just a few fotos.

i know it's what you really wanted.

okay and details about our first day. sort of changed my mind on the only pictures part.

we were a bit nervous this morning as it was our first time on the public transportation system. okay really nervous. like do we have such a thing in fruitland ID? no we don't even have a bus system. so this was nerve wracking. i had never used any time of public transportation before, even in the US, so we were nervous! joslin also felt sick this morning so that sure didn't help the situation after talking in detail to the beers (our host family. i'm not going to explain that the beers=host family anymore. you're going to have to be smart and get it.) about how to get there, which route to take, how you get tickets, etc. we were off.

we went up and the first bus we had to take was fairly easy to figure out, since we are in a smaller town on the outside of berlin there aren't alot of trains going out/in from this station, so it was easy to figure out what to take. still a bit scary to get on it though...my dad had emailed me a list of the stops that would be on the train so EVERY time we stopped i would check the list and make sure i was going the right direction! at one place we had to get off and switch trains. so we got off, that part wasn't tricky but the finding the new train part was another story. we started following people and signs and then eventually found the sbahn that we needed. howEVER right when we went to sit down on the train that we needed a voice came on the intercom (speaking german-naturally) and then everyone started getting up and exiting the train. well, we followed them and so everyone got off the train. a little less than ideal considering we didn't make a backup plan with the beers, the train that we just had to get OFF of was our only plan! jos and i were standing there pretending that we were figuring out what to do (let's be honest we had no clue what to do next) and this reallyyy nice lady came up and in ENGLISH (i sure love english sometimes) she asked if we needed help. yes. yes we do.

she begun to explain that the train that we needed to take was broken (or something further down the track was broken) and so we would need to take a different route (whoaa!). she explained like 2 different trains we needed to switch between to talk as an alternative route...it was getting a little confusing, and was kind enough to show us exactly where we needed to go. mostly i am just so glad she was so nice to notice 2 hopeless american girls who needed so help and take the time to show them what the heck to do. how sweet.


we finally figured out where we were and we made it to the geoethe instituteeee. WE MADE IT. what a relief. we were like 15 minutes late, which i was panicking about, i hate being late. but it was really not a big deal, there were alot of other students who came after us. our friend katie who we had met the day before came about 10 minutes after us, she had had some difficulties with the trains as well.


the first day at school we met with all of the students from BYU to take a test to see how much german we knew. we had 2 small written tests and then an interview to see how much we understood. it took a few hours and then we met with the director of our program and he told us what the scoop on the program was. he just gave us the low down on everything. we got our month pass for the public transportation system, and sort of checked in with him.

that only took 15 minutes or so and then we were free to goo.
we went with katie, mike, nick (the three from our ward) and another girl in our group, brigitte. first things first we went to alexander platz and got some food! i just stuck with a basic pizza, some others in the group got döners, these delicious turkish sandwiches.

below is our first real touristy picture, taken in alexander platz by a fountain!
yay, new friends.

after the food, we decided we just wanted to do something fun. but we didn't know WHAT. so we decided to get on a train and then get off at a random station and see where we got off. we were on an sbahn and saw some cool buildings and a river and liked what we saw so got off on the next stop.
we started walking in the direction of the buildings and soon enough came upon this building!

Berliner Dom

at the time we didn't know what the building was, or maybe it was just me who didn't know, but after we figured out hah. SO beautiful. can't even explain. it was a poopy day for weather, rainy and cold, but it was so worth it when we came to this building.

we found out that on weeknights at 6:00 they have a free service for a half hour where they play the organ and let the public in so don't worry we'll definitely be going back there.

not sure yet what this building is, right next to the berliner dom. also a beauty.

after coming upon these buildings we were beat and it was pouring by this point. it was time for din din. and warmth. and a free bathroom. (i don't think i told you yet that you have to pay for bathrooms here in almost any situation. less than ideal).

on our way home we passed an H&M...just saying. one of 26 in berlin. we will be going shopping soon don't you worry.

for dinner we stopped at the grocery store by our house, it's seriously so convenient where our house it located. RIGHT by the train station. RIGHT by the grocery store. love it. we got some spätzle, seriously delicious. its a type of noodle, we just had it with white sauce and spaghetti sauce. my dad always told us to try it, and check, we did.

then we watched a movie together, stranger than fiction. it's a keeper, will ferrel is always a good idea.

favorite things of the day:
-beautiful old buildings that we stumbled upon without a map
-H&M. duh.
-new friends. always a good thing.