Community

Student Overseas Studying In Berlin

Details

Created on Friday, 03 February 2012 12:41

Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 12:43

Written by Chris Falkowski

Hits: 27

Editors Note:  We welcome local college student Brittany Kenny, as a guest columnist over the next five months as she studies overseas in Germany.  She will write about her studies and her travels to share with our St. Cloud In The News readers. 

Student Overseas

Studying in Berlin

By Brittany Kenny, Guest Columnist

I’ve only been in Berlin for a short time yet I feel like I’ve lived here forever.  I’ve made great friends, eaten amazing food and explored a city that has so much history it’ll be impossible to experience everything in just the few shorts months that I will be living here.

There have been a couple new developments since my last article. I now officially have word that for this Spring Semester I am a National Gilman Scholar, which means that I received a scholarship from the United States Department of State to help fund my schooling here in Berlin. I also recently found out that I am going to be a recipient of the University of South Florida Genshaft/Greenbaum Passport Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship at USF. I cannot believe how lucky I am and I hope that now since I know firsthand how influential scholarships can be I will be more influential in helping other students achieve their goals when it comes to attending a university or even studying abroad.

At first, my arrival in Berlin was anything but easy. I was jetlagged, confused and completely out of my element but everything came into its own after only a few days.  My studio apartment is super tiny but since I’m trying to “live as the Germans live” it’s perfect and exactly what I need. I have also never been so cold in my entire life! Living in Florida for so long, I didn’t even know what it meant to be cold. Thank goodness I had some guidance when I bought my winter jacket back home because I don’t know where I would be without it. For the first week I was wearing 3-4 layers of clothes every day and still feeling no relief. Luckily, now I’ve gotten used to it but I’m still waiting for my first snow experience. I haven’t seen snow since I was three years old living in New Jersey and I obviously don’t remember that. Every person I talk to in Berlin keeps talking about how warm this winter has been and how this time last year there was snow everywhere-of course not the year that I’m here.

Another thing I finally mastered was the public transportation system. Hardly anyone in the major cities of Germany actually own a car because you can get everywhere you need to go simply by jumping on an underground train (UBahn), above ground train (SBahn), or even a bus. During the busy times these all run about every 5 minutes and during the slower times every ten minutes. The stereotypical thing about the Germans is that they are very detail oriented and always on time- this even applies to public transportation!  I can’t even fathom how buses and trains arrive within the exact minute they’re supposed to but it makes traveling around very inexpensive and efficient, which I am a huge fan of.

I also really love my school and the program that I am in. There are about 114 students from all over America and we’re already really close.  There are so many things to do and explore in Berlin having so many new friends makes everything very interesting and really fun.  Since I’ve been here my German is improving immensely. I took almost a year of German at USF but I stopped for about 8 months before I landed in Berlin. It’s crazy how immersing yourself into a different environment really gives you the extra leg up to make learning another language that much easier.  At school I have intensive German language every morning for 3 hours so hopefully that in conjunction with my day to day interactions I come home fluent in German!

These past few weeks I’ve been all over Berlin exploring restaurants, clubs, markets, and museums. Next weekend I leave for Frankfurt, a city in southern Germany to go visit a friend that I met when she came as an exchange student to Harmony.  I’m also in the process of planning with my friends to possible visits to Barcelona, Greece and maybe even Poland sometime soon. I know four months seems like a really long time to be here in Europe, but with how quickly time is already flying by I’m really trying to take advantage of all my opportunities here.  Now that I’m starting to feel settled the adventures are really beginning so stay tuned for the new things that I discover in the upcoming weeks!

# # # # #