It's beginning to look (And feel! brrrrr!) a lot like Christmas/Weihnachten! Lots has happened since I last updated so here we go! First, a few weeks ago I got to see Lena for a very brief but awesome night! She was in Berlin for one night while they were on a trip for Uni and luckily we got to meet up and hang out for a while! It was great! Lena, since I know you are one of the people that read this- Ich bin so froh, dass wir uns wieder sehen konnten! Du bist die Beste! Ich hoffe ich kann naechtses Semester wieder nach Muenchen fahren (vielleicht mit Klapp!) :)
Last weekend I got to go to IRELAND! I went with Michelle and we had such a great time. We got into Dublin on Friday the 19th and quickly had to readjust to not saying "Entschuldigung!" to everyone and being very relieved that all of the signs were in English! We also quickly realized as we were taking our shuttle bus from the airport to the hostel that we were driving on the other side of the road!! I guess we were so excited about the trip that we forgot that little detail about Ireland! We explored Dublin a little bit on Friday night, went to a pub for dinner, then went to another pub where I tried my first red beer (Sorry, that's as close as I'll get to Guiness...I just can't do dark beer!), but I have to say I am a fan of red beer! Dublin is a really cool city and very easy to navigate, especially since there is a giant spire in the middle of the city. When I asked one of the people who worked at our hostel what the purpose of it was he just said, "There isn't one! It's just a feckin waste of money!"...Well, I guess that explains it! We went to the Temple Bar section of Dublin and went into THE actual Temple Bar for a bit and heard some great live music. On Saturday we got up bright and early and got ready for our tour to Wicklow and Glendalough! Wicklow is a county south of Dublin on the east coast of Ireland and Glendalough is a glacial valley located in Wicklow. It was an absolutely beautiful tour and we got to see some amazing sights. The countryside of Ireland is so beautiful and the mountains and all the green just make it breathtaking. Sadly I forgot to charge my camera before coming to Ireland so all of my pictures of the beautiful scenery are on a disposable camera waiting to be developed...oops. We got to see where one of the scenes in P.S. I Love Your was filmed, we saw where Braveheart was filmed, we saw Bono's house, Enya's house, and Van Morrison's house! Our tour guide was an awesome 60-something year old Irish man who told me that he "liked the color of my hair". After our tour on Saturday we went out into Dublin again and went to another pub where we go to see some real live Irish step dancers! It was great! Then on Sunday we left Dublin to return back to Berlin.
Upon our return to Berlin it was like Weihnachten had exploded all over the city! And I LOVE it! There are so many Weihnachmärkte (Christmas markets) and while they are all very similar in principle they each have their own style. There is nothing better than sipping on a nice warm mug of Glühwein (hot spiced wine, DELICIOUS!) while enjoying the company of some great friends at a Weihnachtsmarkt. The Weihnachtsmarkt at Potsdamer Platz even has a giant ice hill that you can slide down on in inner tubes, and of course I went down! We also got our first Schnee (snow) in Berlin last week and along with that some COLD weather. I know I am from New England and should be used to this but it is just SO cold outside and it's only the end of November!
Thanksgiving was last week and IES celebrated with us by hosting a dinner with all of the IES students and faculty at a restaurant in Berlin. It was very yummy and lots of fun to be able to celebrate our holiday with all of IES :)
A little less than 3 weeks until I go home for Christmas! Yay!
Must go finish my Turkish homework!
Bis später!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Warum lernst du Türkisch?!
Why are you learning Turkish?!
It's a question I've been asked by several Germans since I started my Turkish Grundkurs at Humboldt. My Humboldt classes started last week and so far so good! There is one other student from my IES program in my Turkish class and the rest of the class is Germans, one girl from Venezuela, and one girl from Russia. It's really interesting to be learning a new language at the same time that you are trying to master the language that the new language is being taught in. So far we have only been learning very basic phrases and words so I haven't gotten too confused yet. The only thing that is confusing me is Turkish grammar!! I thought German grammar was crazy, well Turkish definitely takes the prize this time! Turkish words have so many syllables and just like in German, every single letter is pronounced. There are also crazy endings that go at the end of nouns, verbs, names, etc etc. So far though I am really enjoying it! It's going to be hard work, but I am one of those weird people who loves learning new crazy hard languages, so yay!
It's funny though how curious Germans are as to why Americans want to learn Turkish. I think in America it is much more common to learn a new, random language...but in Germany mostly everyone learns English or French or Spanish. I guess to see American students studying in Berlin and learning German (first of all, this is also weird to them because they assume that no one in America wants to learn German in the first place) and also learning Turkish is just like "Whaattt?!" in their minds. But I also think they are impressed by the fact that American students want to learn a language like Turkish and that we aren't all as close-minded as many Germans assume we are. The other day my Turkish professor asked me and the other American in my class "Warum lernt ihr Türkisch? Nur für Spass?" (Why are you guys learning Turkish? Just for fun?" I explained to her that I really like learning new languages and that Turkish is definitely a cool language to know living in Berlin since there is such a high Turkish population here. I think she was satisfied with that answer, but still bewildered that she has two American students in her class.
My other Humboldt class, my German grammar course, is also really cool because there are people from all over the world in my class. There are a few Americans, but also people from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Belarus, Lebanon, France, Chile, Spain, Belgium, Hungary...and we are all learning German! How cool is that? It's also interesting because normally in a German class if something needed to be explained, it would be explained in English. But since only a few of us are native English speakers and German is really the common language between all of us, it has to be explained in German. How cool are languages!!??
So, in two weeks I am going to DUBLIN!!!! I am soooo excited! It is one of the places I have been wanting to go since I got here and I'm going!! It's also my people's homeland, so that's pretty freaking cool. I can't wait to hear the Irish accent and drink some Guiness and have a wonderful time!
Tonight is Natascha's 40th birthday party. It's happening here in the apartment and she invited about 100 people. Her only request is that each of her guests bring a bottle of alcohol...should be a fun night! ;)
Modterms for IES classes are this coming week. Bleh. I only have 3 so I don't think it will be too bad.
Gotta go help prepare for the party!
Tschuess!
It's a question I've been asked by several Germans since I started my Turkish Grundkurs at Humboldt. My Humboldt classes started last week and so far so good! There is one other student from my IES program in my Turkish class and the rest of the class is Germans, one girl from Venezuela, and one girl from Russia. It's really interesting to be learning a new language at the same time that you are trying to master the language that the new language is being taught in. So far we have only been learning very basic phrases and words so I haven't gotten too confused yet. The only thing that is confusing me is Turkish grammar!! I thought German grammar was crazy, well Turkish definitely takes the prize this time! Turkish words have so many syllables and just like in German, every single letter is pronounced. There are also crazy endings that go at the end of nouns, verbs, names, etc etc. So far though I am really enjoying it! It's going to be hard work, but I am one of those weird people who loves learning new crazy hard languages, so yay!
It's funny though how curious Germans are as to why Americans want to learn Turkish. I think in America it is much more common to learn a new, random language...but in Germany mostly everyone learns English or French or Spanish. I guess to see American students studying in Berlin and learning German (first of all, this is also weird to them because they assume that no one in America wants to learn German in the first place) and also learning Turkish is just like "Whaattt?!" in their minds. But I also think they are impressed by the fact that American students want to learn a language like Turkish and that we aren't all as close-minded as many Germans assume we are. The other day my Turkish professor asked me and the other American in my class "Warum lernt ihr Türkisch? Nur für Spass?" (Why are you guys learning Turkish? Just for fun?" I explained to her that I really like learning new languages and that Turkish is definitely a cool language to know living in Berlin since there is such a high Turkish population here. I think she was satisfied with that answer, but still bewildered that she has two American students in her class.
My other Humboldt class, my German grammar course, is also really cool because there are people from all over the world in my class. There are a few Americans, but also people from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Belarus, Lebanon, France, Chile, Spain, Belgium, Hungary...and we are all learning German! How cool is that? It's also interesting because normally in a German class if something needed to be explained, it would be explained in English. But since only a few of us are native English speakers and German is really the common language between all of us, it has to be explained in German. How cool are languages!!??
So, in two weeks I am going to DUBLIN!!!! I am soooo excited! It is one of the places I have been wanting to go since I got here and I'm going!! It's also my people's homeland, so that's pretty freaking cool. I can't wait to hear the Irish accent and drink some Guiness and have a wonderful time!
Tonight is Natascha's 40th birthday party. It's happening here in the apartment and she invited about 100 people. Her only request is that each of her guests bring a bottle of alcohol...should be a fun night! ;)
Modterms for IES classes are this coming week. Bleh. I only have 3 so I don't think it will be too bad.
Gotta go help prepare for the party!
Tschuess!
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