The language encounter
My school from the street
Today, I had my first real German lessons! In what essentially is a German kindergarten class, there are people from all over the world. We have a girl from Africa, a girl from Romania, a boy from Poland, a girl from Russia, a girl from Korea (I’m not sure whether its North or South- I suspect South) and a girl from Taiwan! Today we learned how to introduce ourselves, how to ask where people are from, and how to count to ten. I wasn’t kidding when I said it was kindergarten. The only thing we are missing is the coloring books.
After school, our group went to the Berlin city museum. It was really cool! It followed 800 years of Berlin history. They even had real pieces of
Plaque in East Berlin of Vladmir Lenin
the Berlin Wall. It was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. In the gift shop, I decided I would buy a Berlin T-Shirt as a keepsake of my adventures. Unfortunately for me, I neglected to look at the size, and ended up buying a girl’s small. I think I’ll just end up giving it to my younger cousin Caroline.
Tower of Berlin
After the Museum, we went out for lunch at this really nice Italian restaurant. Once we were done eating, the waiter asked me in German if I would like water, to which I replied “yes”. Then he asked me what I supposed was, “would you like to order anything else,” to which I replied “Nein”. All of a sudden, Sol, our on-sight coordinator, bursts out laughing hysterically. Confused, I asked her what was so funny. She replied that the waiter had asked if I liked my meal, to which I had replied no. I quickly turned around and told the waiter that I didn’t speak German and that everything was great. I dodged a bullet on that one.
Sunset in my Village
Tonight I played badminton at the village center. It turns out that I’m actually quite good at it. It is a lot like a mix between tennis and volleyball, so it was pretty easy for me to win games.
Friday, I go to a “Der Toten Hosen” concert with my sisters and their friends. The name literally translates into “The Dead Pants”. German music is strange like that.
