From Chicago to Berlin!

Hallo! Hello! My name is Sam and I am a student at DeutschAkademie. I was born and raised in the windy city also known as, Chicago,Illinois. To be in Berlin at this time does not surprise me too much, nor do I believe that it surprises my mother. I grew up in a bilingual household, speaking English and Spanish throughout the days. In high school, I studied Russian and studied abroad in Moscow,Russia and I then I finished my Bachelor’s degree by studying in Barcelona. Today, I am in the city of Berlin learning German! I will tell you how I got to this lovely city.

When we travel we often go to places where we have family and friends. After meeting Germans at my language camp in Moscow in 2010, I told them I would one day come back to visit them. Fast forward to 2015, I now had the chance to visit them during my December holiday break! I was excited and nervous to go to a country for the first time where I didn’t speak one bit of the language. My holiday travels with friends took me through cities like Flensburg, Hamburg, Lübeck , and last but not least: Berlin.

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During my first week in Berlin in December of 2014 with the ampelman, the symbol for crossing in Berlin.

I arrived in Berlin on a bus from near Hamburg. To say the least, I was nervous not knowing  any German, though by spending a week with my friend and her family I had already picked up the essential phrases such as thank you, see you later, good morning, and bye. Though I couldn’t tell you what I could find in Berlin. A week into seeing the city, I truly fell in love. I told myself “I would totally live here if I spoke German”.  After seeing many spaces and places, I returned to the city after I graduated.

A month into being here, I began my course with Deutche Akademie. The four week intensive course has given me already so much knowledge of the German language in my first week. I am not the same person I was when I visited in December of 2014 because now I have a sense of what the city of Berlin is like and I can now say some complete phrases in German thanks to learning in my course!

I hope you join me through this journey of being in Berlin and at DeutschAkademie!

Bis zum nächsten mal (see you next time),

Sam