So far

Howdy. Sorry for not posting in a while. I had gotten a bit busy and a little sidetracked recently. Hopefully, I can be a little more consistent going forward. Plus, I wasn't sure if anyone really read this, but a couple people have commented on my laziness of late, so there must be a few. :)

If I were to describe the beginning of my time in Germany, I'd say that the most prominent feeling is of isolation. I feel a bit disconnected from the things I'd previously beeen accustomed to. It's more difficult to keep up with the sports and news I found interesting or important before. I live by myself (which is a bit new in and of itself, since I'm used to having roommates) and I still really don't know any people in Berlin. Meeting people has turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. In my experience, Germans seem to separate work life from non-work life a bit more than in the U.S. So, I have met a few coworkers of course, but none of them have been too interested in helping me out or hanging out outside of working hours. Though, I do suddenly become quite popular when they need to submit a manuscript or important e-mail in English :).

Also, I can feel as if by myself even when there are other people around, because often they're speaking quickly and at a high level of German. My German has been improving (though not nearly as fast as I'd like), but it is somehow exhausting to try to understand these things for any length of time. So, after a couple of minutes, it just tends to blend in with the background noise. That is how lunches with my coworkers go most of the time, for instance.

In a related note, I feel like I can understand now how a non-native German speaker could move here and not bother to learn German. That always seemed silly to me, and partly defeating the purpose of moving abroad. But, though my German has been improving, it has only be marginally useful to me on a couple of occasions since I've been here. Most people will respond to your German question in English automatically (even if there are no grammatical mistakes) because they recognize your American accent. Then there are those few people who don't speak any English, and they are also difficult to talk to for different reasons. I'm still working to learn German because I think it's important and because I find the language inherently interesting. But, you have to work hard to manufacture artificial opportunities to practice, so I can now sympathize a bit with why a person wouldn't bother.

Ok, maybe this is enough complaining for now. I did find a regular pickup ultimate frisbee game recently, so that is a welcome addition to my life in Germany. Hopefully more to come :).