Case Study: _Bruin reporter dives into study abroad in Berlin_

Editor’s note: For the next eight months, Bruin reporter Elizabeth Case will be living in Germany’s capital city of Berlin, reporting on life abroad while taking classes at Humboldt Universität. This biweekly column will be a collection of tips, advice and insights from a student traveler.

After a nine-hour flight from San Francisco to Düsseldorf, two hours in the terminal, an hour and a half delayed on the tarmac and another hour in the air, I had arrived at my final destination.

Thirsty, hungry and exhausted, I was happy to be anywhere that wasn’t a 747 cabin. But I wasn’t just anywhere – after months of preparation, I had finally made it to the city of Berlin.

For the next eight months, I’ll be making my home in Berlin ““ a place much greener, colder and older than Los Angeles. I’m particularly partial to greener because this city really does have way more trees/parks/ponds/etc and recycles/reuses/saves far, far more than L.A. does. This is something I hope to address in a future column.

I’ve always known I wanted to study abroad ““ it was just a matter of where. I chose Germany largely through a process of elimination. I didn’t want to go to the United Kingdom (English-speaking), or Spain (I’d already studied there), or France (too much cheese for my lactose intolerance), but I wanted to go to Europe with the University of California Education Abroad program ““ so I settled on Berlin.

Here with me are 27 other EAP Berlin participants from all over California, studying at their choice of three schools: Freie, Humboldt or the Technische (technical) Universities.

Pearl Park, a third-year mathematics and computer science student at UC San Diego, will be studying at the latter for the winter semester.

“I chose Germany because I felt like my personality is a good match with the national attitude: They’re straightforward… (and) good mathematicians and engineers,” she said.

Some, however, fell into this program much like I did. Daniel Pfaff, a mechanical engineering student at UC Berkeley, has finished all his classes but is taking his last semester at the Technische Universität. His parents are German and he has family here, but he decided on this program because it was the only one he could attend for his major.

“It’s hard for engineering classes to transfer. … You really have to plan ahead,” Pfaff said. “Now, I want to learn the language (because) I grew up hearing it but not speaking it.

When I signed up in December, the eight months between me and Berlin seemed enormous. I wanted ““ needed ““ to go immediately.

But all of a sudden the year was over, and I had five weeks until my flight. I worked in Los Angeles until the end of June, leaving me two weeks to do it all: shop, pack, play board games with my parents.

In those 14 days, I went to 16 different stores, repacked four times, ate a lot of Le Boulanger sourdough bread ““ it is impossible to find in Europe ““ and prepared to spend eight months away from the only state I’ve ever really lived in.

Then it was Friday, July 16, and I was boarding a plane, headed to a country whose language I did not speak, whose culture I did not know and whose citizens are rumored to be witty, beautiful and extremely fashionable.

Since I arrived a little more than a week ago, I’ve watched three games of Fußbal, had my first taste of Berlin weather and seen some of the best graffiti in the world ““ on my walk home from the subway. And as my German improves, Berlin is only going to get better.

Bis zwei woche, UCLA ““ or as we say in English, until two weeks from now, UCLA.

Got more traveling tips? Email Case at [email protected]