Die Zeit vergeht wie im Flug! (Time Flies!)

My oh my! It's February already? It feels like just yesterday was Christmas! It's a bitter sweet realization that I'm half way through the year. On one hand I'm excited to see my friends, family and most of all, my dogs, but I'm also struggling to imagine returning. I've established my life here and although it's much more difficult and at times emotionally exhausting, I honestly can't imagine it any other way. Plus, day by day, I'm falling deeper in love with Berlin, my host family and friends who've  all become family.

On a Sunday walk with Jenny, my host mommy!

Part of the fam (we're missing
 Noah and Rigel)

A lot has of exciting things have happened recently, so it's probably easier to list them off!



So here's what I've been up to:

-My host family got a puppy! Welcome to Familie Friese, Austin!

We're raising him to be bilingual! It's so much fun to have puppy energy in the house! There's never a dull moment and we're all very amused by him.






-Viva Italia!

Bologna, Italy

Venice, Italy

Cannoli time!

-A familiar face came to visit. Neville, a friend from FoCo, visited me for a week of fun in Europe. We were in Berlin for a couple days, then joined Annika and one of her friends for a weekend get away to Italy! Being in Germany in the winter consists of little to no sunlight. This is problematic when you come from Colorado, the state with "300 days of sunshine per year". I'm deprived of Vitamin D. No worries...I found the cure- a trip to Italy ! We saw the sun! We also explored the two gorgeous cities of Bologna and Venice. Venice was beautiful! We explored the canals on a gondola (the old wooden boats with a guy in a black and white striped shirt paddling the boat) and also by foot. We might've gotten incredibly lost and almost missed our train, but hey, that's traveling!  I can also testify that Italy has the best food! We definitely ate our way through Bologna- the food capital of Italy! I definitely hit up McFit upon returning!







-I completed my FIRST internship with Linden Education! The learning curve was exponential . Interning for a start-up was a smart decision. My bosses treated me like one of them and with that, they entrusted me with a lot of responsibility. Since I didn't have a lot of expertise on marketing outside of being in DECA and the three marketing classes I took in high school, I took it upon myself to learn it. My commute to and from work was dedicated to reading books on topics ranging from marketing to copy and proposal writing to branding and even how to starting an online business. I've become entranced in these books. (I didn't like to read before I came here...) The best part about reading these books was that I was immediately able to apply what I read on the way to work into my projects. Seeing the implementation and concepts come to life was magical. I'm very grateful that my bosses gave me the opportunity to experiment and will greatly miss working for them. But I'm super duper excited for my internship at Commerzbank!

Pic with Chi

 -My internship at Commerzbank is going to kick my butt. I will be thrown into the field of international business and banking IN German. Slightly terrified? Quite possibly, but challenge accepted. This internship will allow me to also go on appointments to the various Embassies who hold an account with us and see first handedly, how business in conducted in a bureaucratic setting!

Squad at Mid Year Seminar

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Chilling in our loft

Susana's suprise party

Mid-year seminar with the CBYX program took place in Berlin. It was a week-long party! We were zombies by the end of the week...It was great seeing the 23 others again and hearing about everyone's experiences. Everybody's changed, but since we're all going through a similar situation, we all came together and had a good time. It was also a blast to stay in the inner city and learn about the rich history of Berlin. On my commute to work, I walk by so many historical sites, but didn't uncover the history that lied within it until this week. It was absolutely fascinating to discover it, and it gave me a deeper respect for what this city has overcome and what is has grown to be.

Holocaust memorial

1936 Olympic Stadium where
the shrine to the Nazis was

Last but not least...

Tirol, Austria

Gold medalist, Leonhard Stock and I

-Today, I just got back from our second ski trip. This time there was actually snow! We went skiing in Tirol, Austria, which, as I've said before, was a dream come true. Growing up skiing in Colorado, I always dreamed of one day skiing in the Alps. If you told me then that by the time I was 18, I would've gone on three different ski trips there, I would say you were crazy. (Ich glaube, ich spinne).  I'm very blessed. This ski trip was a blast. We even had two days of knee deep powder! Plus, I got to spend a day skiing with Olympic Gold Medalist, Leonhard Stock (he owned our hotel).  I'm a big mountain skier, but he brought up my slalom skiing. It was unbelievable! Here are some fun facts about what I learned on the trip:
       *Apres Ski- After a day on the slope, Germans like to celebrate with Schnapps, singing and dancing. Thank you Sprachbad for teaching me all the necessary songs to sing along to the songs! ;p
       *The Austrian-German should be its own language. It was a slight punch to my confidence and was slightly frustrating, but after a lot of concentration and bu the end of the week, I could almost understand them! Wooho

My Ski group!

       *To compensate for not understanding the dialect, I won my ski group and Leonhard Stock's respect by skiing. Everyone in my group was arguably old enough to be my parents, but they were all so nice. They gave me a "German culture lesson" about Apres Ski...
       *Lines don't really exist. It's more of a push your way to the lift rather than patiently wait your for turn.
       *Although the I find the Alps more scenic, I'll always be a Colorado girl and prefer skiing in the Rockies.

Another gorgeous day skiing

So that's the current happenings here! Happy Super Bowl Sunday! My host family and I are hoping for a Bronco win! :)


Deine Kirsten