Sophia... finally

My reasons for not blogging until now are simple... why spend time and euros sitting in front of a computer talking about an experience, when you can spend time and euros wandering around a foreign city? Not that I think that the blog is a bad idea... quite the contrary. My wanderings have mostly lasted until far to late to use a computer thus far. but now I find myself with lots of time, and so... time to blog.

So enough with my excuses... on to my experiences.

Before coming here I had to convince my friends that Germany was not one of those countries where the weather was always dreary and cold and rainy. Unfortunately, the weather has thus far proven to be exactly the way they thought it to be. But this did not dampen my spirits or my excitement of being here.

Berlin is magical. I'm convinced. The buildings look like they were built for the set of a fairy tale. The history is so rich you can feel it in the air around you. I didn't think that I'd feel as much of a connection to the city as I have. Berlin was always a place that was reserved for my textbooks. Being here is quite surreal.

As much as I've loved wandering aimlessly through the city, I'm very grateful for our fantastic tours. I have yet to be bored on one of them. My favorite one so far has been our very first one. Our guide, Carol, was super informative and had a really satisfying voice to listen to. Not to mention she brought us to fascinating places and told us interesting things. I also loved Ron, our tour guide for Jewish Berlin. He is absolutely hilarious. He did a really good job of lightening up a rather dark topic.

My experiences with my kids at Morus 14 are satisfying, but I wouldn't consider myself to ba a tutor. I feel more like... an influencer. I guess. The program seems more like a way to expose these kids to something from outside of Neuköln where they live. They don't seem to get out much, so this seems like a great way to introduce them to something unfamiliar. I really enjoy my time spent with these kids, they're very sweet. Even the ones who pretend they're really cool.

The theater in Berlin is really impressive. It's not at all like U.S. cities where even if there were shows every night, it'd cost an arm and a leg to get in... and then it might not even be good. So far I've only seen one bad show, and it was inexpensive, so I wasn't to terribly upset about it. I feel like German theater is less afraid to experiment with theater than American theater.

Ok, well as much as I love the internet, I'm going to explore some more. Peace.

-Sophia