Well I finally learned more about my fellow peers at GLS. I said before that I couldn't remember where Donna was from; she is from Kazakhstan, which is near Russia and Mongolia. Gosha is from Poland. Maria is from Peru, not Mexico. And the last boy who I have only met a couple times is named Anton and is from Sweden. I also learned that two of the young women in my group are in Germany because their boyfriend/fiance (whatever!) is German. But then, most of them are older than me by at least a couple years. The only one who is younger is Alice; she is nineteen but she can speak English, Italian, Spanish, and French! I wish I was that talented!
There are 10 countries represented in my group (France, Ukraine, Switzerland, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru, Sweden, Poland, and the US), yet each and every one of us is constantly on our phones. It's nice to know that's not an American thing!
There are also a couple other things which should have gone on my previous list of things I've noticed. German television doesn't have commercial interruption. There are only advertisements between programs, which rocks! By the way, when I first got to my host family's flat, they were watching Monk dubbed in German. It was hilarious!
Anyway...I'm still working on really falling in line with everything. I don't fell jet-lagged anymore but it's definitely weird to not have to rush from school to get ready for work. I posted on Facebook that I actually miss having a job and that's one thing I never thought I'd say. But it's true. Without having somewhere specific to be most days, I usually just hang out at my host family's flat, do homework, and watch TV. I'm really hoping the weather improves soon because it's been very cold and rainy and I haven't been able to do much sight-seeing or exploring. I want to visit some Museums here in Berlin and see the Babylon Gate. I also want to take the train down to Cologne to see the Koln Cathedral; that is the place in Germany I most wanted to see next to the Brandenburg Gate. I'm waiting, though, until it's nicer out and until I'm sure I know enough German to leave Berlin and get around on my own.
Since I don't really know a whole lot of German, I haven't been to many restaurants because I'm kind of apprehensive about ordering. I'm sure I'll be very confused so I'm waiting on that too. Since that is the case, I have been eating mostly from delis and other foods that come as is. It's been really good but I'm hoping to expand my palate more in the future. Even if I do, though, I doubt anything will taste as good as home. I'm already missing chile and tortillas like no one's business. I also miss having eggs and potatoes for breakfast. Traditional American breakfast is considered too heavy by most Europeans. I've been eating either cold cereal or yogurt for breakfast every day and that gets old real fast.
Other than that I don't have much else to say...it feels like it's been much longer than a week. I still have eleven weeks to go! Oh yea! And the name of the student from Lebanon who is also staying in the same flat as me is Rawad! I had to ask how to spell that...
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