Last Post from Berlin

Last time I'll walk home from Hackescher Markt.

Last time I'll go to the grocery store to return my empty bottles.

Last time I'll say goodnight to my host family.

Last time I'll have to sit on my suitcase to make everything fit (here's hoping).

Last time I can use the present tense and say "I live in Berlin".

Last time I'll sleep in my bed here.

Last time I'll close the blinds.

Lots of "lasts", but it all comes back to time.  There's simultaneously too much of it and too little.

This may be a time of "lasts" but it's not goodbye forever.  I'll be back, Berlin - you can count on it!

Lasts and Goodbyes

The past week or so I've been thinking primarily in terms of "lasts"

Today was my last Friday in Berlin.

Today was (most likely) the last sunny day that I'll spend in Berlin.

Yesterday was the last time I'll have to present an art project in German (well, hopefully in any language).

Today was the last day that I'll go to IES.

Yesterday was the last day that I'll see most of the friends that I've made this term.

Wednesday was the last day that I'll do laundry at my host-family's apartment.



I leave Berlin to go to Stuttgart in 41 hours.  41 hours.  I can't even accurately describe how I'm feeling right now.  It's some combination of sadness, thankfulness, joy, accomplishment, and some more sadness. I'm sad because I'm leaving Berlin and I really don't want to.  I could honestly see myself living here for the rest of my life (or at least for a while).  I'm thankful for all of the wonderful people that I've met and for the fact that I've survived this term.  I'm joyful/happy because I'll be spending Christmas and New Years with my mom, stepdad, brother, and step-grandma in the south of Germany.  I just can't believe that my time here is over already.  I can't wait to see my friends and family at home, but I'm also not ready to leave yet...

I'll maybe post tomorrow, but I think I'll continue posting in this blog until I'm back in the states so you can read about my adventures over Christmas and New Years!

Finals Week/Hamburg Trip

So this is going to be a two post kind of night since I've been so neglectful in blogging lately!

I can't even remember when I posted last, but the last two weeks have gone by so quickly!

My finals went pretty well I think.  I'm not really sure about my grades, since all of my classes had at least 50% of the grade due in the last week.  But the most important thing is that I'm done!

I had two finals on Monday, one on Tuesday, none on Wednesday, and three on Thursday.  Since I didn't have any on Wednesday, I decided to meet up with my friends in Hamburg! (They are doing a nomadic trip through Europe for three weeks)  They took the train from Copenhagen to Hamburg on Wednesday, stayed one night in Hamburg, and then came to Berlin on Thursday!

I got to Hamburg about 4 hours before they did, so I spent the time walking around the harbor and the Passagenviertel (basically the main shopping area where there is a lot of foot traffic).  I had a map with me just in case, but I decided to walk around without using it so that I could experience Hamburg and not worry about where I was.  It actually worked out really well for me and I only got slightly lost twice...but I always knew where the Hauptbahnhof was, so everything worked out just fine!

After I picked up my friends from the train station we went to their hostel so that they could check in.  After they dropped off their stuff, we walked around for a bit, saw some more Christmas markets, and ate some dinner.  Neither of them speak any German, so I taught them a little bit - and they did pretty well!  You don't really need to know German to get around in Berlin/Hamburg, but it definitely does make things easier!  After we walked around for a bit more, it was time for me to catch my train back to Berlin.

I'm really glad I went - it was nice to see Hamburg for the first time!

I did all three of my finals on Thursday (well, one test and two presentations) and then went to our farewell dinner with all the IES people.  It was pretty nice, but it was kind of sad! Then I ended up going out to a bar with a few of them (although I was home around midnight), but it was fun!  I had to say goodbye to a bunch of people and that was pretty sad!

I leave on Sunday...that's LESS THAN TWO DAYS. I can't even believe it.  But more on that in my next post.

It's Christmas Time!

Hi, my name is Stephanie, and I am addicted to Christmas Markets.

But actually, it's becoming an issue (mostly monetarily)

The Christmas Markets opened on Monday, and my plan is to go to a different Christmas Market every day for 7 days.  It's been three days so far, and the plan is still on!

The Gendarmenmarkt Christmas Market (Probably the most well known one in Berlin)

Christmastime is my favorite time of year.  I just love the festivities and the decorations and everything about it!  The States doesn't celebrate Christmas anywhere close to how the Germans celebrate it...it's SO much better here!  I can't even explain how much I love Christmas here!

Marienkirche Christmas Market...out of the three I've been to so far, this one was my favorite.

My host mom actually has a stand at a Christmas Market near our house, which I'll be going to tomorrow!  It seems like a pretty hard job, she has to get there by noon and she gets home around 10 at night...not to mention that it's getting colder and colder!  In fact, speaking of the cold, it really is starting to get arschkalt here... I put in the liner of my winter jacket in today for the first time, because I'm pretty stubborn and didn't want to put it in earlier.  I'll probably wear a sweatshirt tomorrow so I might take the liner out again.  After all, I'm a Wisconsin girl - I can handle the cold pretty well!

As far as classes and such, I'll be ridiculously busy from now until I'm done with finals.  I have (I think) a total of 5 papers, 2 presentations, and 3 finals, all due before December 13th.  So, sorry in advance if I don't update for a while.  Besides going to Christmas Markets and doing homework, I really haven't been doing much of anything exciting lately.

Ahhh sorry I really haven't given up on you I promise!  It's just been crazy busy here!  I'll probably post this update in two posts so it doesn't get too long.

So I honestly don't even remember when I last posted...that's bad!  So last weekend my mom came and visited!  She arrived on Thursday night and left on Sunday night.  On Thursday I made my way to the airport to pick her up and then we headed to Friedrichstraße and had dinner before heading to my apartment.  She stayed with me this weekend and slept in my bed and I slept on the sofa couch in my room.  Once we got back to my apartment she met my host parents and then we sat around chatting a bit while watching the BAMBI awards that were actually taking place in Berlin that night!

The next day we got up bright and early and headed to my practicum.  My mom said she had a great time there and the kids really seemed to like her too!  We stayed there for a few hours and then headed on a "little" tour of part of Berlin! I honestly don't even remember everything that we saw, but it was a pretty long walk!  We saw the Brandenburger Tor, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Monument to the Roma and Sinti, the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, the Gendarmenmarkt, and so on!  We actually ended early from what I had planned because we were so tired!  We went out to dinner and then came home so I could do some homework and she hung out with my host family (all three children were over on Friday night).

On Saturday we got up early-ish and did another "little" tour.  We saw an art market and went around Museum Island and we also saw the Humboldt University and the monument to the book burning and so on and so forth!  We also went to the Nikolaiviertel (the oldest part of Berlin) and went to a museum inside of the church.  We were going to go to a movie this night, but we were both tired enough that we didn't feel like we needed to.  We did go to a huge bookstore though!

On Sunday we didn't do too much, since we had done a lot of the stuff on our list already!  We did head to the impressive Hauptbahnhof and we went to the Ku'damm and saw the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche!  Then we headed back to my apartment, hung out for a little while, and then headed to the airport!  I had to go to another play that night, so I dropped her off where she got on a bus.

It was a really great weekend, and it was silmiltaneously perfect timing and bad timing.  It was perfect timing because I actually didn't have any homework that was due on Monday or Tuesday, which meant I didn't have to spend much time doing homework at all.  However, it was also bad timing because it was pretty chilly and cloudy (I don't think we saw the sun at all) and it was the weekend before the Christmas markets open, which is one of my favorite things to do!  But we still had a great time and I'm really glad she got to come see me!

I'll post an update in the next day or two on classes and this past week!

Look, a Beth in Berlin!

Cute little boy iceskating near Potsdamer Platz with his penguin helper!

This was our view of the Fernsehturm all weekend

Productivity is great!

I HAVE CONQUERED THE PAPER OF ANGUISH AND DESPAIR! And it only took a total of 14ish hours, my entire library playlist (which is 120 songs), and 2,097 words.  It's more like 5.5 pages instead of 6, but it's done and anything else I add will either not help my point or will just be me repeating myself.

Also: WHY DO GERMANS HATE DOUBLE-SPACING???  Double-spacing is a beautiful beautiful thing.  It takes a 3 page paper and makes it into an almost 6 page paper - with one click of a button!  However, in all of my classes here, the professors want papers with 1.5 spacing.  Which means that instead of writing a little over three pages single spaced, I had to write closer to 4.5.  ...mind you, this is all in German.

Anyways, I thought I'd give you a little update on all of my classes:

Berlin in Literature: This paper that I wrote is for this class, and the topic was Bertolt Brecht.  There were three options that we could write about: a biography of Brecht, an analysis of his poetry, or an analysis of his play "die Dreigroschenoper" (The Threepenny Opera).  I chose to do an analysis of the play, and I think I like where I went with the paper - hopefully I made some good arguments and it makes sense in German!

Other than the paper, we've just been reading excerpts of books and poetry that either take place in Berlin or were written while the author was living in Berlin.  We haven't read a full book yet, although I'm pretty sure since now that it's after midterms, that we'll read at least one entire book.  I think my midterm went okay in this class.  It certainly wasn't perfect, but I know I didn't do horribly!

Theater in Berlin: This is the class that's probably the most work intensive, since we read (and see) one play every week.  I'm actually enjoying this class possibly more than my other ones.  We've read 3 plays and seen 4 (we didn't read the first one), and I've liked all of them except one.  This class has offered many opportunities for cultural experiences, so that's good!  We have to read another play by Wednesday, which is another Brecht play.  It seems relatively interesting, but Brecht is kind of a weird guy - so hopefully it's okay!

My midterm in this class went pretty well (I think)! I was able to answer all of the questions without having to make anything up, which is always good!

German: Honestly, I am not enjoying my German class.  I'm also not doing spectacularly in it, because I'm not interested in what we're learning about.  We've had to write a few essays, which I've actually done pretty well on (she really liked my last one!).  But we've taken two tests, which I haven't done too well on (and by that, I mean I didn't get A's).  Our midterm for this class was a presentation and a paper and I'm not too worried about it, because I think it went pretty well.

Art and Architecture: This class is...interesting.  The teacher is super nice and passionate about art, but he tends to ramble on and on, which makes him really hard to follow.  We also tend to just look at paintings and talk a little bit about them, without really learning about the artistic movement that the painting belongs to.  (and naturally all the midterm questions had to do with the artistic movements that we "learned" about)

The midterm for this class didn't go spectacularly, but I think I only made up one answer to one question - so that's okay.

Internship Seminar:  This class only meets once a week so that we have time to go to our internships, which is really nice!  We've been learning about the social market economy and other stuff to do with the economy, so it's been kind of interesting because I don't usually take classes like this!  Our midterms are a presentation on a topic that we got to choose (mine is on people with disabilities and their integration into society).  My presentation isn't until the end of this month, so I have plenty of time to work on it.

My practicum has been going well - I'm really getting to know each of the kids individually and I'm still able to understand them! :)

That's all for now - I have to read an entire play and do my German homework!

Food and Grocery Shopping

So, as you all know, I live with a host family.  IES Berlin says that the host families aren't required to feed you, but they may invite you to eat with them occasionally.  That's definitely true with my family! Pretty much every time they cook something, they invite me to eat with them, which is super nice!  However, (and this isn't really a complaint so much as an observation) I'm relatively sure that they don't know that vegetables other than potatoes exist!  Potatoes are a big staple of the German diet - but it's getting really boring to be eating potatoes almost every night!

One thing that I love about German grocery stores is the amazing fresh produce that they have!  Maybe it's because I come from a small town, but I've seen fresh fruit and vegetables here that I've never seen at home.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen a full head of cauliflower or leeks in Fond du Lac, but I bought one of each and cooked them the other day and it was great!  I love cooking fresh vegetables!  The grocery store that's in my building is pretty small, so sometimes I have to go to a different store to find exactly what I want.  But usually I just go to my grocery store and see what they have, and then make a plan from that!  (which is very weird for me, because usually I need a recipe!)  But the problem with using recipes here, is that all my recipes are in American measurements, and they don't always convert perfectly.

Speaking of food that I've never heard of/seen, do any of you know what this is? 

Apparently, it's Celery Root... from what I understand, it's usually used to make soup.  I saw it in the grocery store and asked my host mom what it was.

When I first got here, I didn't cook much - mostly because I felt like it was weird to cook when my host family was home. (I actually still kind of feel like that)  But now that I've been here for a while, I know when my family will be gone, so I usually cook then.  Mostly I've just been cooking enormous amounts of vegetables and then putting the extra in the fridge for later!

Another major difference in terms of food between America and Germany is "food safety". In America, after we're done eating, we immediately put the leftovers in containers in the fridge.  However, (and this could be just my host family, but I'm pretty sure it's a general thing) in Germany it's not uncommon to leave the leftovers in the pot on the stove until the next day's dinner.  At first I was really concerned about that, but then I thought about it... None of the stuff that they leave out is cream or dairy based.  It's usually potatoes (maybe some meat) with a sauce.  Then they heat it up and eat it again.  Now, I wouldn't do that personally, I would definitely put it right into the fridge! But I kind of maybe understand why they do?

Well I'm off to study for midterms!  I'm only really worried about 2 of them, so that's not too bad!

Sorry!

I haven't abandoned the blog, I promise!!  It's just been a busy week, and I haven't done too many interesting things!

My practicum is still going well!  I'm getting to know the kids really well, and for the most part, they're very sweet!  School is getting really busy, and I have three papers due this week...which is kind of a lot in my humble opinion!

My week was pretty uneventful... Last Sunday (the 20th), Tyler and I went and saw part of the "Berlin Festival of Lights", which was pretty cool!  I took a few pictures, but they didn't really turn out too well.  We walked from Brandenburger Tor all the way past Alexander Platz, which is a pretty long walk!  Basically the Festival of Lights is sort of like an art installation, but instead of actual art, it's done using projections, mostly on famous buildings/things, like the Brandenburger Tor or the Berliner Dom.

It was pretty cool, and I'm glad we went and saw it!

The school week was pretty uneventful, besides going to two plays; one on Monday and one on Tuesday.  In those two days, I'm pretty sure I spent more time in the theater than I spent sleeping!  Both plays were almost 4 hours long each...so it was a long two days!  The first one we saw was "Glaube, Liebe Hoffnung" which I actually enjoyed!  The one on Tuesday was "The Three-penny Opera", which I did not enjoy at all.  It's by Bertolt Brecht...and I don't know much about Brecht, but he seems like one weird man.  

Anyways, on Saturday (the 26th) Tyler and I decided to go to Potsdam to see the fall colors and such!  Plus Tyler hasn't been to Potsdam before, so we thought it would be a nice little day trip.  We walked around the Sanssouci Park for a while and took some pictures!  It was a nice day and we had really good weather!

These people wouldn't get out of my picture, so I just took it
anyways! :)

It was a really good day!  Well, I'd better be off to write my papers!  I promise I'll try to update more regularly!

Practicum

So (besides having to wake up at 6am to get there on time twice a week) I'm loving my practicum!

It takes 45 minutes each way, so it's a bit of a hike.  The school I'm doing the practicum at is called The Carl von Linne School for Disabled Children.  The kids can have any kind of disability that would hinder them from doing well in a "regular" school.  The class that I'm working in has 7 kids, which I think is great!  I'm really getting to know the kids well, which is nice.  One girl has high functioning autism, a few of the kids have learning disabilities, and a few have physical disabilities.  I think it's really going to be a learning experience.

I go on Mondays from 8am to 12:45 and Fridays from 8am to 11am.  On Mondays, the kids have math for two hours and I'm basically just go around and help them if they need it.  After math, they have two free periods, which is something completely different from in the States!  In the States we don't really have free periods (and if we do, it's just study hall)...but in the free periods here, the kids are free to go around the whole school, go outside, and basically do whatever they want.  It's amazing how much freedom they give the kids, and how they don't take advantage of it.  After the free period, they always come back to class on time, which I just don't think would happen in the States.

After free period I go with them to lunch and then to music class and then I head back to IES for my two classes in the afternoon.

Fridays are the only day I don't have class, but I have to wake up early anyways to go to the school!  Fridays they have German for two hours and then they have "Sachunterricht", which we don't have in the States.  It's basically like general knowledge class, and from what I understand they learn about anything from potatoes, to water, to whatever they think is interesting.  It's definitely a different type of class.  After class I go back home, take a nap, and then do homework or something.

It's only been one week so far, but I'm really liking it and I think I'm going to learn a lot.  It'll definitely be good for my resume!

Warning: This is an Unhappy Post

WARNING WARNING WARNING: This is going to be an unhappy post.

Ok, it's not going to be that unhappy.  I've just had a long day and I'm stressing about homework and money.

Thursdays are my worst day, since I'm in class from 8:30am until 6:00pm (with a small break where I can eat something, do a little reading, etc.) so that's one of the reasons that I'm so crabby.

I'm stressing just a little bit about money, but I'm pretty sure I'll be okay.  Another reason that I'm crabby is that a lot of people (both in my program and in different study abroad programs) are traveling a lot and going to other countries, and I just can't afford it.  I guess I feel that since I'm already in Europe I should travel, not to mention that I feel like everyone else is.  One of the main problems is that flying out of Berlin is enormously expensive because the current airport (there's a new one being built) is too small to handle the amount of flights that it currently has.  So flying to London from Berlin is around $276; not that I've looked or anything. ;)

I am glad that I'm not relying on my parents/grandparents for money while I'm here, but it just means that I have to make some sacrifices.  If it's not too expensive and I can find someone to go with me, I may go to Hamburg for a weekend, so we'll see what happens.

I'm actually not that crabby anymore...it is what it is.  Writing about it helped :)

I'll probably write about my practicum tomorrow.  I go on Mondays and Fridays and Monday it went really well!  I'll write about it in more detail soon!

A Plethora of Essays

Writing essays in German is hard.  I have to think about what I want to say, try to sound intelligent, translate what I want to say into German, and then somehow try to sound intelligent in German.  It's not as easy as it sounds since the majority of German essays I've written don't require too much intelligent thought.  (A lot of the time it's based on class discussion, which doesn't necessarily require "intelligent German")

In reality, I don't have a plethora of essays to write, but I do have two that are due (one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday) that I'm working on.  As well as a bunch of other homework...I guess school is actually starting. :(

...Incidentally, instead of writing them, I'm updating my blog...don't judge. :P

That Time When Classes Started and Stephanie Didn't Update Her Blog For a Week

Well...I've been remiss in updating this blog lately.  I'm going to blame it on classes starting and getting used to my new schedule...so let's go with that.

Besides classes, I really haven't been up to much this past week.  The weekend was pretty boring and I didn't do much.

Like I said, classes started this week (ok, technically they started last week, but four of my classes were delayed by a week).  My schedule isn't the greatest, but it seems like it will work pretty well with my practicum (which I'll write about in another post once it actually starts).  Tuesdays and Thursdays I essentially have classes all day, so that'll be a tad difficult.  Mondays I only have 2 classes and Wednesdays I only have 1 though, so those days will be the days I go to my practicum - as well as Fridays, when I don't have any classes.

As far as my classes go, they seem relatively interesting so far.  I like all of my teachers, too.

I'll probably talk about all of my classes in greater detail later, but for now I'll tell you a little about my Theater in Berlin class!

We had our first meeting on Monday, and went right to our first play!  We saw "Ödipus Stadt", which is about the story of Oedipus, beginning right before he finds out that he's married to his mother.  (If you haven't read/heard of Oedipus before, you're probably a tad confused/disturbed...so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus)

The play itself was...interesting.  It was my first experience of a play spoken in German, and I'm just glad I knew the history of Oedipus!  It would've been very hard to understand otherwise!  It was an interesting staging of the play - there weren't any real 'costumes' (the actors just wore regular clothes) and there also weren't any props.  It relied mainly on facial expressions and speaking, which was really interesting!

Other than that, I haven't done anything besides homework this week!  Hopefully I'll do something fun this weekend so I can blog about it! :)

Berliner Bears

So the first week of classes has been going well. Of the 5 classes that I'm taking, four of them don't start until next week, so it's been a very easy week! The one class that I've had (German Art & Architecture) seems pretty interesting.  The main reason a bunch of my classes were cancelled this week is because of "The Day of German Unity", which is tomorrow.  There's a big party at Brandenburger Tor that I'll probably go to for a little bit.

Yesterday, I didn't have class until 6:15, so I decided to go take a walk and see the bears at Köllnischer Park and to walk along The East Side Gallery.  It wasn't too cold yesterday, so I brought a book with me and read for a little while in the park.  The reason there are bears in the middle of Berlin is because the mascot of Berlin is the bear! :)

He was eating an apple! :)

East Side Gallery

Looking at the Spree from the East Side Gallery

Other than going on my walk and going to class, I didn't do much else yesterday. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Bin ich Berlinerin?

Both yesterday and today, I was able to give two different people directions (one in German and one in English)!  I had originally said that one of my goals was to be able to give someone directions, because that means two things:

1. I don't look like a tourist and I look comfortable enough in Berlin that someone thinks I live here (which I do!) :)

and 2. That I know Berlin well enough to be able to give directions (Thus, meaning I *probably* won't get lost as much! - although in reality I rarely get lost because of the awesome public transport system!)

I also said that would mean that I'm truly a Berliner.... But am I?

What does it mean to be a Berliner?  It can't be just living in Berlin, in my mind it has to be something more than that.  Am I a Berliner because when I accidentally ran into the "Oktoberfest" on Alexanderplatz I was annoyed at all of the tourists and "kitschig*"-ness?

I don't really have an answer right now, but maybe towards the end of my journey I will.  Maybe being a Berliner doesn't necessarily require you to live there; maybe being a Berliner has to do with where in your heart you feel the most "at home".  I love Berlin, and in a lot of ways I do feel at home, in a weird on-my-own kind of way.  I think that's why I feel at home at Lawrence as well; because I'm on my own.
Home is a weird concept.  My mom's house in Fond du Lac was definitely home, but was it the house or was it because it was where my mom lived?  Maybe it was both.  Although I feel at home at my mom's house here in Germany, it's not *my* home.  Is my dad's house in Fond du Lac my home, even though I technically haven't lived there since Sophomore year of high school?  Again, I don't really have answers here.  I will say that I use the word "home" interchangeably: When I'm at Lawrence and I'm going to my dad's house for the weekend I say "I'm going home". However when I'm leaving my dad's house to go back to school, I say "I'm going home".  Maybe you can have multiple places you call home - at this point I certainly don't have one specific "home".  Right now my home is in Germany, but come December that won't be the case.

Well...this was not actually a post about what I'm doing in Berlin, but it'll do! Classes started today (I only had one class) so I'm just trying to get used to another new schedule!  I need to read a play before one of my classes next week, so I need to get cracking on that! (It's "Die Jungfrau von Orleans" by Schiller for anyone who cares)

*there really isn't a good translation for kitschig, and I'm pretty sure in Wisconsin we use the German word.  I guess the closest translation would be "corny, tacky, and cheesy"

Visit to Swabia!

So, since Saturday (the 21st), I've been visiting my mom in Southern Germany.  We have a week break from school before "real" classes start, and while a lot of my classmates are traveling around Europe, I decided that it would be better (and cheaper!) to come visit my mom and step dad!

I arrived on Saturday afternoon in Stuttgart, where Mom and Martin picked me up.  Then Martin drove us to Bildechingen (where they live - it's a tiny town in Baden-Württemberg).  That night we had Schnitzel with fries, which is my favorite!  We had a relaxing day on Sunday - we went to Mom and Martin's favorite restaurant for brunch, which was delicious!  Then Mom dragged me to a Biergarten - which is a 45ish minute walk away.  It was okay - the view was beautiful!

On Monday night, Martin's mom Pauline arrived.  She came to join Mom and me on a couple of day trips that we had planned!  On Tuesday, the three of us went to Tübingen - which is a beautiful town! I took a ton of pictures, and between Mom and Pauline, I learned a lot!  We walked up to the castle, which is now used as a university building (and overlooks all of Tübingen) and then walked around the rest of the city and saw some churches as well.  I took a ton of pictures! (It was pretty foggy in the morning, but it cleared up after a while)

On Wednesday, Pauline and I went to Konstanz, which is on the Bodensee (Lake Constance, in English).  Mom couldn't go with us because she has started teaching an English extra-curricular at a local school during the lunch hour, but we had a great time!  Again, it was quite foggy in the morning, so unfortunately we couldn't see the Swiss Alps.  We walked along the lake for a bit, and then went and walked around the old part of Konstanz.  The buildings were all beautiful!  We also went into the most ornately decorated church that I've ever been in!  

 I don't know why the spacing is so weird with these pictures...blogger hates me, I guess.

Konstanz is RIGHT on the boarder to Switzerland, but unfortunately I didn't bring my passport with me, so we couldn't go in!  We might come back in December, though.  And if we do, I'll definitely bring my passport! :)

Today we had a relaxing morning, and then went shopping in a nearby town - where I bought a couple of warm sweaters!

I leave to go back to Berlin on Saturday, which is good in some ways and bad in others!  I'll be back here in December, though - and hopefully Mom (and maybe Martin) will come visit me in Berlin!

Busy Week!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted!  I had a really busy week!  So to catch you up:

Sunday, we went to the Reichstag.  I didn't know what to do beforehand, so I went to the Tiergarten (which is right near the Reichstag) and walked around for about an hour and a half.  It still amazes me that I live in this massive city, yet I can still find peaceful, green places like this!

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

I was there last December as well, but this time we actually got a tour of the inside of the Reichstag!  The tour itself was a little boring, but it was cool seeing the inside.

The Room where the German parliament votes

Russian graffiti from when the Russians had
control of the Reichstag

All in all, I'm glad I went, since I hadn't seen the inside of the Reichstag before!

On Tuesday, we went to an art museum for our German class.  It was actually the same museum that I went to last December, so I was thoroughly bored - not to mention that I don't like art museums much.  I didn't take any pictures...so just imagine a lot of boring paintings picturing Mary and the baby Jesus (I'm not even kidding - that's what most of this museum was).

On Wednesday, Tyler and I took a tour through a bunker used during WW2 and the Cold War.  The bunker that we went to is actually in an U-Bahn Station, which is pretty cool!  The tour itself was very interesting and informative - but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside :( 

Tomorrow we have another German test, which will determine which German class we will be in for the rest of the semester.  I'm not worried about it - I don't really care what class I get in to!

Other than that, I fly down to my mom on Saturday, and will stay there for a week!  So my posts will come from Southern Germany for a week!  We're planning on doing a couple of day trips as well as some relaxing days!

Deutsches Historisches Museum

So on Thursday, we went to the Deutsches Historisches Museum.  We were in groups of 2 or 3 and were assigned a specific time period.  We had to take pictures of some of the important artifacts and then on Friday we had to present on the period!

My group had The Reformation and the 30 Year War.  We picked that time period, because that's the time period that we knew the least about... Actually, every group picked earlier time periods (all before WWII), because we have learned about WWII and the aftermath basically every year in school.

So the museum was actually pretty interesting! I like history museums a lot (definitely more than art museums!), but I'm always exhausted afterwards because there is so much information!  We saw the Bible that Martin Luther translated from Latin to German (above), and a bunch of other really cool things!

During the plague, doctors would wear this
(with chemicals and smelling salts in the "beak") in order to not get sick.

After we finished looking around our section, we looked around some of the other areas.

After that, Tyler and I went out to eat at a cute and pretty reasonably priced restaurant!  I had Geschnetzeltes with Spätzle and Tyler had Putenschnitzel with Salzkartoffeln. It was delicious!

Potsdam and the Weekend

Ooops...sorry it's been a few days!  I was a little busy, but for the most part I was just lazy! :)

The end of last week wasn't all that exciting.  I had a meeting about possibly doing a practicum with kids that have autism, but I won't know much until I have a one-on-one meeting with the person in charge on Wednesday.  Even then, I probably won't be able to start until October, but that's okay.

Anyways, on Saturday we went to Potsdam!  It was a really long day - and it was sort of worth it.

I was in Potsdam last December and saw the whole area around Sanssouci (A palace in Potsdam - it means "No Worries"), which is what we did in the afternoon, so that was pretty repetitive.  In fact, I could pretty much guess what the tour guide was going to tell us next.

The morning was pretty informative, though!  We walked all around the city of Potsdam and saw some churches and other cool sights.  Our "tour guide" for the morning was actually one of the IES professors.  He was a pretty cool tour guide, although he did talk a lot.

The Brandenburger Tor in Potsdam (It's acually older than the
Brandenburger Tor in Berlin - and much smaller!)

This building used to be a horse barn!

After our tour through the city, we had lunch and then went to the Sanssouci Park.  The weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect - but that meant that the park was full of people!  The last time I was at Sanssouci it had snowed the night before and was super cold - so this was definitely a nice change of pace!  

Like I said, I didn't learn much of anything, but it was still nice to walk around and take some pretty pictures! :)

Other than that, I really didn't do that much this weekend.  Tyler and I went to a flea market in the Mauerpark, and even though I didn't buy anything, it was pretty fun!  

I'm not really liking my German class, because right now it's focusing a lot on grammar that I mostly know...oh well, I guess practice can't hurt!

Hopefully I'll do something exciting this week so I have something to write about!

     

Deutsch Unterricht

Well, the biggest news is that I made it into the highest German class!  I'm pretty happy about it, especially since it focuses a lot on speaking and not so much on grammar.  We are also learning about things like politics and crimes, which is cool and is expanding my vocab!

I haven't done much in the way of sightseeing so far this week...I have a little cold so I've been going to bed pretty early.  I've taken a couple of walks around the area that I live in and I've gone grocery shopping as well.  (I had mango-vanilla yogurt today and it was the best thing ever!)

I did find out that it's possible for me to do a practicum working with children that have autism!! I was talking to the lady in charge of practicums/internships and she said that the best Autistic school in Europe is located in Berlin and that they have had students do practicums there before! We're having a meeting about it tomorrow and I'm super excited! I hope it works out!

Other than that, not much has been going on... we're going to Potsdam on Saturday, so that should be fun - even though I've already been there.

Weekend Fun

This weekend was crazy busy and fun, which is why I haven't written!

Friday we took our placement test for German. I think it went pretty well, but we'll find out tomorrow!

After the placement test we had one short meeting and then we didn't have much to do.  Tyler and I met up with Amber - the friend from Lawrence who's in Berlin for a couple of days - to go do a little sightseeing.  We went to Brandenburger Tor and walked around in that area for a while! We also went to the Memorial to the murdered Roma and Sinti Gypsies, which I've seen before.  After that we went to a cafe next to the Berliner Dom to relax for a little bit.

The next day, I met up with Tyler and we cooked lunch in his apartment.  After that, we hung out with another girl from our program and then meet up with a larger group for dinner at a Thai restaurant.  That night was "Lange Nacht der Museen", where a bunch of museums (I think 95) are open from 6pm - 2am and you buy one ticket for 12 Euro and you can visit any museums you want to!  The ticket also covers transportation between museums.  We started pretty late, so we didn't get to go to as many as we wanted to.  We planned on going to museums that we weren't SUPER interested in, because those are ones that we want to see in more detail.  We ended up seeing the Museum for Film and Television, the Ethnological Museum, and the Museum for European Culture.  It was pretty fun - although I wished we had seen a few more!

Today we went on a Bus Tour around Berlin.  I had seen almost all of the sights before, so it was kind of boring...  Although I guess I did learn a little bit  more about some of the history.  (In all honesty, I read my book for part of the ride)

After the tour, Tyler and I went out for a "typical German" dinner.  I had schnitzel with Bratkartoffeln and vegetables! It was delicious (although not as good as when Martin makes it!)! :)