Freie Universität Berlin (FU BERLIN)

I'll fill in this gap some other time...

I learned a lot of German, more than what I expected, and I have to say with a pretty good accent. And 90% of the sucess was due to talking with people: germans and other internationals. The clue is to avoid going around with people who speak your own language, or to simply make use of English. I tried to speak in German in all situations. A language exchange is also very useful: meeting some German person who lears your language (Spanish in my case), and speaking one day in German and the next day in Spanish. You learn a lot of your mistakes, because it should be a person who points your mistakes out.

One funny thing as a financial "surprise": having to pay everytime you have to go to the toilette! No matter where you are (bars, fastfood locals, comertial centers, train station...), there is always a cleaning woman outside and a table with a plate where you have to leave a coin (and it usually says exacly the amount you have to leave!). That does not happen in Spain!

The good thing about the student residence was that it was in a very green and quiet location of Berlin, and near one of the biggest lakes in the city, where people bath in summer. I also enjoyed the international student atmosphare, the organized parties and events. It was very near from the university -just some underground stations away-, although quite far away from the center of the city. The bedroom wasn't too big, but pretty neat, and with a very affordable price! I had only wished the walls were thicker, because I could hear too loud what my neighbour was doing. As negative aspects, I would point out that the kitchen had to be shared between too many people, about 10, so we didn't have too much space to put our things in the refrigerator and cupboards. It wasn't too clean either, and it didn't have an oven (which would have been practical for such things as pizza). The bathroom wasn't too nice either, and it was for both men and women, not separate (not too confortable). I suppose positive and negative aspects were more or less balanced about the residence.

As favourite night spot, I can't decide myself for a particular one, but I would say all the area of Friedrischain as well as Kreuzberg has plenty of cool nightlife and very nice and well decorated cafés and bars. I wouldn't miss the bar GOA in Friedrishain, were you can enjoy great cocktails (although pretty expensive!) while you are laying on Arab/Roman-style sofas with no shoes on, and under a faded warm light. One event you cannot miss if you happen to be in Berlin in July is the LOVEPARADE, the biggest tecno party event in Europe. It doesn't even matter if you are a tecno fan or not (I don't consider myself to be one), it's just about dancing and having some fun. Coloured hairsprays and wild costumes are the trendiest thing in Loveparade, nothing is too exagerated.