Welcome to Germany! Now fill out ten forms.

After a whirlwind beginning of the week, the students are all nicely settled into their apartments in Kreuzberg, where they tell me they have been getting to know each other through potlucks and group explorations of the neighborhood. They’ve also been great about helping each other adjust to new technological challenges (getting cell phones and internet).

As of yesterday, class has officially begun! Our first activity: introducing everyone (as slowly and gracefully as possible) to the idiosyncrasies of the German legal and school system. The result? Filling out a LOT of forms …

Hopefully by Tuesday we’ll have all the registration stuff taken care of, and we’ll be free to concentrate on the fun stuff: Berlin history and media theory!