BERLIN.

So, this weekend I went to Berlin with a bunch of the other study abroad kids, (the Erasmus kids) and it was quite grande! On the first night, we checked into our hostel and went and had pizza as a group at an Italian restaurant. Funny enough, these people haven't taken us to a German restaurant, always restaurants from other cultures.... There is a tiny bar in the bottom of the hostel, so that was alright. Although I have to say, the hostel had the UGLIEST colour scheme I have ever seen in my life. It was like bright blue and yellow and orange and it hurt mein eyes. But that's besides the point.

The next day, we went on a walking tour with this British dude, and that was amazing! It was also really warm there, much to my pleasure. I'm talking like 20 degrees here! Lovely. We went and saw the famous Berlin gate, and many of the old buildings in Berlin. Most of them, as I learned, were bombed and destroyed in the wars though, so the city is working on rebuilding them. Which made me think also of Hamburg, which was also mostly bombed in the wars, but you cannot tell at all, as the city has been entirely rebuilt in only a matter of year, it's quite amazing really.

Anywho, we also saw the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is quite a brilliant piece. It is just giant stone slabs of varying sizes, but they get taller and taller in towards the middle and shorter on the sides. You don't realize how tall they are until you are walking through the middle and you can't see around the corners and over top of the slabs. It's quite quiet and eerie in there and I love it a lot! Like I said, quite a genius design for the memorial of such things.

We also saw the remnants of the Berlin wall, which was also very fascinating. Little did I know, that the Berlin wall was actually quite a violent event, it wasn't just a wall put up in the middle of Berlin. Well, it WAS but it was much more than that. Thousands of people died trying to get over it, as they just shoot you and kill you on sight if you try. What a hard life. Jeez. After the walking tour, we just kind of walked around and saw some local concert type life on the canals. 

We went to the DDR museum on the last day, which, sadly, is not a museum about Dance Dance Revolution. It' about living a daily life in communist Germany, which could have been interesting, but I found the museum quite dull.

There are a lot of things that I didn't get to see in Berlin, that I wanted to, but didn't have time to, so I'm sure I'll take a trip back there in the future!

My roomate and I at the Berlin west gate!

The Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe

The spot where Hitler was burned

Berlin Wall.

Berlin Wall

Second Half of the First Week.

So, this post has come a little late, but I got a little behind.... Anyroad, the Miniateur Wonderland! It was lovely! There were tiny little airports, where planes actually took off and a tiny Hamburg, tiny Switzerland, and a tiny America! Very cool! 

Anyroad, that was about it for that week, besides getting more of my bearings straight and finally figuring out the trains. I've started to decorate my room with posters that I've been finding around Hamburg and museum brochures that I've been to/want to go to!

-Jena

The First Half Week.

Alright! The first week is over! Although it seems like a much longer time.... Anyroad, let's see.

We started the Hamburg program, in which we did a Scavenger Hunt around Hamburg on the first day.

This is me by the town hall!

We went to a museum that was about the emigrants from Germany who were going to America. I didn't really take pictures of that because it was kind of boring. :P Although I did take a picture of this (the questions that they asked you when you got to America):

ARE YOU AN ANARCHIST? haha DARNIT NOW I WON'T BE ABLE TO GET INTO AMERICA! That made me laugh. And then on the same day of the museum, we went on a ferry ride around the harbour, which was very cool, but very cold. They have tons of those cranes that lift cargo off of barges, and I like them  a lot. I think that's what I've taken the most pictures of. :P

Our ferry!

I've pretty much made it my hobby to get lost in Hamburg, since I'm so good at it. I'll post pictures of the other things we did once I upload them off my camera! Stay tuned for the Miniateur Wunderland!

Tschiuß!

-Jena

Look at this damn Ice Tea bottle.

This ice tea bottle is the size of MY ARM.

German McDonald's at the mall with Svenja!~

This is how people park here, willy nilly wherever. Half on the side walk and half on the street. No big deal.

Guten Tag! Arriving in Deutschland.

Hi all! I haven't really had a chance to blog until right now, trying to get settled in and all. I left at 1:45 PM in Kelowna and got into Hamburg at like 5:00 PM the next day. IT WAS SO LONG. I had some problems keeping myself together on the flight to Calgary, as I had no one who was sitting beside me. 

The flight to Frankfurt was like 9.5 hours long or something ridiculous, and it was dark outside for most of it so I couldn't see anything! I sat beside this old Russian guy and he basically told me his life story and about his obsession with photography. Although I couldn't understand half the things he said because he was mumbling and my ears were refusing to pop. We pretty much had an airplane food potluck, with our combined efforts in bringing food from home. Let's see, I watched Thor and Bad Teacher (they were both pretty lame) and then half of Cars 2 (which was really lame so I couldn't even finish it). Didn't sleep at all, so I was really tired when I got into Hamburg.

My lovely buddy Svenja picked me up with her friend and took me to my dorm, which is actually called a flat here I guess. We explored some and I visited her flat, which was pretty cool. Then after we got back "home" I met my roomate Carolyn! She's from the state of Cali, let's just say we're relieved that we can speak "normal" slang English to each other. Every one of our other 5 roomates are all spectacular and nice! They all speak English very well, although we have yet to meet the one asian guy.... 

Anyroad, I got a bank account open and got a super ghetto flip phone that I don't know how to work. I also got my new student card, and let's just say, that I can't read ANY of my papers for anything. Because they're all in German. Derp. Oh yah, I had to teach "derp" to like 3 people here because they wanted to know what it meant. Wat. I got most of the stuff in my room set up. Although when I first got there I thought it was pretty much a dump, but now it's okay. 

Carolyn and I also took an experimental trip to Ikea, via the underground train (U Bahn) and the regular train (S Bahn). The transit here is so great, you never have to wait like more then 10 minutes for a train or bus. Of course, the cars here are super small and people drive like crazy bats out of hell. I'm glad I don't have to drive here actually. The streets are so narrow, I don't understand how there are two lanes in them half the time. Also, I have yet to see an actual house. They're all apartments on top of everything. Anyways, at Ikea we ordered swedish meatballs! Quite a feat, in German might I add. I would really really like to learn atleast SOME German, although APPARENTLY you don't need it to live here, but it's a very alienating feeling not being able to understand what anyone is saying.

We live on the top floor in the little corner on the side, and we're all from different schools for the most part here! The walls are paper thin and I can hear babies screaming in the middle of the night. :I Oh well, it's pretty good! We also went grocery shopping and I had a super hard time finding milk because I didn't know the word for it. But no worries. I got it guys.

Anyroad, below is my room, with all my stuff and some stuff that Marsha left behind for me (as it was her room before me). As you can see, I feel at home in a cluttery mess or something. There is also the view from my windows. Our bathroom is super small and super ghetto, it's lovely XD THE TOILET has like two buttons too! And the shower feels like it's throwing needles at you if you turn it on all the way. The hallways with the red floor is the main hallway that you need a key to get into and it leads to the spare room and the kitchen, as well as our other roomates' rooms. Our little section has a little hallway off the main hallway and then there's the bathroom and our two rooms, which you can lock with your key.

 

 

Okay and for the record, setting up pictures in a nice order is really hard on here, so excuse this retarded order for them. Basically it's like a super massive culture shock, as well as the first time away from home. So it's like a double whammy! I'm sure I'll feel at home more when school starts and I have something to procrastinate. My next post will probably be our Berlin trip that is on the 16th of March. Yay! Anyways, that's about it for now, let me tell you, five months seems like a REALLY long time, but everyone is saying that it will go by super fast. I'm excited to start school though! :D

Tschüss!

- Jena <3

PS: love and miss you all!~