The First Week…

Mina and Me

Whew, what a busy, stressful, yet thoroughly enjoyable week! On Saturday, the 12th of September, I arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof train station. On the platform, I was greeted by Antje and Jasmina (Mina) Studt, my host mother and sister. The three of us, along with my two very heavy bags, then took the bus to my new home.

The house is an area of North of Berlin called Reinickendorf (former French occupied West Germany.) There is a large park right down the street, and a small lake nearby (about 20 minute by bike.) For a city, Berlin is very green. There are trees lining all of the streets, and every German seems to have a beautiful flower garden in their yard. Having never lived in a large city before, I was a little nervous at first. However, now I am finding that I am actually enjoying ‘”city life”. I really like not having to drive to go to the grocery store, or the bank. And even if one needs to travel a greater distance, the U-Bahn (underground train that runs every 5 minutes), the S-Bahn (above ground, every 10 minutes) and Bus stations (depends but usually every 15-20 minutes) are all within a 3-minute walking distance. With my “Monatskarte” I have unlimited access to the bus, S and U Bahn, Also, along every German street there is a sidewalk and a bike path, but I don’t know how accessible they will be come winter. As of now, though, Mina and I have been making good use of them as we ride to all of her favorite “Einkaufszentren”, or shopping centers.

The Studts live in a two-family house with Antje’s parents. Oma and Opa live on the ground floor; there is a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom (where Antje and Mina sleep), and full bathroom on the second floor, and Mina/my room and half a bath on the third floor. The house also has a basement and a very large and very well maintained garden in the back, full of apple trees, plum trees, several different typed of berries and a large variety of colorful flowers (Oma and Opa definitely have a green thumb!)

I am sleeping in Mina’s “old” (as of last week) bed in “our” room, but we both share the space during the day. Antje has a three year old niece, name Malyka, who likes to “help us with our homework” in the afternoon while her mother is at work =) and I certainly need the help!
School is fun, but 10th grade in German is definitely harder the second time around. I am attending a private, Protestant Gymnasium (the most academically challenging of the three types of German school. But, more on the German school system next week.) Mina and I take the 120 bus every morning to school (around a 15 minute ride.) School starts at 8 and ends anywhere from 13:45 to 14:35 depending on the day. The school is very similar to Austin Waldorf, in that all of my classes are with the same 30 students in the 10th grade M class (M stands for gifted and talented) with the exception of your two electives (theater and an extra science class in my case.)

Well, that’s it for now… more next week on school in Germany and how it differs from school in the States. Now I am off to do my English homework =)