Thursday, I met up with a local student who wished to improve his English, and was willing to help me improve my German. We wandered around Alexanderplatz and nearby areas for a while, speaking mostly in English, although I did learn some new vocabulary. I learned some new things about the city, and daily life, so it was quite lovely. Not sure if we're going to meet up again, but if we do, hopefully, I'll have more German under my belt to work with.
Afterwards, I headed back to the study center, grabbed a hot drink and relaxed in the lobby until it was time for my architecture class to start. I must confess, I adore this class. The professor is relaxed and the atmosphere is quite casual, with only eight students. Instead of a technical approach, the course looks at buildings and techniques through a cultural and historical lens, which, of course, I love. I'm looking forward to learning more about the topic. Once the class concluded, I ran to the supermarket, Lidl (Aldi's European cousin), acquired some snacks for my room at home and then headed home for the night.
Yesterday, despite my subtle gloating earlier about not having class on Fridays, I had a class on Friday. My German course had been rescheduled due to the Berlin Radio/German Cinema class attending another screening and press conference at the Berlinale on Thursday morning during the class's usual time. So, on a day that I could've slept in, I found myself waking up at eight and commuting to school.
Class is usually interesting and fairly amusing as everyone's terrible butchering of German are always subject to laughter. We learned how to count and practiced with what in the States, is basically a drinking game. Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn... That afternoon, a friend and I went shopping a little, and then ate lunch at Alexanderplatz. The evening was spent in a friend's apartment with several others, enjoying a home-cooked meal over some beers. It was really fun, and we're hopefully going to make this a weekly 'family dinner,' as the inside jokes have started to bubble up. I also received the news that I had been offered the job (moderator of the house I live in at school) I interviewed for in the previous week, and barring unforeseen circumstances, I will probably be taking. Overall, it was quite a good night.
Today has been quite a good but busy day. Our program visited the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall in existence. However, it's covered in street art, graffiti and murals, some of which are official, others are not. We toured the site with an artist of one of the works, Gunther Schaefer who gave us an insiders perspective on the site, its history and his own life. His mural on the wall, titled Vaterland (trans: Fatherland) combines the Israeli and German flag, and has been vandalized by fanatics and repainted by Gunther forty-nine times in the past twenty-five years. We visited his home slash studio and heard him speak about his life and works. It was definitely an experience to remember, hearing history speak. I recommend checking out his work.
Afterwards, some friends and I had another 'family dinner' at a local pizza place, where five of us demolished three thirty-two inch delicious pizzas in under thirty minutes. The sun was setting, the light was perfect, the company was wonderful and the food was scrumptious. I headed home to drop off some things, grabbed my camera, and headed out for an adventure on my own.
I have a habit of ditching the rest of the group when I travel and going off on my own, sometimes at night, to get perspectives on places that I see during the day. I returned to Gendarmenmarkt, and the Brandenburg Gate and also explored along the Unter den Linden. Additionally, I stopped by Bebelplatz, the square where the Nazi's burned thousands of books in an act of censorship and absolute power. There is a simple monument there, a below ground white room filled with empty bookshelves. It's a very powerful thing to see and process the effects of the control of knowledge and the loss of information and art.
Overall, I've had a very good day. Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with another local to explore a fleamarket, and then attending a football at the Olympic Stadium. More adventures to come.
I'm going to sign off with a quote from a mural at the East Side Gallery that I love:
Many small people, who in many small places, do many small things, can alter the face of the world.
Gute nacht.
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