Crazy Weekend

So not much to tell about this week right now except it's crazy hot. I feel like I'm back in Florida, which is good because I love warm weather. What I don't love is being in an office with no air conditioning! This is the first time in Berlin that I've prayed for it to get colder, though I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it more over the weekend. I have another 4 day weekend coming up, and I'm finally going to get to explore the things that I've wanted to check out and bring some awesome pictures back for you guys on a weekend update. This past weekend, however, was insane. The Intrax interns hung out in our hotel room, and then we went our separate ways. But from what I've heard I should have gone with them. Kaiser, which is a local supermarket chain here, sponsored an amazing event in an abandoned airport with multiple DJ's and hundreds of people. From what I heard it was a pretty amazing event. I decided to go clubbing instead, but the stories I heard from some of my fellow interns made me sort of sad I didn't go with them. However, my night was still pretty crazy. Me and some German friends met up in Kreuzberg and started pub-crawling before we hit an actual club. But we ran into some pretty interesting characters that I've never encountered at an American bar. I'm not going to go too much into detail, but if anyone watched Eurotrip you can imagine what kind of scenarios we got ourselves into.

Some areas of Berlin are definitely an experience. You can go to some places that are really nice and other places where there are a bunch of druggies and women walking around with track marks. I think it's important to be cautious wherever you are, but from what I hear no matter the area Berlin is "safe" in general. I haven't had a bad encounter or situation with anyone yet, but there are a lot of places where you will see some things you may typically not see in America. I'm actually considering staying here past my internship. I'm going to send out my CV in the next couple of days and see if I have any luck. I've already graduated from university so I would really love to stay here and learn the language if I can. Fotofeliz is great, but everyone either speaks English or Portuguese, so I haven't really had an opportunity to pick up any vocabulary. The cost of living here is very affordable, and rent can range between 375 euro to 700 euro a month for a decent apartment whether shared (they call it "WG" here) or a studio for yourself. I really love it here and would love to continue gaining experience for at least a couple of months more so that I can come home more prepared and with a third language under my belt. I guess we'll see what happens. I will keep you guys posted :-p. Don't have many pictures for you guys this week but since we are on the last couple of days I will do my best to show you guys what this city is really made of.

By the way, I'd just like to add that I was pleasantly surprised to find out that University here is pretty much free. For everyone. Including foreigners. All you have to do is pay like 200 euro or something as a free per SEMESTER, and you can take up to as many classes as you want. I think this is amazing, and it honestly makes me want to stay here and get my master's. The only thing is that the deadlines to apply are in March or something for the Winter semester, so you have to apply well in advance. But I think it is completely worth it to come here and do your university. It's better than going in America where they charge you almost a grand per class and textbook prices are up the roof. It's definitely something to consider, especially with the cost of living being so affordable in Berlin, and being a student here allows you to have a visa to stay for 1-2 years or as long as you're studying.