- Exploring the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
- Walking down the Unter den Linden at sunset from Alexanderplatz to the Victory Column and climbing on a Soviet tank.
- Eating a delicious quiche in a quiet Amsterdam courtyard with two good friends and a Banksy work behind us.
- Speeding down the autobahn at nearly a hundred miles an hour.
- Playing ping-pong in a bare-bones hole in the wall bar with native Berliners.
- Climbing to the top of Our Savior Church in Copenhagen on a beautiful Saturday morning.
- Helping repaint the Vaterland mural on the East Side Gallery with artist Günther Schaefer.
- Ordering a three-liter tap of beer with friends, old and new, at a bar in Kreuzberg.
- Seeing the city explode with life with the advent of spring.
- Sitting on the Dingli cliffs drinking a beer and overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean with a new friend.
- Wrestling and playing with my youngest host brother.
- Racing public transport - U-Bahn vs. Bus
- Sitting on the top of my friend's houseboat in Amsterdam with three friends from home, eating fresh fruit, snacks and sandwiches in the sun on a beautiful day.
- Spending the day with a friend and his fascinating hostparents exploring the Teufelsberg NSA Listening Post, wandering around Wannsee, and petting a cat for first time in two months.
- Commuting regularly on the S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams and buses.
- Feeling the weight of memory and history when visiting the Soviet War Memorial on the 75th anniversary of World War II's end in Europe.
- Wandering Mauerpark market and listening to street performers
- Regular talks over jasmine tea with my host family.
- Taking a boat ride to the Blue Grotto in Malta, and absorbing the beauty of the Mediterranean.
- Seeing a friend for the first time in four years and exploring Berlin together for May Day weekend.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Top Twenty Moments of Studying Abroad
In No Particular Order....
A Semester in Statistics
6 countries visited
5 German states visited
12 cities visited
8 U-Bahn lines ridden
10 S-Bahn lines ridden
12 plane rides
5 German states visited
12 cities visited
8 U-Bahn lines ridden
10 S-Bahn lines ridden
12 plane rides
2 long-distance bus rides
1 international train ride
1 international train ride
4 boat rides
112 days from home
3 2/3 months away
8 reunions with old friends
6 new friends made
112 days from home
3 2/3 months away
8 reunions with old friends
6 new friends made
2 visits to the Berliner Dom
10 visits to Mauerpark
15 books read
24 walks down Unter Den Linden
4 papers
5 exams
5 classes
10 cats petted
1 fauxhawk
27 fellow students
1 wonderful host family
2 colds suffered
1 wonderful host family
2 colds suffered
1 opportunity to paint on the Berlin Wall
8 packages
35 letters and postcards from home
1 Mediterranean sunset
81 postcards collected
32 buttons and pins purchased
12 photos from home
8 packages
35 letters and postcards from home
1 Mediterranean sunset
81 postcards collected
32 buttons and pins purchased
12 photos from home
1 international haircut
505 miles walked
3841 stairs climbed
1,148,254 steps
1,148,254 steps
1 football game
40 cups of Yorkshire tea
5000+ photos taken
40 cups of Yorkshire tea
5000+ photos taken
58+ blog posts
168 Instagram posts
200+ cups of tea with my host mother
5 times in the final round of around the world ping pong
Immeasurable city bus, train, underground and tram rides
Numerous tears due to homesickness
Countless laughs, smiles and memories
5 times in the final round of around the world ping pong
Immeasurable city bus, train, underground and tram rides
Numerous tears due to homesickness
Countless laughs, smiles and memories
Hostfamilies and Homecoming
It's hard to believe how much has occurred in the week since I've last posted. So many things have happened and it's mind-boggling to think back about where I was seven day ago.
I closed my last weekend in Berlin with my good friend from the program, as it was his last full day there. We met up and went to Mauerpark one last time, where I bought a final pair of earrings, made of fuses. We saw a strange site, which was a mime dressed in orange construction overalls who kept stopping traffic to perform various acts such as falling on stopped cars and somersaulting on the street. Following that, we went to our favorite cafe and had a few drinks while also playing ping-pong one last time. He kicked my ass, of course, but I did improve slightly. Then we went to the city center and visited the Berliner Dom, him for the first time, me for the second. We climbed to the top of the dome and soaked in our last views of the city all around us.
Afterwards, we headed out to Wannsee (which included my friend basically shoving me into the S-Bahn in order to get on the train in time), in the southwest of Berlin for his farewell dinner with his hostfamily. It was quite lovely, as his host parents and their son are very kind and fascinating to talk to, as I've mentioned before. They gave both of us farewell presents, him a book, and a tote bag, and myself a cookie cutter in the shape of the Berlin bear. I was also given a legitimate piece of the Berlin Wall which they, themselves, had chipped off. All in all, it was a wonderful night. I heard stories about my friend's host mother's uncles who fought in World War I (not a typo, you read that right), and all sorts of other tales. I bid them farewell and commuted home with their son, who was fascinating in his own right, and quite funny.
The next day, I awoke early and went to the airport to see my friend off on his flight. Neither of us are sure when we'll see each other again, since I'm from Ohio and him from Texas. However, his brother does live near me, so there's a chance that it'll happen. But either way, I was still quite sad to see him go, as we'd been through quite a bit together and gotten into some excellent shenanigans across Berlin.
Afterwards, I went to Nordbahnhof, an S-Bahn station, where there was an exhibit on ghost stations during the time of the Wall, a topic that has fascinated me for long time. It had been closed since I'd arrived in Berlin due to construction on the tracks, but finally opened in time for me to see it. It was short but pretty interesting. I finished the exhibit, dodged wet paint, grabbed some final souvenirs (read: chocolate and Haribo) and headed home to finish packing before I was set to meet my local friend to say goodbye. I met her at her house, as she wasn't feeling well, and we had cake and hot chocolate, and then went out into the courtyard and lay in the hammocks, talking for a while. Eventually, it was time to say goodbye and we exchanged hugs and well-wishes.
Following that, I had decided that I wished to visit the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park, which was only a few bus stops from my friend's house. However, I managed to board the bus in the wrong direction, and stayed on it until the very end, resulting in me being stuck for about a half hour in the very south-east of Berlin until the next bus ran. So, basically, a thirty minute adventure turned into two hours, but I did get to see parts of Berlin I hadn't before, so that was a positive. Once the long two bus rides concluded, I once again misnavigated, and went in the wrong direction before finally discovering the war memorial.
This memorial is one of the most impressive, and is quite massive. It's extremely communist in nature, as one would expect, but fascinating to look at. I meandered the area for about thirty minutes before calling it a day and heading home via my last S-Bahn ride. Once home, I had a wonderful final dinner with my host family, who gave me several bags of Haribo candy and a container of jasmine tea, which I regularly enjoyed drinking with them in the mornings and evenings. It was a wonderful quite weekend, with a neighbor who I had met before stopping in as well. My youngest host brother even was willing to sit on my lap and we played a little before he had to go to sleep.
I awoke the next day at two in the morning, having slept about three hours and was unable to fall back asleep, resulting in staying up until five when I was supposed to have woken up. My host parents drove me to the airport in a neighbor's carpenter van and bid me a heartfelt farewell after I checked in. I maanged not to start crying when they left which was an accomplishment for me, as for the past month I had been prone to tearing up regularly when I thought about leaving them and Berlin.
I went through security smoothly, despite the fact that they made me pull out every single electronic device I had with me, including my laptop, my e-reader, my iPod, my external hard drive and my camera. After sitting for about an hour and a half, I finally boarded, only to find someone was sitting in my picked window seat. However, she was part of a group of about fifteen German students and her friend was in the aisle seat next to her, so I said I didn't mind switching with them, as I was traveling along. The switch put me in the middle of the aisle row, between two more members of the group who clearly wished to sit together, so I switched once more with one of them, so that they were sitting next to each other and I was on the other side of the aisle row.
However, my karma paid off, and the seat next to me was never filled, giving me space to stretch out during the nine hour flight. The flight passed by fairly slowly, so I snoozed, watched Game of Thrones, read Game of Thrones, and viewed the Imitation Game, which was excellent and I highly recommend it. I also had the most delicious airplane food in the world, which was Air Berlin's pasta. I don't know what was in it, but it was extremely good.
Eventually, we landed in Chicago and after clearing customs without any investigative questions about my whereabouts for the past four months, I was once again in America. As I stood in line for my second round of security screening, I was overwhelmed with the amount of conversations around me that I could understand and had a desire to talk to almost anyone. Going through security quickly quelled that urge and after grabbing an Auntie Anne's pretzel as my first food back in the States, I found my gate and attempted to start processing everything that had been happening.
After discovering that my cell phone wasn't working and wifi was spotty, I coughed up a dollar and used a payphone to phone home and reassure my mother that I was alive and well. Eventually, I also got the wifi to connect and reactivated my cell, promptly receiving a flood of text messages from friends and family who were all demanding to know my condition, which kept me busy until my flight departed several hours later.
The jump home was a quick, and soon I found myself pressed to the window, scouring the view for my first glimpse of my city's skyline in four months. Eventually, the skyscrapers loomed into view and I nearly cried of happiness and relief. After landing, I raced through the concourse and ran, crying, to my mom and grandmother who were waiting for me near the baggage claim.
And honestly, that's about where this story ends. I'm typing this from my summer apartment at school, which I moved into yesterday. I've been reunited with several friends, and today will see my partner for the first time since January.
I'm going to post summary entries and aftermath entries, dealing with topics such as reverse culture shock soon, so stick around.
I closed my last weekend in Berlin with my good friend from the program, as it was his last full day there. We met up and went to Mauerpark one last time, where I bought a final pair of earrings, made of fuses. We saw a strange site, which was a mime dressed in orange construction overalls who kept stopping traffic to perform various acts such as falling on stopped cars and somersaulting on the street. Following that, we went to our favorite cafe and had a few drinks while also playing ping-pong one last time. He kicked my ass, of course, but I did improve slightly. Then we went to the city center and visited the Berliner Dom, him for the first time, me for the second. We climbed to the top of the dome and soaked in our last views of the city all around us.
Afterwards, we headed out to Wannsee (which included my friend basically shoving me into the S-Bahn in order to get on the train in time), in the southwest of Berlin for his farewell dinner with his hostfamily. It was quite lovely, as his host parents and their son are very kind and fascinating to talk to, as I've mentioned before. They gave both of us farewell presents, him a book, and a tote bag, and myself a cookie cutter in the shape of the Berlin bear. I was also given a legitimate piece of the Berlin Wall which they, themselves, had chipped off. All in all, it was a wonderful night. I heard stories about my friend's host mother's uncles who fought in World War I (not a typo, you read that right), and all sorts of other tales. I bid them farewell and commuted home with their son, who was fascinating in his own right, and quite funny.
The next day, I awoke early and went to the airport to see my friend off on his flight. Neither of us are sure when we'll see each other again, since I'm from Ohio and him from Texas. However, his brother does live near me, so there's a chance that it'll happen. But either way, I was still quite sad to see him go, as we'd been through quite a bit together and gotten into some excellent shenanigans across Berlin.
Afterwards, I went to Nordbahnhof, an S-Bahn station, where there was an exhibit on ghost stations during the time of the Wall, a topic that has fascinated me for long time. It had been closed since I'd arrived in Berlin due to construction on the tracks, but finally opened in time for me to see it. It was short but pretty interesting. I finished the exhibit, dodged wet paint, grabbed some final souvenirs (read: chocolate and Haribo) and headed home to finish packing before I was set to meet my local friend to say goodbye. I met her at her house, as she wasn't feeling well, and we had cake and hot chocolate, and then went out into the courtyard and lay in the hammocks, talking for a while. Eventually, it was time to say goodbye and we exchanged hugs and well-wishes.
Following that, I had decided that I wished to visit the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park, which was only a few bus stops from my friend's house. However, I managed to board the bus in the wrong direction, and stayed on it until the very end, resulting in me being stuck for about a half hour in the very south-east of Berlin until the next bus ran. So, basically, a thirty minute adventure turned into two hours, but I did get to see parts of Berlin I hadn't before, so that was a positive. Once the long two bus rides concluded, I once again misnavigated, and went in the wrong direction before finally discovering the war memorial.
This memorial is one of the most impressive, and is quite massive. It's extremely communist in nature, as one would expect, but fascinating to look at. I meandered the area for about thirty minutes before calling it a day and heading home via my last S-Bahn ride. Once home, I had a wonderful final dinner with my host family, who gave me several bags of Haribo candy and a container of jasmine tea, which I regularly enjoyed drinking with them in the mornings and evenings. It was a wonderful quite weekend, with a neighbor who I had met before stopping in as well. My youngest host brother even was willing to sit on my lap and we played a little before he had to go to sleep.
I awoke the next day at two in the morning, having slept about three hours and was unable to fall back asleep, resulting in staying up until five when I was supposed to have woken up. My host parents drove me to the airport in a neighbor's carpenter van and bid me a heartfelt farewell after I checked in. I maanged not to start crying when they left which was an accomplishment for me, as for the past month I had been prone to tearing up regularly when I thought about leaving them and Berlin.
I went through security smoothly, despite the fact that they made me pull out every single electronic device I had with me, including my laptop, my e-reader, my iPod, my external hard drive and my camera. After sitting for about an hour and a half, I finally boarded, only to find someone was sitting in my picked window seat. However, she was part of a group of about fifteen German students and her friend was in the aisle seat next to her, so I said I didn't mind switching with them, as I was traveling along. The switch put me in the middle of the aisle row, between two more members of the group who clearly wished to sit together, so I switched once more with one of them, so that they were sitting next to each other and I was on the other side of the aisle row.
However, my karma paid off, and the seat next to me was never filled, giving me space to stretch out during the nine hour flight. The flight passed by fairly slowly, so I snoozed, watched Game of Thrones, read Game of Thrones, and viewed the Imitation Game, which was excellent and I highly recommend it. I also had the most delicious airplane food in the world, which was Air Berlin's pasta. I don't know what was in it, but it was extremely good.
Eventually, we landed in Chicago and after clearing customs without any investigative questions about my whereabouts for the past four months, I was once again in America. As I stood in line for my second round of security screening, I was overwhelmed with the amount of conversations around me that I could understand and had a desire to talk to almost anyone. Going through security quickly quelled that urge and after grabbing an Auntie Anne's pretzel as my first food back in the States, I found my gate and attempted to start processing everything that had been happening.
After discovering that my cell phone wasn't working and wifi was spotty, I coughed up a dollar and used a payphone to phone home and reassure my mother that I was alive and well. Eventually, I also got the wifi to connect and reactivated my cell, promptly receiving a flood of text messages from friends and family who were all demanding to know my condition, which kept me busy until my flight departed several hours later.
The jump home was a quick, and soon I found myself pressed to the window, scouring the view for my first glimpse of my city's skyline in four months. Eventually, the skyscrapers loomed into view and I nearly cried of happiness and relief. After landing, I raced through the concourse and ran, crying, to my mom and grandmother who were waiting for me near the baggage claim.
And honestly, that's about where this story ends. I'm typing this from my summer apartment at school, which I moved into yesterday. I've been reunited with several friends, and today will see my partner for the first time since January.
I'm going to post summary entries and aftermath entries, dealing with topics such as reverse culture shock soon, so stick around.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Ampelmann, Academics and Abendessen
Greeting and salutations, friends, family and loved ones. Look at me go. I'm back on track with writing, only to have my time here be rapidly closing. So, here we go with the summary of the last two days plus a random story.
Friday was spent at my program's study center for our final meeting, which involved paperwork to officially note our departure from Berlin, evaluations upon evaluations for the program and my host family, discussions on the highlights, lowlight and advice to future students, and a small "graduation" ceremony.
The ceremony consisted of all twenty-seven of us crammed into one of the classrooms, and each taking turns stepping up and being pinned with the Ampelmann, after stating why we had earned the right to have the little green man.
I don't think I've ever actually explained the Ampelmann, so let me clarify what it is. He is the crossing symbol, so red or green, for East Germany. After reunification, he hit cult status, and now is a popular symbol for Berlin, or East Germany in general. It's quite common to see keychains, bags, and more items with him (or her) in various forms throughout the city.
The logic behind pinning all of us with him was to symbolize our experience of "going" and constantly saying yes to new experiences, memories, people and food while we were here. Some stated that they deserved the pin for reasons such as living alone for the first time, traveling outside of the states for the first time, learning a language, learning that they liked ballet after drunkenly attending the performance in Prague, and more. I stated that I deserved the Ampelmann because I had gone from being an object of curiosity and uncertainty for my younger host brother, to an adopted member of the family who is free to tickle and play with him at all times. So, here is a gratuitous photo of me with my Ampelmann.
Afterwards, my friend and I headed out to Charlottenberg where we had lunch with his host parents, hostbrother and the hostbrother's girlfriend at a cafe run by a Vermont woman and her German husband, both of which were extremely kind and friendly. I had a delicious pot pie and mango ice cream, both of which were homemade. Yum.
Once we'd stuffed ourselves full of food, we took a walk around the palace gardens surrounding the Charlottenberg palace. My friend and I had been there already, but had never been in the mausoleum that lies within the garden and is the resting place of two kings and their wives. It's an impressive building and the reclining figures of each of the figures are especially interesting.
My friend and I soon bid everyone else farewell, and headed back into the city center, where we went to KaDeWe, the department store in Berlin, once again. There, we wandered the uppermost level, which was food, and laughed at the various things we found. The "American" section was fairly amusing, and fun fact, you can buy PopTarts there for nearly nine euros. Following that, we went to my program's final Stammtisch in a biergarten in Wedding. It was nice enough, and fairly relaxed, although not everyone showed as some people had already left the city to continue traveling.
Once the garden closed, the group decided to go to a Korean karaoke bar nearby. There was a cover charge to get into the nearly empty place, plus you had to buy a drink on top of it, so I spent nine euros on the wonderful experience of listening to others sing and dodging people bugging me to sing, all with a fairly average rum and coke in hand. Eventually, after about an hour, I left and headed home, as it was after midnight. I headed home and crashed for the night.
Which brings us to yesterday, or Saturday. I spent most of the day writing my final architecture paper and procrastinating on said paper. However, at around five thirty, I finished and emailed it to my professor, officially closing my academic semester abroad. Then, in the evening, my host family had my farewell dinner with myself and a friend. It was really nice, and filled with delicious food. They made shepards pie, salad, cake, and a raspberry sauce, plus one of their friends who I was acquainted with also gave them an appetizer and a cake for the occasion as well.
It was truly lovely, and my younger host brother did not end up crying once during the dinner which was a rare occurrence. He sat on my immediate right and the two of us hit a new level in our relationship as we started swapping food, with him throwing bread he didn't want on my plate, dropping chocolate cake crumbs on the table cloth that he wanted me to eat, and demanding some of my soda to drink. It was pretty amusing.
Afterwards, my friend and I went out probably for our last time together, and grabbed a drink at a nearby bar that we frequent. For the first hour or so we were stuck outside due to the lack of tables and the weather was miserable with constant rain, dark and cool with some wind. However, it was nice to watch the city while my friend and I discussed "senior superlatives" for the people within our program. We decided that I was judged to be "most dependable," and that he was most likely to return to Germany/continue with German. After a few drinks (okay, one), we called it a night and parted ways, as he had to return home and start writing his final paper. Hehe.
Which leads me to where I am today. It's early morning here and the sun through my thin curtain woke me up at seven, which is fine. I'm sitting in bed typing this out and looking around my room which is slowly becoming barer and barer as I'm packing. My suitcase is in the corner along with most of my stuff as I slowly stuff it all in. Right now, my concern is weight not space, so it's fairly annoying, but I'll figure it out.
Today (or in the next coming days), I hope to go to Mauerpark one last time, grab chocolate and Haribo gummies from the grocery store, visit the Berliner Dom and Alexanderplatz one last time, stop by Nordbahnhof (train station) to view their exhibit on ghost train stations, and visit Treptower Park. And, of course, pack and write more blog posts about my experience here.
And finally, I close with the small story that occurred a while ago. One day, a week or so ago, I returned home at the same time as my host mother and my younger host brother. We had walked into the building through separate but opposite doors at the same time. The minute my younger host brother saw me, he stated with an indignant tone, "Was machst du hier!?" which means "What are you doing here?!" I was actually able to understand what he said and replied in just as indignant tone, "Ich wohne hier!" which meant "I live here!" It doesn't sound like much but it was pretty amusing and I'm happy I was able to know what he said.
That's all for now. I can hear my host brother making siren noises in the kitchen. More later as always promised. Tschüss!
Friday was spent at my program's study center for our final meeting, which involved paperwork to officially note our departure from Berlin, evaluations upon evaluations for the program and my host family, discussions on the highlights, lowlight and advice to future students, and a small "graduation" ceremony.
The ceremony consisted of all twenty-seven of us crammed into one of the classrooms, and each taking turns stepping up and being pinned with the Ampelmann, after stating why we had earned the right to have the little green man.
I don't think I've ever actually explained the Ampelmann, so let me clarify what it is. He is the crossing symbol, so red or green, for East Germany. After reunification, he hit cult status, and now is a popular symbol for Berlin, or East Germany in general. It's quite common to see keychains, bags, and more items with him (or her) in various forms throughout the city.
The logic behind pinning all of us with him was to symbolize our experience of "going" and constantly saying yes to new experiences, memories, people and food while we were here. Some stated that they deserved the pin for reasons such as living alone for the first time, traveling outside of the states for the first time, learning a language, learning that they liked ballet after drunkenly attending the performance in Prague, and more. I stated that I deserved the Ampelmann because I had gone from being an object of curiosity and uncertainty for my younger host brother, to an adopted member of the family who is free to tickle and play with him at all times. So, here is a gratuitous photo of me with my Ampelmann.Afterwards, my friend and I headed out to Charlottenberg where we had lunch with his host parents, hostbrother and the hostbrother's girlfriend at a cafe run by a Vermont woman and her German husband, both of which were extremely kind and friendly. I had a delicious pot pie and mango ice cream, both of which were homemade. Yum.
Once we'd stuffed ourselves full of food, we took a walk around the palace gardens surrounding the Charlottenberg palace. My friend and I had been there already, but had never been in the mausoleum that lies within the garden and is the resting place of two kings and their wives. It's an impressive building and the reclining figures of each of the figures are especially interesting.
My friend and I soon bid everyone else farewell, and headed back into the city center, where we went to KaDeWe, the department store in Berlin, once again. There, we wandered the uppermost level, which was food, and laughed at the various things we found. The "American" section was fairly amusing, and fun fact, you can buy PopTarts there for nearly nine euros. Following that, we went to my program's final Stammtisch in a biergarten in Wedding. It was nice enough, and fairly relaxed, although not everyone showed as some people had already left the city to continue traveling.
Once the garden closed, the group decided to go to a Korean karaoke bar nearby. There was a cover charge to get into the nearly empty place, plus you had to buy a drink on top of it, so I spent nine euros on the wonderful experience of listening to others sing and dodging people bugging me to sing, all with a fairly average rum and coke in hand. Eventually, after about an hour, I left and headed home, as it was after midnight. I headed home and crashed for the night.
Which brings us to yesterday, or Saturday. I spent most of the day writing my final architecture paper and procrastinating on said paper. However, at around five thirty, I finished and emailed it to my professor, officially closing my academic semester abroad. Then, in the evening, my host family had my farewell dinner with myself and a friend. It was really nice, and filled with delicious food. They made shepards pie, salad, cake, and a raspberry sauce, plus one of their friends who I was acquainted with also gave them an appetizer and a cake for the occasion as well.
It was truly lovely, and my younger host brother did not end up crying once during the dinner which was a rare occurrence. He sat on my immediate right and the two of us hit a new level in our relationship as we started swapping food, with him throwing bread he didn't want on my plate, dropping chocolate cake crumbs on the table cloth that he wanted me to eat, and demanding some of my soda to drink. It was pretty amusing.
Afterwards, my friend and I went out probably for our last time together, and grabbed a drink at a nearby bar that we frequent. For the first hour or so we were stuck outside due to the lack of tables and the weather was miserable with constant rain, dark and cool with some wind. However, it was nice to watch the city while my friend and I discussed "senior superlatives" for the people within our program. We decided that I was judged to be "most dependable," and that he was most likely to return to Germany/continue with German. After a few drinks (okay, one), we called it a night and parted ways, as he had to return home and start writing his final paper. Hehe.
Which leads me to where I am today. It's early morning here and the sun through my thin curtain woke me up at seven, which is fine. I'm sitting in bed typing this out and looking around my room which is slowly becoming barer and barer as I'm packing. My suitcase is in the corner along with most of my stuff as I slowly stuff it all in. Right now, my concern is weight not space, so it's fairly annoying, but I'll figure it out.
Today (or in the next coming days), I hope to go to Mauerpark one last time, grab chocolate and Haribo gummies from the grocery store, visit the Berliner Dom and Alexanderplatz one last time, stop by Nordbahnhof (train station) to view their exhibit on ghost train stations, and visit Treptower Park. And, of course, pack and write more blog posts about my experience here.
And finally, I close with the small story that occurred a while ago. One day, a week or so ago, I returned home at the same time as my host mother and my younger host brother. We had walked into the building through separate but opposite doors at the same time. The minute my younger host brother saw me, he stated with an indignant tone, "Was machst du hier!?" which means "What are you doing here?!" I was actually able to understand what he said and replied in just as indignant tone, "Ich wohne hier!" which meant "I live here!" It doesn't sound like much but it was pretty amusing and I'm happy I was able to know what he said.
That's all for now. I can hear my host brother making siren noises in the kitchen. More later as always promised. Tschüss!
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Aquariums, Communsim and More.
Greetings and salutations, friends, family and loved ones. In five days I will be boarding my trans-atlantic fight to Chicago. This is quite strange to think about, in addition to the fact that my blogging about my time here will soon becoming to a close, but we'll go out with a bang (or at least a slightly loud thump), so here we go.
Sunday wasn't the best day in terms of weather, but myself and a friend went to Mauerpark anyway, which was probably my fifth time in the last sixth weeks. I need help. However, in my defense, it was more for him than for me, as he still needed to do his shopping, and I was, for the most part done. Ha.
So, we met up and wandered the market. I bought a shirt with my U-Bahn line logo on it, (repping the U8, yeah!), a postcard, a magnet, a small sign that says "valve closed" in German and an old DDR Mark (which is made of aluminium, it's so light!). My friend found some presents for friends, an old license place and a sign that says "Smoking Prohibited," also in German. This is hysterical because he smokes. Regularly. So I had a nearly hysterical fit of laughter in the middle of the junk stall because the irony was too much for me to handle.
After our market adventure, we grabbed döner kebabs for lunch and went to my house to study for our oncoming history final. I also finished another paper and studied for my German final which was the next day as well. Early in the evening, he returned home and I had dinner with my host family. The entire day I was trying to forget what was occurring at home, as it was Mother's Day and commencement at my home school.
Monday, I took two exams and with those over, I was (still am) done with four of my five classes. Afterwards, I met up with my local friend who took me to Potsdamer Platz, where we both ate a massive ice cream sundae, topped off with some shopping, and lemonade on a grassy hill in the middle of the city. It was a lovely afternoon, and I returned home to watch the newest Game of Thrones episode. I also began reading Code Name Verity, which has been fantastic so far and I've been unable to put it down.
Tuesday, I spent my last day at the partner college, which was fairly boring. I turned in two papers, listened to a lecture and watched a comedy movie about a Muslim man who finds out he was born Jewish (The Infidel in English, Alles Koscher in German). Afterwards, I returned home and had a simple evening with my host family, playing board games with my host brother and mom. The former cheats although I'm not sure how much of that is him not knowing how to count properly and him actually manipulating the game (I'm suspect that the latter is more true than the former).
The next day, I spent the morning going through my things and sorting out what I would need to take home and what I would be leaving, which was fairly depressing. However, I then met up with two friends and we went to the aquarium, which was good fun. We saw all sorts of fish, reptiles, amphibian, and insects. The jellyfish were especially neat, and they had several tanks full of them.
Afterwards, I wandered through the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. I had been there many times before but always right at closing or later at night. The interior of the modern church is gorgeous, with huge stained glass windows being the main focal point. It's also interesting, as the church also had a cross of nails, a tie to my father's hometown of Coventry, England. That evening, I went to my programs farewell dinner at a local restaurant in a ballroom, which was quite fun. I also got to peek into the main ballroom on the upper level, which was quite stunning in a derelict light. Afterwards, I headed home and had an early night.
Today, I had class, despite the fact that it is a holiday in Germany. (Fun fact: It's Ascension day, and Father's Day and Men's Day - yes, you read that correctly, Men's Day, because men have been so cruelly oppressed throughout history. Apparently, most celebrate by going out and buying lots of beer and getting quite drunk. I saw two men this morning on the S-Bahn with a giant case of large bottles of beer, which got its own seat on the train. I kid you not.)
Anyway, I had class. My last German class was held in which we got back our final tests and had breakfast together. I got a 93% on my test and an A- in the class, whoohoo. Afterwards, I worked on my final paper for architecture during my break, and then went to said class, which consisted of a walk around Prenzlauerberg looking at architecture, including old hospital/TB ward compounds, a mortuary, the planetarium, and several housing complexes on the site of former gas and oil works. It was pretty interesting, with the highlight being a massive bronze memorial statue to a early communist leader, Ernst Thälmann, during the Weimar Republic who was murdered by the National Socialists at Buchenwald after eleven years in solitary confinement.
The statue is his upper body with a flying flag behind him topped with the hammer and sickle. It is fourteen meters high and fifteen meters wide and weighs fifty tons. It took up all of the bronze production for 1986 in East Germany to make, especially at a time when there was a high demand for superconductors. After the fall of the wall, many people wished to have it removed, but it stayed and is now a listed monument, that is regularly covered in graffiti. It was quite interesting, and there was a group at the base grilling on their day off. One of them was kicking around a soccer ball at and around the statue. My architecture professor also stated that recently someone had graffitied a gold bracelet on the statue's wrist with the word "fancy," which must have been hysterical to see.
Currently, I'm sitting in my program's study center, with many of of the other people in my program watching Inglourious Basterds as the film class's final movie. We're also getting pizza later, hurrah.
All caught up for now. Tschüss!
Sunday wasn't the best day in terms of weather, but myself and a friend went to Mauerpark anyway, which was probably my fifth time in the last sixth weeks. I need help. However, in my defense, it was more for him than for me, as he still needed to do his shopping, and I was, for the most part done. Ha.
So, we met up and wandered the market. I bought a shirt with my U-Bahn line logo on it, (repping the U8, yeah!), a postcard, a magnet, a small sign that says "valve closed" in German and an old DDR Mark (which is made of aluminium, it's so light!). My friend found some presents for friends, an old license place and a sign that says "Smoking Prohibited," also in German. This is hysterical because he smokes. Regularly. So I had a nearly hysterical fit of laughter in the middle of the junk stall because the irony was too much for me to handle.
After our market adventure, we grabbed döner kebabs for lunch and went to my house to study for our oncoming history final. I also finished another paper and studied for my German final which was the next day as well. Early in the evening, he returned home and I had dinner with my host family. The entire day I was trying to forget what was occurring at home, as it was Mother's Day and commencement at my home school.
Monday, I took two exams and with those over, I was (still am) done with four of my five classes. Afterwards, I met up with my local friend who took me to Potsdamer Platz, where we both ate a massive ice cream sundae, topped off with some shopping, and lemonade on a grassy hill in the middle of the city. It was a lovely afternoon, and I returned home to watch the newest Game of Thrones episode. I also began reading Code Name Verity, which has been fantastic so far and I've been unable to put it down.
Tuesday, I spent my last day at the partner college, which was fairly boring. I turned in two papers, listened to a lecture and watched a comedy movie about a Muslim man who finds out he was born Jewish (The Infidel in English, Alles Koscher in German). Afterwards, I returned home and had a simple evening with my host family, playing board games with my host brother and mom. The former cheats although I'm not sure how much of that is him not knowing how to count properly and him actually manipulating the game (I'm suspect that the latter is more true than the former).
The next day, I spent the morning going through my things and sorting out what I would need to take home and what I would be leaving, which was fairly depressing. However, I then met up with two friends and we went to the aquarium, which was good fun. We saw all sorts of fish, reptiles, amphibian, and insects. The jellyfish were especially neat, and they had several tanks full of them.
Afterwards, I wandered through the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. I had been there many times before but always right at closing or later at night. The interior of the modern church is gorgeous, with huge stained glass windows being the main focal point. It's also interesting, as the church also had a cross of nails, a tie to my father's hometown of Coventry, England. That evening, I went to my programs farewell dinner at a local restaurant in a ballroom, which was quite fun. I also got to peek into the main ballroom on the upper level, which was quite stunning in a derelict light. Afterwards, I headed home and had an early night.
Today, I had class, despite the fact that it is a holiday in Germany. (Fun fact: It's Ascension day, and Father's Day and Men's Day - yes, you read that correctly, Men's Day, because men have been so cruelly oppressed throughout history. Apparently, most celebrate by going out and buying lots of beer and getting quite drunk. I saw two men this morning on the S-Bahn with a giant case of large bottles of beer, which got its own seat on the train. I kid you not.)
Anyway, I had class. My last German class was held in which we got back our final tests and had breakfast together. I got a 93% on my test and an A- in the class, whoohoo. Afterwards, I worked on my final paper for architecture during my break, and then went to said class, which consisted of a walk around Prenzlauerberg looking at architecture, including old hospital/TB ward compounds, a mortuary, the planetarium, and several housing complexes on the site of former gas and oil works. It was pretty interesting, with the highlight being a massive bronze memorial statue to a early communist leader, Ernst Thälmann, during the Weimar Republic who was murdered by the National Socialists at Buchenwald after eleven years in solitary confinement.
The statue is his upper body with a flying flag behind him topped with the hammer and sickle. It is fourteen meters high and fifteen meters wide and weighs fifty tons. It took up all of the bronze production for 1986 in East Germany to make, especially at a time when there was a high demand for superconductors. After the fall of the wall, many people wished to have it removed, but it stayed and is now a listed monument, that is regularly covered in graffiti. It was quite interesting, and there was a group at the base grilling on their day off. One of them was kicking around a soccer ball at and around the statue. My architecture professor also stated that recently someone had graffitied a gold bracelet on the statue's wrist with the word "fancy," which must have been hysterical to see.
Currently, I'm sitting in my program's study center, with many of of the other people in my program watching Inglourious Basterds as the film class's final movie. We're also getting pizza later, hurrah.
All caught up for now. Tschüss!
Saturday, May 9, 2015
NyQuil, Night Adventures and Nature
We're in the homestretch! Oh, boy!
Monday was yet another day for class, German and German history. Neither was particularly interesting, other than the fact that they marked the realization that I had two weeks and counting left in Berlin and even less time for finals and papers. However, after class, I sat outside the church near my study center two friends for about a half an hour, enjoying the sunshine and greenery before I returned home to do homework (or watch Gilmore Girls, not quite sure which). I had a nice dinner with my host family and played with my younger host brother, host mom and other host brother.
The next day was more miserable in the fact that I had acquired a cold, and spent the day at home, sniffling and coughing and drinking copious amounts of tea to offset a sore throat. Fortunately, I had the day off from classes, as my two courses at the partner college had been cancelled. However, the cold combined with intense homesickness made me feel pretty down mentally, but, thanks to many friends, I was slowly cheered up and went to bed early to rest up.
I awoke praising the glories of NyQuil, still feeling like crap, but improved mentally. I spent a productive afternoon writing an essay for one of my classes, and then met up with my friend to go to the Gemäldegalerie, or the Old Masters Art Gallery. The collection was massive, and mainly, old white dudes, but they had two pieces by Vermeer, which made me quite happy to see. We followed up the visit with a series of cafe/bar hops across the city, first at one outside the gallery, then at one of our usual haunts, and finally at a beer garden with the rest of our program. Between the hops, my friend dealt with regularly nearly being elbowed in the face by an inconsiderate German youth who was careless about how he hung his arms from the support railing on the U-Bahn. It was incredibly funny, as the entire time my friend kept making faces at me as the boy's arm was inches from his face. Ah, public transport.
Despite being sick, I had a rum and coke at our second stop, and was very happy, due to my earlier productiveness, seeing several Vermeer's, the day's weather, and my excellent company. I was also told by my favorite professor here that I would make a superior librarian, after he learned what my career aspirations were, which made me incredibly happy and I bid farewell soon after, ending my evening on a good note.
Thursday was another day of classes, and fairly uneventful. The highlights of the day were 1) the intense Sporcle game my friend and played in which we were only able to name about 100 of the 196 U-Bahn stations in Berlin, 2) a delicious bagel with cream cheese (one of the few that I've had since I've been here - a real tragedy for my bagel addiction) and 3) finally figuring out my thesis for my large architecture paper that is due in the oncoming week.
The next day, I claimed as a lazy day and didn't do much until I went out and met my friend in the early evening. The two of us wandered from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate and through the Tiergarten. We saw several memorials decorated with flowers due to the seventieth anniversary of World War II ending in Europe. The Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten was especially covered in flowers, and wreaths from various nations. It was one of the few moments that I've acutely felt the difference between the remembrance of history in Europe and the States, primarily due to the fact that in the former, the war was at home.
Afterwards, we grabbed dinner around the Zoo Garden area and impulsively decided to race two modes of public transport back to Alexanderplatz for the hell of it. I took the bus and my friend took the U-Bahn. I won the competition, although had there not be construction on the tracks and it had been earlier in the day at top tourist hour, I probably would've lost. However, it was pretty fun, in a ridiculous way. We rewarded ourselves with drinks at a bar, and played (or in my case watched) ping-pong until we ended the evening.
Which brings us to today, as I'm finally caught up to the present and it only took a month.
Today, I went to the zoo with some friends. Despite some weather mishaps in the beginning with pouring rain and strong wind, it turned into a wonderful day, warm but cool, with the animals quite active as a result of the rain and recent feedings. The zoo is laid out very nicely and is a good size to keep visitors occupied for a couple of hours without being overly exhausting. Some highlights included seeing seals arguing, a leopard growling, and hippos swimming.
Now, I'm home for the evening, and simply just relaxing. The past month has been crazy and amazing, but also bittersweet seeing as I have less than two weeks before I return home. Things such as packing and finals are creeping into my thoughts and it's quite odd, as I swear I just got here. In oncoming days, I'm going to attempt to post more reflection pieces on my time here, but we'll see how things fall with finals and papers.
Hope all is well wherever you are and thanks for sticking with me. Tschüss.
Monday was yet another day for class, German and German history. Neither was particularly interesting, other than the fact that they marked the realization that I had two weeks and counting left in Berlin and even less time for finals and papers. However, after class, I sat outside the church near my study center two friends for about a half an hour, enjoying the sunshine and greenery before I returned home to do homework (or watch Gilmore Girls, not quite sure which). I had a nice dinner with my host family and played with my younger host brother, host mom and other host brother.
The next day was more miserable in the fact that I had acquired a cold, and spent the day at home, sniffling and coughing and drinking copious amounts of tea to offset a sore throat. Fortunately, I had the day off from classes, as my two courses at the partner college had been cancelled. However, the cold combined with intense homesickness made me feel pretty down mentally, but, thanks to many friends, I was slowly cheered up and went to bed early to rest up.
I awoke praising the glories of NyQuil, still feeling like crap, but improved mentally. I spent a productive afternoon writing an essay for one of my classes, and then met up with my friend to go to the Gemäldegalerie, or the Old Masters Art Gallery. The collection was massive, and mainly, old white dudes, but they had two pieces by Vermeer, which made me quite happy to see. We followed up the visit with a series of cafe/bar hops across the city, first at one outside the gallery, then at one of our usual haunts, and finally at a beer garden with the rest of our program. Between the hops, my friend dealt with regularly nearly being elbowed in the face by an inconsiderate German youth who was careless about how he hung his arms from the support railing on the U-Bahn. It was incredibly funny, as the entire time my friend kept making faces at me as the boy's arm was inches from his face. Ah, public transport.
Despite being sick, I had a rum and coke at our second stop, and was very happy, due to my earlier productiveness, seeing several Vermeer's, the day's weather, and my excellent company. I was also told by my favorite professor here that I would make a superior librarian, after he learned what my career aspirations were, which made me incredibly happy and I bid farewell soon after, ending my evening on a good note.
Thursday was another day of classes, and fairly uneventful. The highlights of the day were 1) the intense Sporcle game my friend and played in which we were only able to name about 100 of the 196 U-Bahn stations in Berlin, 2) a delicious bagel with cream cheese (one of the few that I've had since I've been here - a real tragedy for my bagel addiction) and 3) finally figuring out my thesis for my large architecture paper that is due in the oncoming week.
The next day, I claimed as a lazy day and didn't do much until I went out and met my friend in the early evening. The two of us wandered from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate and through the Tiergarten. We saw several memorials decorated with flowers due to the seventieth anniversary of World War II ending in Europe. The Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten was especially covered in flowers, and wreaths from various nations. It was one of the few moments that I've acutely felt the difference between the remembrance of history in Europe and the States, primarily due to the fact that in the former, the war was at home.
Afterwards, we grabbed dinner around the Zoo Garden area and impulsively decided to race two modes of public transport back to Alexanderplatz for the hell of it. I took the bus and my friend took the U-Bahn. I won the competition, although had there not be construction on the tracks and it had been earlier in the day at top tourist hour, I probably would've lost. However, it was pretty fun, in a ridiculous way. We rewarded ourselves with drinks at a bar, and played (or in my case watched) ping-pong until we ended the evening.
Which brings us to today, as I'm finally caught up to the present and it only took a month.
Today, I went to the zoo with some friends. Despite some weather mishaps in the beginning with pouring rain and strong wind, it turned into a wonderful day, warm but cool, with the animals quite active as a result of the rain and recent feedings. The zoo is laid out very nicely and is a good size to keep visitors occupied for a couple of hours without being overly exhausting. Some highlights included seeing seals arguing, a leopard growling, and hippos swimming.
Now, I'm home for the evening, and simply just relaxing. The past month has been crazy and amazing, but also bittersweet seeing as I have less than two weeks before I return home. Things such as packing and finals are creeping into my thoughts and it's quite odd, as I swear I just got here. In oncoming days, I'm going to attempt to post more reflection pieces on my time here, but we'll see how things fall with finals and papers.
Hope all is well wherever you are and thanks for sticking with me. Tschüss.
May Day and Marie
As ever, here we go with the catch up. I'm only a week behind folks, stick with me.
The day following the trip to Dresden was another school day, consisting of German and architecture. The former was frustrating as I received my third writing assignment back and didn't do as well as I had hoped, mostly due to verb positions which are stupid minor annoying things to overlook. However, as with all essays, we were given a chance to correct them over the next few days and gain points back.
In between classes for lunch, I ran to a nearby grocery store and snagged what was quickly becoming my typical lunch, a small can of coke, raspberries, strawberry yogurt, a sandwich and a pack of Haribo Pico-Ballas. My meals there have unintentionally been themed red, with the red coke can, raspberries and yogurt. And also, please note, that the Pico-Ballas are incredibly addicting, and that is one of the many foods that I will miss when I leave (in eleven days, ahhhh). Following that, I had architecture, my favorite class here, where my professor and I geeked out and talked about ghost stations in Berlin, a topic that I've been fascinated with since I got here.
That evening, I met up with my grandparents for a final dinner together before their flight the next morning. We had dinner at Alexanderplatz, and endured a miniature tempest from the outside sheltered portion of the restaurant. I felt bad as they had been in the city for four days and only one of them hadn't been rainy and miserable. However, we had a nice meal together and then said goodbye at their hotel.
Saddened by their departure, I was incredibly cheered up to remember that a friend would be visiting me over the oncoming weekend. It was to be the first time we had seen each other in four years, as she was an exchange student at my high school during my junior year and then returned home to Germany.
The next day, before she was due to arrive (after fighting late trains and missed connections), I went to an excursion for my architecture and German history classes, to the Mythos Germania, which was an exhibit and model on the design for the Berlin created by Hitler and his main architect Albert Speer. The whole thing was quite interesting, barring an hour-long lecture in a chilly park after at the hands of my history professor on a beautiful day that was also a holiday. Once that concluded, we all scrambled out of there, determined to make the most of the gorgeous holiday (May Day)
I grabbed lunch with a friend and then we climbed to the top of an old flak tower in the blooming and flowering park with beautiful views of the north of the city. I imagined what stood beneath us, within the tower, as it was in ruins, and the same company that had produced the exhibit we had just visited also gave tours of the tower, and various other ruins and hidden abandoned spaces throughout the city.
Afterwards, we headed back to Alexanderplatz and split up, as he returned home and I decided to wander before I met my friend at the main train station. I stopped in some tourist shops, as it was now the time to start buying gifts for friends at home and souvenirs for myself. When I arrived at the Brandenburg Gate, I discovered a crowd, as there was a stage set up in front of the structure, with various musicians playing on it and food trucks and fair booths stretching down Unter Den Linden. The energy of the crowd was infectious and everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves in the sun. I spent a couple minutes and then walked to the main train station, past the Reichstag and the Federal Chancellery, and over the Spree. The entire city just had this energy that seemed to radiate with the sun. It was a wonderful feeling.
I arrived in the main train station and after fighting the lack of information about arriving trains, I went to the platform and was reunited with my friend. In the initial flood of people spilling onto the platform we were unable to find each other and after a quick phone call, the two of us were sprinting towards each other laughing (and in my case, nearly crying) and hugging for about five minutes straight.
After finally reassuring each other that both of us were finally together again, we left the station and walked back to the Brandenburg Gate where we grabbed some street food and chatted, soaking up the sun and the holiday atmosphere. Following that, we wandered down Unter Den Linden to the Victory Column, and navigated our way to one of my favorite coffeehouses/bars, where she enjoyed a cold drink and I had a rum and coke to fit the May Day mood, both of which were followed by dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the Italian place that was nearby. The whole time we kept talking, catching each other up with the last four years of school, gossip, major life decisions, college, significant others, and more. This continued until we reached my home, where we watched Tangled before calling it a night. It was like a girls night at home and was just what I needed.
The next day, we headed out to Wannsee and met up with my program friend, and the three of us took the ferry across the river to Gatow, where we soaked up the gorgeous day and enjoyed being out of the city. From the ferry we walked several bus stations up, passing by empty fields and small roads, until we caught the next bus to the Gatow Airport, where the Luftwaffe Museum was located.
The museum itself was big, but small compared to many of the aviation museums I've been to in the past. However, it had a nice collection, and the three of us had a nice time wandering through the hangers and around the runway looking at the various planes and helicopters. Following that, we caught the bus and the S-Bahn back into the city and checked out KaDeWe, the largest department store in Europe. It's incredible expensive, and first class, but fun to wander around explore all the floors. The most expensive thing we found was a large three foot tall Berlin Bear for only 3200 euros. Oh, and a leather jacket for a 1000 euros. Afterwards, we ended up at a Korean restaurant for dinner, which was an adventure. I followed the recommendation of my friend, and ordered a dish, which ended up being way too spicy for me to handle, and resulted in me swapping dinners with said friend who recommended the dish. After that, the three of us had a drink at a local bar and then called it a night.
Sunday morning, my visiting friend and I checked out Mauerpark, yet again, before her train left. We had delicious crepes and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast from one of the vendors and then wandered the market for about an hour. She got a bracelet and a couple other smaller things, and I got two new pairs of earrings, small presents for my good friends at home, a sweater (for only fifty cents) and a tank-top dress with the Dark Side of the Moon logo on it. In the end, a pretty good haul, and we headed back to the main train station, where I bid my friend a sad goodbye, as our next meeting is still uncertain, due to the transatlantic nature of the friendship. After hollering "Ich liebe dich" at her as she boarded, I returned home, finished my rereading of the Harry Potter series and worked on homework for the oncoming week (despite being emotionally traumatized) until I called it a night.
It was a wonderful May weekend with an old friend, and I'm incredibly happy I got to chance to see her. Definitely one of my favorite times while here, as it was nice to have someone who knew what it was like at home but also what it was like in Germany too. She had a perfect weekend, in terms of weather and the city's atmosphere and it once again reaffirmed that I had made the right choice in where I was studying abroad.
The day following the trip to Dresden was another school day, consisting of German and architecture. The former was frustrating as I received my third writing assignment back and didn't do as well as I had hoped, mostly due to verb positions which are stupid minor annoying things to overlook. However, as with all essays, we were given a chance to correct them over the next few days and gain points back.
In between classes for lunch, I ran to a nearby grocery store and snagged what was quickly becoming my typical lunch, a small can of coke, raspberries, strawberry yogurt, a sandwich and a pack of Haribo Pico-Ballas. My meals there have unintentionally been themed red, with the red coke can, raspberries and yogurt. And also, please note, that the Pico-Ballas are incredibly addicting, and that is one of the many foods that I will miss when I leave (in eleven days, ahhhh). Following that, I had architecture, my favorite class here, where my professor and I geeked out and talked about ghost stations in Berlin, a topic that I've been fascinated with since I got here.
That evening, I met up with my grandparents for a final dinner together before their flight the next morning. We had dinner at Alexanderplatz, and endured a miniature tempest from the outside sheltered portion of the restaurant. I felt bad as they had been in the city for four days and only one of them hadn't been rainy and miserable. However, we had a nice meal together and then said goodbye at their hotel.
Saddened by their departure, I was incredibly cheered up to remember that a friend would be visiting me over the oncoming weekend. It was to be the first time we had seen each other in four years, as she was an exchange student at my high school during my junior year and then returned home to Germany.
The next day, before she was due to arrive (after fighting late trains and missed connections), I went to an excursion for my architecture and German history classes, to the Mythos Germania, which was an exhibit and model on the design for the Berlin created by Hitler and his main architect Albert Speer. The whole thing was quite interesting, barring an hour-long lecture in a chilly park after at the hands of my history professor on a beautiful day that was also a holiday. Once that concluded, we all scrambled out of there, determined to make the most of the gorgeous holiday (May Day)
I grabbed lunch with a friend and then we climbed to the top of an old flak tower in the blooming and flowering park with beautiful views of the north of the city. I imagined what stood beneath us, within the tower, as it was in ruins, and the same company that had produced the exhibit we had just visited also gave tours of the tower, and various other ruins and hidden abandoned spaces throughout the city.
Afterwards, we headed back to Alexanderplatz and split up, as he returned home and I decided to wander before I met my friend at the main train station. I stopped in some tourist shops, as it was now the time to start buying gifts for friends at home and souvenirs for myself. When I arrived at the Brandenburg Gate, I discovered a crowd, as there was a stage set up in front of the structure, with various musicians playing on it and food trucks and fair booths stretching down Unter Den Linden. The energy of the crowd was infectious and everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves in the sun. I spent a couple minutes and then walked to the main train station, past the Reichstag and the Federal Chancellery, and over the Spree. The entire city just had this energy that seemed to radiate with the sun. It was a wonderful feeling.
I arrived in the main train station and after fighting the lack of information about arriving trains, I went to the platform and was reunited with my friend. In the initial flood of people spilling onto the platform we were unable to find each other and after a quick phone call, the two of us were sprinting towards each other laughing (and in my case, nearly crying) and hugging for about five minutes straight.
After finally reassuring each other that both of us were finally together again, we left the station and walked back to the Brandenburg Gate where we grabbed some street food and chatted, soaking up the sun and the holiday atmosphere. Following that, we wandered down Unter Den Linden to the Victory Column, and navigated our way to one of my favorite coffeehouses/bars, where she enjoyed a cold drink and I had a rum and coke to fit the May Day mood, both of which were followed by dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the Italian place that was nearby. The whole time we kept talking, catching each other up with the last four years of school, gossip, major life decisions, college, significant others, and more. This continued until we reached my home, where we watched Tangled before calling it a night. It was like a girls night at home and was just what I needed.
The next day, we headed out to Wannsee and met up with my program friend, and the three of us took the ferry across the river to Gatow, where we soaked up the gorgeous day and enjoyed being out of the city. From the ferry we walked several bus stations up, passing by empty fields and small roads, until we caught the next bus to the Gatow Airport, where the Luftwaffe Museum was located.
The museum itself was big, but small compared to many of the aviation museums I've been to in the past. However, it had a nice collection, and the three of us had a nice time wandering through the hangers and around the runway looking at the various planes and helicopters. Following that, we caught the bus and the S-Bahn back into the city and checked out KaDeWe, the largest department store in Europe. It's incredible expensive, and first class, but fun to wander around explore all the floors. The most expensive thing we found was a large three foot tall Berlin Bear for only 3200 euros. Oh, and a leather jacket for a 1000 euros. Afterwards, we ended up at a Korean restaurant for dinner, which was an adventure. I followed the recommendation of my friend, and ordered a dish, which ended up being way too spicy for me to handle, and resulted in me swapping dinners with said friend who recommended the dish. After that, the three of us had a drink at a local bar and then called it a night.
Sunday morning, my visiting friend and I checked out Mauerpark, yet again, before her train left. We had delicious crepes and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast from one of the vendors and then wandered the market for about an hour. She got a bracelet and a couple other smaller things, and I got two new pairs of earrings, small presents for my good friends at home, a sweater (for only fifty cents) and a tank-top dress with the Dark Side of the Moon logo on it. In the end, a pretty good haul, and we headed back to the main train station, where I bid my friend a sad goodbye, as our next meeting is still uncertain, due to the transatlantic nature of the friendship. After hollering "Ich liebe dich" at her as she boarded, I returned home, finished my rereading of the Harry Potter series and worked on homework for the oncoming week (despite being emotionally traumatized) until I called it a night.
It was a wonderful May weekend with an old friend, and I'm incredibly happy I got to chance to see her. Definitely one of my favorite times while here, as it was nice to have someone who knew what it was like at home but also what it was like in Germany too. She had a perfect weekend, in terms of weather and the city's atmosphere and it once again reaffirmed that I had made the right choice in where I was studying abroad.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Dresden - The Perfect Day Trip
Breaking with the rainy tradition that it had set during the previous few days, Germany was stunning the next day, with blue skies, few clouds and dazzling sun. It was the perfect day for a trip to Dresden and after some minor mishaps with tickets and public transport, we climbed on the bus and headed out.
The bus-ride there was uneventful but quite lovely. We used a different company than the one I had been on for my previous trip to Hamburg and it was much nicer. For one, the wifi actually worked, and the accommodations were better. I read Harry Potter (was on Half-Blood Prince at this point), and gazed out the window at the green and flat land of east Germany.
We arrived after a few hours at the main station of the city and after adventuring around the station, which was quite impressive, we wandered towards the old city center with vague idea of our plan for the afternoon. In one of the main platzes, we discovered the Alt-Markt, literally, the old market, and explored it for a bit before setting off towards the Frauenkirche, one of Dresden's most famous landmarks.
The church is circular, and was finished in 2005 although it replicates the style of the church that was destroyed in World War II. Around it, is a plaza with many cafes and shops. There, we browsed for souvenirs (I got some postcards and a pair of Ampelmann earrings - they're so cute!), and had gelato. We also wandered through the impressive interior of the church, marveling at the gorgeous interior. Then, I decided to climb to the top of the dome, while my grandfather and Barbara grabbed a snack and a drink at a local cafe.
My trip to the top was begun by communicating through broken German and smiles with an older gentleman who with me in the elevator. Then, we kept about the same pace as we walked up the spiral ramp and stairs to the dome, although I went a little slower just to make sure that he was okay. Eventually, after peering into the interior of the church from the upper chapel, I made it to the top and the view was stunning. Dresden, due to the fire-bombing, was demolished, and the new city today mimics its destroyed predecessor. It is located along the river Elbe, and the banks of the river are extremely green and free of buildings. It's a fairly small city, especially compared to Berlin and was very refreshing.
I descended to the ground level, reunited with my companions and we walked along a raised river walk next to several older-looking buildings, passing by the city's cathedral, theater and other impressive structures. Our destination was the art gallery, which I wished to see, as it had two paintings by Johannes Vermeer, my favorite artist. I was (and is) my goal to see as many paintings of his as possible in my lifetime. So far, I have seen about eight. The gallery itself was impressive, and quite doable for a museum, as it was a little smaller than most. It has quite a lot of excellent works and I highly recommend it.
Afterwards, we walked back towards the main station, and had an early dinner at the old market, from several of the booths. Barbara and I had crepes, and my grandfather had a much-desired bratwurst, all of which was followed by a beer or two at a local cafe to kill time before our bus departed. Then, we made the slow walk back to the stop, as it had been quite a long day, and caught the more crowded bus back to Berlin.
All in all, the day in Dresden was highly enjoyable as I had long desired to go, was with my grandparents and on a beautiful day. The majority of the city's attractions are within the old city center, which is quite small and the entire place is very walkable. It is an excellent day or overnight trip, especially from Berlin and I'm very happy I was able to journey there.
Next post: as always promised, catching you up to the present!
The bus-ride there was uneventful but quite lovely. We used a different company than the one I had been on for my previous trip to Hamburg and it was much nicer. For one, the wifi actually worked, and the accommodations were better. I read Harry Potter (was on Half-Blood Prince at this point), and gazed out the window at the green and flat land of east Germany.
We arrived after a few hours at the main station of the city and after adventuring around the station, which was quite impressive, we wandered towards the old city center with vague idea of our plan for the afternoon. In one of the main platzes, we discovered the Alt-Markt, literally, the old market, and explored it for a bit before setting off towards the Frauenkirche, one of Dresden's most famous landmarks.
The church is circular, and was finished in 2005 although it replicates the style of the church that was destroyed in World War II. Around it, is a plaza with many cafes and shops. There, we browsed for souvenirs (I got some postcards and a pair of Ampelmann earrings - they're so cute!), and had gelato. We also wandered through the impressive interior of the church, marveling at the gorgeous interior. Then, I decided to climb to the top of the dome, while my grandfather and Barbara grabbed a snack and a drink at a local cafe.
My trip to the top was begun by communicating through broken German and smiles with an older gentleman who with me in the elevator. Then, we kept about the same pace as we walked up the spiral ramp and stairs to the dome, although I went a little slower just to make sure that he was okay. Eventually, after peering into the interior of the church from the upper chapel, I made it to the top and the view was stunning. Dresden, due to the fire-bombing, was demolished, and the new city today mimics its destroyed predecessor. It is located along the river Elbe, and the banks of the river are extremely green and free of buildings. It's a fairly small city, especially compared to Berlin and was very refreshing.
I descended to the ground level, reunited with my companions and we walked along a raised river walk next to several older-looking buildings, passing by the city's cathedral, theater and other impressive structures. Our destination was the art gallery, which I wished to see, as it had two paintings by Johannes Vermeer, my favorite artist. I was (and is) my goal to see as many paintings of his as possible in my lifetime. So far, I have seen about eight. The gallery itself was impressive, and quite doable for a museum, as it was a little smaller than most. It has quite a lot of excellent works and I highly recommend it.
Afterwards, we walked back towards the main station, and had an early dinner at the old market, from several of the booths. Barbara and I had crepes, and my grandfather had a much-desired bratwurst, all of which was followed by a beer or two at a local cafe to kill time before our bus departed. Then, we made the slow walk back to the stop, as it had been quite a long day, and caught the more crowded bus back to Berlin.
All in all, the day in Dresden was highly enjoyable as I had long desired to go, was with my grandparents and on a beautiful day. The majority of the city's attractions are within the old city center, which is quite small and the entire place is very walkable. It is an excellent day or overnight trip, especially from Berlin and I'm very happy I was able to journey there.
Next post: as always promised, catching you up to the present!
Everday Life in Berlin, Complimented by Harry Potter
So, now the challenge is catching you all up on the past ten days of my life and then you will all be aware of my current situation. With less than two weeks to go.
The Sunday after our Hamburg trip, I attended a brunch hosted by my study abroad program for study abroad advisors and counselors for various colleges and universities. The program had asked for students and host families to attend and answer and questions that the visitors might have about the program and the city. I figured, it was free food and you never know who you might meet, so I volunteered. Overall, it was just being nicely interrogated about the program and my thoughts on how things were run and opinions on Berlin. I snagged brunch, and a free sandwich for later, as well some cake, so it was fairly chill.
I was in a good mood, as before I had left, I had been tickling my host brother while he was bouncing on the couch. When I arrived at home, the flat was empty and I churned out some homework (after reading Harry Potter, I'll admit). My host parents arrived home and dinner was very relaxed and the three of us chatted, as my younger host brother fell asleep at the table.
The next day, I yet again had class, but decided to take a mental health day and used my second skip day for German, as I had no desire to attend and wanted to sleep in. Therefore, my morning was quite relaxed and I headed to my history class in no rush. The course itself was fairly boring and the morning was uneventful.
However, that day my grandfather and his wife had arrived in the city. My father is English and my entire paternal side of the family is located there. Pappy and Barbara had decided to take advantage of the fact that I was in Europe and decided to visit me. I hadn't seen either of them in nearly two years so it was a lovely reunion. I gave them walking and bus tour of Unter Den Linden, as I am a professional at that now, and we had a light dinner together. It was really nice to catch up and see them, and we made plans for what they would do the next day while I was at school and when we would meet up in the evening.
Tuesday was yet again another day at the partner college. However, my Holocaust class met instead at the House of the Wannsee Conference, the location of the conference where the Nazi regime decided to implement the Final Solution. The house is an information center, and is extremely well researched.
However, the cons of the field trip were that it took forever to get there as it was quite out of the way, our tour guide was very verbose, and I was not feeling well as a result of too little sleep and a headache. As a result, I decided after a draining tour to skip my second class and return home for a nap. Said nap did little to refresh me and I was more drained following it, and still suffering from a headache. I grabbed dinner with my grandfather and Barbara at Alexanderplatz. That evening, the TV tower was especially gorgeous with the sky and the light cast by the setting sun.
Throughout the evening, the three of us discussed plans for the next day and decided to take a day trip to Dresden, which was only about two hours away by bus. After some technical difficulties, I secured us three seats on a bus for only fourteen euros each, round trip. I do love European transportation.
Next post: Dresden and more catching up. Apologies.
The Sunday after our Hamburg trip, I attended a brunch hosted by my study abroad program for study abroad advisors and counselors for various colleges and universities. The program had asked for students and host families to attend and answer and questions that the visitors might have about the program and the city. I figured, it was free food and you never know who you might meet, so I volunteered. Overall, it was just being nicely interrogated about the program and my thoughts on how things were run and opinions on Berlin. I snagged brunch, and a free sandwich for later, as well some cake, so it was fairly chill.
I was in a good mood, as before I had left, I had been tickling my host brother while he was bouncing on the couch. When I arrived at home, the flat was empty and I churned out some homework (after reading Harry Potter, I'll admit). My host parents arrived home and dinner was very relaxed and the three of us chatted, as my younger host brother fell asleep at the table.
The next day, I yet again had class, but decided to take a mental health day and used my second skip day for German, as I had no desire to attend and wanted to sleep in. Therefore, my morning was quite relaxed and I headed to my history class in no rush. The course itself was fairly boring and the morning was uneventful.
However, that day my grandfather and his wife had arrived in the city. My father is English and my entire paternal side of the family is located there. Pappy and Barbara had decided to take advantage of the fact that I was in Europe and decided to visit me. I hadn't seen either of them in nearly two years so it was a lovely reunion. I gave them walking and bus tour of Unter Den Linden, as I am a professional at that now, and we had a light dinner together. It was really nice to catch up and see them, and we made plans for what they would do the next day while I was at school and when we would meet up in the evening.
Tuesday was yet again another day at the partner college. However, my Holocaust class met instead at the House of the Wannsee Conference, the location of the conference where the Nazi regime decided to implement the Final Solution. The house is an information center, and is extremely well researched.
However, the cons of the field trip were that it took forever to get there as it was quite out of the way, our tour guide was very verbose, and I was not feeling well as a result of too little sleep and a headache. As a result, I decided after a draining tour to skip my second class and return home for a nap. Said nap did little to refresh me and I was more drained following it, and still suffering from a headache. I grabbed dinner with my grandfather and Barbara at Alexanderplatz. That evening, the TV tower was especially gorgeous with the sky and the light cast by the setting sun.
Throughout the evening, the three of us discussed plans for the next day and decided to take a day trip to Dresden, which was only about two hours away by bus. After some technical difficulties, I secured us three seats on a bus for only fourteen euros each, round trip. I do love European transportation.
Next post: Dresden and more catching up. Apologies.
Hamburg - A Mixed Bag
The following morning, I arose early and took the S-Bahn to the bus station, where I met up with my program. We boarded the three-hour bus to Hamburg and managed to take over the entire top floor of the vehicle. The journey there was fairly boring, as the region of Germany is insanely flat and green. However, it was quite pretty, and we regularly passed windmill farms which were interesting. I chatted with a friend and continued to reread Harry Potter, a task that I had started over spring break and was now on Order of the Phoenix.
Upon arriving in the city, we went to our hostel, had lunch, and then promptly waited for over an hour for our rooms to be ready. This cut into our planned city center walk, resulting in us only having about fifteen minutes to wander around as we pleased, and then rushing to make it to our harbor boat tour in time. The tour itself was disappointing as the live audio was in German, the English commentary was recorded, and my program was incredibly loud, making it hard to hear the recorded and live commentary for everyone else, including the ten or so other tourists who had the unfortunate chance of being stuck on the boat with us. However, the harbor itself was neat, as we saw a cruise ship, several large container ships, various neat older and newer buildings and dry-docks.
On our way to dinner, we encountered a peaceful protest which was demanding German recognition of the Armenian genocide, of which it was the anniversary. It was interesting, and gave me something to mull over on the walk to the restaurant through a beautiful green park. Dinner itself was my own personal hell, as it was loud, involved lots of beer, drunken people and socializing after a long day. As soon as we were able, my friend and I fled, and walked back to our hostel, where we decompressed and called it a night.
The next morning, we embarked on a tour of the largest development site in Europe, Hafen City. It's located in a former harbor area that the city took over and is currently developing. The central location makes the area extremely influential and the project is attempting to build and create a district of leisure, residential, business, commerce, green and public spaces. I found the entire tour fascinating, although most of my peers did not. It was an incredible combination of politics, history, architecture and urban planning at work.
Oh, and to top it off, despite the miserable weather, there was a Junker flying above the city. I think, after some fighting with Google Translate and basic research, it was a Ju 52, but it was still really cool to see. When I first heard the radial engines, my immediate thought was it was a Ford TriMotor, but after a few seconds pause, my friend and I guessed it was a Junker, which was then confirmed by our tour guide.
Following that, we grabbed lunch at a local cafe and then split up into groups. I choose to go to the Miniatur Wunderland, a massive collection of worlds in miniature, including Hamburg, Scandinavia, Switzerland, America, a fully functioning airport and more. I've been wanting to see this attraction for years, when this video circulated among my group of aviation friends. The attraction was quite crowded, and I wish I had more time to spend there, as there were so many tiny little details to notice. For example, I found a man having a bath with a penguin and two cows (!) scuba-diving. Add in a functioning cruise ship model, miniature trains running overhead and under the floor and stairs, and the airport? I was in heaven. It was super geeky and amazing.
Afterwards, my friend and I headed back to the hotel where we decompressed before our bus-ride home with a few (well, him two, me one) rum-and-cokes. The bus ride home was uneventful and boring, as it was at night and there was nothing to see. I finished Order of the Phoenix and fell asleep on and off. I was quite happy to be back in Berlin, as the trip had been exhausting socially and I was ready to be by myself.
Next up, catching you all up, again.
Upon arriving in the city, we went to our hostel, had lunch, and then promptly waited for over an hour for our rooms to be ready. This cut into our planned city center walk, resulting in us only having about fifteen minutes to wander around as we pleased, and then rushing to make it to our harbor boat tour in time. The tour itself was disappointing as the live audio was in German, the English commentary was recorded, and my program was incredibly loud, making it hard to hear the recorded and live commentary for everyone else, including the ten or so other tourists who had the unfortunate chance of being stuck on the boat with us. However, the harbor itself was neat, as we saw a cruise ship, several large container ships, various neat older and newer buildings and dry-docks.
On our way to dinner, we encountered a peaceful protest which was demanding German recognition of the Armenian genocide, of which it was the anniversary. It was interesting, and gave me something to mull over on the walk to the restaurant through a beautiful green park. Dinner itself was my own personal hell, as it was loud, involved lots of beer, drunken people and socializing after a long day. As soon as we were able, my friend and I fled, and walked back to our hostel, where we decompressed and called it a night.
The next morning, we embarked on a tour of the largest development site in Europe, Hafen City. It's located in a former harbor area that the city took over and is currently developing. The central location makes the area extremely influential and the project is attempting to build and create a district of leisure, residential, business, commerce, green and public spaces. I found the entire tour fascinating, although most of my peers did not. It was an incredible combination of politics, history, architecture and urban planning at work.
Oh, and to top it off, despite the miserable weather, there was a Junker flying above the city. I think, after some fighting with Google Translate and basic research, it was a Ju 52, but it was still really cool to see. When I first heard the radial engines, my immediate thought was it was a Ford TriMotor, but after a few seconds pause, my friend and I guessed it was a Junker, which was then confirmed by our tour guide.
Following that, we grabbed lunch at a local cafe and then split up into groups. I choose to go to the Miniatur Wunderland, a massive collection of worlds in miniature, including Hamburg, Scandinavia, Switzerland, America, a fully functioning airport and more. I've been wanting to see this attraction for years, when this video circulated among my group of aviation friends. The attraction was quite crowded, and I wish I had more time to spend there, as there were so many tiny little details to notice. For example, I found a man having a bath with a penguin and two cows (!) scuba-diving. Add in a functioning cruise ship model, miniature trains running overhead and under the floor and stairs, and the airport? I was in heaven. It was super geeky and amazing.
Afterwards, my friend and I headed back to the hotel where we decompressed before our bus-ride home with a few (well, him two, me one) rum-and-cokes. The bus ride home was uneventful and boring, as it was at night and there was nothing to see. I finished Order of the Phoenix and fell asleep on and off. I was quite happy to be back in Berlin, as the trip had been exhausting socially and I was ready to be by myself.
Next up, catching you all up, again.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
The Opera and Train Strikes
Seeing as I'm stuck at home with a sore throat, a cough and a stuffed nose, I figured I'd take the time to procrastinate some more on my final papers and finally catch up on this blog, which has been woefully neglected due to the avalanche of events that followed my spring break, so here we go.
Wednesday April 22 was marked primarily by homework, a lazy morning, the start of my last month in Berlin and the GDL train strike. I spent most of the day at home and only went out in the evening to meet up with my friend and his visiting friend yet again. They were about two hours late, as they had traveled across the city fighting effects of the train strike that had started that day. We chatted for a few hours until I yet again had to bid farewell to return home and work on school work. I also learned that I had been voted to the history student board for the oncoming year at my home institution.
It was slightly fortunate that I wanted to be home-orientated that day as due to the strike, the international/national, regional and city train were either been shut down or were operating on a very reduced schedule. Fortunately, the BVG, Berlin's transit company, had not struck, so the U-Bahn (metro/underground/subway/whatever), the busses and trams all still ran and I was able to commute to the bar earlier. However, even this was not enough and the city slowed down immensely, with increased crowds on the still operating public transport. Train strikes are so much fun.
The following day, the strike was still on, but didn't affect me, as I was able to go to classes without any issue. This was fortunate as I had two more presentations, another on Albert Speer and the other taking form as a German oral exam. Fortunately, I did quite well in both.
That evening my program had the option to attend the Komische Oper's performance of Odysseus. Seeing as I had never been to an opera before and the performance choice, I was looking forward to it. I also had the chance to dress up again, and choose to fauxhawk my newly-cut hair for the first time ever. I was pleased with my result and that combined with an enjoyable performance made the evening quite worthwhile.
The opera itself was, to me, quite normal, when compared to the rest of the German theater that I had seen. It was a more humorous take on the story, and I enjoyed it, especially since I was actually able to understand what was going on due to subtitles and previous knowledge. The same cannot be said of many of my peers. During the performance, I counted five of them who fell asleep, and during intermission, the majority of them left. Of the twenty-five-ish who attended, only about seven of us stayed through the end of the performance.
On the way home, myself and a girl from my program were engaged in conversation by an elderly American woman who had overheard us speaking in English and chimed in. She was fascinating, as she said she was living in Berlin for three months just to attend operas, she spoke no German, had previously lived in Spain for nine months, and lived normally in the Caribbean. Sadly, our talk was cut short due to train changes and different routes home. I was quite happy to find that the strike was over and I was able to return home my normal route without any difficulty.
Once I arrived home, I Facetimed my mother and frantically packed for Hamburg, as my program was leaving early the next morning for an overnight excursion there. I also managed to sort out my summer housing issue, and received the good news that a close friend of mine had received a long-awaited acceptance to a master's program, which made me incredibly happy and I fell asleep on a good note.
Stay tuned for the next post in which I talk about my adventures in Hamburg.
Wednesday April 22 was marked primarily by homework, a lazy morning, the start of my last month in Berlin and the GDL train strike. I spent most of the day at home and only went out in the evening to meet up with my friend and his visiting friend yet again. They were about two hours late, as they had traveled across the city fighting effects of the train strike that had started that day. We chatted for a few hours until I yet again had to bid farewell to return home and work on school work. I also learned that I had been voted to the history student board for the oncoming year at my home institution.
It was slightly fortunate that I wanted to be home-orientated that day as due to the strike, the international/national, regional and city train were either been shut down or were operating on a very reduced schedule. Fortunately, the BVG, Berlin's transit company, had not struck, so the U-Bahn (metro/underground/subway/whatever), the busses and trams all still ran and I was able to commute to the bar earlier. However, even this was not enough and the city slowed down immensely, with increased crowds on the still operating public transport. Train strikes are so much fun.
The following day, the strike was still on, but didn't affect me, as I was able to go to classes without any issue. This was fortunate as I had two more presentations, another on Albert Speer and the other taking form as a German oral exam. Fortunately, I did quite well in both.
That evening my program had the option to attend the Komische Oper's performance of Odysseus. Seeing as I had never been to an opera before and the performance choice, I was looking forward to it. I also had the chance to dress up again, and choose to fauxhawk my newly-cut hair for the first time ever. I was pleased with my result and that combined with an enjoyable performance made the evening quite worthwhile.
The opera itself was, to me, quite normal, when compared to the rest of the German theater that I had seen. It was a more humorous take on the story, and I enjoyed it, especially since I was actually able to understand what was going on due to subtitles and previous knowledge. The same cannot be said of many of my peers. During the performance, I counted five of them who fell asleep, and during intermission, the majority of them left. Of the twenty-five-ish who attended, only about seven of us stayed through the end of the performance.
On the way home, myself and a girl from my program were engaged in conversation by an elderly American woman who had overheard us speaking in English and chimed in. She was fascinating, as she said she was living in Berlin for three months just to attend operas, she spoke no German, had previously lived in Spain for nine months, and lived normally in the Caribbean. Sadly, our talk was cut short due to train changes and different routes home. I was quite happy to find that the strike was over and I was able to return home my normal route without any difficulty.
Once I arrived home, I Facetimed my mother and frantically packed for Hamburg, as my program was leaving early the next morning for an overnight excursion there. I also managed to sort out my summer housing issue, and received the good news that a close friend of mine had received a long-awaited acceptance to a master's program, which made me incredibly happy and I fell asleep on a good note.
Stay tuned for the next post in which I talk about my adventures in Hamburg.
Potsdam and Presentations
Wow, it's been a while. Apologies, but I do need to pull the "I've been busy" excuse, as it's true. The past three weeks have just been non-stop movement and events, and this is one of the few times that I've been able to sit down and type. Even now though, I have to leave in twenty minutes so therefore my time is limited.
When I left you last I was about to go to Potsdam, which is a smaller city on the outskirts of Berlin that is home to many palaces of the Prussian royal family. It was a beautiful day, and after dodging beggars, scammers and insistent rose sellers in Alexanderplatz, I met up with my program and we boarded the train for the quick journey there.
In Potsdam, we walked around the city center, seeing a variety of older buildings and enjoying the sunshine, and then went through the beautiful palace gardens to Schloss Sanssouci, which was the former summer home of Frederick the Great. We received an incredibly detailed typical German tour of the palace, which was small (for a palace) but quite impressive. By the end of our time there, my brain was overloaded in information about various pieces of furniture and other miscellaneous things that I would have never learned about on an American tour. Also, fun fact, since Fredrick the Great introduced potatoes to Germany, he is honored by people today who leave potatoes on his grave. 100% serious.
Following our tour, my friend and I walked with the group back to the train station and then headed (quite belatedly) to meet my parents for dinner, as it was their final night in Berlin. The four of us had a quiet but enjoyable dinner at an Italian restaurant, where we communicated in three languages and mimes with the waiters. Afterwards, we went our separate ways and I briefly attended my local friend's birthday party, which was lovely, before calling it a night and heading home, as I was totally exhausted.
The next morning, I met my parent at the main train station to bid them farewell, as they boarded their train to Amsterdam, where their flight home was based in a few day time. As their train pulled out of the platform, I nearly burst into tears. It had been so nice having them around and to have them leave was incredibly sad, although I reminded myself that I would be home in exactly a month.
After composing myself and some miscommunication, I met up with my friend and a friend of his who was visiting for the week from Paris where she was studying abroad. The three of us perused Mauerpark and then went out for another three-liter tap of beer at one of our favorite bars. After a couple hours chatting, I headed home, as I needed to do school work. Along the way, I saw a drug deal, whoohoo! Other than that, the day wasn't particularly exciting, as I simply began to solidly chip away at the first of five presentations that I would be giving in the oncoming week.
Monday, I spent in class, where I presented one of my projects (Albert Speer - the NSDAP Architect), and then headed home to work on two more presentations for the following day, one on Elie Weisel, and the other on Economic Measures against Jews in the NSDAP regime. I had a lovely dinner with my host family, with whom I am increasingly becoming closer and also received word that my proposal for senior departmental honors had been accepted, which made me extremely happy.
Tuesday was another boring day spent in class at the partner college, listening to my peers' stupid presentations, and then giving my own stupid presentation. The first class, I presented with my friend. The second class, said friend left to go hang out with his visiting friend, and I was left alone, as our third partner was traveling. We had originally planned to present the following week when two of the three of us would be there, but I impulsively decided to present on my own, as I knew most of the stuff and wanted it out of the way.
Following classes I went to get a much-needed haircut with my hostmother who was willing to help serve as a translator just in case. However, since I decided to get the haircut then and not schedule an appointment for another day, she needed to leave about fifteen minutes in. Fortunately, my stylist was really nice and between her little English and my little German we managed to communicate and in the end, I received a haircut that I was quite happy with. After some laughs with my stylist over the communication barrier, I tipped her well for her patience and kindness and headed home to relax for a bit.
That evening I went to stammtisch, our program's regular night out, where I hung out with my friend and his visiting friend. The event was at Berlin's oldest biergarten and it was quite lovely. After a beer and some food, I headed home and called it a night, quite content with my haircut and life.
My enthralling adventures continue in the next post.
When I left you last I was about to go to Potsdam, which is a smaller city on the outskirts of Berlin that is home to many palaces of the Prussian royal family. It was a beautiful day, and after dodging beggars, scammers and insistent rose sellers in Alexanderplatz, I met up with my program and we boarded the train for the quick journey there.
In Potsdam, we walked around the city center, seeing a variety of older buildings and enjoying the sunshine, and then went through the beautiful palace gardens to Schloss Sanssouci, which was the former summer home of Frederick the Great. We received an incredibly detailed typical German tour of the palace, which was small (for a palace) but quite impressive. By the end of our time there, my brain was overloaded in information about various pieces of furniture and other miscellaneous things that I would have never learned about on an American tour. Also, fun fact, since Fredrick the Great introduced potatoes to Germany, he is honored by people today who leave potatoes on his grave. 100% serious.
Following our tour, my friend and I walked with the group back to the train station and then headed (quite belatedly) to meet my parents for dinner, as it was their final night in Berlin. The four of us had a quiet but enjoyable dinner at an Italian restaurant, where we communicated in three languages and mimes with the waiters. Afterwards, we went our separate ways and I briefly attended my local friend's birthday party, which was lovely, before calling it a night and heading home, as I was totally exhausted.
The next morning, I met my parent at the main train station to bid them farewell, as they boarded their train to Amsterdam, where their flight home was based in a few day time. As their train pulled out of the platform, I nearly burst into tears. It had been so nice having them around and to have them leave was incredibly sad, although I reminded myself that I would be home in exactly a month.
After composing myself and some miscommunication, I met up with my friend and a friend of his who was visiting for the week from Paris where she was studying abroad. The three of us perused Mauerpark and then went out for another three-liter tap of beer at one of our favorite bars. After a couple hours chatting, I headed home, as I needed to do school work. Along the way, I saw a drug deal, whoohoo! Other than that, the day wasn't particularly exciting, as I simply began to solidly chip away at the first of five presentations that I would be giving in the oncoming week.
Monday, I spent in class, where I presented one of my projects (Albert Speer - the NSDAP Architect), and then headed home to work on two more presentations for the following day, one on Elie Weisel, and the other on Economic Measures against Jews in the NSDAP regime. I had a lovely dinner with my host family, with whom I am increasingly becoming closer and also received word that my proposal for senior departmental honors had been accepted, which made me extremely happy.
Tuesday was another boring day spent in class at the partner college, listening to my peers' stupid presentations, and then giving my own stupid presentation. The first class, I presented with my friend. The second class, said friend left to go hang out with his visiting friend, and I was left alone, as our third partner was traveling. We had originally planned to present the following week when two of the three of us would be there, but I impulsively decided to present on my own, as I knew most of the stuff and wanted it out of the way.
Following classes I went to get a much-needed haircut with my hostmother who was willing to help serve as a translator just in case. However, since I decided to get the haircut then and not schedule an appointment for another day, she needed to leave about fifteen minutes in. Fortunately, my stylist was really nice and between her little English and my little German we managed to communicate and in the end, I received a haircut that I was quite happy with. After some laughs with my stylist over the communication barrier, I tipped her well for her patience and kindness and headed home to relax for a bit.
That evening I went to stammtisch, our program's regular night out, where I hung out with my friend and his visiting friend. The event was at Berlin's oldest biergarten and it was quite lovely. After a beer and some food, I headed home and called it a night, quite content with my haircut and life.
My enthralling adventures continue in the next post.
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