Fotos vom 2. Stammtisch im April

Liebe Teilnehmer,

es war gestern ein schöner Abend mit euch. Beim Quiz habt ihr alle euer künstlerisches Talent gezeigt und uns damit sehr beeindruckt.
Anbei haben wir noch ein paar schöne Bilder zum Anschauen.

Euer DeutschAkademie Team

Sechszehnte: Auf Wiedersehen

Hallo zusammen!

Leider muss Ich „Auf Wiedersehen” sagen. My time at Alexanderplatz is officially over as today was the last day of my Alexanderplatz Deutsch Akademie Abenteuer. I was trying it out to see if I liked the location and the hours better. Because you see, I wanted to see if the two month, 6 hours a week, benefitted me more than the one month, 12 hours a week, course. Personally I enjoy the one month intensive course but thats just because I don’t like coming home at 10 at night from class haha ! (the 2 month course I took ended at 21:15)

Well, regardless of the time I got home, I loved this class. At first, when it started, I didn’t know if the people were going to be as nice as the previous one, and I didn’t know if I was going to like my teacher as much as the previous one either. But incredibly enough, my teacher was incredible. She was so funny and the class would break into full out laughter at least once a class. She taught very efficiently and I loved it. I have pages upon pages of notes of important Deutsch info. Also, I thought it was great because she spoke to us in Deutsch 95% of the time, only speaking the common language amongst us (English) when we absolutely needed another form of explanation not auf Deutsch. It was funny because at one point, one of my classmates kept trying to get away with speaking Englisch so much that the teacher told him she was going to start making him pay one Euro for each time he spoke it. That made him stop! haha

Look how cute this little bowl of Bon-bons is. Everyone ate these like crazy!

As for my classmates, they were absolutely great. Everyone was a bit quite and apprehensive to speak to each other during the first week but that is normal and understandable. During the next seven weeks, we all opened up to each other and start joking around with each other. It makes me quite disappointed that I won’t be in class with them again next month! I keep switching classes to try to see which one I like best but I lose contact (sometimes) with many of the friends I made that month. Es ist aber Schade.

Well, I start the new class on the 8 Mai at Wittenbergplatz so I also won’t be writing this blog for you guys any more 🙁 I really loved writing for you and telling you about Berlin and my life in it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

This is Milan, signing off. Until then, bis bald! 🙂

Fünfzehnte: East Side Gallery

Hallo zusammen!

SO if you couldn’t already tell by the title, today before class, I went to the East Side Gallery. Now, I know I’ve mentioned it before in another Blog entry, but that was only a bit of information of it as I recommend it to you all. I’ve been to the East Side Gallery, but it was a few years ago during summer time. So it was hot and crowded and a bit difficult, at least for me, to really appreciate what was right in front of me.

Now if you have never been to this location or even know what it is, I will provide you with just a few sentences on what it is. So the East Side Gallery is a long section of the Wall, yes that Wall, in Kreuzberg/Freidrichshain. The Wall is on the whole street of Mühlenstraße and actually overlooks the Spree. It was erected in 1961 and closed off West Berlin and East Berlin. The Wall officially came down in 1989 but this piece was left and painted on in 1990. There are about 100 art pieces on the East side of this Wall, including some very famous and controversial ones.

Probably the most well-known piece on this wall. „Gott. Hilf Mir.”

As you can tell in the pictures, there is large fence surrounding the wall as many of the art pieces have been damaged by people. Although this is true, this site is truly worth going to and I highly recommend visiting. It is a classic Berlin Sehenswürdigkeit and one that has been seen by thousands-no, millions of people. You can be next. All you need to do is take an S/U-Bahn to Warschauerstraße or Ostbahnhof, and you’re there! Until then, bis bald!

-Milan

 

Viersehnte: Kotti

Hallo zusammen!

So earlier tonight I went to a place in Berlin called Kottbusser Tor. Now this place isn’t the nicest or safest area haha, especially at night. But otherwise, it has some pretty cool things. For example, I think I mentioned a place called Burgermesiter in another Blog entry. That’s in Kottbusser Tor! They also have this awesome Kino called Sublime Cinema. Probably the coolest place in Kottbusser Tor is a club that David Bowie used to visit quite often! This club, SO36, is an awesome place that you can go to see live music and even visit a Flohmarkt. Kottbusser Tor is actually a section of Kreuzberg and it contains a large Middle Eastern population. It also contains, so I’ve heard, great Middle Eastern food. 

A beautiful building in Kottbusser Tor, and yet I unfortunately have no idea what it is.

I hope you visit Kottbusser Tor one of these days, and make sure to check out SO36! Until then, bis bald!

-Milan 🙂

Fotos vom Kulturprogramm im April

Liebe Teilnehmer,

das Kulturprogramm hat uns diesen Monat in das mediale Museum „The Wall at Eastside Gallery“ geführt.

Wir konnten visuell und auditiv in die Geschehnisse der Zeit von der Entstehung der Mauer bis zum Mauerfall eintauchen. Anbei haben wir noch ein paar Bilder von dieser schönen Exkursion.

Euer DeutschAkademie Team

 

Dreizehnte: Going back to USA? No, but…

Hallo zusammen!

So tomorrow morning my mother leaves back to America. She had been in Berlin for quite a while visiting me, and she loved it! Sie liebt Berlin and everything in it. Now, of course I completely understand, as I too love Berlin with all my Herz. And although I do not want to go back and live in America, I have to say I am a little jealous of my mom and her trip back to the US. I love my life here, but honestly there are quite a few things that I miss about the US that I can’t get here in Berlin. I’m sure lots of you have things that you miss about your home too, maybe a favourite TV Serie or perhaps a favorite Gerichte you can’t get here. Whatever it may be, it is something you can help but secretly long for, no matter how awesome Berlin is. So today, I thought I’d just talk a little bit about the strange and seemingly unimportant things from the USA that I miss.

  • Free water at Restaurants (I think you know eactly what I’m talking about lol)
  • Classic American TV: Saturday Night Live, Jeopardy, Law and Order, etc.
  • Stores being open on Sundays: haha
  • American Rap Music
  • Air Conditioner (I know we really don’t need it here, but im Sommer it’s nice to be able to control the temperature it is in your home)
  • American humour although I love German humour as well!
  • The Sun (haha i’m only kidding, partially)
  • Customer Service (mots of times no one in the stores of Berlin helps you and if you ask them to help, they don’t look to happy about it lol)
  • English: I don’t even know why I miss this language that I heard every day for the first 18 years of my life, but I do! I’m sorry, I’m weak.
  • Free bathrooms
  • Acai Bowls
  • MY DOG (aw I miss my little baby so much! Do you guys have any pets you had to leave at home?)

My little doggie that I had to leave with family 🙁

Things I do not miss:

  • American Politics: enough said
  • Bread: because Germany has the best bread I’ve ever had
  • Starbucks and their overpriced, terrible coffee
  • Music and TV Censors
  • Country Music
  • American mentality
  • Fast Food restaurants at every corners
  • Terrible public transportation
  • Traffic

Honestly, there are definitely pros and cons to every, town every city, every country, it’s just up to you to make the most out of where you’re living. Try to find the good, and overlook the bad. I hope you get to visit your home country and see all your family soon! Until then, bis bald!

-Milan 🙂

Zwölfte: Sommer, wo bist du?

Hallo zusammen!

So… I don’t know if you know this, (perhaps you stayed home and watched streamed Tatort all day while drinking tea or got engrossed in a great book for twelve hours and didn’t see the natural light of day…) but it actually hailed today. Quite a few times as well, this wasn’t a once occurring thing. Oh, no. Even im Frühling, almost in the month of Mai, little ice chunks are falling from the sky. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining! I think the bipolarity of Berlin’s weather is hilarious and interesting, albeit a bit annoying. Even so, a small part of me, deep down in the depths of my being, craves Sommer. Just thinking about staying in on a rainy day or going out and enjoying Eis (or a Bier) on a hot day by Wannsee, is enough to make me jump up and down. And honestly, what better place to be im Sommer than in Berlin.

Berlin is probably one of the best cities for people that actually like to go out and do things! Unfortunately this means plenty of tourists will be out and about, but ehh, we’ll get used to them. I hope lol! In the upcoming months there will be more festivals and Flohmärkte than I can count. So without further ado, here is your upcoming Sommer fun to-do list (organised by date).

  1. Karneval der Kultur: 2-5 Juni
  2. Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften: 24 Juni
  3. Midsommer Festival: 24 Juni
  4. Classic Open Air Juli: 20-24 Juni
  5. LGBT Fest: 15-16 Juli
  6. Deutsch-Französisches Fest: 16 Juli
  7. German-American Folk Festival: 21 Juli-13 August
  8. Holi Festival of Colors: 22 Juli
  9. Botanische Nacht: 22 Juli
  10. american festival august
  11. Berlin, Beats, & Boats: 9 Juli
  12. Berliner Bier Festival: 4-6 August
  13. Sternschnuppennacht: 12 August
  14. Potsdamer Schlössernacht: 19 August
  15. Veganes Sommerfest: 25-27 August

All these summer clothes awaiting their time in the sun.

So while all my Sommer Kleidung await their time to shine in the back of my wardrobe, I stay in my Winter Mantel, enjoying the last bit of Winter Wetter im Frühling. Until then, bis bald!

-Milan

Elfte: Back in Berlin

Hallo zusammen!

It’s me again. And I’m officially back in the +49. Hmm, that doesn’t work quite so well as it does back in America. For example, I lived in Miami, and the phone number area code is 305. So if you leave Miami for vacation, when you come back you can say „I am back in the 305” and everyone will know what you’re talking about. But like I just mentioned, it doesn’t make as much sense when using +49, and it doesn’t sound quite as cool either. Oh, well! I digress. But yes, I am back in Berlin after an incredible weekend trip in Athens. Like every tourist in that ancient city, I saw all the ruins, visited all the museums, and ate all the Greek food that my stomach could hold. Mhmm, I truly love Mediterranean food, what about you?

So today, after I got home and chilled for an hour or two, I went out for a little bit. Today I went to another Flohmarkt. This one, located in Warschauer Straße, is called Flohmarkt Raw and is actually open on Samstag as well as Sonntag. It had multiple stands, although perhaps not as many as one might find in Mauerpark.

I have got to say that the best stall was definitely the Vegan dessert stall. Oh my goodness, it was absolutely incredible and I’m still thinking of all the scrumptious pastries I stuffed my mouth with earlier today! And when you buy the pastries, you get to decide how much you pay as the people who bake the desserts belong to a non-profit group that donates the proceeds!

No words can describe how delicious these were.

There is also a great burger food truck there, but I didn’t get to go because the line for it was wayyyy too long for me and it was, unfortunately, raining. :-/Anyways, it is a great Flohmarkt that is not crowded (it’s relatively unknown) and offers such good food (they even had a Tibetan food stand). I highly recommend going in the upcoming weekends, especially when the weather gets better! Until then, bis bald!

-Milan 🙂

 

Zehnte: Earth Day

Hallo zusammen!

So, I don’t know if you know, but I’m sure you can already tell by the title: today is Earth Day! So obviously on Earth Day, you’re supposed to care about the Earth more and perhaps take a shorter shower, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, how many environmentally beneficial things did we actually do today? Most likely, not many. Also, this may sound cliché, but Earth Day should be every day. One should not only think about being environmentally conscious on one out of the 365 days of the year. Instead, one should try to always do things that don’t hurt our Umwelt, whether its Earth Day or not. So today, I am just going to give you a few very easy ways by which you can do this!

  1. Educate yourself! This is perhaps one of the most important things you can do when it comes to starting your journey to becoming an environment helper. It is important for you to read magazines, perhaps National Geographic, or articles that talk about the Earth, how important it is, and how quickly it is changing. Unlike what many skeptics are saying, climate change is happening, and the Earth needs our help to expedite its recovery.

    Awesome reading material about our incredible Earth!

  2. Try to use the least plastic possible! Now this may seem like common sense, considering everyone knows plastic is not good for the Earth , but it still seems like useless plastic is everywhere. Whatever you do, please do not buy plastic bags for your groceries. Try to buy a reusable Einkaufstasche/tüte, or get paper bags and then reuse those paper bags for your trash liners! Also, when using plastic, such as plastic water bottles, please please please recycle! It is very easy here in Deutschland because there are so many recycle trash bins everywhere!
  3. Fahrrad fahren, Fahrrad fahren, Fahrrad fahren! Or carpool!
  4. Conserve water! This can be as easy as turning off the water while you’re brushing your teeth and washing dishes, or putting water-saving contraptions on your sink and shower faucets.
  5. Turn off lights and unplug electric cords when not at home so as to not waste electricity.
  6. Honestly one of the most hardcore ways to help the environment is to stop eating meat. Now as I just said, this is a serious serious and hardcore decision but is extremely beneficial for you and the environment, as the meat industry is one of the harshest and most destructive industries for the environmental. Just saying’!
  7. Last but definitely not least, please don’t litter. Don’t be terrible, just walk the few extra meters to the rubbish bins. Please. The Earth thanks you.

I hope you try to follow and work with some of these tips, to hopefully make our Mother Earth a healthier place. Until then, bis bald!

-Milan

Neunte: Yassas!

Hallo zusammen!

Today I am writing to you from inside the heart of the Greek city of Athens. Yes, that is correct! Greece! I am so excited to be here, as Greece has been on my travel bucket list for as long as I can remember. My mother is here with me in Berlin until next week so we decided to take a small trip to Greece as a going-away treat. We got here very early this morning and it is currently about 16:00, as it is an hour ahead of Berlin. It was quite nice when we first arrived but now its getting a bit cooler and cloudy. Better than Berlin though. My cousin, who is watching my pets back at home, told me that it hailed today! It hailed! Im Frühling! I couldn’t believe it. Well, tomorrow its supposed to be quite warm and sunny so I can’t wait!

Anyways, we had a few hours to kill while we waited to check into our AirBnb (which I highly recommend using instead of booking a hotel, as it can be cheaper and gives you a more homey and local feel), so we ultimately did what one naturally does in Athens: visit the ruins!

I loved Greek mythology when I was in middle school, and quite frankly, I still do today, so seeing something so rich with mythological history was incredible. We went to the Acropolis, which is an ancient citadel, and features the very famous Parthenon! The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena (who the city is actually named after when she gave the people of the city an Olive tree and won the city-naming completion against Poseidon, god of the Sea), goddess of strategic war and wisdom. You can pick her out of a Greek god crowd by looking at her armour, or shield, which usually has a depiction of the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa on it. The Parthenon was built around 440 BC. It was destroyed and repurposed many times throughout history by empires such as the Ottomans in the 1400’s.

The person who took this picture obviously didn’t get the idea that we wanted more than half the Parthenon in the picture lol! Oh well! My mother and me.

To see it in pictures is one thing, but to actually go there and look upon the columns and marble of such an ancient building is whole other thing in itself. I was speechless, and my mother actually cried!

I hope you get to visit it one day, and if so I recommend using RyanAir, as that is one of the cheapest airlines that Europe has to offer! Until then, bis bald!

-Milan