Neujahr!

Anonymous Hallo!!

For all of those who are/were concerned our group safely attended and left the main New Years party in Berlin! We all tried are hardest to stay warm, despite our lack of clothing options given the current circumstances, and most importantly stay positive! New Years wasn't really at all what I expected. All of the concern given off by peers and others made me extremely nervous. Despite this, I charged into the party at Brandenburg Gate in full stride. We all did, hand in hand and on occasion holding onto each other while we all tried to march our way through the crowd to get a closer look at the action. Now what was this action? Well none other than the MOST random programming I have ever experienced. Going into this, I expected German music, German speaking, celebrities, etc.... However, what we heard from 9:00 p.m. on throughout the new year was just a continuous strand of American oldies like, "We are the Champions," " We Will Rock You," and then one group that was, in essence, the German form of High School Musical. THEN to top it all off we got to see none other than the infamous David Hasselhoff! Talk about an experience.

So, some major differences between New Years in Berlin compared to the states (specifically Seattle): First off, I have never been to a celebration this large. A huge portion of the street is shut down and is filled will about a million people. Contrary to what I expected, the music, except for the occasional opera song, was all in English. Here, instead of counting down every minute and making announcements, we almost missed the NEW YEARS announcement, because they only counted down from eight seconds rather than giving minute by minute notices. The drinking age is fourteen and fireworks are legal.. so that was interesting. On the walk home people were just shooting fireworks or leaving small ones in the street. I couldn't help but think of the consequences we would have in the US.

Berlin is amazing, I can not believe the complexity of the city, and how many different areas there are to explore. By just taking a bus you enter into a different world. Thus far in my experiences, everybody has been very friendly and helpful, seeing that I am braving the city with only one semester of German and thus a lot of gaps in my vocabulary, friendly people are such a relief. I wish that growing up it would have been required to learn at least a second language as it is here. I can not think of something so simple and so useful as being permitted to speak to people of other cultures and backgrounds. We are required to in high school, yes. But here, everybody learns English in primary school, and then learns a second or sometimes third depending on the length of their education. My host mother speaks 4 languages fluently, unfortunately for me none of them is English; however, her English is better than my German.. so altogether it works out. I am excited to start going to classes at the Eurocenters, I want to be able to speak more German, I must admit I was rather shocked by how much I could comprehend v.s. speak. I think the majority of the problem is just confidence, I haven't allowed myself the privilege of speaking much and even messing up because I haven't spoken enough to get corrected. Granted it's only day two, but I hope to have a lot of progress soon.

So coming into this, I had two major concerns: First language, obviously, but seeing that the course was formatted for language immersion I knew I had to get over that pretty quickly (working on it)! Second, I was SO nervous about the transport stations, being from Seattle, where public transportation is less than wonderful and somewhat shady.. I was really nervous about how I would handle getting around in this HUGE city. Last night, I had my first experience traveling alone, and it could have gone much better. But now at least I feel better knowing that it can't go much worse! Getting lost here though feels different than it does at home. I don't know if it's the way that every building looks homey or that all of the people seem so nice, but I feel safe. Even while walking alone in the dark I wasn't intimidated, which is a big difference compared to our lovely Spanaway.

Thus far, the only thing I would change about this trip would be the fact that my nights and dollars spent on thoughtful packing have been lost for who knows how long! (Ugh, DELTA!). But even that situation has had it's perks. It allowed for the group to have something mutual to bond over, even if it was sadness or distress.

Overall, everything is great! I miss all of my family and friends but I am having such a wonderful time here, and I am confident it will only get better!

Goodbye all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

~Courtney