I'm finally going to sit down and make myself do this. I've found that this whole blogging process has become more of a hassle for me than anything but people keep telling me I haven't written anything lately so here goes. I guess I can start about 2 weeks ago when I took a day trip to Dresden. Ever since I planned this Dresden trip I've really started to put the number of weekends I have left here into perspective, and there really aren't that many. So I left early in the morning on Saturday and it took about 3 hours to get to Dresden. Although it lies in what was former East Germany, I would have to say Dresden has done a great job recovering from years of Soviet occupation. The city was clean, cleaner than Berlin I'd like to think, and the architecture of the buildings was absolutely amazing. Dresden is an older city and is more or less suited for tourists. I'm sure it's also a very profitable place to do business because of its location on the Elbe river but I'm fairly certain most of its income is from tourism. I booked one night in a hostel, which wasn't so bad considering the complimentary glass of champagne one receives after checking in. The hostel wasn't too far from the old city either so everything was within walking distance. I was in for a shock, however, as I hadn't yet met my roommates until about midnight; when I was coming in for the day and they were just starting to go out. They were 3 young men from Leipzig visiting a friend for the weekend and needed a place to crash because his house wasn't big enough to accommodate the others. As my good friend Patrick Stutler always said and I believe the phrase nails it right on the head, "boys will be boys". It would have been annoying that I was woken up three times throughout the night, 1pm, 5am, and 8am when they finally got home, but there's just something about listening to drunken Germans where you can't help but laugh. All in all, Dresden was a great vacation and if you haven't already, check out the pictures on Facebook to see what I'm talking about.
This will really be a long post because I'm trying to include 3 major events that took place over the last few weekends, but don't be surprised if my stories keep getting shorter and shorter. This past weekend I made an excursion to Hamburg and I have to say before I left I had high expectations for this city and every one of them were met. Hamburg is by far one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. If you're from Michigan, picture a small city on the west side of the state, like Ludington or Traverse, except it's about 6 times bigger than that. There are boats, tourists, and little shops with sea crap everywhere. Hamburg just had a much more "homier" feel to it than Berlin and the spirit of the people definitely helped. It is also a very historic city and the buildings are architecture are absolutely stunning. There is also the infamous Reeperbahn in the neighborhood of St. Pauli. This strip became known as the red light district along with its bountiful supply of bars and restaurants. If you're going to Hamburg, definitely make that a stop on your list. Also, if you want to get out on a boat and get somewhat a tour of the harbor, DO NOT pay for a Große Rundfahrt for 15 euro. They have a shuttle service just like the buses, but on a boat, that will take you from stop to stop for a grand total of about 1.70 euro. Just as good, but cheaper. If you're not on a budget, then by all means take the big ships. You can try to see everything in one weekend but of course it's impossible. At least I found where I will retire someday.
Last but not least was move in day and first day for the HU Sommer-Uni students. I left Hamburg around noon and it takes about 3 hours to get back to Berlin (excluding the detour we had to take because of traffic) but as soon as I arrived I had to book it to the East side to help move in the newbies. It was actually a great feeling helping them move in because I can remember not too long ago being in the same position myself, except now I actually know where the heck I'm going in Berlin. I looked really cool answering all their questions and pointing out places they should go and things they should see. Then there was their first day of classes/registration which honestly I don't remember very well because the whole day went so quickly. It was great bonding with the other interns/student teachers and I really started to feel like part of the team, even though my role is very daunting and menial. Oh yeah, and I am now officially the new HU Sommer-Uni barista until August 12th. This is my first time actually making coffee so I'm thinking by the end of the summer I'll be pretty damn good at it, considering it's my job for the next 4 weeks. My boss assured me this is not the only thing I'll be doing for the next 4 weeks and I'm praying she meant that. Regardless it's still a great way to practice my German and I get free coffee out of it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
HU
I really need to start utilizing this blog a lot more because we have now begun the phase where I have to keep an incidents journal for my James Madison requirement. I really find it annoying that they would make you write papers or have to keep track of your experience while you're actually doing it. What do I know, but I think it should be something that comes at the end of your field experience. O wait, we do. We have an additional 20-25 page paper that is due at the end of our internships as well. Enough complaining though because that's not the part everyone wants to hear about.
I've successfully completed my first week at Humboldt-Uni and I have to say that I am thoroughly satisfied with my placement. Even though I've only been given the monotonous tasks of printing, correcting English translations, and researching a German author nobody's probably ever heard of, I have faith that things will pick up next week and the week that the students come. Now that I know a little more about my job myself I can actually answer your question; "so what are you actually doing over there?". For starters the department that I work in is called "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" or German as a foreign language. My boss Frau Beatte Ramin-Getter, is the director of HU's Summer and Winter Sessions. There are the four classes that we offer; Intensive German Language, Art, Area Studies, and Germanistik. There are also 3 other extremely nice interns named Xenia, Fabio, and Nina. I think the best part of my internship is that it's so relaxed and they literally have tried to make me feel at home as much as possible. I start work everyday at 10am and work until about 2-2:30pm in the afternoon, which isn't terrible, considering I'm an unpaid intern. I'm excited for things to pick up though because the student will be arriving on the 16th and 17th of July. Right now we are working on the welcoming packages and organizing all the materials for the classes. As my friend put it the other day, basically we are RA's for all the international students coming in (which I find is a little bit ironic considering I'm one of them). We're just a resource for when they have questions about living here or transportation tickets, etc.. I think one of the most exciting things is that I get to participate in all of these classes or any trips/events that we have planned for the weekends.
I haven't been doing very much travelling, which is a bit disappointing but I've still been seeing a lot of Berlin. The main reason is I really haven't found anyone who wants to travel anywhere really but we sat down and planned out a weekend to go to Hamburg and then another weekend when we'll be going to visit our friend in the Black Forest. I'm also in the process right now of looking at flights to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend. If you know me well enough then you'd know that I'm terrible at planning events so this has been a struggle for me, haha. I think we'll be doing quite a bit of travelling when my Dad & brother come over here in late August so I'll need to save some money for that too.
Other than that all has been going great here in Germany. Sorry if I haven't immediately responded to messages/email. I don't always check those things as frequently as I ought to. I think we're going to make attempts to grill hot dogs and hamburgers on Monday so we won't be completely missing out on the Holiday. That is, after we all get out of work. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend and God bless America!
I've successfully completed my first week at Humboldt-Uni and I have to say that I am thoroughly satisfied with my placement. Even though I've only been given the monotonous tasks of printing, correcting English translations, and researching a German author nobody's probably ever heard of, I have faith that things will pick up next week and the week that the students come. Now that I know a little more about my job myself I can actually answer your question; "so what are you actually doing over there?". For starters the department that I work in is called "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" or German as a foreign language. My boss Frau Beatte Ramin-Getter, is the director of HU's Summer and Winter Sessions. There are the four classes that we offer; Intensive German Language, Art, Area Studies, and Germanistik. There are also 3 other extremely nice interns named Xenia, Fabio, and Nina. I think the best part of my internship is that it's so relaxed and they literally have tried to make me feel at home as much as possible. I start work everyday at 10am and work until about 2-2:30pm in the afternoon, which isn't terrible, considering I'm an unpaid intern. I'm excited for things to pick up though because the student will be arriving on the 16th and 17th of July. Right now we are working on the welcoming packages and organizing all the materials for the classes. As my friend put it the other day, basically we are RA's for all the international students coming in (which I find is a little bit ironic considering I'm one of them). We're just a resource for when they have questions about living here or transportation tickets, etc.. I think one of the most exciting things is that I get to participate in all of these classes or any trips/events that we have planned for the weekends.
I haven't been doing very much travelling, which is a bit disappointing but I've still been seeing a lot of Berlin. The main reason is I really haven't found anyone who wants to travel anywhere really but we sat down and planned out a weekend to go to Hamburg and then another weekend when we'll be going to visit our friend in the Black Forest. I'm also in the process right now of looking at flights to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend. If you know me well enough then you'd know that I'm terrible at planning events so this has been a struggle for me, haha. I think we'll be doing quite a bit of travelling when my Dad & brother come over here in late August so I'll need to save some money for that too.
Other than that all has been going great here in Germany. Sorry if I haven't immediately responded to messages/email. I don't always check those things as frequently as I ought to. I think we're going to make attempts to grill hot dogs and hamburgers on Monday so we won't be completely missing out on the Holiday. That is, after we all get out of work. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend and God bless America!
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