Hallo, ich heiße Alvin. Und ich wird dies tielweise auf Deutsch schreiben. Belin ist ein Wunderbar Stadt. Es ist sehr große, wie New York. Berlin recyceln und kompostieren viel mehr, especially compared to New York City. It also has a transit system like the MTA in New York City. There is the U-Bahn (unterirdisch) which is where the U comes from, it means underground; and "bahn" is one of the words for train. Then there is the S-Bahn, which stands for schnell bahn, this means fast train, ironically "schnell" means fast when it sounds like snail. My tip for public transportation in any public transportation is have a plan, and look at all the transfer you would need to take during pre-departure, before you board the train, especially in a foreign country where they are speaking a different language, so help might be hard to receive.
So far I haven’t felt much cultural shock, other than the fact that people speak a lot more German than English, but that isn’t really a shock, because I expected it. Another surprising thing about Germany is that the recycling bins actual has the right things inside of them which is impressive. One thing I’d like to comment on is that German meals consists of a lot more meat, cheese, and bread than I expected. I do enjoy Berlin's eccentric architecture which is similar to a few parts of New York City. The jet lag was really taking over and I felt extremely exhausted yesterday. Today, Day 2, I feel a lot more awake, which is good. In a lot of ways since Berlin and New York City are both big cities, and there are a lot of touristy place-- the two locations are very similar in some ways.
What we did today is we split up into different German classes base on how well we can speak German after the teacher assessed our levels, there are 4 levels: null, eins, zwei, und drei. Die Level absieren auf der Beherrschung der Sprache. Meine Level ist zwie, wiel ich lerne Deutsch fur nur acht Monate. Most of the expert people in level 3 class I would have to say are either natives, semi-natives, or 4+ year of German. So if you can learn German by yourself, since our school doesn't offer German, that would be very impressive (beeindruckend). Level 2 is mainly 2-3 year of German; but I only learned German for 8 months, and by myself, so it is definitely possible if you try. Level 1 is 1-2 year mostly. And 0 is less than 1 year or none. Learning a language I would say is mainly about passion (Leidenschaft) und practice (Praxis). If you try, and put in effort, you would most likely succeed.
This is why a study aboard program is so good, because it is a place full of opportunity for practice, pairing up with both a host family to get a real world experience, and a classroom/atmosphere to enforce the learning. Übung macht den Meister. My host family consist of a set of parent, and a older host brother that is twice my age, who can speak a little English, super helpful! My host parent are both great chefs, to be honest they should and could open a restaurant. I also have a host sister from Arizona USA, and a roommate named Ricky, who is my age, he is from Maine. My host sister is from Arizona, but attends Yale in USA, (ikr Yale...) I was also shocked, she took German for two years, and her English is native level, she's practically fluent in German and can speak Spanish also.
Alright guys, got to go to sleep tonight so I can wake up early. German's are very punctual, so that is a correct stereotype. Another one is crossing red lights and jay walking CAN get you a fine. So bis bald! I haven't look over the itinerary completely for the next few weeks, but it seems loaded with activities. Gute nacht! I will try my best to get a few photos next time.
WOW!!! Looks so cool and your host family sounds so awesome!