Of the five university classes I'm taking at Freie Universität, I definitely think Kulturelle Orientierung in Berlin will be my favorite. This class promises an overview of the history and cultural evolution of the city we're in, and is exclusively aimed at exchange students just like me. It's been a great place to meet others from all over the world! Last Saturday, we took the learning process outside and went on our...

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My first week of classes at university is officially over. So far, so good! German university classes take place just once per week and are generally only 90 minutes. After having to go into a classroom 2 or 3 times a week for 50-110 minutes for just one class at USC, it's a welcome change. I'll be taking a class on Berlin culture, a German language course, a policy analysis class, an introduction to the German government system,...

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Some great news: between this and my next post, my blog will FINALLY be up to date! I can finally start writing about what life here in Berlin is like. First, I have to mention that I really enjoy my host family. I'm appreciative not only for the chance to speak lots of German every single day, but also for the fact that dinner is cooked and laundry is washed for me! It has been 4 and a half years since that was done on a...

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And now, before my blog finally becomes somewhat up-to-date by covering my experiences here in Berlin, I present my last excursion I took while in Cologne - we went to the Middle Rhine Valley! Sure, it's not a household name, but this stretch of the Rhine River south of Cologne is absolutely gorgeous and full of picturesque castles and towns. It was unbelievable to see. The entire 65-km stretch of this part of the Rhine is...

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One of my last trips while still in Cologne took us to the medieval town of Bad Münstereifel, population 19,000. As we expected, it was super small but full of historical buildings almost 1,000 years old. What we didn't expect was the torrential downpour for the first several hours while we were there, as evidenced by the fact that 2 out of the 3 of us were umbrella-less. But we fought through and I managed to snap these...

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In my last 2 weeks in Cologne, I visited Dusseldorf twice - once with my friends on a Saturday, and once with my German class on a field trip. But as a Cologne resident, and given that there is a fairly serious rivalry between the two cities, I am obligated to not like Dusseldorf and everyone who comes from there. Since I've been told I'm an overly competitive person, I'll go ahead and embrace that and say - Dusseldorf sucks! Actually,...

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I'm wrapping up my recap of our trip to Belgium now with shots from our last stop - Brussels!  We slept overnight in a hostel in Antwerp and headed to Brussels bright and early, even though we only crashed at 2:30 am the previous night. But there was sightseeing to do! Brussels is the capital and largest city of Belgium, with 1.2 million inhabitants. It's also the de facto capital of the European Union and the headquarters...

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Continuing coverage of our weekend trip to Belgium from September 13! That day, we arrived in Antwerp and wasted no time getting out and exploring. It was pretty easy to start sightseeing right away, after all - the main train station itself is a major attraction! The station was built in 1905 in the Baroque style, and is now known as the finest example of railway architecture in Belgium...

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By the end of this program, the weekend of September 12 - 14 will definitely still be one of my most memorable experiences. We embarked on a three-day, two-night, three-city tour of a country which none of us had previously experienced - Belgium! We can now definitely count ourselves as big fans of Belgium - the trip was a blast, and we saw an amazing amount of interesting sights.  We left directly after language school...

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Sure, it's been 2 weeks since I've arrived here in Berlin. But I still have tales from Cologne to recount! We are almost completely up to date, though. Since university classes here in Berlin have not yet started, Berlin has been quite relaxing so far. Down time is just what I need to get this blog caught up! But I've made sure to do some sightseeing, play football (soccer) with my 9-year-old host brother, and check a few bars...

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Continuing my blitz towards the present! A month ago, on September 6, a few of us visited Münster for the weekend. Located two hours north of Cologne by train, Münster is a bike-centric university town of 300,000.  Our stay in Münster was especially enjoyable since we had some German hosts for the weekend! I briefly mentioned that the previous weekend we had met a nice German lady...

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Class at Freie Universität doesn't start until October 13, so in between hanging out with my new host family and fellow program participants here in Berlin, now is my chance to try to get this blog up to speed! We'll see how far I get. On September 4, Cologne residents were able to go into any municipal museum for free. As official Cologne residents, we were eligible! After language school class, we did museum...

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And now, to continue my recap of what I was up to on the weekend of August 30 by going over Sunday, August 31 - which will definitely be one of the most fun, action-packed, and memorable days I ever had on this program! After hearing about Burg Eltz from a friend and from trusty travel expert Rick Steves, we knew we had to visit. Boy, were we in for a treat!  We settled on meeting at the train station at 6:30 am. I quickly...

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