First Few Days / Ersten Tagen

I apologize for there not being many pictures of interest in this blog, I've been jet lagged and didn't have my power converter (because it was in my lost luggage) to charge my camera. I'll find some photos online though, so that you can get a better idea of what I've been up to.

I should mention though that my luggage did finally come yesterday morning! Yay!

This past Saturday night, I met Daniel and all of our little Hampshire group (there are six of us altogether) at the Prater Gasthaus in Mitte (here's a link to their website) for some dinner. I took my first U-Bahn ride and got lost briefly, but then found where I was supposed to go. Daniel took us out for some real, authentic, traditional German food - and it was delicious! I got Sauerbraten mit Buttermöhren und Quetschkartoffeln (Beef stewed in vinegar and spices with buttered carrots and mashed potatoes), and the chef even made everything without gluten so that I could eat it. Other people at our table got fish, duck, a ham hock, wienerschnitzel - it all looked fantastic. But of course, what would a traditional German meal be without beer? Unfortunately, I couldn't have any because it contains gluten, but I had some white wine instead. We sat and chatted for a few hours, and it was nice to hear about everyone's living situations and how much we'd all explored the city so far.

The Prater Gasthaus (image from friendlyrentals.com)

After dinner, Daniel went home and the six of us decided that we'd explore the area a little bit. We ended up at a bar called the Coco Lounge, which was a tiki bar that actually had a few inches of sand on the floor. We all sat at the bar and ordered drinks in German and then chatted for a while.

After we were finished, I headed home on the U-Bahn and couldn't help but notice the fact that everyone was drinking open beers on the train. According to Robert (our Berlin program director) this was made illegal in Berlin about a year or two ago, but everyone still does it. They didn't seem to be getting in trouble for it either. I've also seen people walking around with open drinks on the street, and even restaurants advertising cocktails-to-go, which seems so strange coming from the US where that's illegal. According to Robert, that happens a lot more in the summer because it's nicer out and people like to spend less money on beers, so they buy them and then barbecue in the parks and hang out with their friends. I thought that was pretty neat and can't wait for it to get a little bit nicer out so that I can walk around more and enjoy the parks too!

Sunday afternoon we met at our designated Hampshire studio space, which is right down Oranienstraße from me. Robert and Daniel treated us all to wonderful, strong, creamy, Turkish coffee across the street and then we made our way up all of the stairs to our studio space. It's on the top floor of the hinterhaus, and an old brick building that has a screw/bolt factory on the first floor. Several artists have studios in that building, and our space is pretty big.  Once there, we all sat down and talked about the logistics of our program and trip. We'll meet in our studio space every Wednesday afternoon, and will be treated to a cultural event every Friday or Saturday night while we're here. This includes museums, concerts, film screenings, lectures, etc. Robert is also a part-time tour guide in Berlin so he is going to take us around the city and give us insider tours everywhere, which should be pretty neat!

After our meeting that evening, Gina met me at my apartment and we took the U-Bahn to a part of the city I'd never been to before, which is near her architecture studio. We went to an adorable little pizza place that had gluten free buckwheat pizza and had a wonderful dinner. Gina got homemade ravioli that looked fantastic and a Spezi (a soda that is basically a mix of coke and orange soda), and I got a gluten free arugula and parmesan pizza with a Spezi. On the way home, we stopped for some Haribo treats and wine. I found sour gummy Smurfs, which I bought just because I thought they were silly, but they ended up tasting fantastic too!

Gina over gluten free pizza and Spezi

Haribo sour gummy Smurfs!

Today was our first day of Sprachschule (language school) at BSI Berlin, and I was put into a the highest level intermediate class (the last class being completely 100% fluent). It was a little difficult at first, as my German was a little rusty, but it improved greatly over the three hours that I was in class, and will continue to once I start settling back into it. My class has four people from Spain, one from Australia, one from Turkey, two from the US (including myself), one from Poland, one from China, one from Korea, and probably more that I'm not thinking of. It's neat because the only language we all have in common is German, but we're communicating in it and it's a lot of fun! The teacher, Silvie, is also very nice and helpful. I got my text books today and am getting ready now to do my homework for the class, as well as catch up to where they are (as they've already been in classes for a month and us Hampshire kids arrived late).

BSI Sprachen Schule

After Sprachschule, we all went as a group to a great little Turkish restaurant near Kottbusser Tor (or "Kotti" as I've heard it be referred to by locals, but I don't know if I can pull that off quite yet...) that had fantastic food. There is great food in Kreuzberg, I'm so lucky to be living here. It's a lot of Turkish food, which is great for being gluten free. I've been eating a lot of falafel, great salads, kebabs, etc. I really want to have döner, but I looked it up and it seems like it will definitely have gluten in it. (If you don't know what döner is, it's a German-Turkish food that I believe was invented in Berlin. Someone told me that a place down the street from me is the restaurant that had the first döner in Berlin. It's a giant meat sphere (that because I had to look up what was in it, I'll explain to you as bits of lamb or chicken all ground up and held together with flour and spices - so basically a plywood of meats? Ew. Sorry.) that is held upright on a spinning dowel and carved for customers as it's ordered. It's most often served inside of a pita-like piece of bread with veggies and sauces.)

1001 Falafel - my new go-to falafel place in my neighborhood

A Döner street cart on Kottbusser Damm

An example of Döner (image from berlin.metblogs.com)

After that, we all went as a group in search of cell phones but were unsuccessful. Daniel and Robert had gone to get us month-long transportation passes, so we waited in a cafe in Kreuzberg for them to come meet us. I had a coffee that was fantastic - the coffee here is great. It's bitter, strong, and creamy. We eventually got our transportation passes and split ways - I went by myself back down Kottbusser Damm (where BSI is) to a store that someone told me had a lot of gluten free options. Luckily, they were right! The store had a whole corner of gluten free food, so I got some gluten free gnocchi, two loaves of gluten free bread, and some gluten free pasta (it was all cheaper than in the US, too - even taking the exchange rate into account!). When I was checking out, the cashier asked me if I had a "Brotkarte" and I said no. She gave me one, and here's how it works: every time you buy a loaf of gluten free bread there (it doesn't matter what kind) you get a sticker on your card. When your card is full (which means you've bought 11 loaves), you get the next two loaves for free! Which is AWESOME! I'm so happy there are good gluten free options here, I was very worried that it would be difficult to find that stuff.

Bridge overlooking the river on my way to Kottbusser Damm

After my gluten free purchases, I still needed a notebook, folder, pencil, and index cards for my school work/homework so I went to a store and got that. Then I still needed a pillow, pillowcase, and bath towel so I got those too. Then I headed home around dusk and now I'm in my room blogging and will soon be doing my Hausaufgabe (homework).

I think that's all I've done in the past few days. I'm still exhausted and a bit jet lagged. I've been having trouble falling asleep early (I've got myself being able to fall asleep at about 1am now, which is getting better) but once I'm asleep I'm out like a light! Hopefully after this week everything will start to feel normal time-wise.

I'm still loving Berlin and can't wait to experience more so that I can share it with you all!

Bis bald!

Awesome astronaut street art in my neighborhood