Ich bin ein Berliner

As the saying goes, I am now officially a registered resident of Berlin, with a bank account that I do not yet have access to and a lovely room in a generous host family's flat in Kreuzberg. It's refreshing how well-lit my room is through two windows, the thin blue curtains giving the light a delicate coloration.

Since arrival at the Tegel airport on Monday, after worrying about all my extra luggage and whether it would make it through Frankfurt properly or not, I have been utterly bombarded by all sorts of German and Germany. Seriously.

The Stanford Center, Haus Cramer, is absolutely gorgeous. There are hammocks in the reading room at the top of the building, a beautiful grand piano in a dramatically lit room, and a floor decorated by crushed coke cans in the basement library, just to mention a few.

The sun has also been very playful, coming out strong on some days and refusing to show itself properly on others. The cold temperature remains consistent throughout the day though, chilling even further when nighttime hits.

Classes have begun, but you almost forget you're in school here. One of my classes, "Berlin Vor Ort," is a field-trip based course, in which our professor takes around the city and explains history to us as we pause at each location. Our first tour of course began at the Brandenburger Tor, and eventually circled around the Reichstag, the Holocaust Museum, and a few other notable spots.

There has also been already several opportunities of nighttime journeys around the city, including our first introductions to Berlin clubs pumping American music. Yes, pumping American music, which should not be surprising, but somehow still was. I'm afraid I don't recall the first club's name (not that I ever knew what it was, actually), but last night we took a dance through the various floors of the well-known Havannah, from its Salsa dances down to the Hip Hop darkness.

What more to say in an already long blog post? Only that I can't believe it has been a week; it has already felt so long.