Hallo!
The past three days have been hectic and exhausting but sehr gut. When I left you last, I was about to depart for the DDR Museum, which focused on life during the existence of East Germany. Adhering to my usual habit of arriving way too early, I ended up at the museum with twenty minutes to spare. Luckily, right across the river, was the Berliner Dom, or Berlin Cathedral which I wandered around to kill time.
The museum is quite good for Kinder, very interactive. It was interesting, but after the tour, I didn't explore that much in depth as the tour gave a good overview. I did, however, head back to the Dom, and for five euro, gained entrance. Worth. Every. Cent. The interior of the building is completely beautiful, and I quickly discovered that there was a walkway around the exterior of the dome. After climbing over two-hundred steps, acquiring wheezing lungs and aching calves, I stepped outside into the cold air and saw my first view of the skyline of this beautiful city that I currently call my home. I spent at least a half-hour up there, snapping photos of my surroundings and the statues along the exterior of the building. Highly recommend it for anyone who visits Berlin.
Afterwards, I wandered home, completed some Deutsch Hausaufgabe, and then went to my new local friend's apartment to have dinner with her and a friend. It was quite fun, as we laughed at stupid things done by my fellow Americans when abroad as well as my attempted pronunciation of the German R (which is quite hard for Americans). It was good fun, and I look forward to getting to know them better (Hallo, Fiona. Danke für Abendessen! Es was sehr gut.)
Yesterday was a normal day of classes, German in the morning and my architecture class in the late afternoon. I've dropped cinema in favor of architecture, as the latter is an amazing class and the professor seems really cool. I'm very excited to start studying it more, especially from the cultural approach that we're taking. We wandered around the Zionskirche, the church around the corner from the study center, which I've been obsessed with since day one. It was amazing to finally learn some background on it - it was built from 1864-1874, funded primarily by the Prussian monarchy, as it fought the three wars to determine it's dominance in Europe. It's a rich mix of architectural styles, Gothic, Romanesque, and others. Also, yesterday, I ordered my lunch in German which was a small victory: "Ich möchte bitte ein Burrito Beef?"The man looked quite impressed, and I was a little proud of myself. Last evening was spent with my host family, chatting over dinner and then completing my first history reading and summary. Whoohoo.
Today, in this exciting chronicle of events, consisted of attending a screening that was part of the Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale, and a tour of the Olympiastadium. The former required us to be at the theater at 9:30 a.m. which meant a 7:00 alarm for me. I took the S-Bahn there, and managed to pick a line that was under construction. This resulted in me following the crowd to a bus station, where I blindly jumped on a bus, hoping that I would end up at my intended destination, and reminding myself that this was an adventure no matter what. The bus was the correct one, running parallel to the train route, and I arrived early. My friend and I grabbed breakfast and then met up with the group.
The film we saw covered the life of Andreas Marquardt, and was directed by Rosa von Prauheim. Titled Tough Love: Haerte, it chronicles the story of Marquadt as a victim of sexual abuse by his mother, and domestic abuse by his father. The style was entirely new to me, but it is a good film, and I liked it quite a bit. Highly recommend it, however, trigger warning for domestic, verbal, and sexual abuse. Afterwards, we attended the press conference for the film which was also an amazing experience.
Then, we headed to the Olympic Stadium. It's massive, and very interesting, both today and in history. Also highly recommended depending on your level of interest in sports. The light of the sun was just perfect for photos today so I acquired a lot of neat shots. Myself and a couple others also climbed to the highest row of seats which was mind-blowing. We'll be back there later for a football game, and apparently, the Berlin football teams aren't good, but I'm still excited.
Currently, I'm curled up on the comfy floor mat I have in my room, anxiously awaiting my Skype interview with residential life back at my home university, as I'm applying to be moderator of my theme house. Viel Glück to me. I have the weekend off, so it will be spent doing laundry, homework, running small errands and maybe going out for a couple beers. We'll see where it goes. I also may meet up with a language partner, a local who wants to improve his English and is willing to suffer through me slaughtering Deutsch. We're messaging back and forth and it's quite challenging, albeit fun.
I'm loving Berlin more and more each day. From the afternoon commute with smiling children heading home from school, to the street art and graffiti, to my cozy homestay, it's wonderful. I can't wait to explore more and to show of this city I now call home to visitors. That's all I have for now. Tschüss!
No comments:
Post a Comment