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.
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