Denmark was . . .

Denmark was . . . terrifying, stressful, viciously cold, but absolutely worth it. We met all the nicest people in the city, and left with a generally positive perspective. All I can say is that God was really watching out for us on this trip.

Sophia, Julia, Kendall, and I left from Berlin Schönefeld airport at 7PM on Friday night, bracing ourselves for the 40 minute flight ahead. About 20 minutes into the flight, the captain's voice crackled over the loudspeaker, "We have now reached our cruising altitude. We will begin our descent shortly."

We arrived at the Copenhagen airport, and were instantly bombarded by Danish signs. The first half of most Danish words look exactly like German words, but, as my friend Sophia put it, the second half "falls apart and makes no sense." The four of us bumbled our way through the airport, bought metro tickets, and hopped on the train, feeling secure that we knew what we were doing.

Kendall and Julia

Me and Sophia

Clearly, we actually had no idea what we were doing. We got off the Metro at Christianshavn, expecting our hostel to be just around the corner. It wasn't. We were in possession of a terrible map, and could not find our location on it. As we wandered, it became later and later and we became more and more lost. Finally, I asked a group of women in their forties who looked like they were on their way to a bar if they knew where the hostel was. One of the women exclaimed, "oh my goodness, we cannot have four girls wandering around here at night like this," and promptly pulled out her iphone and looked up the address for us. Then, she pointed us in the right direction, gave us her name (Christina) and phone number, and told us that if we really couldn't find it to call her and we could sleep on her floor for the night.

I was terrified, cold, and not handling the stress of being lost in an unknown city very well, but the others were relatively calm, and finally, finally, at 10:45 at night, we made it to the hostel.

The hostel itself was rather nice, as hostels go. We had a four person room to ourselves, and the beds were very comfortable.

It was around this time that Sophia realized that she lost her wallet. She had had it at the airport, but now it was gone. She emailed her dad and he canceled her cards. Luckily, she had her passport on her--the most important document when traveling.

This was truly an amazing story.

The next morning, her dad emailed her. A man had found her wallet, somehow figured out her home number, called her house in the US, gave her dad his phone number, and her dad emailed her the number. Sophia called the man, named Kim, and he gave us directions to his house, which was only a 5 minute bus ride from our hostel. Sophia and I made our way down there. Not only did this man find her wallet, but as we got on the bus to go get her wallet, the bus driver would not let us pay for the ride, and allowed us to ride for free. Every single thing was still in Sophia's wallet, including her money and her cards. It was truly incredible that she was able to get it back. God works in crazy, insane ways sometimes. It just makes me feel so good to know that there are good hearted people in the world.

Copenhagen itself was COLD. With windchill, the temperature dipped below -10 degrees fahrenheit. We were mostly walking, and so we got very cold, very quickly. But Copenhagen is a beautiful city.

100 Danish Kroner, equivalent to 17 US dollars. You could not expect to find a piece of pizza in Denmark for less than 30 kroner, or 6 US dollars. I believe I payed around 10 dollars for a milkshake. 

This church was incredible beautiful.

Pipe Organ

Sophia and I in front of a cannon at an old Danish fort

Guards of the Danish royal palace. The queen lives here.

Sophia and I at the coldest picnic ever

Rosenborg castle. I was proud of my gothic photography.

There were a lot of creepy statues. I think this one, personally, looks like a zombie frothing blood at the mouth.

Icy river.

If you are any one who knows me at all, you will know that my real reason for coming to Copenhagen wasn't just because it was somewhere to go. Since I was 12-years-old I have been obsessed with Viking culture, and ancient Scandinavia. I came to Copenhagen for the Viking exhibit at the National Museum. I perused the  collection of Viking artifacts for a total of 3 hours. This was the first time I have ever viewed any Viking artifacts in person, and just because of this I would have considered the trip well worth it.

Viking rune stone! Also,  my knowledge of Viking runes allowed me to pick out a few words here and there.

Thor's hammer

Women's brooches.

VIKING SWORDS, KNIVES, AND AXES!!!

Like I said, I could read some of the rune stones. Here is an example.

While there were many stressful times, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip. I definitely learned a lot, and got some good stories out of it too. Next time I travel to an unknown country, I will make sure I know how to find the place I am staying.

We arrived in Berlin on Sunday night, thoroughly exhausted, but feeling like we had come home.

The Little Things

Studying in Berlin I have not experienced much culture shock as I might if I were studying in, say, Kenya. Germany is very westernized. It has showers, and plumbing, and toilets (though the flushing mechanism is different than in the US). The people wear the same kind of clothing I'm used to, drive similar cars, and live in similar houses. Its the little things, though, that are different, unexpected, and sometimes throw me off balance.

For instance, notebooks are more expensive and oddly difficult to find. Heating is expensive, so people do not keep their houses at the temperatures Americans are used to. In Grove City, I could get by wearing only a short sleeve shirt and a jacket inside. Here, I am never inclined to wear anything less than a giant, thick sweater. I sleep in thick socks and long sleeves. Electricity is also expensive, so I have to remember to unplug things and turn off my power strip when I'm not using it.

The temperature has dropped in the past few days, and we experienced a "blizzard" by Berlin standards. The streets are mostly paved with cobblestones, which makes it alarmingly slippery when walking and driving. I'm always terrified when crossing the street that I am going to fall or that a car is going to slide into me. Yesterday, Facebook was exploding with people complaining about the cold weather. I think the weather is colder in PA and Michigan, but it feels infinitely colder here because I have a 45 minute commute to school, which includes a lot of walking and waiting for buses and trains. I spend far more time outside here than I ever do in the winter at home.

Brentanostraße, the road my school is on

I went shopping with some friends on Sunday. We were in a department store called Yessica's, browsing through their shoe and sweater collection. As I'm turning to look for my friend Julia, I spot a lady with her dog trotting across the reflective floor of the department store.

Dogs are allowed in most places in Berlin. Owners will take them shopping, on the U-bahn, S-bahn, and on the bus, and will also walk through the crowded Berlin streets with their dogs off the leash. I try to imagine my dog, Tori, in this situation, and have to laugh because she would go insane with so many people and new smells.

On Friday, as it was beginning to get dark as it does around 4:30PM, I noticed a red light flashing close to the ground as something moved toward me. It was a tiny dog, dressed in a construction orange vest with a flashing red light on its back, so people wouldn't step on it. That definitely made my day.

Also, today I realized that I have the exact same amount of weekend as school days. 3.5 of each. And tomorrow doesn't even count because my German class is going to a museum about the Berlin Wall. And on Friday I'm taking a tour of the old Stasi Prison. And then off to Copenhagen for the weekend! It's a rough life.

I forgot I would have to do homework here too

With the hype of orientation over, everything is beginning to settle down into more of a routine. My life in Berlin does not seem nearly as strange as it did at first. I am now a very confident user of the transportation system, with a few bumps here and there. Yesterday, the bus was so crowded that Alicia and I simply did not make it out the doors before they closed and the bus moved on to the next stop. But things like that happen.

We started classes on Monday. I have German class Monday-Thursday from 9AM-noon. I am enrolled in the Intermediate 2 class, which is a little easy vocabulary and listening comprehension-wise, but because I am so bad at grammar, it is exactly where I need to be. I am also enrolled in a contemporary European film course which meets on Mondays from 4:30-9 (it's 2 hours longer than usual because we have to watch a movie after class. Tragic) and a Berlin: History, Literature, Memory course that meets Tuesdays from 1:30-4. I'm excited for both of them.

I took an intensive Modern Germany course first semester of my sophomore year at Grove City, so my knowledge of German history is much greater than the average American student. During the first class of Berlin: History, Literature, Memory, my teacher gave us a brief outline of German history beginning in 1871 with the unification of Germany. She would write a date on the board and ask the class if we knew what had happened in German history in that year. I tried to let other people in my class answer, but when no one would, the teacher would look expectantly at me and I would give the answer. . . again.

It has been very cold this week, but I doubt it is any colder than Michigan and Pennsylvania usually are. I notice the cold much more here because I walk everywhere to catch the buses and bahns.

The Lankwitz S-bahn station. This is part of my daily route to school.

On Monday, a bank was robbed about a mile from my house in Hollywood style. The robbers dug an 100 meter tunnel beneath the bank and robbed over 90 safety deposit boxes. While it stinks for the people whose stuff was stolen, there's something to be said for that suave of a crime.

I was very excited to be able to spend some time on Wednesday with Matthias Bifolchi. Matthias was an exchange student at Dexter my senior year and I got to know him pretty well through theater. He now attends Freie Universität and lives in Berlin. I haven't seen him in a year and a half so it was a blast getting to catch up with him and eat Gemüsekebaps in a "non-touristy" area of Berlin.

Alicia, Genesis, and I found an adorable cafe just down the street from our school, so we may be spending a good amount of time there between classes.

One thing I love about Europe is that I do not have classes on Fridays. Therefore, the weekend begins for me at noon on Thursday.

This morning I joined a few friends and we climbed the Berlin TV tower.

This structure towers over Berlin and was built by the Soviets in the 1970s to show off the greatness of the DDR. Today it is one of Berlin's most well-known landmarks, towering 1,207 feet above the city. The view was incredible.

It was a little overcast, but we could still see 25 miles in all directions.

When I reached this view of the city I simply could not stop staring. Dr. Wyneken in my Modern Germany class last year, told us that you could still tell the difference between what used to be Easter Berlin and West Berlin. I never realized how true this statement was until I saw this. This is a view toward the north-eastern part of the city. Looking at this gave me chills, but it makes me realize, again and again, how much Berlin as a city has been through in the past 100 years.

Left to Right: Genesis, Julia, Rachel, Berlin Bear, Meghan, Alicia, Sophia

The Berlin bear is everywhere. We find him in the s-bahn station, the TV tower, sometimes just sitting out in the middle of the city. So, of course we had to get a picture with him.

I thought this movie poster was funny. "Der Hobbit: Eine Unerwartete Reise."

We ended the day at a classy wine place in a very non-touristy area of the city. There was a candlelit seating area with couches and chairs with jazz music playing. It made me feel like I was the wine connoisseur I most definitely am not.

I am loving my time here in Berlin so far. Next weekend, three friends and I are off to Copenhagen, Denmark! There are Viking museums in Copenhagen. Best thing ever.

Orientation

I have been in Berlin now for five days, but it feels like I have been here for weeks.

Orientation with my program has been keeping me up early and very busy. I'm generally exhausted by the end of the day, but I can already say that I love it here. Berlin is a fascinating city with a lot going on. There is always something to do, and the public transportation system is amazing. Though people own cars, they still take the buses and bahns because it is less expensive and sometimes less of a hassle. Despite my horrible attempt on the first day, I now feel like a pro at the system, at least with the U-bahn and S-bahn.

Wednesday morning our program was given a tour of two bunkers dating back to the Cold War and WWII. It was chilling to visit the cold stone cell where thousands of women and children had huddled, frightened, as the bombs dropped over head, not knowing if they would be obliterated in the next explosion. The U-bahn rattled over our heads with a terrifying rumble every ten minutes. Just that noise was loud. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to hear the explosions of the bombs.

After the tour, I went with two of my friends, Sophia and Robyn, to Alexanderplatz at the heart of Berlin. We had doner kebabs, a Turkish version of a gyro with chicken, a famous delicacy in Berlin. It was VERY good. I've also become a fan of the soda water Germans love to drink (mit kohnlensäure). It is kind of like drinking pop, but with the added benefit of no calories.

Robyn then took us to Winterfelde, the most adorable coffee and chocolate shop that served scones and hot chocolate on china plates.

Heiße schokolade und ein scone

Thursday morning was my favorite, however, as we were given a three hour of tour of historical Berlin. It was around 15 degrees fahrenheit and a light dust of snow was falling, but it was completely worth it. I got to finally visit sights I had learned so much about. Many of them were breathtaking, some absolutely chilling, but the richness of Berlin's history never ceases to amaze me.

Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor)

The gate is the first thing you see when you come up from the U-bahn station, and it is truly a moment of majesty. It was built by a German king as a victory arch. Ironically, the first one to march victoriously through it was Napoleon. The gate was also right along the Berlin wall.

Red Army Tank

This tank sits outside the Soviet memorial, a memorial to the soldiers of the Red Army who died in the battle of Berlin in 1945. This tank was one of the first pieces of equipment to storm Berlin.

Reichstag

The central seat of the German government.

This was one of the most chilling. This memorial was only recently erected. It features a still, circular pool.

Berliner Dome (Lutheran Church)

 This church was built in 1903 despite its old appearance. It is one of the few buildings that survived WWII.

This, perhaps, was the most chilling location of all. This innocent looking parking lot was once the place where Hitler's underground bunker was located, the place where he committed suicide. The German government never did anything to memorialize this place for obvious reasons. Hitler is not a figure who should be memorialized. They also did not wish to create a rallying place for neo-Nazis. Only a small sign stands to show any recognition at all of the horrors that occurred here almost 70 years ago.

My host father, Gerd, is the sweetest man, and very fun to be around. He is close to 60 and a marathon runner. This morning he told me he was going to go for a quick jog and came back three hours later. He is currently studying mythology and philosophy at Freie Universitaet, and can read Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His English, however is not very good, so we mostly speak in German, which is quite all right with me. Tonight he took me on a tour of the city via bus and then to the museum of East Germany. We had a blast, me attempting to understand everything he was saying, and attempting to answer back in my broken German. He is as interested in history as I am so we had a great time perusing the artifacts of East Germany (ancient artifacts from the 70s and 80s) and he chatting to me about what he remembered about that time.

Tomorrow classes start, but I'm just as excited for that as being able to see Berlin. I love it here so far and have made many friends in my program. And I suppose I can call myself a true college student now because I have been to a bar.

I will end with a picture of myself in front of the Brandenburg Gate that my host father took, just to prove I didn't get these pictures randomly off the internet.  

I had an . . . interesting day

I was picked up by my host sister, Anna, last night and taken to her home on Königsbergerstraße in the south-western part of Berlin. She and her father live on the second floor of a house above a zahnarzt or dentist. I have a nice spacious room to myself, as well as a large double bed where I promptly fell asleep last night after writing my blog post. I was awake for 28 hours straight, so, appropriately, I slept for 15 without stirring.

Mein Zimmer

Anna is a 25-year-old law student at Freie Universität. Her father is retired but getting a degree in mythology and philosophy at the university as well. They are both very nice, and Anna has been very helpful with my ridiculous incompetence. I have been speaking mostly German with them, except for certain things I really have trouble understanding. Nils, the student assistant at FU-BEST, told me I was lucky because most host families want to practice their English.

Both Anna and her father work so I was left alone most of the day.

And what a day it was . . .

The first reason for panic came when I realized I had left the blue bag I had received upon arrival back at the FU-BEST building. That bag had my itinerary and my transportation card, so I had to buy a bus day pass to leave the house and get to Brentanostraße where I was supposed to meet the group for an optional tour. Since I had to get my bag anyway, I decided to go.

First I will begin by saying that I am awful at public transportation. I have never taken a bus by myself.

I knew I had to get to Dahlem-Dorf. So, naturally, I got on the wrong bus and ended up at the opposite end of Berlin. Oddly enough, I wasn't even scared. I just sat calmly, got off the bus because the line ended, and found another bus that said "Dahlem" on it. It is not the same as "Dahlem-Dorf" but it was something I recognized in a city where I knew three place names. I asked an elderly lady in German how to get to "Dahlem-Dorf". Luckily she knew where that was, and, when I clearly wasn't understanding her directions in German, she rode the bus with me until I got to where I had to go. She was the answer to my desperate prayers. That the first person I asked would be willing to help a lost and scared girl who did not understand the language very well was totally a Godsend. She was very sweet and told me all about her children on the bus while I nodded and pretended to understand everything she said. I got the gist of what she was saying, but not everything. I praise God for that woman, though, whoever she was.

I finally found Dahlem-Dorf and incredibly ran into my group on tour. I was already 15 minutes late and they just happened to arrive at Dahlem-Dorf at the exact moment I did. So I joined the group and Nils, the student assistant who is a graduate student at FU, led us on a tour of campus. During the tour I got to know a bunch of different people in my program. Something has been making me ridiculously friendly these past two days, which I guess is good because I get to know people. One thing that has surprised me is that 75% of the students in my program have taken 2 or fewer years of German. Some don't know any German at all. I heard one guy asking another what the word for "water" was. I honestly don't know how they do it because I would probably have died on my little excursion earlier if I didn't know how to speak and read a bit of German.

When the tour ended, Nils took us to the Thielplatz station where most of the group left. I still need to go to the FU-BEST building to get my bag so I was going to go with Nils. Abby, who is in a wheelchair, needed to go to the next station because there was no wheelchair access at this certain station, so Nils and I took Abby to the station she needed. Then Nils showed me how to use the U-bahn and get to the FU-BEST building, correcting my German the entire way. It turned out the building was closed, so I still couldn't get my bag with my transportation pass.

I made my way back to the u-bahn, naturally got on the wrong direction, realized this two stations down, got off and then got back on the other side, and finally reached where I had to go. Got on the bus, got off two stops early, and had to wait for the next bus.

Finally, I made it home and explained everything to my host sister who I'm pretty sure thinks I'm an idiot. But, I guess I learned a lot. And now I know how to get to my school . . .

The Flight

FLAPS! FLAPS!

Anyway. I haven't slept in 27 going on 28 hours as I write this. I suppose there are upsides to being so ridiculously tired that you don't care what comes out of your mouth. I met ALL the people from my program when I got to Berlin.

But how DID I get there?

Mom dropped me off at the Detroit metro airport around 3:45PM on Monday, January 7th, where I realized that going off on my own was a lot scarier than I had anticipated. There was a mother with a little boy in the security check line ahead of me. Her husband and two other sons stood outside the roped off area and followed the mother and the little boy as far as they could. The entire time one of the sons, a boy with autism, stood sobbing  "bye, mommy, bye" over and over again. The mother was crying too and kept running back to hug her son. It was heartbreaking to watch.

I flew Lufthansa, the leading German airline in Germany and outside Germany too. I ended up on the aisle in the center four of a packed flight. The girl next to me was from Switzerland and had just been to the States to visit a friend who was studying abroad at Milan High School (Michigan). Her name was Afsa, and she told me how her dad was from the Congo and has 24 half siblings and 9 full siblings,  leaving him with a grand total of 33 siblings. And I thought Dad being the youngest of 13 was crazy.

I watched a documentary on the Giants winning the super bowl later year and the Bourne Legacy, with Jeremy Renner. I felt extremely accomplished when I ordered "wasser und cola" in German. For one, brilliant instant, I had the flight attendant fooled into thinking I was German. Then she said something else and all the German I had ever known flew out of my head. I stared at her dumbly until she said something in English. My moment of shining glory, gone.

The plane landed safely, thank goodness. I put it down to the fact that my brain was screaming "flaps! flaps!" and "those wheels better come down or else I'm going to be angry!" the whole time.

After 8 hours from Detroit, I took my first steps on German soil. And it was in the Frankfurt Airport, the hugest airport I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life. It took me 45 minutes to walk from my arrival gate to my departure gate for Berlin, and when I arrived I was red faced and panting like a dog. But, walking down the flat escalators that make you feel like a super speed walker, I was filled with the feeling that "gosh dark it, I am an independent woman. I'm flying on my own to another continent like a boss."

I had a brief minute of panic and desire to go home as I was boarding the flight from Frankfurt to Berlin. Its in times like these that God uses the little things for encouragement.

It was a foggy morning in Frankfurt, and I was blessed with a window seat on the flight to Berlin. I was beginning to think it didn't even matter that I had a window seat because everything looked like this.

And then this.

And then . . . 

Brilliance. Over that drab grayness was hidden brilliance. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen.

And I knew that once I went to sleep, things would regain that original excitement.

Either way, I found Alicia at the airport and we shared a taxi, driven by a nice elderly German gentleman who spoke no English so I chatted with him in German a while.

Here's us in front of FU-BEST to prove that we made it safely.

And now we're here and I'm with my host family and I'm going to bed.

More on the actual Berlin later.

I didn't know lack of sleep could make you feel so dizzy.

5 days more, 5 more days, another destiny, the never ending road to Berlin

With five days until I depart for Berlin, the pressure is building.

Two days ago we had a major scare when I realized I had deleted the email containing my flight details. Commence an hour scrambling around the Kayak, Lufthansa, and Orbitz websites in an attempt to recover the information. We eventually found it under the Orbitz account in my name that I hadn’t created, but had been receiving emails from for weeks.

This afternoon, I discovered that the camera I bought four days ago refused to turn on. I tried charging it, taking the battering out, charging it via USB, removing the SD card, and various other methods suggested by internet users with the same problem, but nothing helped. So, tomorrow it’s back to Best Buy to return the jank camera and purchase a new one.

I suppose these are hardly a taste of the things that could go wrong in Europe.

For Christmas, my parents bought me a super extreme anti-theft purse that has wire in the shoulder straps to prevent cutting, a mechanism that locks the zipper shut, and numerous other anti-theft measures. Christmas morning I came downstairs to find my dad eyeing the bag nervously. “I tried to touch your purse, and alarms went off,” he told me.

While I know I am going to find myself in uncomfortable situations that not even the most detailed planning can prevent, I’m filled more with excitement than anxiety. For years it has been my dream to go to Europe, to experience new cultures, meet crazy people, learn new languages, to travel, and stand in places rich with history. Germany is part of my heritage, and I am excited to experience the country where my Oma was born, and travel to Belgium, the original home of the Lamine side of my family.

I have no idea what to expect in the next four months, but I know they will be months that will change me. The reality that this is real, that this is happening, has not hit yet, and I doubt it will until I step onto the plane, alone, on Monday evening. Above all, I am grateful to my parents, my school, and to God for giving me such an incredible opportunity to experience the world.

Check back here periodically for updates, pictures, and stories about my experience. I don’t know how often I’ll be updating, but I hope to write as much as a short entry weekly.

Rachel Lamine