Ampelmännchen, Archaeopteryx and the Alphabet.

Firstly apologies for the mammoth blog post. I was originally going to write a little bit about some of my experiences at school and living here in general, but then I went to Berlin for a couple of days. And then Bad Salzdetfurth was looking pretty...

It has been trying so hard to snow.

So. Please bear in mind that these are obviously only my observations of living here. From talking to other students living out here it is clear that everyone is having different experiences but I can only recount my own. They are definitely not representative of the entire ‘English but living in Germany’ experience.

1. The Germans do not speak flawless English. I don’t mean that they are bad at English, more that their English is not as intimidatingly good as I thought it would be. Before arriving, I had thought that I would speak virtually no German at school. The truth is far from it. I speak more German than English. On the whole people are patient with me attempting German and saying multiple verbs and then helping me choose the right one. There are exceptions, such as one of my 5th graders who laughed at my sentence structure(auxillary verb in the wrong place - nightmare). My reply was something like “wellwhenyourEnglishisbetterthanmyGermanyoucanlaughatme.Untilthenifyouwantmyhelpbenice”, spoken in very fast English. Then in slow English. And then in German. He still asks for help...

2. Directness and rudeness are very different things. I’ve received a few comments which would usually offend me but here they are not designed to. This direct approach is continued in the lack of ‘English politeness’. I stand out by saying ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank you’ far too frequently. I also hold open doors, don’t push people on trains and am able to queue. I automatically ask ‘how are you?’ even if the information is not essential to my future happiness. Politeness is the thing I miss most about England.

3. Going to the supermarket is a traumatic experience. Everything is in a strange order (why is the milk next to the to tomato passata? Why sausages next to the cheese?) so it takes me forever to find what I want. Just when you think the ordeal is over you have to go to the checkout. Your items are scanned at the speed of light, leaving you fumbling, simultaneously trying to pack your bags and pay. And don't even think of trying to talk to the cashier. My top tip for surviving is to buy fruit and vegetables that need to be weighed and intersperse them amongst the other items on the conveyer belt. While the cashier is weighing the aforementioned fruit or vegetable, you have enough time to pack the other items into your rucksack. It's taken me nearly three months to develop this technique and it is remarkably effective.

4. Learning the German alphabet is really important. I wish I had realised this 9 years ago. The letter ‘e’ is awful and is irritatingly overused in English.

5. Living here is not easy. There are ups and downs but what matters is how you take them. There have been a couple of moments when going home was all I wanted. I have even got as far at looking up the cost of flights. But you have to experience the downs to notice the ups. I’ve met some wonderful people here. I’ve made it onto ‘best friends’ lists in student planners. I get greeted when walking around the school building.

Now onto Berlin, my destination for the weekend. Berlin is possibly my favourite city, so with an unallocated weekend and free accommodation it was just too tempting. I informed Emma (a friend from uni studying in Berlin this year) that I wanted to visit and 24 hours later arrived at Berlin Hauptbahnhof... not bad going. I had a lovely couple of days, doing plenty of sightseeing (this is me we are talking about) and spending time with fellow year abroad-ers Emma, Vicky and Maia.

Brandenburg Gate // Natural History Museum // Schloss Charlottenburg // Reichstag // East Side Gallery

The first sight seen was Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest palace in Berlin. After dropping my bag off at Emma's we went to an indoor food market near Görlitzer station which was great. Unfortunately we had made the mistake of eating before going! Thursday ended sitting in a pub in Berlin... hard to believe that I had actually been to work that morning.

Emma had seminars the following morning so I had four hours to explore by myself. I set off at Brandenburg Gate, getting there so early that there were no protesters or people dressed up in military uniforms. I walked to Checkpoint Charlie, via the Dom and then along Unter den Linden as far as Alexander Platz. I then got all over excited at the Ampelmann shop. To explain, Ampelmännchen are the little traffic light men which existed in East Germany. Nowadays they have become an icon of East German culture, so much so that there is a shop which sells Ampelmännchen themed products. The final stop on my solo tour was the Natural History Museum where my inner geologist came out and I got all over excited at the brachiosaurus skeleton (the biggest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world) and the archaeopteryx (widely regarded as the best preserved fossil in the world, and yes they had the real one on display). Enough with the dinosaurs.

I met up with Emma, Vicky and Maia and we had a catch up over a wander and a burger. And because we hadn't eaten enough food we went to the Haagen Dazs cafe.

Once it had got dark (so sometime after half past 4) we wandered to Brandenburger Tor and then along to the already Christmas-ified Sony Centre. In the evening Emma and I headed to VEB Ostzone, an ostalgie bar near Hackescher Markt station. It's actually located under the railway tracks. And ostalgie isn't a typo, it refers to nostalgia for East Germany. So it was decorated in all sorts of GDR paraphernalia including a couple of Lenin portraits. I tried a Rot Berliner Weisse, a type of beer with raspberry syrup in it... sounds strange but tasted good.

On my final day in Berlin Emma and I went to the East Side Gallery, a 1.3km long section of the Berlin Wall which is now covered in paintings and acts as a memorial. The paintings were powerful and more extensive than I had realised, but many have been heavily graffitied which detracts from their message somewhat. Anyway I was pleased to visit before the gallery is destroyed in the name of property development.

Fuelled by my first ever Dönor I went to meet my Mitfahrer for the journey home. The driver and other passenger proceeded to discuss a wide variety of subjects including communism, socialism, consumerism, americanism, advertising, aspirations and unemployment. I found myself in the middle of their debate and unable to add much to the debate which lasted the full 2.5 hours. I was forced to engage in this debate when the passenger started discussing English food, which he described as horrible. I said that I disagreed, and thought English food was actually pretty good. He then asked if I had heard of Marmite, a 'bizarre product which he had bought as a joke'. I informed him that Marmite is amazing, tastes particularly good on toast and that I'd brought some with me from England. Ah. He suddenly realised that I was English! Maybe I should have mentioned it before he started with the insults...

My love for the Brandenburger Tor continues.