I realize its been quite a while since my last entry, and quite a lot has happened since. I'll blog retrospectively with pictures and stuff later, but for now I'll do a quick summary of what's happening.

Today was my last day of class, I've been going to class every day since I got here in March. My German is doing pretty good. I met yesterday for the first time with a tandem partner, which is a fairly regular thing here for people learning different languages. It's a guy who is learning English, so we meet and hang out and talk, and switch off languages. Yesterday was all in German, next time will be all in English. The point is to correct each other and help each other form correct sentences and such. Or ask questions about certain words and when they would be used, etc. We hung out along the river and drank beers and talked.

I'll be here at least until next summer, I had to sign a 1 year contract for the apartment I found, but I think that's better anyways since a main reason I moved here was to become fluent in German.

So that's a quick summary of what's going on right now, I'll write more about what I've been doing, with pictures and stuff later.

Visa

Today I finally got my Visa. I had been putting it off because I had only heard bad things about the entire process. I needed lots of paperwork and to be at the Foreigner's Office by 6:30am in order to get a good number it opened at 7am. I was actually able to convince not only one but two German friends to come with me and help me in case there were any confusing questions or anything. But in spite of all the horrible stories of people's experience there, I was in at 7 and out the door with my visa in hand by 8:30. For some people it can take up to 6 weeks. I guess Germans just really like me and wanted me to stay in their country. I now have permission to live anywhere in Germany for 2 years, at which I can reapply for a longer visa if I would like. So for now, I will for sure be staying in Germany longer than the 3 months I was allowed without a visa. whether its for the full 2 years or longer I have no idea. But at least now I can rest assuredly knowing that I don't have to leave next month.

Autobahn

This weekend I had my first experience on the Autobahn. I wish the US had freeways like that, it was so much fun, you can literally go as fast as you want. We drove to Poland to hang out and go shopping because things are much cheaper there, and we made the trip in about 40 minutes.

I haven't been writing too much because there is not tons going on, classes still everyday for 4 hours, then usually I go to the park with friends. I've made some really cool German friends and hang out with them quite often, it's great because of course it helps with my German. They know I'm here to learn it, so they help me with new words and stuff. Of course all the dirty words that everyone must have in their vocabulary. They are all Berliners, so they take me around and show me all the good restaurants, bars, parks, etc. My German is coming along quite nicely, I have 1 more week of class, then I'm taking 2 weeks off to deal with all my paperwork stuff, and my friend Ali is coming to visit for a few days, then I will re-enroll in the school for another 5 weeks or so and see how I feel after that. May will be a busy month, dealing with the paperwork, Ali coming to visit, then I have to search for a new apartment (assuming all goes well with at the Foreigner's Office) because the room I have now I'm subletting just until June 1.

Warsaw

Since I had a 4 day weekend from school, I thought it a good chance to travel somewhere I'd never been to. I basically chose a place that was cheap to get to and would be cheap to do. So I chose Warsaw, Poland. My friend Adam's dad works for Marriott, so he was able to set me up with a nice room there for only about $15 a night more than it would cost to stay elsewhere. Thank god I was able to do that, otherwise the whole weekend would've sucked even more. It's not that I didn't like Warsaw, I just chose the worst time to go: Easter weekend in a very devout religious country. Basically everything was closed. Everything. Shops, restaurants, bars. I was forced to order the $25 hamburger from room service one night because after wandering around for 2 hours, I did not find even a kiosk open. This also meant that I couldn't buy beer or anything anywhere. Everything I had planned to do I was unable to. I did have a great view from the hotel though, I was on the 30th floor.

The city itself was OK, most of it pretty bland from the communist era, but the old part of town was very nice. In the middle of the day on Easter the touristy restaurants in the old town center were open. There I had a yummy meal and a hot beer with cloves and raspberries. That was the highlight of the trip. Also swimming in the hotel pool for 3 days.

Apartment Search

Today I went and looked at a few different apartment situations, Im going to move in with roommates for a few months  a) so that I have people around to practice my German with and b)I can't really get involved in any kind of lease for my own apartment until I have all the right paperwork and permits.

The first place I went to was not too far from my school, which would of course be very convenient.  It was two students looking for a third room mate because their other was leaving. They were nice but they had a few rules:

1. I was not allowed to wear shoes in the apartment.  They had special slippers for everyone (I got to wear the Guest pair) that were to be worn at all times while in the apartment.

2. Everyone must take turns feeding the chinchillas

3. Guys must sit to pee.  They will not tolerate any stand-up peeing.  Mind you, only one of them was a girl

4. No meat is allowed to be kept in the refrigerator.  They are vegetarians, and although they don't care if I eat meat, they do not want to even look at it

I did not take this apartment.  The having to pee sitting down was the deal breaker.

After that I went to a different area of town and met with a guy who will be in Paris until mid June, so Ill be taking over his room until then.  It's in a much better area; more young people, full of galleries and cafes.  At one point he even said I "could pretty much do whatever I wanted" in the apartment and I laughed since I had just been to the other place.  He looked at me funny

Yesterday I moved in with my host, he is about in his mid to late 40s and is a nice guy. He's a dramaturg/graphic designer/playwright/all around artsy guy. I was really nervous about just showing up to some random person's house and living with them for 2 weeks, but from talking to him he usually always has a student living with him. He only speaks German with me, his English isn't that great anyways. There have been a few times we have had to stop talking about something because neither of us could get our point across in the other's language. But that's half the fun. He lives in a very residential area of Berlin, there is even a farm down the street. He has the offices on the ground floor of the building for his workspace and lives on the top (4th) floor. It's a fairly small place, 2 rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The shower/bathtub is in the kitchen. And very awkwardly placed, I can only fit all the way to one side. But it's kind of fun.

Today was also my first day of classes. It was a little tough to start, everything is in German, which I expected and hoped for, but it is going to take a few days to get fully used to. I still find myself saying things in Spanish when I don't know the German word. Even to talk to other students I have to speak German, very few people even speak English, most of them are from somewhere in Europe except for a guy from Mexico and a guy from Ghana. We'll see how it goes...

Finally in Deutschland

I made it to Germany in one piece, with no lost or damaged luggage.  it was quite a trip from Panama to Berlin.  Probably the most interesting part of it all was the layover in Colombia.  It wasn't very long, but it was amazing the amount of security they have there.  After getting off the plane from Panama, I had to go through a metal detector and X-ray scan of my carry-ons (didn't they just do that before I got on the plane?)  Then to walk to the boarding gates, I had to go through a manual search of my bags by the police.  They took everything out, smelled every pocket and crevice, then ushered me along.  Then each individual gate has another security checkpoint before the waiting area.  Another metal detector, X-ray, and manual bag check.  I thought this would be the last of the hassling.  I was wrong.  While sitting in the waiting area, I was approached by an attractive woman dressed in civilian clothing, but showed me a badge and said she was the police.  She didn't speak English so thank god I speak Spanish.  She then grilled me on where I was, how long I stayed there, where I was staying, why I went there, what I did, where I was going, where I came from.....the list goes on.  I imagine they are looking for people who get nervous or agitated, but I say if they made it to that point without getting caught with anything, kudos to them.  I guess I passed her test because she gave me back my passport, said thank you and moved on to the next person.  

It was a long flight from Bogota to Madrid (10 hours), but they had personal TVs with on-demand movies, TV shows and music, so it all worked out.  Of course I wasn't able to sleep, I hate airplanes.  I should've tried to upgrade to business class.  The layover in Spain went fairly quickly, it took me a while to go through customs, collect my luggage, check in for my new flight which was on a different carrier, go through security......  so I didn't have to wait long until the flight boarded.  Even though it was only 3 hours, that was the longest flight I've ever been on.  I'd been awake at that point for over 24 hours and needed to get to my hotel and sleep.  

Once in Berlin everything went very smoothly, I got my baggage and got in a cab to my hotel.  The cab accidentally went about 2 buildings past the hotel, so he decided to back up.  Literally right in front of my hotel is where we were in an accident.  Someone was coming around the corner as we were backing up and we crashed right into them.  A flawless journey halfway around the world and I was in an accident in front of my hotel right before I was about to get out.  Nothing major, just a fender bender.  So I got my stuff out of the cab, paid him, and went inside to check in.  I watched the police come and all the hassle of it from my balcony.  Oops.

I was starving so I went to the nearest restaurant to eat, a very traditional German restaurant.  I had some delicious Schnitzel and an even more delicious beer.  Then went home and slept for 13 hours.  Today I walked around for a few hours, sat at a restaurant for a while and people watched.  Today is when it actually hit me: holy shit I think I just moved to Berlin.  I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen here, but am excited to see.  Tomorrow I move in with the host I found through the language school I'll be starting Monday for 8 weeks.  We've exchanged a few emails and he seems like a nice guy.  He's in the art/design/music/theatre world so I imagine we'll get along.