wonderful party the last night of our program. I really had a blast, although it was sorta difficult to say goodbye to everyone considering it was a party with a DJ and too much going on. I hope I will keep in touch with the participants that I liked and I’m glad that a few will be in Germany this year, so I’ll be able to visit them.

My train to Cologne was eight hours! I got a direct train so I wouldn’t have to switch trains with all my luggage, and I can’t believe how much longer eight hours on a train seems than eight hours on the plane. We stopped in about 20 random little towns. Anyway, I arrived in Cologne and went to my hostel, where I found an interesting assortment of people. There was one guy checking in at the same time as me, and he was wearing the Rastafarian red, yellow, and green, had some circus-looking pants on, and carried this huge hat made out of pleather. The worst part is his dreadlocks were down to his ankles, no joke. I prayed I didn’t have to stay with this guy. I saw him in the street the next day carrying a flag and screaming something in some weird language (I think he’s from somewhere in Africa). He then proceeded to scream at a baby in a stroller. Creepy. The people in my room weren’t the best either. Five guys and me, two from India, two from some Scandinavian country, and one nice guy from Italy that I enjoyed talking to. But the Indian guys were horrendous. They brought over all their friends—an endless number—and talked and talked. But thankfully they went to bed early. The next night, however, there were four of them and also one Chinese girl who somehow has been living in Germany for four years but her German stinks. Those guys were so rude and inconsiderate. I guess they didn’t realize that when someone goes to bed, she would appreciate it if they quieted down a bit. The worst thing is that they woke up at 6:30 AM and sat in bed for TWO hours and just talked and laughed and farted a lot. I kid you not. I wish I could say I’m embellishing, but it’s the absolute truth. I even took video of them, and if I knew how to put the video on here, I would. So I decided to switch rooms for my last night, and they gave me my new room number, and they put me in the room with the crazy Rasta! I was actually quite scared of him since he was walking down the street screaming like a madman, so I demanded that they put me in an all-female room. Thank God they did, because I would have cried myself to sleep if I had to be with that other guy—I think he was certifiably crazy (or on drugs, but either way . . . ). I was in a room with a bunch of boring girls who were all in bed before 10, and they woke me up at 7 AM with their packing, but it was much preferred to living with annoying Indian guys or a crazy Rasta. I found out later that the Indians were there selling equestrian gear at a trade fair. How hilarious is that?

I was in Cologne for about three days, and I think that’s more than enough time to see the city. The first night I just walked around by myself, and then the first day I met up with my roommate from Dresden and we did some self-guided walking tour that was miles long. We also took a tour of the Dom in English and I felt bad because she couldn’t understand the tour guide and she knows nothing about Christianity or Catholicism since she is from Turkey. Anyway, I found the tour great, and the Dom really is beautiful. It is absolutely huge! We climbed the 500 stairs to the top, which was extremely painful. The stairs are so narrow, and people come down really fast while you are trying to go up. I never thought we’d make it to the top. But the view was great, although it was foggy. I guess it’s just nice to say that you’ve done it before? Add that to the list of cathedrals I have visited and climbed.

On our tour of Cologne, we saw like 10 weddings, no joke, since it was a Saturday. One wedding was really fun, in the middle of some random neighborhood—there were all these people in costumes and so we decided to crash the reception and take lots of pictures. I was a little embarrassed because we were in jeans and clearly were not invited guests, but no one seemed to mind.

After my roommate flew back to Turkey that night, I tried to go to the movie theater, but I had to walk really far and kinda got lost and it was dark and sketchy and I kept asking myself if getting mugged was worth seeing a movie. Another boring night. The next day I went to Mass in the Dom and then I visited Museum Ludwig, which is full of okay-ish modern art. I then went to Bonn for the afternoon and walked around a lot. I also took a tour in German of Beethoven’s House—he was born there. I was amazed that I understood all of the tour, and I actually think I fooled everyone into thinking I was German. The tour was really wonderful, which was surprising because Rick Steves told me that the house was nothing special.

Sunday night I met up with some other Fulbrighters and an Australian guy from my hostel and we had some Koelsch (beer from Cologne, or Koeln) and then went to a karaoke bar, which was absolutely hilarious. Some people were really good, others were awful, but they were the most fun to watch. On Monday we all went to the Cologne Zoo, which had a lot of animals but was a little too expensive for my taste. I guess I’m not the biggest fan of zoos, but I guess I have to go to the Berlin Zoo and at least see Knut the Eisbaer.

Orientation finally started on Monday afternoon. There were about 180 of us, 140 from the U.S. and the rest from the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We went to a monastery near Cologne and had about three days of informational meetings and training sessions. We met in groups with the people from our Land, so I kinda got to know the other 35 or so people who are also in Berlin (about 12 or 13 Americans). Our last day we had to give a lesson, and two guys and I had to teach about the entire American government in just 45 minutes! The task was more than challenging, because how do you teach about the entire government in such a short time? I had the worst part of the lesson, the non-fun, non-discussion, lecture-for-15-minutes part. But the simulation was wonderful, because it allowed me to plan a lesson and see what being in front of a classroom is really like. Although let’s be honest, the real experience will probably be nothing like it!

I have to say that I really didn’t enjoy orientation that much. I figured it would be a good chance to meet people from other Laender so I’d have a place to stay when I traveled, but I really didn’t connect with anyone. I don’t know why, but I didn’t have that much fun, even though everyone else seemed to be having a good time. Now when I want to travel within Germany I won’t have anyone in particular to visit! Boohoo. Although I did find a guy who will let me stay with him when I take the LSAT in Munich.

And now I am in Berlin! Two teachers picked me up from the train station and drove me to my place here in Reinickendorf. I’m staying in a Ferienwohnung (vacation apartment) in an Evangelische Gemeinde (Protestant church) for three weeks while I try to find another place to live for the year. I was supposed to live with some girls I had met but that’s fallen through and now I am desperately looking for a new Wohnung. Not fun at all! But for now, I’ve got a nice fully furnished apartment to myself (except no microwave, freezer, or dryer, but that’s pretty typical here). It takes me about 30 minutes to get to the center of Berlin, but I can’t complain. It’s a great place to study for the LSAT. Except there is no Internet, which makes applying to law school a real pain in the butt. Every day I visit my Turkish friends at an Internet café about 15 minutes from my apartment. It’s high-speed, high-tech, and cheap, but it’s so frustrating to have to try to figure out law school stuff and apartment stuff in an hour a day. I try to save time and money by writing things out beforehand (for example, I’m currently sitting on my couch/bed, not writing this in the café).

Friday I visited my school and I’m pleased that it’s not as ghetto as I expected, although I certainly won’t be walking around the neighborhood at night. I met several teachers and am happy that they are all really friendly and even asked me to call them by their first names, which from what I was told in orientation is a rare occurrence. I told them all to speak to me in German because I really need to practice, and I can already tell that my German is getting better. There is another student-teacher at the school for four weeks, and she’s going to help me figure out classes at Humboldt if I do decide to take any. She’s a great resource and she speaks excellent English (although I told her to speak German to me). Oh, a funny thing about the school—it says out front something along the lines of “Schule ohne Rassismus”—“School without Racism.” I thought oh great, that means they’ve had some sort of problem with racism before. We’ll see, I didn’t actually meet any students and Monday is my first day in the classroom. Fortunately, I just observe for two weeks and don’t start teaching until I’ve set a schedule for myself. I plan to get Fridays off so I can travel a lot too.

I’ve tried to do something interesting every day, and thankfully JT is visiting now so I have someone to hang out with. Friday we met up for lunch and then last night we had dinner and drinks. Today we’re meeting to go to a movie. And he might end up staying with me for a few days, which is nice, but I hope it doesn’t violate my contract. I also went to the church in my building today since I am staying there and wanted to get to know some people, but of the 30 or so people there, about 25 are at least 70 years old. They were all so friendly, but oddly formal. Whenever someone entered the room, he went around and shook every single person’s hand (including mine). A very dear old woman took me under her wing and told me that she’s going to come by on Wednesday and bring me a newspaper with ads for apartments. Very sweet and very welcoming. But I’m pretty sure from now on I am going to go to the English church I went to before, since everyone there is around my age.

Alright, I know this is a lot to read, but once I start writing, it’s kinda hard to stop, and at the moment my only other alternatives are writing law school essays or studying for the LSAT, and writing in my blog is a lot more appealing.

I don’t know when I will be able to write next because of the Internet problem, but I will report back soon about my school and whatever else has happened in the meantime. Auf Wiedersehen!