Charottenburg, Berlin, Germany

-our flat is in Charlottenburg, which is in former West Berlin. The area is a bit touristy, but the architecture here is incredible. My favorite are the block long buildings- kinda like the merchandise mart- here is a church, that's about 2 miles down the street we live, Kurfurstendamm. It is no longer functioning as a church, but just the remains of it after it was bombed during WWII. (notice the missing top)

This is a mix of coke and orange pop- its a Berlin favorite, you see it in all the gasstations, and the Getranken shops (huge stores that sell nothing but drinks- like a liquor store, but with more than beer)- I personally thought it was just okay..

Sprechen ze Deutsch????

My first day of school was quite challenging... Try three hours of lectures and orientation all in German. Yeah, we've been using Rosetta Stone for about a month and a half now- but you seem to forget just about everything when words are spit out at normal conversation speed, and when they arent complimented by nice- narritive images. I came home and had to take a nap from so much brain activity.

The paperwork i have to fill out is just as confusing- this form for example-
is to get 110 euro because i am a student- the top of the form states:

antrag aug gewahrung eines einmaligen bergrussungsgeldes in hohe von 110 euros

and here is its translation it into english:

request August gewahrung a unique mountain smoking money into high of 110 euros.

hmmmm.....haha the language barrier continues...

the people of berlin

They look alot like this...notice: there are no smiles...

Would you rent to us???

heres a like to the website where we are searching for apartments/ wohnungs...
are we marketable enough?!

http://www.studenten-wg.de/mietgesuch_506079.html

Maybe they are going to Sturgis???

We stayed out till 5.30am this morning... trying to embrace the ways of Berliners. But with staying up late, comes waking up late- so thank god these german bikers decided to come down Kurfurstendamm at 12.30. I woke up to endless horns, and noises of this traffic jam- but different from stergis, most of these bikes were crotch rockets. SWEET.
I can really understand the sleep schedules of people who live here- well for the ones who work real jobs anyway. The only way it seems to work- is by sanctioning sundays as a day to sleep- Thank god Berlin is still influenced by Christian traditions. Everthing is closed on sunday- grocery stores, banks, libraries, and even IKEA. So after staying up till 7 or 8 in the AM, you can sleep all day, wake up for a couple hours before nightfall, and get ready for another work week.