Mini-excursion, "Farewell Dinner" (two weeks early), New Friend, and The Days to Come

Yesterday, my class was the only class occupying the FUBiS buildings, so it was a strangely but pleasantly relaxed day, other than the fact that our teacher upped the intensity of our lessons. We didn't take an excursion day because we're going on our "field trip" on Friday, instead--to the former Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen. Tonight will be a night of mental and emotional preparation for that.
But other than classes, we did end up going on our own mini-excursion to a memorial site of the Berlin Wall (pictures to come later), where we got the chance to visit a museum and to see not only parts of the wall, which are still standing, but also a guard watch-tower, which was pretty eerie.

After we were done with this mini-excursion, which we were able to take at our own pace, we met up at a little cafe' and then parted for the day. Since we're in the same class, Junyi and I went to Starbucks in Alexanderplatz, where we got drinks (which, by the way, are different than those offered in the US) and worked on our Aufsätze (essays) that are due today until we had to meet up with the Vanderbilt group at 17:30 in order to have our last dinner together as a group.

For our dinner, we ate at what Peggy calls an anarchist restaurant because it has anarchist and generally revolutionary posters and slogans lining the walls. It's an Italian place called "Due Forni," or "Two Ovens," and there I had what must be the best pizza outside of Italy. It was fantastic, and I was even able to order a cheeseless pizza straight off the menu, without being questioned or given weird looks about my cheese preferences. :) We had a great time talking about all that we've each been up to in the past week, and Matthew and I got the chance to brag to Peggy about our weekend in Poland. The only downside of our Wednesday night dinners is that it always feels like Friday night afterwards, because we stay out "late" having such a great time. It's hard to accept the reality that we've still got classes the next day...

We were at the restaurant, eating and eating and eating--brilliant tiramisu and chocolate mousse, by the way--until 21:30. Then, we went to the train station, and slowly our group got smaller as Peggy went off in one direction and some of us went off to locations other than our apartment complex. But Matthew, Junyi, Qiongru, Patrick, Gabi, and I stuck together at the train station, where we waited for a long time due to some sort of technical problem with the trains.

This girl came up to us, S-Bahn map opened and face pained, asking if we knew what was going on with the trains, because she had a train to catch, to Switzerland, at 22:15. By that point, it was about 21:50, so we all tried to help her, and hopefully she made it to her train on time, but the one train that should have been ours was not, and the trains on our track kept coming and going in the wrong directions. Strange night. Anyway, at this point, a man in his forties or so came up to us and asked the girl how he could help. Just by his doing that and by the way he interestedly inquired as to where we were from, I could tell he was pretty open to talking to new people, so as soon as the girl about to miss her train left to go find a taxi cab, I made the move and started talking to him. He had been speaking in really good English that almost sounded British, so I asked where he was from. It turns out he's from Berlin. From there, I'm not exactly sure how the conversation took off, but it did, and immediately we switched into Deutsch.

We ended up talking for about fifteen minutes, and it was the greatest conversation I've had so far in Germany (that is, not including those I had in Poland). His name is Sebastian, and he lives in Charlottenburg, which is the same part of town that Junyi and I visited last week on our independent excursion day. I didn't get a chance to ask him about his work or anything, though I wish I did. He was wearing shorts and adidas indoor shoes, so I asked him if he followed football, to which he answered that he does, and he plays, too. I told him I play, as well, and then we shared positions and numbers. He's a midfielder and wears "Nummer 10, natürlich." On the topic of football, he wanted to know how popular it is in the US, so I got to tell him my opinion and my observations of the current trends back in the States. We talked about differences between America and Germany, about stereotypes, and about national mentalities. He was impressed to hear an American speaking German, and he thought it was a really great thing that we were here in his country trying to learn the language. He acknowledged how hard it is for Americans to learn other languages, partially because we're not in Europe, where so many languages thrive, and partially because the rest of the world is gradually turning to English. I shared with him my frustrations about that and about how hard it is, even in Germany, to find Germans that will actually speak to me in German. As soon as they pick up (somehow) on the fact that I'm American, or that my German isn't fluent yet, the language of commerce usually turns to English. He said just to be stubborn and ignore people when they do that, because I should be speaking German with them. But he impressed me by his understanding of my frustrations and his acknowledgement of the fact that not all Americans are "ugly" travellers; we're actually good-natured people who are just generally ignorant because we don't live on the same continent as Europeans and our nation, unfortunately, doesn't necessarily emphasize cultural understanding. But for those of us trying to break out of this mold, it's somewhat disheartening to go to another country to learn the language, and then just to hear or read English everywhere.

We had a deep, albeit brief, conversation, and again, I wish I could've remained in contact with him. By the end of the conversation, we learned each others' names, and he wished me much luck and much fun throughout the rest of my stay. He said I must come back to Germany, because seven weeks is so short, and I assured him I'd be back. :)

Sebastian, I wish we could've talked more, and I wish we would've snapped a picture together, but I'll never forget you or our conversation, either!

After this great talk, I was just beaming. It was really uplifting, and Sebastian was just so genuinely kind! I'm still trying to recall all the little things we discussed, but the more I think about it, the more impressed I am...and the happier I am that the S-Bahn wasn't working last night. If it had been running like normal and that girl hadn't needed help figuring out what to do to catch her train, he never would have approached us, and we never would have met and talked. Also, I later realized that the whole conversation had been auf Deutsch--at that point it became clear that my German has definitely improved over the past several weeks, and it's just a matter of time and of speaking a whole lot more, to a whole lot more people, in order to achieve fluency. I've got a loOoOong way to go, but in that moment of realization, it all seemed possible.

When the S-Bahns finally came and Sebastian and I shook hands, said our Freut michs and parted, then I returned to my little group, jumped on the train back home, and then we had a great conversation and a lot of laughs. It was late, and I'm so tired now, but all I can really recall was that we shared our horror stories of almost missing trains, of getting lost in foreign countries, etc. and then shared with each other the foreign currency we had on us and marvelled at the different designs and exchange rates. Gabi and Patrick visited the Czech Republic the other weekend, so they showed off their Czech Crowns (currency), and Matthew and I passed around our prized Polish złotys.

By 23:00, we were finally home, so we said good-night and scattered to our apartments. After my conversations with Sebastian and the group, respectively, I was too worked-up to sleep. Plus, we got in late, so I had some organizing and prepping for the next day to do. Got to bed by midnight, tried to wake up at 7:00, hit "snooze" until 8:00 (oops), rolled out of bed, got ready, out the door by 8:08, and to class via bus by 8:35. It's now our lunch break, so I'm gonna go get something to eat in a few minutes. Nothing spectacular to speak of today; it's rainy and cloudy, and it's a perfect day for sleeping. It's been a long week-and-a-half--excursion, project, Poland, test, late night last night with the Vandy crew--so I can't wait until tomorrow, when we should get to sleep in a little later. However, as I've mentioned, our excursion will be to the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, so I actually expect the day to be more draining than a typical class day.

I've also got to pack tonight because this weekend Matthew, myself, and a few others from the Vanderbilt group are going on the FUBiS excursion to Weimar, where we will visit Goethe's house, some other famous sites, and--on Sunday--the former concentration camp Buchenwald. It will be a draining weekend.

But, to end on a positive note, tomorrow is, nevertheless, Friday! Gott sei Dank!

Gruß und bis morgen

-Monika