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.