The warmth from the sun balances perfectly with a crisp drink. Beer and Spezi, a beloved caffeinated mix of orange lemonade and cola, rank among the locals’ favorite drinks in the park.

I don’t have many exciting updates since this week felt very “routine.” Every day I am getting faster at reading in German, but I am finding that it is difficult to stay motivated to read for most of the day everyday. I am looking forward to the next phase and adding variety to my tasks. 

Mealtimes break-up my work cycle. They are simultaneously a source of excitement and apprehension since they provide me with much needed social interaction while also highlighting the fact that I am an “outsider,” in terms of my language ability and food culture.  

Most of my floormates ascribe to the German, and European, trend of having a main meal at lunch, and a smaller meal in the evening. I am happy to adjust my eating habits to this schedule. I am slowly becoming more adventurous and confident about cooking meals for lunch, and two of my friends invited me to make lunch with them one day this week. For dinner, I am happy to prescribe to the traditional German “Abendbrot,” literally “evening bread.” It is also called “Brotzeit,” or “bread time.” Many people on my floor, now including myself, regularly have an Abendbrot dinner consisting of cheese, vegetables, meets, and spreads. Sometimes I like to think of it as the longstanding, down-to-earth German version of the growing trend of fancy charcuterie boards in America. 

With the weather continuing to be sunny and warm, I couldn’t justify not spending time outside. I spent a good bit of time in the dorm’s “Innenhof,” or interior courtyard, eating lunch or taking an afternoon break with friends. Another outdoor location where I spent some time this week was the English Garden. On Wednesday two floormates invited me to bike to the English Garden with them and have a beer. On Friday I returned by myself with the book I am reading for research and got some work done in the sun.   

Naturally other small events added variety to the week. Occasionally at night I play darts with a group of floormates. While playing is exciting, scorekeeping is anything but. You subtract your points from 501, and doing mental math in German, where double digits are said with the singles place first (for example twenty-one would be one-and-twenty) requires some mental gymnastics. The US State Department provided Fulbrighters the opportunity to watch a documentary and panel discussion about Willie O’Ree, the first black player in the NHL. Over the course of the weekend I attended the TAG 4, Traditional Architecture Group Conference, on Zoom and heard presentations from former professors and various experts in the field. I also participated in the weekly Fulbrighter Yoga and Game Night Zoom sessions.

This site is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author, Stephanie Kubus, and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.