FUBiS, Day 1

Today, I had my placement interview, which went pretty well, though I was ridiculously nervous beforehand.

The interviewers--each participant was interviewed by two FUBiS language instructors--were very nice, but they spoke quickly. I rehearsed my own self-interview last night, and luckily I was given a warning by someone who'd just had their interview that, when the instructors acknowledged that you knew the basic greetings and things, they quickly cranked it up a notch. It was the most intense, three-minute interview of my life. Actually, probably the only three-minute interview of my life, but...very intense. The last question I remember being asked was, auf Deutsch natürlich, "What has been the best day of your life, and why?" :-X  Eh, as if that question could be answered on the spot by anyone in any language!

Anyway, after the interview, there was a campus tour of the Freie Uni Berlin, so I went on that.

On the tour, we got to go inside part of the building, which I was eyeing yesterday, but doubted I'd ever enter: the philological library, the reference library for, essentially, the study of historical linguistics in literature. A fun fact is that the philological library is called "the Brain" because it was designed to look like one, from the inside and out! :) The below picture doesn't do it justice; it's hard to capture the Brain all in one photo, plus, it was technically closed today because of the public holiday--Pentecost Monday. This picture is just what you see upon walking in. The place is so huge (four floors, not including the basement) that you really can't see anything in this picture.

After the campus tour, we found a Döner Kebab place that also had Dürüm Kebabs (basically, a Döner, only in a wrap instead of a pita) and Currywurst mit Pommes (fries), which I got, lest I burn out on Döners. Although Konnopke's is famous for their Currywurst, I must disagree. Personally, I found today's Currywurst much tastier, though I don't know the name of the place. I'll find that out in the coming days, I'm sure.



After lunch, we went back to the cute building where language classes are. This is a different building than the main Freie Uni campus (see picture above, with the orangeish-red hallway; that's part of an entrance to the main campus). The language classes are held in a cute, renovated house, with a matching office building next door. The house is very comfortable, and I like the location a lot. It's on a quiet, quaint, suburban Berlin street.

When we got back, it was just a matter of time until we found out our placement results. Again, we were all so nervous, and I was freaking out. Ultimately, I've placed into level B2, which is Intermediate German II. I'm with one other girl from Vanderbilt, a friend named Junyi, and our class is only comprised of nine people total, so I think it will be ok. It will definitely be intense, and now I'm super nervous about being able to speak up in class, because several of the others in the class seem to be a couple years older and to have studied German for longer than me, which is intimidating. This is the part where I just have to keep telling myself that I'd rather be challenged and in the bottom half of a higher-level class than just breezing through the top level of a lower-level class. I just hope it all works out all right and that I'm able to maintain a good grade, as well, as that does matter when we get our credits transferred back to Vanderbilt.

This evening, the whole Vandy group, sans one person, decided to go out for an Italian dinner. It was fun, and we sat around and shared stories from our first day at our respective FUBiS courses. Then, Matthew and I came back to our apartments and went into the city center via S-Bahn to look around for Kneipen (German bars). The Kneipe thing has a long story behind it, but essentially, our textbook translated die Kneipe as "the border." My teacher last semester, Oliver, is a native Berliner and thought it was hilarious because the book was mistaken; Kneipe is definitely "bar"--as he described it, not quite a dive bar, and not quite a sports bar. For my final project in German, I wrote and translated a skit into German, wherein my classmates and I were American tourists looking for the border to cross into Poland. We asked multiple people in this skit, all who pointed us in one direction. When we got to the Kneipe, the "border," we were shocked, saw that it was a bar, ran out, and then one of us remembered that we were misusing the word as a result of the error in the textbook. It was a lot funnier in-person... But long story short, I want to set foot in a Kneipe, just to say I have.

Anyway, speaking of my teacher, I also had the pleasure of talking to him tonight on the phone, all auf Deutsch, for about seven minutes. I told him the results of my interview and then asked him if he knew of any Kneipen in the area where we were, which was former East Berlin (where he's from). It was great to talk to him, as his class was lots of fun and I really learned so much from him.

Matthew and I got back about half-an-hour ago from our exploring, which was ultimately unfruitful as far as Kneipen go, but we had a good time, and we love Alexanderplatz. It's my favoriiiiite! :D

It is now definitely bed-time, as we must be up bright and early to catch the bus to class.

Also, Gute Nacht!

-Monika