first day in germany

3 things i learned today:

1. i am incredibly awkward

2. can’t speak german

3. all germans drive tiny hatchbacks (the smaller the better)

4. german bathrooms are really strange

(EDIT): 5. i don’t know how to count

i was too tired to write a departing message yesterday, so i’m writing this time already from berlin. the journey was something.

of course, i didn’t get ready to leave early, so i ended up running errands all day yesterday. i had a red-eye flight that left detroit metro at 10:55pm.

my first awkward moment was still in detroit. the lady at the check-in counter definitely thought i was an idiot. apparently, i didn’t realize how many bags i was allowed to bring with me, so i was shocked when she told me i could check two, after i had spent all day trying to cram all my belongings into one. then i couldn’t put the bag on the conveyor belt the way she wanted, and finally i pulled an epic “Brian Regan” moment as i walked away.

counter lady: have a great flight!

me: you too! errrrrrr… I mean….. yeaaaaaaaaaah… (walking away)

the flight to london was long but not too bad. they had a lot of stuff to watch on the plane, so that kept me occupied. first, i watched the highlights of the 2007 nyc marathon (no idea why they had that), then a good portion of “the darjeeling limited” before i passed out for 2 or 3 hrs. i woke up as we were getting ready to land in heathrow airport. i videotaped some of the landing, which i thought was cool, maybe i’ll post it later.

we ended up arriving nearly an hour early to london, which left me with a lot of time to lounge around. there were a bunch of really expensive luxury stores and duty free shops with tons of different stuff. i took this pic of a pack of marlboro cigarettes with what i thought was an overly straight-forward warning. i guess they have more stringent rules about this stuff in the uk.

i finally got on the plane for berlin at 12:55 london time. the flight was only two hours, but due to the 1 hour difference we arrived there at 3:45pm berlin time. i was listening to my german podcasts, hoping to pick up some last minute phrases that could be useful in conversation, before meeting my guest family. finally, i exited the baggage claim, but no one seemed to be looking for “fedor.” i waited.

everyone had left and i was the only one standing there 20 minutes later. surprisingly i wasn’t really panicking. i knew i was an idiot for forgetting to write down the address/tel. # of my guest family, but i also knew that i could get that information through my e-mail. so i went in search for a computer. sadly airports aren’t in the business of providing free wi-fi for people. i needed to get change to use at a computer station, and thus was faced with the daunting task of starting my first real german conversation. i believe it went something like this:

Me: kann ich diese fünf euro zu münze wechseln?

dude at currency exchange: ja, kein problem.

success.

as i was walking toward the computer station, i walked by the information desk, and had the brilliant idea of asking them for a phonebook, rather than wasting money on internet. the woman at the counter answered me in english, and gave me the phonebook. thankfully my host was listed and was the only one with her name. i wrote the number down and went to a pay phone. i felt good after that win at the currency exchange.

i dialed the number and someone replied almost immediately: “hallo, frasch.” in broken german, i managed to explain to him that my name was fedor and i was the guest student that was coming to stay with their family, that i was at the airport, and i needed to be picked up. that’s how far i got before he replied “i think this would be easier in english.”

PWNED!

it was easier, the guy spoke nearly perfect english. apparently i told them the wrong time to come pick me up (the time i was arriving in london and not berlin), so this guy’s mom spent two hours at the airport before i got there. i felt awful. he told me that a bus would get me to their house in 15 minutes, so i said i’d take the bus.

when i arrived at my bus stop i got off and waited where i thought we agreed to meet. the guy was waiting on the other side of the stop, so it took us another 25 minutes before we actually found one another. during those 25 minutes i made the curious observation that there is a ridiculous amount of tiny hatchbacks driving around. 9/10 cars are hatchbacks and most are not much bigger than a mini (there are also a lot of minis).

anyways, finally i could say i knew someone in berlin, and there was a place that i would be staying at for the night, so that was nice. the host family’s apartment is really cool, it’s fairly large with really tall ceilings, and the room i’m staying in is spacious and very nice.

here are some pictures:

that door leads to a balcony, it’s too dark to see anything off of it now, but i’ll take some pictures later

anyways, i’m just settling in here. tomorrow, i’m waking up at 8 am, and probably going to go for a run and explore a little. it’s only half a mile to the Tiergarten from here, so i’ll probably check that out. then later, i’m going to get a bus/subway pass, and go see some more of berlin.

i don’t have time to get into my last lesson of the day, namely that german bathrooms are really strange. maybe i’ll get around to describing them in detail some other time, but for now i want to leave you with the mental picture of someone 6′ tall trying to shower in a bathtub where the showerhead is at his knees, and also this picture that i could not resist taking.

yeah, that hung above the toilet.