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Just going to hang out with the German President today. #Berlin #schlossbellevue #presidentialpalace #germany #ichbinhier #expatlife #americaninberlin #americaningermany

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Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas #berlin (at Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe)

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Blog Revival in Tiergarten

In an effort to be semi-productive while unemployed and waiting for a visa, I am officially reviving my blog. Here I will attempt to share with friends, family and potentially interested expats or even Germans, my experiences, impressions and thoughts on life in Berlin. Please do not take my musings too seriously – I’m just trying to have a little fun while finding my way. 

So after one whole week in Berlin, this is what I have learned so far: 

1. The German stereotype of efficiency does not seem to hold true in Berlin… 

It may hold true when it comes to building machines, but it falls far short when it comes to taking care of everyday affairs. This lesson began as soon as we got off the plane. All seemed to be going well until we arrived at baggage claim, only to wait for an hour as our bags took a tour of the airport, and apparently ended up somewhere else for a brief time. We did eventually get our luggage, so our story continues. 

Unfortunately, upon arriving at our apartment we discovered that we did not have Wi-Fi. In the US this is a problem for a day or two, but not in Berlin! I’m not exactly sure what has to happen, but once you sign up you have to wait for 2-4 weeks to get your Internet connection up and running. But what if your apartment previously had Wi-Fi set up, you ask, doesn’t that make it faster? No. Once someone cancels their Internet, the entire physical infrastructure is apparently removed, and then must be reinstalled by special ‘German Internet Engineers’ once you sign up again. At least that is my understanding based on my 3-year old level German. 

2. The German stereotype of bureaucracy does hold true – and it’s as confusing as advertised. 

I would like to preface this with the fact that I married a German citizen and I follow him around like a mute child, as I have no clue what’s going on and I currently rely on him to explain almost everything to me. Even with that huge advantage, we have accomplished a whole lot of nothing in our first week. 

We spent our first Monday attempting to get our lives going here - doing things like setting up bank accounts, getting health insurance, registering our unemployment, etc. Our interactions generally went as follows: 

German/Mute American: Hi! We just moved back to Germany from the US and we’d like to open a bank account/get health insurance/live here. 

Super Enthusiastic German Worker: Well that’s nice. Everyone is on vacation right now so you’ll have to make an appointment to come back in a week. Do you have this obscure document? 

German/Mute American: Oh…well no, not yet. We have an appointment to get that random document next week, but we were hoping to get this done sooner. 

Super Enthusiastic German Worker: Yeah…that’s not going to happen. You need to go to at least 4 different government offices to get various documents and stamps, etc. before we’ll even consider letting you do anything here. Also, we’ll probably end up sending you to a different office because of…reasons. 

German/Mute American: Oh…ok (shuffle shamefully away). 

Thankfully, as of today, we’ve had our first success after a few hours at the Bürgeramt (citizen office), and we are now officially registered as Berliners! Unfortunately, the next office we needed to go to closed at 12:30, so one success per day will have to do! 

3. The weather in Berlin makes no sense. 

As in you always need to bring every article of clothing you might ever need for any kind of weather circumstance with you. The combination of sunglasses and umbrella is a particularly common one here. 

Don’t trust the weather apps…they are never right. Just bring everything. 

4. There are apparently still undetonated bombs from WWII just lying around. 

I’ll just leave this here… 

So that’s week one in Berlin! Stay tuned for more blog posts in the coming weeks!

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My home for the next month #kohphangan #thailand #yoga

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Just taking a leisurely walk with my new #elephant friend ❤️😁 #inlove #thailand (at Elephant Nature Park)

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Meeting my new #elephant friend Tilly! #thailand (at Elephant Nature Park)

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Alright alright alright! Officially #RPCVs #kyrgyzstan #peacecorps

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The view from our outdoor eating area in Arslanbob #livingthelife #kyrgyzstan #buteveryoneisuzbek #peacecorps

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Walking around Arslanbob village #kyrgyzstan #theswitzerlandofcentralasia

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Toktogul Resevoir!! #kyrgyzstan #peacecorps #theswitzerlandofcentralasia

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Kalpak day!! #latergram

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white winter hymnal

Another exciting bit of winter activity at Ecotrek - this past week we introduced cross country skiing to Karakol locals!

Several years ago, a Norwegian organization visited Ecotrek to teach our guides how to ski and donated 30 sets of skis and boots. Unfortunately, the idea never caught on and the equipment hasn’t really been used since. In an effort to increase our winter business and make use of the equipment we have, we decided to invite locals out for the day to learn how they can enjoy the mountains in this accessible, affordable and healthy way. A fellow PCV, Dan Cawley (whose great blog can be found here), came all the way from At-Bashy, Naryn to lend his expertise, which was helpful considering that I haven’t cross country skied since I was a small child and hated it with a passion.

The first day we brought 21 students from Tinistanov University’s Department of Tourism to our beautiful ski area right outside Karakol city. Despite many falls and a fair amount of misunderstanding, the students picked it up pretty quickly and we were even able to hold a relay race at the end of the day. The winning team completed the course in an impressive 7 minutes, 12 seconds and won the grand prize of free ski rentals for the day!

The second day was a much calmer group of about 15 local women, but they also took to the sport quickly. Unfortunately, our tracks had frozen over from the previous day’s activities and the course was slightly more challenging, resulting in many more falls. We were able, however, to discover a new trail that was much flatter and more relaxing for many of us.

Many of the participants even asked how and when they could go cross country skiing again which hopefully means that our goal of encouraging locals to get outside more in the winter will happen! Overall it was a great and tiring two days of skiing and we’re looking forward to more days like this in the future!

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winter winds

A couple weeks ago, I got to experience one of the many advantages of working in tourism when my organization decided to take a day off from work and hit the slopes instead! My office manager, local counterpart, several guides and myself all took part in this adventure. I was the only snowboarder of the group and one of only 3 females. My counterpart had never been skiing before and unfortunately, I haven’t either so I couldn’t help her. After everyone finally got their equipment on, which seemed to take an usually long time we headed down to the lift where I got to prove to my co-workers that I do know a little bit about snowboarding. Immediately I heard laughs and, “Why is she keeping her snowboard on!? What is she doing!?” Thankfully, my manager, Tashtan, had faith in me and responded, “Don’t worry about her, she knows what she’s doing.” For any snowboarders out there, in Kyrgyzstan snowboarders generally take their snowboards off and carry them on the lifts. This is the norm for beginners as well as people who are much better than me. I’ve always found it strange and honestly the idea of carrying my board and walking off the lift scares me a lot more than riding with it on but that’s the way it is here. So my coworkers were more than stunned when I rode off the lift safely. They were then quickly impressed with my skills – which include riding heel side and not falling. It was a great confidence boost for me, although I’m sure the first time I snowboard back home I will be quickly reminded of where I stand. One of the men who came with us was so impressed with my snowboarding and lackluster Kyrgyz skills that he proposed marriage after our second run down the mountain. I politely declined. On a later lift ride, I sat next to a nice Kyrgyz man who seemed very intent on talking to me. I thought my Kyrgyz had just really gone downhill when I thought he asked me, “Do you know God?” so I just went with my usual response of confusion and said “Yes”. After a few more minutes of confusion I realized that my Kyrgyz is not that bad but that this was just a very strange lift conversation. He was describing Islam and telling me about the virtues of religion and the importance of being a good person. He was very nice about it and after we got off the lift he thanked me and said goodbye. When I got to the bottom of the hill, I asked my counterpart about this and apparently I’d just met a Muslim missionary! She said she’s experienced it quite a lot here and was surprised I’ve never had anyone talk to me about religion. It was a great day filled with group bonding and several firsts, including my first ride on a ski lift with no equipment, my counterpart’s first skiing lesson, and another co-worker’s first attempt at snowboarding! It’s days like this that make leaving even more bittersweet.

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Talking about #gender roles! #peacecorps #genderconference #geneq

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Great day #crosscountryskiing with #Ecotrek!! #karakol #kyrgyzstan #peacecorps

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Getting ready for a #Kyrgyz #crosscountryski adventure tomorrow! #lovemyjob #peacecorps

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white blank page

Obviously I have let my blog fall through the cracks. It’s funny how when life gets busy and exciting here, my blog goes in the opposite direction. So, for anyone who follows me and reads this I apologize for writing when not much was happening and for neglecting this when I actually had interesting material. Due to the extreme amount of time I have been gone, I’m not sure of the best way to proceed. So bear with me as I attempt to relive some of my favorite moments of the past six months and rummage through the many, conflicting feelings I have about my final months in Kyrgyzstan.