Grau Day

Grey/Gray.  I never know which spelling to use.  In the case of writing a blog, I'm trying my best to use correct spelling and grammar because like I've said before, I struggle in this area.  I tried to look up the correct use before typing it.  I found that both spellings are correct and that different countries use the different spellings, but they both are used to name the color.  I therefore became interested in the German word for grey/gray which is grau.  I like grau and will start using it because when writing i can never decide which spelling of the English word to use.   

In Berlin, almost everyday is a grau day.  I've seen the sun twice in my three weeks here.  The ground is wet 98% of the time, and it is only grau from 8am-3:30pm.  About the exact hours we are in school.  SO Irmgart has come up with the idea of GRAU DAY!  It's new, but so far I love it.  We are celebrating the grau by finding happy things to give our day some color and warmth.  The happy things stand out boldly against the weather, so they are found easily each day.  

* Sunday was an especially grau day, rainy and cold.  Irmgart loaded us up in her little grau car, which is fitting, haha. We went and saw the beautiful Wannsee Lake and drove through some older neighborhoods there where the houses are huge and beautiful and up to 200 years old, because they weren't effected by the bombings in WWII.  We went and saw the fairly small castle that King Frederich built for his brother.  It was built by a Roman architect and it was beautiful!  Greeen gardens surrounded it on every side.  Gold statues shone so brightly all around the garden gates.  The castle overlooks the lake and was so peaceful and romantic.  I can't imagine that being someones house.  On our way home we stopped in at the French cafe below us and we each got a little cake. Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse, Mocha Chocolate Cream, and Berry Pudding.  We came upstairs and had tea and cakes and it brought so much life into the grau day.  

Monday: Today was pajama day at school! We had popcorn and the parents came to read aloud as special guests.  A little girl lost her tooth again, I felt faint again.  A mom came in and saw my Auburn pjs and said Roll Tide.  I was so confused, the term was extremely out of place.  Today was grau but it was filled with happy, colorful and warm.  Pj's, Pink lady apples at the market, and a hot chocolate for my ride home in the SNOW.  We got about 2 inches in 30 minutes.  It felt like a winter wonderland.  It was a beautiful snow, the flakes were HUGE and soft and they came fast.  I've seen snow like it. 

Ohhh nooo.  Funny stories.

* Wednesday- I forgot my yellow umbrella and it was pouring rain after school.  This is one of the worst mistakes you can make in Berlin.  It seems that no one else forgets their umbrella, because I checked the Lost & Found at school to see if I could borrow one for my journey to the bus stop and home, but no luck.  Umbrellas are too important to lose or forget around here.  My teacher and I searched the classroom for an extra and asked around to the other teachers.  No one had an extra. We decided we'd need to get creative.  I realized that the situation didn't have many creative options and in fact, I only had two. Walk home in the rain (which wasn't really an option, I think I would've stayed in school until the next day waiting for it to stop raining if I had to). Second, I could cover myself in plastic baggies.  HAHAHA.  I still laugh thinking about it.  I put my purse in an oversized plastic bag, and held another extra large bag over my head.  I walked this way for the whole ten minutes to my bus stop.  The younger students, who were walking home too, laughed to my face.  Which I appreciated because I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  The older students just gave me sideways glances and little I feel bad for you, but thats funny smirks. In the end I made it to my bus stop with a very wet bag, but I was very dry and extremely happy.  I can do these kinds of things here because no one knows me and its hilarious.  

* Friday- I forgot my wallet.  This is really bad to do here too.  My wallet holds my bus pass and the money that I would need to buy a back-up one time bus pass.  Once again, I was stuck.  Thank goodness I was able to find Krissy in the Kindergarten class before she left for the day and she came to my rescue.  The bus drivers here are not the friendliest or the most outgoing of all the Berliners that I have met thus far.  In fact, just the day before one yelled at Krissy loudly in German because come to find out we've been taking a bus that we thought was in the zone we paid for, but it's not.  Krissy just stood at the front of the bus smiling and saying "Oh oh oh no, i'm sorry I don't speak German, but did I do something wrong?"  He finally got so tired of trying he just waved her off in a huff and let us ride for free. (Normally its a 40 euro fine) I guess he gave us grace.  Luckily we were sitting next to the nicest Scottish man who spoke German ever who was able to look at our ticket and tell us why he was so mad.  Poor Krissy.  I feel bad that I went by unnoticed and I couldn't help but laugh.  Anyways, this made my payment interaction with the bus driver very scary the next day.  Once again, I walked up and tried to tell him that I just needed to pay for one ride and he just looked at me.  We looked at each other some more, he slapped the money taker, I didn't know it was the money taker, tried to hand him a bunch of coins cause I couldn't understand how much it was, he shook his head and finally he pointed to a meter and then slapped the money taker again( which looks like a coin sorter slot machine thing, so i slapped my money down on the taker thinking I was going to have to sort it out but as everyone was waiting on us, he seemed satisfied enough. I said Thank you and smiled and he just looked at me and shrugged.  We fail at the bus system, but it gives us some of our best laughs.  

*The milk and eggs here are not refrigerated.. thats funny and gross.

*Irmgart belly laughed for about 5 min. straight last night when Krissy and I told her to not throw away the pizza because we LOVE cold pizza for lunch.  She thinks cold pizza is the funniest thing? hahaha.

First Advenutres

Hallo!
  WHHEEWWWW.  Have I really been here for two weeks?  I often can't decide if it feels like I've been here for 4 months or 4 days!  Krissy and I claim that we'll know we've become Berlin residents when we can use the credit card machine without any assistance and get people to speak German to us just by looking at us, and I don't think it has to do with our clothes.  I guess our frantic faces, wind blown/wet hair, inside out umbrellas and loud laughter give us away before we have the chance to speak.  I don't know how no German people's umbrellas don't flip in the wind, but ours do every time without fail, haha. UMBRELLA.  I love my umbrella.  It's an extension of my arm.  I bought it at the drug store and it's a sunshine yellow color.  It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Mostly because we only have about 7 hours of daylight, and the daylight is more of a graylight.  It's my own personal sunshine.  Krissy has one with pink flowers, and I think we're the only ones who have colorful umbrellas, because most are black/gray/navy.  Which makes us stand out even more, but we love them.  I'm so glad that the people here don't reflect the weather.  I still cannot get over how nice everyone is.  Although they are a little more conscious of the schedule, they are so very kind and helpful.  I love people of Berlin.

* A few other little things that makes me happy every day.

- All of the little girls with long blonde braids remind me of Andie, haha. AND shout out to ar-lo. because they all love my headband, and think it's so cool that my sister made it.
- My diet largely consists of pretzels and nutella.  Which is fine with me.  It always makes me think of My 6305 roomies and the beach house roomies.
- I get the same feeling waiting at the bus stop every day that I had Freshman year of college when I would walk from the parking garage to my dorm in Owen on the Quad and think to myself "am I really here?" or ask Morgan, "Is it seriously the end of January? What happened to December?"  I'm so grateful to bed here.
- I have to be to the school at 7:15am, which means about a 15 min. walk from the bus station in the dark.  It is so quiet and so peaceful.  The perfect time to pray for everyone back home and for the day ahead.  It might be my favorite part of my days here!


FIRST DAY OF TEACHING:
    I taught my first reading lesson last Thursday.  It went really well.  Since it was my first lesson in the classroom alone (my teacher was in the back room because we're trying to let the kids get used to having two teachers) I was simply reading aloud from the chapter book they are reading as a class.  I was really into it, acting it out as I read and trying to get a feel for the students, who were a little wary of giving me their attention at first, when all of the sudden the table to my left starts freaking out a little.  I thought, ohh nooo, I'm the worst.  Until I look over and one of the sweetest girls is running for a kleenex, blood all on her hand, saying I'm so sorry Miss Long, but I pulled my tooth out, I just couldn't wait!  hahaha.  Ay yi yi.  This would happen during my first lesson.  I think they planned it. Just kidding, but it really was funny and I won't be forgetting it for a long time.

MITTE in the day:
 Mitte means middle in German, and that's what the heart of Berlin is called.  My sweet house mom took us to the city our first weekend here.  We got to see the Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, The former Berlin wall, the Embassy's, Hotel Adlon (the infamous hotel where MJ held his baby over the railing) and tons of beautiful buidlings.  The city is very cool looking. Because of the bombings a lot of the area had to be rebuilt.  There are extremely old beautiful buildings right next to a funky modern buildings.

MITTE in the night:
 We've set Thursday night as dinner and a museum night.  There are so many museums in Berlin and we don't want to miss any of them, so we've decided that every Thursday night we're going to have dinner in the city and walk over to one of the museums.  They are open late on Thursdays and often free for students!  This past Thursday we went to dinner and then went to see the Holocaust Memorial and the Brandenburg Gate at night.  The gate was beautiful.  The Memorial, was heavy.  It is big stone blocks of different sizes that are built like a maze.  The ground isn't flat and moves up and down with the stone blocks.  I think the architect wanted it to seem overwhelming.  It was most definitely overwhelming.  You can just feel the loss staring into it.  We were trying to decide whether to walk in it or not because it was so late.  It was a little erie.  We walked in a little bit, and we all had out our cameras to try and capture the vastness of it all.  My camera is brand new, I got it for Christmas and it hasn't given me any problems over the past few weeks.  I took about three pictures, but none of them would really come out normal.  All of the sudden my camera locked up.  It was switching back and forth between all 20 settings on its own.  It would't let me turn it off or take a picture.  That was enough for me to exit and call it a night.  When we walked out of the maze, I took the battery out and turned it back on and it was fine.  I walked away speechless.  I cannot imagine the horror that the Holocaust victims went through.  The memorial is definitely one thing I will never forget!

It has been a wonderful two weeks.  I can't wait to write about my time in Copenhagen, Denmark this past weekend.  It was incredible.  We got to see the queen!!

Deutcshland Basics

I have made it through my first week in Germany!! It has been so cool to see the Lord's hand in the very little details of the foundation of my stay here.  From the housing to my host mom and roommate.  The school, students, bus passes, etc... Everything I thought about before coming here was already taken care of!  It hasn't been easy to learn the culture or language but we're trying to learn fast, and enjoying the laughter that the mess-ups and confusion often bring!  God is teaching me that when I slow down a bit and become more grateful for the little things then patience & joy will replace the frustration that I would normally have if communicating or traveling took this long in the States.

While I have been here, TWO of my dearest and long-time friends have gotten engaged!! It was hard to miss Anna and Morgan's engagements, but I am SO very happy for both of them and it was so sweet to hear from Anna on the phone the hour before I had to turn off my service, and to wake up to a cute video message of Morgan and Taylor telling their story! I'm so grateful for Jase and Taylor in the lives of Anna Larkin and Morgie. I love yall!

*My roommate Krissy and I went to dinner tonight to an American steakhouse.  One week, and we were already craving a burger and fries, because "normal" meat is hard to come by around here.  We celebrated our one week anniversary and decided we feel like we've been here for months, but in a good way!  The best way I can think to describe the lessons I've learned about life in general and life in Berlin over the last 7 days is to make a list.  So here it goes!

Things I've learned:

1. The Euro.  I gave the man at the shop 10.  He gave me back 4 coins.  I began to panic thinking oh no, he's trying to rip me off... after a few seconds of my blank stare, he politely showed me that a coin = 2 Euro.  Who knew?

2.  The Grocery store.  I figured this would be pretty easy.  I was very wrong.  Turns out, 95% of the groceries are written in only German.  Thank goodness I know what the Frosted Flakes box looks like by heart.  Even though here it goes by "Frosties".  

3. No Grocery bags.  You have to buy your grocery bags, they don't come free with a bag boy at the end.  You have to buy bags and bag your own while everyone in line waits on you.  It's the worst pressure I've ever felt!

3.  The bike path.  In Berlin, everyone uses public transportation, walks or rides a bike.  The bike path is a deadly area to walk in.  It took us a few bell rings and raised voices before we realized that the brick is actually for the bikes and not the walkers.  They are very serious about this. 

4.  The Bus.  Krissy and I have a love/hate relationship with the bus.  It is efficient, when you know how to ride it and know the name of your stop (which is in German and longer than the word Onomatopoeia, with letter symbols that I've never seen before), but if you don't then your doomed.  Which we were when  late one evening our 4 minute bus ride home ended up a two hour trip through neighboring cities. We were laughing on the bus, missed our stop and ended up riding the bus around until the driver turned the lights off and told us we had to get off :/ No worries though!  We played charades to communicate with a UBahn train driver who helped get us talking to an English operator who gave us a new bus to take to get home.  Well, we got back to our bus, missed the stop again because the night busses take different routes than the day busses.. and one again rode the bus til' the light went off.  This time we refused to get off of the bus and sat with the driver until he turned the lights back on and drove us back to our stop and told us to walk home.  So we did.  We made it safely. We now know from experience all there is to know about the bus system of Berlin. (Sorry dad)

5. The Market.  There are fresh fruits and veggies right down the street from our school! All of the produce is so cheap here!  There are also BEAUTIFUL flower shops with bundles of flowers for only about $5 in the U.S. the worst flowers at Kroger are at least $12.

6.  The meat.  I don't even know what to say.  There are butcher's shops everywhere.. I don't know what one thing is in the entire store.  Therefore, I have not eaten or bought any meat thus far.  It's a scary place in there.

7.  School lunch.  The school has a cafe.  It is wonderful.  Fresh coffee in the morning for just one euro!  Diet coke, I can't even believe it.  A salad bar, and really good sandwiches.  It is common here to have butter, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on a baguette.  Strange, and not very good for you, but it is yummy.  

8.  Cafes, Chocolate shops & Bakeries.  You don't go five feet without passing one of these.  German Hot Chocolate with fresh whipped cream is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted!  The coffee is great, and just like the meat stores, I never knew that that many types of bread existed!  They all look so good! 

9.  The people.  Everyone here is so nice.  Sometimes I feel ignorant being in their country and not being able to speak their language.  Although it is hard to communicate, everyone always tries their best English to help us out and if not, they'll help you through an intense game of charades.  For example: Communicating seems to be the funniest.  Krissy and I went to an Italian restaurant a few nights ago and our waiter spoke German and Italian but very little English.  We ordered by pointing and right after he brought out our food he turned to us and said what I thought was "Papier" I thought he was asking if we needed another paper napkin, so I waved mine at him and said oh no no! Thank you but we've already got napkins.  He just looked at us, laughed and walked back a minute later with the "pepper"...  oops.

10. The dress.  Morgan May and Barrett Trotter would win the award for best dressed in Berlin!  Everyone dresses like them.  

11.  The accent.  I fear that I'm losing what little southern accent that I have day by day.  I can't say y'all , because no one knows what it means. I've had to resort to "you guys" or "you all" and it's very hard.  

12.  The church.  I went to an International Baptist church in my neighborhood on Sunday.  It small and intimate, and lasted two hours with a reception of coffee and cakes afterwards.  It was a full day's event, and it was neet the sense of community and fellowship they shared without feeling rushed out the door.  The Lord really works out the details.  We found the church online, and decided we'd just try it.  When we got their I recognized the little boy in front of me and realized he was in my class at school.  His mother introduced herself afterwards and it turns out her and her husband are working for Campus Crusade at a University in Berlin.  How cool?

13. The city!  Berlin is BEAUTIFUL!  So rich in history.  Modern buildings right next to buildings that have been here for hundreds of years.  I got to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building this weekend!  Pictures to come!

I can't believe I will be here for four months.  It's still unreal to me that I will live here for awhile and that I'm not just on vacation.  Prayers for stamina would be greatly appreciated!  I'm already feeling a little run down from teaching & trying to see and get acquainted with the city, and already we are traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark this weekend!  

Choos!

"Hallo Hallo Misses Long!"

 I think the John F. Kennedy School is going to blow my mind, in a good way.  My first day in the classroom was wonderful!  I walked in and was immediately swarmed by the most adorable little German & American 4th grade girls.  They were telling me in the sweetest accents, 'Misses Long, Misses Long we've been waiting for you!!" They fired off about 50 questions each. They asked if I spoke German, and when I said no they assured me that if I sat with them at lunch everyday that they would teach me all that I needed to know.  They have been doing just that!  I actually think they have made me their own little project. Whenever anyone speaks German they are quick to translate for me and inform the german speaker that I do not speak Deutsch, haha.  Today, a few of the girls insisted that I come with them as a guest to their religion class.  I joined them and was introduced as a new student.  The look on Faur Claire's face was priceless when I walked in, considering I'm larger than most new students.  The class was really cool, the students have religion class twice a week and there are different choices to attend.  I went to Religion/Rest, where they concentrate more on Ethics.  They informed me that everyone is very open and honest about their religion at the school, and so it was neat to be able to share just my basic beliefs!  The school is very neat!  I start at 7:45 and end at 2 everday except Friday I am done at 1 and Wednesday I don't come in until 10:45.  They have periods and i dont teach every period, so we have some breaks every now and then.  It's very nice.  A breath of fresh air, actually.  The students are so independent and responsible.  They change classes & go to lunch/recess on their own, walk in the hallways by themselves and know exactly when to come and go.  It is shocking how the kids will do what theyre supposed to if you actually let them try. i love it.   Although 12 of the students in my class are dubbed "American" which they are, I can't tell that they are by their sweet voices.  All of the children have lived in at least two or three different countries already. To list a few: USA, Germany, South Africa, Madagascar, Russia, France, Mexico, Austria and even more.  This absolutely blows my mind considering these children are 9&10 years old and in the 4th grade.  Today was only my second day and the teacher was absent so i was on my own... This would've been scary except the children knew exactly what to do and pretty much did it on their own. Amazing, once again.  During home room I asked the students to raise their hand if they spoke more than just German and English (I hear so many languages all day, I was just curious.  Roughly 17 out of the 23 in my class raised their hand.  Some languages were, French, Spanish, Russian and Afrikaans.  9 YEAR OLDS. Anyways, I love the school and the students. All of the teachers are SO nice and love what little Southern accent that I have.  They all want to know where I'm from.  I cannot wait to spend more time at the school and learn more about the students and the international school culture.  I'm learning a lot everyday.. more to come about the common and uncommon things that have captured my attention over the last few days.  Going to get some rest, because it's almost Sunday! I'm looking forward to a day of rest and actually getting settled in around the house. The last few days have been so crazy. We may also go looking for an international church we've heard about, so wish us luck.  We're still getting used to the public transportation... we get lost often. Trial and error is our method of choice.  Gute Nacht!

I have arrived, Hallo Berlin.

Oh my goodness.  The past few days have been crazy.  Today was my first full day in Berlin and I can already tell I'm going to love it here.  The blogging world is a bit new to me so please hang with me.  I will start with day one-- Travel day.  Traveling to Berlin on my own was such an adventure.  I was so nervous about not being able to navigate through the big airports (especially foreign ones) and going through customs.  I always feel like I'm doing something illegal that I don't know about or will be framed and not know it and be arrested, haha.  I guess I've watched too much Locked up Abroad. Years of listening to dad's "don't trust anyone" speeches probably don't help either.  Before my first flight from Huntsville to Chicago dad waited with me until my flight started boarding.  Then with a final wave I was off!  I was a bit teary-eyed from leaving my family at the airport and when leaving the gate I was just praying that the Lord would somehow direct me and get me to Germany safely when suddenly the stewardess walked up and asked if I felt uncomfortable sitting in the Exit row... haha I had to explain that I was confident in my ability to help in the case of an emergency, and hoped that she didn't think that that was why I had been crying, haha.  After that moment, the Lord started placing people in my path who helped me my entire way to Germany.  I don't know why I ever doubt that he can't do things.  On my first flight 2 army men were so helpful in my last minuted attempt to keep my carry-on.  I thought I was going to have to check my bag last minute because it wouldn't fit, once again I think the tears were deceiving because they stood up quickly and said that they would make it fit and helped me shove my bag into the overhead bin while crushing their own.  They reminded me of my friend Drew Bailey, and I started to feel okay, thinking I'm not on my own and that a lot of people are willing to help.  I'm so thankful for our military for so many reasons, but that day it was for their simple act of kindness.  Well it turns out I have no pride wanting to follow directions or needing to find my way on my own in airports because when I got to Chicago I asked about 7 different airport workers how to get to Terminal M (the international terminal) and I learned that it was in a separate building and I had to go out of the airport and take a tram to get there.  I finally got there and had to go through security again to enter the international area.  I waited in a long line, went through and started walking to my new gate.  I had a 4 hour layover in Chicago and so I just planned on getting dinner at the airport once I got to my gate, only to find out there is no food in the international terminal.  It was a tragic moment for me realizing that I wasn't going to eat chick-fa-la for my last American meal like I thought I would in my head.  So I sat and ate the pretzel bread and sesame sticks/almonds that Morgan brought me at the airport...  thank goodness!  My next flight was 8 hours to Copenhagen, Denmark.  Everyone in the boarding area looked Scandinavian and beautiful, so I was a little intimidated as to who I would be sitting by.  There were also a lot of couples waiting who were not shy and showed a lot of PDA... I think thats more common in Europe.  Anyways I just knew that I would be sitting next to one of the couples.  When we finally boarded I got to my seat and saw that I was indeed sitting next to a young couple.  I thought for sure I was doomed.  So I sat said hello to see if they spoke English and they did.  I noticed that they were not overly flirty but still really sweet and so I calmed a little.  Right before take off the girl sitting next to me asked where my final destination was and if I had ever flow internationally before. (I must've looked like a newb).  After talking with her for a few minutes I learned that the Lord had seated me right next to a missionary and is wife who were working at a Baptist church in Norway. Praise the Lord.  I'm so grateful for those 8 hours!  She told me a lot about their ministry, what to expect in Europe, and how to survive an international flight.  She told me that the dinner & wine served on the plane was complimentary, which was huge, because otherwise I wouldn't have ordered any and would've gone hungry.  She told me to get up and walk and drink a lot of water through the night because it usually helps her with jet lag and then her and her husband walked with me through customs (which I was so worried about) and to my gate the next day because theirs was just 2 over from me.  Her husband gave me his card, to e-mail him about international churches that he knows people at in Berlin.  What a sweet gift it was to meet Jennifer and Brandon. It was a simple reminder to me how strong the bond of Christ is. I felt like I was leaving two friends in the Denmark airport.  My last flight to Berlin was only an hour long, and I fell asleep praying that my baggage would make it to Berlin and that I would make it through customs without getting lost.  I got of the plane and saw my bags being being taken from the plane, another silent prayer of thanks.  I got my bags.. which were very large and dragged them up and elevator and realized that I was by the exit exactly where I was supposed to meet my coordinator who was picking me up.  I started to panic because I never went through customs and I was thinking Oh man, I'm going to enter this place and get caught without my passport being stamped and me in SOO much trouble.  Well, not even two minutes after arriving my coordinator found me and told me that no such stamp was needed.  Going through customs in Denmark was enough.  Pheww.  He drove me about 15 minutes into Kleinmachnow, Brandenberg which is where I will be living.  I love my flat, house mom, and roommate Krissy.  I'm so grateful that the 4 other girls and I got here safely, and for all of the little blessings along the way.  Today was my first day at the school and wandering around Zahlendorf (our suburb of Berlin) with Krissy, and it was so much fun! I think the jet lag contributes some to our laughing... but I think we probably looked like two of the happiest/lost/giggly girls in town today.  We've quickly found that when you don't know how to speak the language, read the bus signs, stay out of the bike path, or go grocery shopping, it's best to simply laugh, and we do that well!! Guten Nacht!