Note: This post was originally published on March 7, but due to my inability to work computers, I accidentally deleted it.
It has been about five days since I first landed in Germany, and I'm happy to say that my independence is growing. I am currently writing this post in a medium-sized café down the street from where I'm living, and anyone who knows me even a little bit will tell you that home base for me is always in a coffee shop. In fact, much of what I've been doing thus far is trying out cafés to see which will be "mine" for the next few months. It's quite fun to do so, especially with my group of friends from the IES Institute, and it gives me a good excuse to drink tea all day. It's been "tea-lightful", really.
But moving onward and forward involves me discussing what I've really been doing the last few days in Berlin. This subject is quite a bit harder to tackle because so much of my time has been spent figuring out what to do with the rest of my time, if that makes sense. Between the jet lag, the cold weather (at least in comparison to Los Angeles), and the completely new surroundings, I've been feeling a bit lost. In fact, in my attempts to do something this morning, I resorted to riding the subway with no real destination for about an hour and a half. As depressing as that sounds, it was actually quite enjoyable and made me feel more comfortable with the city. But what about the other four days?
They have been a whirlwind.
I've been speaking so much German that my thoughts have begun to express themselves in German, but part of my brain still insists that I speak Spanish and shifts into Spanish when I forget a German word. My brain has also been struggling to keep up with the English that I speak with my friends, for even now, as I type this, ich will alles auf Deutsch schreiben (translation: I want to write everything in German). Maybe it's not the jet lag that's making me so tired but my poor brain's struggle to remain intact despite the constant pull of three languages.
Pardon my run-ons, but they serve well to illustrate my point. Perhaps by my next post I'll be fluent in English again.
More Blogs From This Author
The Last-Minute Tourist: Part II
Part II of my last-minute round-up of Berlin. Includes the Pergamon Museum, Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer, and Mauerpark Flohmarkt.
Ali DeGuide
<p>My name is Ali, and I'm a Political Economy major at the University of Southern California (Trojans!). Ever since I was a little kid and found out that there was such a thing as "study abroad", I dreamed about doing it. I'd stare at the famous Midwestern cornfields and wonder what it would take to go see the world. I loved the idea of picking up and leaving everything, even if it was only for a short while. Now, I'm living the dream and studying abroad in Berlin, Germany.</p>
