and the semester begins...

(Kreuzberg Waterfall, winter and SPRING)

By now I am settled in my classes. I am getting used to this beautiful Berlin sunshine, and hoping that it'll stick around as long as possible. I'm riding my bike a little bit each day, looking for new parks to visit. I have been going out a bit to enjoy some of the city. Specifically I toured the Siegessaule with my BCGS class last Tuesday, I partook in the Long Night of Opera and Theater (partner to Long Night of the Museums from January) with Kate and Anna and friends last Saturday, Kate and I briefly checked in on the German History Museum on Wednesday followed by a fabulously light German movie called "Dorf Punks" and topped that off with some new American friends from the Humboldt.

The following are the courses I am taking this semester:

Monday: 10-12 Self-image and representation of 2nd Generation of Immigrants in Berlin (Humboldt University)

Tuesday: 2-5 Berlin Culture from Unification to the end of the Weimar Republic 1871-1933 (BCGS course)

Wednesday: 8:30-12 Language Course (Freie Universität, with other exchange students)

Thursday: 10-12 The Division, Separation, and Reunification of Germany through Berlin Literature (Freie Universität, with other exchange students)

Friday: 10-12 Everyday life in the DDR - Memory and Reality

So officially five courses, although the language course is for audit credit only. Like in the winter, not much happens during the first class of the semester. Not all of the students come, and it generally comprises of these three questions:

1) Why did you want to take this course/ what do you want to learn?

2) When (and on what topic) will you do your class presentation?

3) What sort of credit do you need from this course?

Classes vary on their organization. My course on the 2nd generation of immigrants in Berlin was incredibly organized, run by two young graduate students who know the Bachelors/Masters system and don't require an attendance list for each class. But in one class I was planning on attending, the professor says, "Well, before you all run away, I want to explain to you that I won't be in Berlin for most of this semester. So let's compare schedules so that we can pick two weekends or so to have our classes back-to-back. It'll be great; we'll get to know each other well by the end of the day." This system is referred to here as the "Block seminar", and no way in hell would this whole mess of comparing schedules work in any of our schools back in the states. After a good hour finally two potential weekends were picked out. I was going to take the class together with Kate, but it was in the Sociology and North American Studies department, meaning not anthropology, meaning risky if I'm hoping to get credit from Chicago for this year. Alas, one must make sacrifices (but at least I sacrifice no weekends now!).

I am actually excited about this schedule. I have a good mix of courses with Germans and with Americans, and hopefully I'll have a more manageable workload than last semester. The one thing working in my favor is that I'm finding it much easier to read in German now. Simply easier. It's a bit hard to describe; it's as if I just ignore the words I don't know, focus on the ones I do, and then I can figure out the context. That means that so far, three weeks into the semester (really? already?!?) I am not behind. I have even understood and liked the majority of what I've read.

Example of a good reading, and it's aftermath: I volunteered to give a presentation in my Immigrations seminar on Monday. Having no idea what the reading was going to be about, I waited a couple of days before printing it out and reading it. Low and behold, a good fifty-page out of an ENGLISH book all about the CHICAGO ethnographers. As in the introduction talked about the founding of MY UNIVERSITY and the ideals of the Chicago School of sociologists. So preparing for my presentation wasn't half as hard as it had been for the one's I gave last semester (i.e. U.S. Immigration after 9/11). All in all, it went okay; perhaps the preparation was more rewarding than the actual presentation. We were somehow very pressed for time, and so I was told to wrap up my final ideas before I had gone through half of the points I had wanted to make, meaning I was all the more nervous and a bit discouraged. But I'd like to think it was only a time matter and did not reflect the quality of my presentation in any way. Oh well, at least that's one presentation down, probably four more to go.

So with a beautiful Berlin, and with some interesting-sounding courses, you'd think that the beginning of the semester would be a piece of cake. It really is, compared with last semester. But I've found myself feeling rather homesick lately. I spent so much effort and energy trying to get to this point, making it to the second semester. And with all of the craziness of traveling over vacation, suddenly Berlin felt a bit more lonely than I expected it to. I am reminded of the sad fact that as a student one really doesn't spend much time with other people. There's those two hours of class per day when one is surrounded with class mates. But then what? It's an effort to call people up or to figure out a meeting place for later. That happens a bit in Chicago, but dramatically more so in Berlin, where my campus is a good 45 to 60 minutes away from my apartment. There is no one "student area" in Berlin; the entire city is for students to roam free and be ecstatic about the cheap rents. I can't quite justify taking the long (and generally unpunctual) bus ride to the subway to campus just to go to a student cafe to be around people. So I've been experiencing a lack of good workplaces (I refuse to go to the StaBi until it's absolutely necessary) and a lack of university community. That makes me miss Chicago. And every thing else makes me miss home.

I had a really great dinner with Nancy on Monday night. While walking around the Victoria park on my way home from the Humboldt (beautiful waterfall, and everything smells so wonderful in that park) I decided that it was just too nice an evening to make dinner alone in my apartment. Nancy probably felt the same way, so we spontaneously made a ton of delicious food together at her apartment, only a few bus-stops away. Green asparagus with a butter-lemon sauce, potatoes, chicken, a field salad with homemade dressing and red wine. Her backyard/garden is certainly not normal for a big city, and it makes for a great place to be outside in the spring.

I'm hoping for more dinners in the garden, and more fun outings with new American friends. I'd love to keep meeting more of Anna's friends (one of them happens to be in one of my classes), and even if she needs to work most nights of the week it doesn't stop me from getting together with them myself. And of course there are beer gardens to visit. I'm hoping to make Wednesday afternoon my go-out-and-see-the-city day (I believe Kate is in on this plan), so Wednesday night could certainly become the night for drinking new beers under horse chestnut trees, as is customary in beer gardens. But in the meantime I need to get away from Berlin, even with the exciting May 1st demonstrations (some prove to be violent, but others say that the parties afterwards make the danger worth it). I am heading to Wroclaw, Poland for the weekend. Robert and I will finally get to enjoy the city in all of its glory: flowers, botanical garden, boat rides (?), fishing and all. I will update you soon!