Going back to school

Monday, April 27, 2009
School starts

Breakfast this morning was something special. The asparagus that Martin had picked yesterday became the focus of a delicious omelette. I don't think I have ever eaten asparagus so tasty and tender.

We all had to get up early, since he had to go into the office, and I had to be in town for my first day of language class at 9:00. It takes about an hour to get into town from here. I walk several hundred meters to the streetcar, which takes about 40 minutes to get to Alexanderplatz, where I transfer to the S-Bahn. After 10 minutes on the S-Bahn, I have to walk a few blocks to the school.

Berlin has a great public transportation system, which is always in heavy use. There are several types of transport:

• Bus: practically every street that doesn't have one of the other modes, has a bus.
• Tram: These are streetcars, and not substantively different from the next item in this list, but they usually are connector or feeder lines. They look like streetcars, they run on the street or in the center island of streets, but they are called trams.
• Streetcars: usually these are the main trunk lines that bring people into the city from the farther neighborhoods. Most of the streetcars as well as the Trams are found in the erstwhile East Berlin neighborhoods. New lines are being built in the West.
• U-Bahns: Subways, or undergrounds, run in a net, mostly in the West, providing the same function as the streetcars in the East. They are pretty modern for the most part.
• S-Bahn: I think this stands for “schnell” (fast). These are primarily elevated trains with relatively longer distances between stations. They are very similar to the MARTA trains in Atlanta, except that there are about 30 separate lines, the important ones running every 5 minutes or so during the day.
• Suburban trains: these trains come into the many Bahnhof (train station) locations in the city. The S-Bahn usually goes through those same stations so that riders can transfer.

If one does not have a monthly pass or similar, then one buys one or more (then discounted) tickets, each of which is good for up to two hours, including transfers, as long as you continue going in the same general direction. That is, they are not good for round trips. There are no turnstiles, ticket-takers or similar. One simply walks into the station or onto the streetcar. One is simply obligated to validate one's ticket at the beginning of the first ride. I suppose that there are random checks, but I haven't seen one yet.

It took about an hour to learn that, although everyone without exception had told me how well I speak German, I was not good enough to be in the class they had assigned me. I had taken an entrance exam and had gotten 56 out of 60 right. In the class I could understand the teacher well enough, but I don't think I had sufficient working vocabulary to make a go of it. In addition, the class had several other nationalities (Russian, French, Chinese, Italian), and I couldn't understand a word they said in German.

So I changed to the next lower class, which meets in the afternoon. I came back at 12:45 to find that I fit in quite well with that class. There are two native Spanish speakers, a Russian, a Moldavan, another American and me. The oldest, besides me, is a 28-year-old physician who is immigrating from Russia. All of them speak sufficiently clearly.

Tonight for dinner, Martin started the meal with cucumbers in a yogurt-dill dressing that was delicious. Then he made a chicken dish in a sauce with side dishes of potatoes and some of the vegetables we had gotten in Poland. I had never had parsley root before, and found it to be exceptionally tasty. I understand that it's not available in German markets, and that is why they were so eager to buy it on Sunday.

Martin and Corinna always have wine after dinner while they listen to music. They have a huge CD collection. For example, he had something like 8 different recordings of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and similar comparative recordings of other pieces. He likes to have listened to them one after another to see which one he likes and why.

Tonight we reviewed all the places I should be sure to visit in the Stadtmitte (downtown), including several cafes and record/music stores.