I’m already back in Berlin.

It’s a funny thing about blogs, they remind you where you’ve been and where you come from, at the same time reminding you of pace at which time passes, never slowing no matter how much you really intend to write as soon as you’ve a moment, or how many meaningful events have occurred since the last entry was written.

The conclusion of my Marburg experience left me with decidedly mixed feelings. Both the Marburg language program, and already the city of Berlin, now that I’m back, have occupied a lot of mental energy as my mind strains to make these experiences fit something in my past; the six week Marburg course – the six week language course I took last summer at Middlebury College in Vermont, and Berlin, so far – the few months I spent alone in Bethlehem. Comparing the Marburg language course to Middlebury’s, I certainly learned less German, simply because, unlike Middlebury, we were allowed to speak English. The relationships I made in Marburg in the end had exploded in a cacophony of friendships, resentments, and should-have-would-haves, an unwelcomed diversity when I compare it to last summer… perhaps, this too can be attributed to speaking English rather than only German. Overall, the Marburg experience was positive. Certainly better than the alternative of idling in Glendora for the remainder of the summer and arriving in Berlin now attempting to hit the ground running. Easing that transition made it worthwhile in and of itself. Berlin, in my mind’s eye, is still Bethlehem. The sense of solitude in this very tidy and handsome apartment, which I have to myself until my roommate returns from Spain, and its place in a great city whose language is foreign, buildings derelict, and walls covered in art/vandalism has been an iterative reminder of that same dichotomy of comfort and discomfort I knew then. Berlin itself, what a surprise. Hardly a surface is without a dozen autographs scrawled upon it, most every sidewalk and storefront feels out of order, and the sense of griminess about most of the city (and many its inhabitants) was, upon a moments reflection, the most surprising thing about it. It also seems that everyone here is used to it, if not embraces it completely. From experience alone, I tend to consider myself adept at navigating disorientating situations and places such as this, but the visual noise here is deafening. I hope I can soon find a way to live in this city rather than merely survive, as I feel I’m doing now. Winter is fast approaching and will bring further difficulties with it; the sky disappeared a week ago into a grey miasma and, I'm told, so it will remain for months.