The past two days have been crazy (in a wonderful sense of course). From the Reichstag (German Parliament building) to the Turkish Supermarket to the first day of German class, I am gaining the experiences of a lifetime.
On Tuesday I went to the Reichstag with the rest of the IES group, where we were given a brief history on German politics and the building. After the presentation, we took an elevator up into the glass dome that overlooks the city from all sides. The views were pretty great and the reflective mirrors that decorate the central part of the dome that brings light into the building made for some awesome photos. Due to the recent terror threats, the dome was closed to the public for some time and is now only open to those who pay for a private tour. Our tour-guide told us that the Reichstag is the most frequented parliament in the world! Another interesting fact is that the famous photo of the Russian hoisting up the Communist flag on the Reichstag tower was not only staged but "photo-shopped" as well. The original showed one of the Russian soldiers to be wearing two watches, which was a sign that the soldier had looted the pockets and bodies of the fallen men. You can see the original, un-touched version above.
After the Reichstag, I took the subway back to my neighborhood and decided to go into the Turkish Supermarket to look at the poultry prices. In German grocery stores once you enter, you have to exit through the checkout line after paying (otherwise, a small gate blocks the exit). I did not think about this until after I entered the store; therefore, I was stuck and there was no turning back without setting off the alarm. So I decided I would just buy the chicken breasts as a means to leave the store. Well, I of course only have 5€ with me at the time, which was not enough. I hesitantly approached a worker and asked, "Entschuldigung. Sprechen Sie Englisch?" ("Pardon me. Do you speak English?), to which the worker offered the "so-so" hand gesture. I explained my problem in the most simplified English known to man (caveman talk really) and he understood! WOO! Oh, but it isn't over. Here is the next part of the "conversation":
Worker: "Why you no buy?"
Me: "No money..cash"
Worker: "Plastic? Visa?"
Me: "At home" (I actually had my debit card with me, but I just wanted the hell out of there!)
...long pause...
Me: "I go home. Get money. Come back."
I still have not returned, but the meat did look the most promising there.
Today (Wed. 1/19) I had my first German lesson and when I say we jumped right in, I mean that we dove...headfirst...from 50ft...into a pit of sharks! Did we start with numbers, alphabet, days of the week, and simple hellos and goodbyes? NEIN (no)! Our German 101 lesson began with nouns and articles. Then we learned four tenses (I, you, he/she/it, formal you) of four different verbs (sein, kommen, heißen, and sprechen).
I was sitting in class at one point thinking, "Jeez, I have not taken a class like this since about middle school...And I thought Spanish was difficult!" Well, in my opinion Spanish is much easier to speak than German. The difficult part of German is the odd lump of consonants that must be pronounced in words. For instance, the you form of the verb "sprechen" is "sprichst." There is something about "chst" that just doesn't roll off the tongue very beautifully or easily. Oh, and I don't know how much time I spent learning how not to lisp the English language when I was young, but now I am learning how to lisp...only this time the lisp is more from the back of the tongue and not the front. The good news is that I am picking up phrases and practicing them in real life situations (which I believe is the best way to learn a language). Here are a few phrases:
-Ich habe hunger = I am hungry
-Ich auch = Me too
-Ein Kaffee zum mitnehmen = One coffee to go
...and a few more...
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