First Few Days in Berlin

First of all, sorry for the lack of post since we’ve arrived, getting internet at our apartments has been problematic, so we’ve only had quick burst of wi-fi at Starbucks. We did finally get an internet stick for our room that we are all sharing, while the wi-fi is being fixed, which is hopefully soon.

Airport Security:  Leaving Dallas was no problem went through security in the full body scanner, which was kind of weird but everything went ok. The flight which I was dreading, because it was going to be nine hours and twenty minutes was not that bad at all. The plane was huge though, it was at least 40 rows and the seats going across were 2-4-2. Luckily I was in the two seat section next to a friend. I was definitely not bored on the plane, due to the amount of movies to choose from. I watched Safe House, Chronicle, and Hugo, and then slept for about 2 hours before eating breakfast and then we only had about 45minutes until we landed in Amsterdam. So it went by faster than I thought it would, and I got a window seat, so I could see the ocean as we passed over and witnessed flying through time zones, where it was night on my side of the plane but still light on the other. Once in Amsterdam we went through security again and got our passports stamped J Going through their security was not as fun though, I did the same normal stuff put everything in the little trays, went through beeped, she told me to take off my belt, so I did, beeped again, then ever so politely she asks me to step aside and if she can ‘pat me down’. So I said yes (like I had any other choice) and she proceeded to get very friendly, so that was fun, I wasn’t the only one in our group that had this happen either. The thing is I wasn’t wearing anything metal, the only possible thing it could have been was my glasses, or my retainer. Leaving Amsterdam was pretty straight forward as well, and an hour later we were in Berlin!

 

Walking the Town: After we got our luggage which was slightly dirty and wet, we boarded a bus that took us to our apartments, which are near the Brandenburg Gate. As we drove I noticed that Berlin is a very pedestrian city, there are people on bikes everywhere, and the rest walk or catch a bus. When we get to our apartments most of them weren’t ready for us to move in yet, so we all moved our luggage into one apartment, which ends up being the one I’m staying in. While we were waiting for the teachers everyone started falling asleep everywhere, floor, couch, chair, bed, just wherever they could, but after a little break, we went to get familiar with our area. We’re pretty close the the train station so we went there and figured it all out rode it to a few stops, got on and off, just so we would know how it works.

We ate lunch in the train station as well, and as my last American meal I had pizza hut, although instead of pepperoni pizza they have salami pizza, which is just as good. After lunch we rode the train a while, and then walked home along the river, and on the way we saw The Fire and Police Station by Sauerbruch + Hutton. I really like this building, because of all the colored tiles that are on the surface of the building, and it doesn’t look like your typical police/fire station. The rest of the walk we saw many government buildings, like the Chancellery. Things close earlier than were used to here, so lots of things were closed when we went looking for food, so we just picked up a loaf of bread and some nutella, and called it a night.