I am back in the Berlin Tegel airport for the second time today, which feels like yesterday still, since I haven't slept since I woke up at my Grandma's house in Waukegan IL on Tuesday morning at 7:30 am US time…so forgive the slight incoherence of this first post…

I guess I should probably tell you what the heck I am doing here, right? Introducing myself is probably unnecessary, since if you are reading this, it's probably because I sent you the link…

I have the privilege of spending June and July working at an organization called RAA Berlin where I will be doing I'm not really sure what—being an intern, which hopefully will mean being as useful as I can to this fabulous nonprofit. I applied for and got a $4000 scholarship/grant from Earlham to finance this summer, since RAA can't pay me, and then the generous German department also pitched in with another grant to make this amazing opportunity possible. On the selfish side of things, I hope to put my language ability to use as I test it in new ways, and get a taste for this kind of organization, and if I would want to work at a similar one farther down the road. I will also be taking intensive German language classes in the mornings, which should help with those language abilities (I have found my German coming back so far, and I only occasionally find myself slipping a "sí" or "bueno" in the middle of an otherwise German sentence…) My secondary goal this summer is to maintain my Spanish, while brushing up at bettering my German, so we shall see how that goes…

My journey here began when my kind uncle (who wants to be called Jim, but is usually called Jamie) drove me to the airport for my 3:30 flight on Tuesday afternoon. As we were leaving the plane at the end of the long flight, a woman across the isle from me remarked that we had had an uneventful flight, except, her boyfriend reminded her, for the guy who fainted in the isle next to me…for the second time during the flight (he doesn't know if he is diabetic or not…) The fact that my isle seat was right in from of the bathrooms meant it was pretty tricky to sleep, so I ended up watching 2 movies instead.

Once we landed right on time at 7 am local time, it seemed to take an eternity for the baggage carousel to spit out the right people's bags in the right places, but after some dashing between carousels, I eventually picked up my bright blue duffle/backpack. Then began the bus and U-Bahn (subway) trek across town to my host family's apartment, where I would leave the blue monstrosity. I actually made it with no false steps and no lost-getting! What a nice change from the adventures of my first days after landing my first time in Germany, 5 years ago (Thanks google maps, my better German, and my inhibitions about asking random strangers where I need to go, and how the ticket kiosks work)

I made it to Kreuzberg, and met Ayse, my host mom, who lives in a lovely old apartment building in a neat (but apparently pretty gentrified…) neighborhood. She is currently hosting another Earlham student (Ali Eddy) who is finishing up the Berlin May-Term this week. I had some much needed tea and stillness (as well as a face wash and tooth brushing) there, before setting out to Tegel again. I am now at the gate about to board a flight to Frankfurt, where I will get on a train to Darmstadt so I can spend these first couple days (while Ali is in my future room) before I start working and class next Tuesday, with my dear "sister" Louisa, who was my exchange partner in high school. What a whirlwind of planes, trains and automobiles (and buses, which don't really fit in that saying very well…) it has been, and there is more to come!

I'm not sure if my life here will turn out to be very routine and uneventful, or thrilling and life-changing, but I will try and tell whoever is listening about it once a week or so. Bis dann!