I've arrived!!

I have now arrived in Berlin and settled into my accommodation. Hooray!

The city is fascinating- full of contrasting beautiful old gothic buildings and graffiti-covered concrete DDR-style skyscrapers. Lots of green-ness though, too. And an excellent, efficient and punctual transport network (it is Germany, after all).

Things I have achieved so far, that I'm proud of:

-making a phone call in German to the bank and successfully cancelling/re-arranging my appointment there.

-Navigating the Berlin underground system (U-Bahn) on my own. Next step is to confidently do it without needing a map, but I've got to take it one step at a time, I suppose.

-Successfully registering residency here, as well as applying for the German equivalent of a CRB-check at the town hall.

-Understanding a church sermon in German. I went along to a church service on Sunday, and managed to successfully follow the speaker's line of thought, which was very satisfying as religious language isn't the same as every day German. Oh, and he was Swiss, so his accent was even more difficult to follow!

-Setting up a German phone contract.

-Successfully registering for a bank account in German over a nice cup of coffee (the German way to do any kind of business, of course)

... and all of this, in less than a week. Is it any wonder I'm exhausted?

My official training for the internship starts tomorrow, and it will be intense, but I'm really looking forward to it, as we get to work with school children right from the outset.

I will try to post again before too long.

 Alles liebe,

Louise :) x