It's crazy to think that this weekend was my very last weekend in Berlin! Wow. The past 4 months have flown by incredibly fast and it's been a great experience here!
Yesterday our group decided to "beat Berlin!". Apparently, that meant to go out all night and stay up until 7am and get breakfast. I told my host-mom about the idea and she told me that she used to do the same thing every weekend when she was young! Ridiculous! I decided to go out and join, but wasn't going to stay out the entire night! Kelleen and I had plans to go to Peacock Island on Sunday and we were going to stick to that plan.
Everyone met up at the World Clock Tower at Alexanderplatz. We were supposed to meet up at 8:30PM, but Garrett had told some people 9PM. Kelleen, Emily, and I wandered over to the market that was nearby and looked around. Kelleen wanted her currywurst for dinner, so she got that. I saw cool string bracelets and the three of us got one as a symbol of our unity for the night. We didn't want to get wasted or stay out all night, so we were going to stick together.
I think all in all, there were 15 people in our group. Just while waiting at Alexanderplatz, we saw 3 bachelorette parties and one bachelor party. One of the groomsman was talking to a couple of the others when we walked over from the market. He had found out I was engaged and began joking about getting married so young. We continued talking to him for a while and then departed. He wished me luck with my man and a happy future, if not- to call him up. Haha!
Let's just cut to the "end" of my night. People were intoxicated, grumpy, snappy, and just not enjoyable to be around. I had had my fair share of the drunkards and was ready to head home. Kelleen, Emily, and Olivia and I headed towards the train station and we all headed home. Who knows how the rest of the night turned out for everyone. I'll find that out tomorrow.
Today, Kelleen and I went to Peacock Island. It was fairly nice out and the peacocks were out! We saw around 5 of them and a few of the males even flared their feathers up to put on a show! We wanted to find a feather, but didn't have any luck. A new student would be coming to live with us today. While Kelleen and I were walking towards the ferry, my host mom texted me. She said we would be having a wonderful cake and that if I was cold or hungry that I could join them. Kelleen heard the words "cake time" from my mouth and immediately agreed. I got home and was greeted sarcastically, as usual, by my host-mom. Julie, the new student, was in the hallway too. She does the whole kissing of the cheek greeting, which I'm not used to at all. No one really does it since they know we're Americans and don't greet that way. She's 19 years old from the french part of Switzerland. Her German is pretty good, so she's already off to a better start than the previous student we had with us! She also speaks English, so we have no trouble communicating!
I'll begin packing tonight and not procrastinate it! The next blog will be shortly before I head back to America! My host mom will be going with me to the airport to bid me farewell. Her first American and then three more this summer! I've started a trend! Be prepared for some definite Dinglish when I'm back!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Munich!
Munich was wunderbar! It was really fun and the hotel we stayed in was great! The name was Hotel Atlas Residence. Kelleen had made a itty-bitty error and told us that our hotel was called Hotel Atlanta. We spent a good amount of time hunting for this so-called hotel that we couldn't find. We walked into a hotel and asked the desk clerk there where our hotel was. She had no idea. She allowed Kelleen to use the computer to check her email with the hotel confirmation. Our hotel's name wasn't Hotel Atlanta. It was really Hotel Atlas Residence. MAJOR DIFFERENCE! The clerk then showed us on a map roughly where the hotel would be then. We wandered there and hoped we could check in an hour earlier than we were supposed to. Our room was clean and so we could check in! Everything seemed very arabic and everyone that we saw in the hotel was arabic. We didn't think anything of it when we had booked the hotel that it was main arabic place.
Our hotel was also a bright coral color so it wasn't hard to miss on the street! We were also a 5 minute walk, or even less from the main train station! Most things were closed while we were there since it was Easter weekend. Our room had a small kitchen in it so we went to the grocery store and bought some food to have while we were there. There was also free wifi! Woooo hooo! That helped us a lot to figure out our plans and such.
We arrived on Thursday and got groceries and then wandered around for a little bit before hanging out in our room an relaxing. Friday and Saturday would be full days for us and we didn't want to be exhausted.
Friday we went to Dachau in the morning. It was definitely an eye opening experience. It was the second concentration camp I had seen while being here, but this one had a greater impact. When you think of concentration camps, Dachau is or that comes to mind because it was one of the main camps. Kelleen, Olivia, and I wandered through the museum and I took a lot of pictures of everything. It was rainy and cold while we were there which added to the glumness of the day. After walking through the museum for two hours, we finished and discussed what we each wanted to see next. All of us wanted to see something different so we went separate ways. I headed to the very back of the camp to where the crematorium was. Kelleen went to the chapel and Olivia went to the barracks.
As soon as I entered the crematorium, I had this horrible feeling and sadness overwhelmed me. I walked through each of the rooms in the order the prisoners had walked through. I walked into the waiting room and looked around before walking intone changing room. The prisoners were told to undress there and then proceed into the showers room. The room even said showers room above the door. What a lie. It was the gas chamber. I stood in there for a few minutes noticing all of the holes and grates around the room where the poison would have been released. After that room was another room for the bodies before they were put in the ovens. I continued my way through the building and took pictures of every room. I exited as went to the smaller crematorium, which was the original one before the larger one was built. I wandered behind the large crematorium building and saw the places where the ashes were laid. I walked to every one. Had a moment of silence at each remembering those who had been killed. Along the path of the ashes were also the spots where prisoners were executed on the spot. Horrible. I continued wandering around the area and met back up with Olivia and Kelleen. We decided it was time to leave and move onto our happy activity of the day. BMW museum!!
We had to take replacement busses to the BMW museum since there was construction on the U-Bahn there. We got off the bus and I could see the building. I began running to it making Kelleen laugh. I didn't care! I was ready to see beautiful cars!
We walked towards BMW Welt and there were multiple motorcycles outside that you could sit on. I sat on one, had my picture taken, and walked towards the doors of BMW Welt. I was so excited and thrilled to be there. I was a little too excited and the next minute I knew I had caused a problem. My vertigo was set off and things began spinning. I immediately took my medicine and asked Kelleen and Olivia I walk me over to chairs nearby. I sat and stared at an engine in a glass case for a couple of minutes waiting for the dizziness to go away.
When I felt like it was gone, I went and got a keychain for Michael. I knew right away when I saw it that he would love it, especially since it was from the BMW plant in Munich. That's the headquarters of BMW in Germany. We walked over to the museum since we needed to make it through the museum before it closed. We got the student discount and I headed towards cars nearby. Kelleen and Olivia wandered on their own because they knew I would have absolute ADD while in there. I couldn't focus at all. Car after car I fell in love with BMW all over again and took a ton of pictures. I took pictures of just about everything! I loved the museum, but was disappointed they didn't have my favorite concept car there to see in person. Oh well. It was an amazing day full of history and gorgeous cars.
After the museum, I had to have my picture taken in front of it! Kelleen took a few pictures of me in front of the sign and the buildings before we went back into BMW Welt. That building was somewhat like the car dealership part where you could see and sit in most of the current editions of the cars. They had a Wii gaming station for te kids along with giant pillows and Nintendo DSs for kids to play with. The building even had an indoor rock climbing wall. Kelleen wanted to do it, but it was for kids only and they were closing all of the kid stations.
Everyone seemed tired from the day and we decided to head back to the hotel and relax. The next day we'd be spending the whole day in Schwangau to see castle Neuschwanstein.
The train ride to Füssen was two hours. We then had to take a bus from Füssen to Schwangau for Neuschwanstein. We got there late morning. It was obvious that it would be a touristy day. Pretty much everyone on the train was going to Neuschwanstein as well. Olivia an Kelleen wandered slowly while I headed directly to the ticket office. We stood in line for a while an watched the listings for the tours in English vanish. It was finally our turn to go up and purchase our tickets. We had decided on only seeing Neuschwanstein with the amount of time we had there. I asked about student discount, which saved us some money! Originally, we were going to make the trek up to the castle. We were hungry and decided to get lunch at one of the places there. Delicious. Bratwurst and French fries is always a great lunch in Germany! While we ate, people started playing the giant horn-like instrument. It was cool! I recorded them playing. Then it began to rain... which became baby hail... which eventually turned into snow. Weather here is just as unpredictable as Nebraska's! All three of us were already sick and decide we should take the bus up to the castle instead of the long walk. We had 2 hours before our tour, but didn't know what else to do! We went up to te castle and sat inside the gift shop for 2 hours. As we were standing outside waiting for our tour group number to be shown for entrance, a bride and groom walked up. The girl had to e freezing!!! It was snowing and she didn't even have a coat on! They took several pictures on the stairs of the castle. Our tour group number appeared and we headed over to the line. One of the castle employees came over and let us in. We began our tour that only lasted 30 or so minutes. It was nice seeing the castle again. This time it wasn't as pretty though, but that was only because of the scaffolding that covered a huge portion of Neuschwanstein.
We hadn't really planned very well. We didn't pay attention to what time the train from Füssen to München was!! Luckily, we didn't have that long of a wait. We did get back to München late and everyone was exhausted!
Kelleen and I stayed up fairly late the night. The next day meant Easter and that meant Kelleen would be able to have chocolate again! She had given jt up for Lent. What a ridiculous thing to do in Germany! As soon as my phone showed 00:00 I told Kelleen and she immediately ate a piece of chocolate. I laughed and continued watching the movie on TV. The next thing I knew, Kelleen sprang from her spot on her be and took out her giant thing of Ritter Sport chocolate. We finished the movie and went to sleep.
Easter! We planned to see the Glockenspiel play and then eat lunch at the Hofbräuhaus! I was excited! The sun was actually shining. We went to the Rathaus and waited for it to be noon. A huge group of people gathered to see it play as well. I recorded it and was happy that I had finally gotten to see it play.
We walked to the Hofbräuhaus and tried to find seats. It was packed!! We ate delicious food and I drank delicious German beer, so lunch was very successful. We wandered a bit around Munich and went to a church that Kelleen had wanted to see. Afterward, we all agreed on being tired and headed back to the hotel to enjoy our Easter chocolate and chill. We would have to be up at 4am the next day to head to the airport and then back to Berlin.
Oh! While on our way to Füssen, we were able to witness a German bachelor party. Later that night in the main train station, we witnessed another one! It was definitely a fun weekend and break from school.
Now the countdown is only 6 days until I return to America. It's crazy how fast time flies and all of the things I've had the privilege to see. It's been a great semester so far and will be strange to be back in a country where everyone speaks English!
Our hotel was also a bright coral color so it wasn't hard to miss on the street! We were also a 5 minute walk, or even less from the main train station! Most things were closed while we were there since it was Easter weekend. Our room had a small kitchen in it so we went to the grocery store and bought some food to have while we were there. There was also free wifi! Woooo hooo! That helped us a lot to figure out our plans and such.
We arrived on Thursday and got groceries and then wandered around for a little bit before hanging out in our room an relaxing. Friday and Saturday would be full days for us and we didn't want to be exhausted.
Friday we went to Dachau in the morning. It was definitely an eye opening experience. It was the second concentration camp I had seen while being here, but this one had a greater impact. When you think of concentration camps, Dachau is or that comes to mind because it was one of the main camps. Kelleen, Olivia, and I wandered through the museum and I took a lot of pictures of everything. It was rainy and cold while we were there which added to the glumness of the day. After walking through the museum for two hours, we finished and discussed what we each wanted to see next. All of us wanted to see something different so we went separate ways. I headed to the very back of the camp to where the crematorium was. Kelleen went to the chapel and Olivia went to the barracks.
As soon as I entered the crematorium, I had this horrible feeling and sadness overwhelmed me. I walked through each of the rooms in the order the prisoners had walked through. I walked into the waiting room and looked around before walking intone changing room. The prisoners were told to undress there and then proceed into the showers room. The room even said showers room above the door. What a lie. It was the gas chamber. I stood in there for a few minutes noticing all of the holes and grates around the room where the poison would have been released. After that room was another room for the bodies before they were put in the ovens. I continued my way through the building and took pictures of every room. I exited as went to the smaller crematorium, which was the original one before the larger one was built. I wandered behind the large crematorium building and saw the places where the ashes were laid. I walked to every one. Had a moment of silence at each remembering those who had been killed. Along the path of the ashes were also the spots where prisoners were executed on the spot. Horrible. I continued wandering around the area and met back up with Olivia and Kelleen. We decided it was time to leave and move onto our happy activity of the day. BMW museum!!
We had to take replacement busses to the BMW museum since there was construction on the U-Bahn there. We got off the bus and I could see the building. I began running to it making Kelleen laugh. I didn't care! I was ready to see beautiful cars!
We walked towards BMW Welt and there were multiple motorcycles outside that you could sit on. I sat on one, had my picture taken, and walked towards the doors of BMW Welt. I was so excited and thrilled to be there. I was a little too excited and the next minute I knew I had caused a problem. My vertigo was set off and things began spinning. I immediately took my medicine and asked Kelleen and Olivia I walk me over to chairs nearby. I sat and stared at an engine in a glass case for a couple of minutes waiting for the dizziness to go away.
When I felt like it was gone, I went and got a keychain for Michael. I knew right away when I saw it that he would love it, especially since it was from the BMW plant in Munich. That's the headquarters of BMW in Germany. We walked over to the museum since we needed to make it through the museum before it closed. We got the student discount and I headed towards cars nearby. Kelleen and Olivia wandered on their own because they knew I would have absolute ADD while in there. I couldn't focus at all. Car after car I fell in love with BMW all over again and took a ton of pictures. I took pictures of just about everything! I loved the museum, but was disappointed they didn't have my favorite concept car there to see in person. Oh well. It was an amazing day full of history and gorgeous cars.
After the museum, I had to have my picture taken in front of it! Kelleen took a few pictures of me in front of the sign and the buildings before we went back into BMW Welt. That building was somewhat like the car dealership part where you could see and sit in most of the current editions of the cars. They had a Wii gaming station for te kids along with giant pillows and Nintendo DSs for kids to play with. The building even had an indoor rock climbing wall. Kelleen wanted to do it, but it was for kids only and they were closing all of the kid stations.
Everyone seemed tired from the day and we decided to head back to the hotel and relax. The next day we'd be spending the whole day in Schwangau to see castle Neuschwanstein.
The train ride to Füssen was two hours. We then had to take a bus from Füssen to Schwangau for Neuschwanstein. We got there late morning. It was obvious that it would be a touristy day. Pretty much everyone on the train was going to Neuschwanstein as well. Olivia an Kelleen wandered slowly while I headed directly to the ticket office. We stood in line for a while an watched the listings for the tours in English vanish. It was finally our turn to go up and purchase our tickets. We had decided on only seeing Neuschwanstein with the amount of time we had there. I asked about student discount, which saved us some money! Originally, we were going to make the trek up to the castle. We were hungry and decided to get lunch at one of the places there. Delicious. Bratwurst and French fries is always a great lunch in Germany! While we ate, people started playing the giant horn-like instrument. It was cool! I recorded them playing. Then it began to rain... which became baby hail... which eventually turned into snow. Weather here is just as unpredictable as Nebraska's! All three of us were already sick and decide we should take the bus up to the castle instead of the long walk. We had 2 hours before our tour, but didn't know what else to do! We went up to te castle and sat inside the gift shop for 2 hours. As we were standing outside waiting for our tour group number to be shown for entrance, a bride and groom walked up. The girl had to e freezing!!! It was snowing and she didn't even have a coat on! They took several pictures on the stairs of the castle. Our tour group number appeared and we headed over to the line. One of the castle employees came over and let us in. We began our tour that only lasted 30 or so minutes. It was nice seeing the castle again. This time it wasn't as pretty though, but that was only because of the scaffolding that covered a huge portion of Neuschwanstein.
We hadn't really planned very well. We didn't pay attention to what time the train from Füssen to München was!! Luckily, we didn't have that long of a wait. We did get back to München late and everyone was exhausted!
Kelleen and I stayed up fairly late the night. The next day meant Easter and that meant Kelleen would be able to have chocolate again! She had given jt up for Lent. What a ridiculous thing to do in Germany! As soon as my phone showed 00:00 I told Kelleen and she immediately ate a piece of chocolate. I laughed and continued watching the movie on TV. The next thing I knew, Kelleen sprang from her spot on her be and took out her giant thing of Ritter Sport chocolate. We finished the movie and went to sleep.
Easter! We planned to see the Glockenspiel play and then eat lunch at the Hofbräuhaus! I was excited! The sun was actually shining. We went to the Rathaus and waited for it to be noon. A huge group of people gathered to see it play as well. I recorded it and was happy that I had finally gotten to see it play.
We walked to the Hofbräuhaus and tried to find seats. It was packed!! We ate delicious food and I drank delicious German beer, so lunch was very successful. We wandered a bit around Munich and went to a church that Kelleen had wanted to see. Afterward, we all agreed on being tired and headed back to the hotel to enjoy our Easter chocolate and chill. We would have to be up at 4am the next day to head to the airport and then back to Berlin.
Oh! While on our way to Füssen, we were able to witness a German bachelor party. Later that night in the main train station, we witnessed another one! It was definitely a fun weekend and break from school.
Now the countdown is only 6 days until I return to America. It's crazy how fast time flies and all of the things I've had the privilege to see. It's been a great semester so far and will be strange to be back in a country where everyone speaks English!
Mexico of Europe!
Stettin Poland!
The school trip to Poland was... Poland. It was cold, rainy, and we could barely find a person that spoke German, let alone English! It was pretty entertaining to see Anja speaking English to people and trying to get a response out of the polish people. Everything was closed and even the polish people didn't know why! We were able to see a couple of things, but pretty much everyone wanted to hop back on the train to Berlin once we arrived in Stettin. The border police greeted us as soon as we stepped off the train and immediately asked us for our passports. Harald, from Norway, didn't have his passport. Anja sweet-talked the border guards into letting Harald stay in Stettin. Poland isn't in the EU and so we had to present our passports.
We walked around for a bit and headed towards the castle in Stettin. All of a sudden we saw people in costumes, traditional polish clothing. We decided it would be a good idea, mostly Olivia, to follow the people and see where it would lead us. It lead us to a old person choir competition. It was great! It was probably the highlight of Poland. One choir sang 'Amazing Grace' in Polish! The weather got nicer and we visited the harbor. Poland is the Mexico of Europe!! Everything is so cheap! That was our trip and here's a picture of the group from school who went.
The school trip to Poland was... Poland. It was cold, rainy, and we could barely find a person that spoke German, let alone English! It was pretty entertaining to see Anja speaking English to people and trying to get a response out of the polish people. Everything was closed and even the polish people didn't know why! We were able to see a couple of things, but pretty much everyone wanted to hop back on the train to Berlin once we arrived in Stettin. The border police greeted us as soon as we stepped off the train and immediately asked us for our passports. Harald, from Norway, didn't have his passport. Anja sweet-talked the border guards into letting Harald stay in Stettin. Poland isn't in the EU and so we had to present our passports.
We walked around for a bit and headed towards the castle in Stettin. All of a sudden we saw people in costumes, traditional polish clothing. We decided it would be a good idea, mostly Olivia, to follow the people and see where it would lead us. It lead us to a old person choir competition. It was great! It was probably the highlight of Poland. One choir sang 'Amazing Grace' in Polish! The weather got nicer and we visited the harbor. Poland is the Mexico of Europe!! Everything is so cheap! That was our trip and here's a picture of the group from school who went.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
"Beer Can" with a british accent
Time for another update! Things are starting to get busy again with more school trips to interesting places planned. Only a few more weeks left here. That's just crazy! Here's how my last week went:
Last Saturday, the trip for the day was to Potsdam to see Sanssouci and the garden. I had already been there previously with Jessica, Regan, and Tim. This time was completely different! The sun was shining and it was fairly warm! Spring had definitely made its appearance and we were welcoming it with open arms! My nice pale skin even got a bit sunburnt, but that went away within the next day.
Our group toured the Sanssouci palace. Of course, since we're all here to continue our German, the tour was in German. Unfortunately, the tour guide hadn't mastered the art of speaking loud enough for all to hear and at a nice speed. She spoke incredibly fast, so most of us in the group simply looked at what all the other Germans were looking at and made "awe" and "oh" reactions along with them. Overall, it was a pleasant day!
The group of UNL students here for our Deutsch in Deutschland program visited a museum on Monday. It was required of us for our class with our professor from home. A few people were out of the country, so they missed out on depressing artwork. Oh darn! The museum was the Kaethe Kollwitz Museum. Her artwork was really impressive and made you think about what life and times were like back then in Germany. Our tour guide for the museum was someone we had had previously for one of our other museum visits. She spoke loud, clearly, and explained things really well. It's nice when I understand everything that's going on, especially since we would be quizzed over the artist a few days later. One of her famous pieces of work is the "Mother with her dead Soldier son". This is what it looks like. Our class had ventured around Berlin to see buildings designed by a famous German architect, so we had visited this sculpture. This wasn't made by Kaethe Kollwitz. It's actually an enlargement of the one she made by a different artist. It's also quite moving.
I really liked this piece by her. It's a small sculpture. It's of women encircling a bunch of children. The facial expressions are of sadness, desperation, and despair. They didn't want to sacrifice their children to the Nazis or the war. It's one thing to try and even describe this piece of work and another to really see it. I really enjoyed the museum and the others in our UNL group did also. The museum is in the area of Berlin I live in, so I was able to walk home afterwards instead of having to take the train home like everyone else.
Tuesday was small panic day. My class would have our test to pass into the next level of classes on Wednesday. Both of my teachers at my language school had already told me that I wasn't a good test taker and that I needed to start meditating. Instead of doing that, I simply began studying earlier and not worrying about the test so much. A giant group of Italians had arrived two weeks ago and have been making school miserable. Since there are so many and they need to really improve their German, they've ruined the school schedule. There are so many of them that they required more attention of the teachers and smaller classes, so everyone had to have their schedule changed to having class later in the afternoon from 2:45-6PM. No one wants to be at school then! I don't love having school at 9AM every day, but I definitely prefer it over class at 2:45 in the afternoon! We all just want to sleep and not do anything else! I had late class scheduled that Monday, but that conflicted with our UNL class and the trip to the museum. My professor talked with the director of our school and they both agreed that those of us taking the test on Wednesday should go to the museum instead of class that afternoon. "It would be a good listening practice for you all." It actually was! Some people were concerned with missing class this close to our test, but if both our professor and the director of our school was telling us to go to the museum instead, I wasn't going to have a problem with it!
Wednesday arrived and my nerves hadn't set it in. I left the apartment to go meet Emily to head to school. I stood waiting for almost 10 minutes before calling her. Normally, we meet at 8:15AM and head to school. We'll get there 15 minutes early if we're lucky. I stood waiting at 8:25AM. She hadn't left her apartment yet and would be hurrying. My nerves quickly set in. I started panicking if I would be late for the test. What would happen then? Would I miss an important part? Would the wait for me? Emily arrived, after some time later, and I walked my fastest pace possible to catch the train. I was basically sprinting to make it to school and my test on time. I lost view of Emily behind me at one point when we were close to school. I wasn't stopping! This test was important and I absolutely hate being late for important things. I walked into the classroom just as Angelika, my teacher, started giving instructions. Pure luck that she hadn't started the actual test! I rushed to a seat and took out my Kugelschreiber! (That's pen in German.) You aren't allowed to use pencil at all. I used to hate writing in pen for things, but that is completely opposite now! It does help that my notes are multicolored with a different color for each day. Anyway! I was feeling pretty good about the test. No panic attack, no burst of tears, no hyperventilating. I placed my water bottle in front of me along with 2 packets of tissues. I knew I was going to be that annoying sick kid during testing, but I couldn't avoid it. I told myself "beer can" with a British accent multiple times throughout the morning to help calm my nerves - just for you, Allison! Hours later, we finished the first day of testing! It was only the writing portion of the test and the next day would be the speaking part.
I absolutely hate speaking in front of people. I'm not quite sure where that dislike comes from, but I've never really felt comfortable doing it. I've always dreaded speeches and especially in a foreign language. We would have to describe a picture for 5 to 10 minutes and then a spontaneous situation that would be picked by the test proctors. My partner for the speaking portion was a girl named Ciindy. Yes, she spells it with two 'i's in her name. She's from the french part of Switzerland. Luckily, she's one of the Swiss kids that I can understand quite well! A couple of the other girls have extremely thick french accents that are difficult to understand German through, but I was lucky! My picture description went well as I then led it into a story, which they loved. I also compared it to the United States, which was something they enjoyed as well and looked for as we spoke. The situation wasn't bad either! I wasn't jittery at all while speaking, which is very rare for me when speaking in those kinds of situations. Ciindy and I had to debate on whether or not children should have a strict relationship with their parents and if rules were good. I, of course, had to take the "rules are good! Strictness is wonderful!" approach. We debated for 10-15 minutes without any real gap in between! The proctors were laughing and nodding their heads as we spoke. One of them made a comment that everything was simply a situation and clearly Ciindy and I would never raise children together since we never found a solution. Both proctors looked at each other and told us we did "sehr gut" and "es war sehr schoen!" That means we did very well and it was very nice! We'll get our diplomas either tomorrow or Friday with our actual grades in the various areas. There was a bit riding on this test for me. I tried to not let that get to me and to do my very best.
Tomorrow is another day of school and the Italians' last day! YES! Saturday I'll go with a group from DiD to Stettin, Poland. It will be cold, since winter is making a brief visit at the moment. It'll be neat to see! I'm a bit sad that they had changed it from Hamburg to Stettin for the trip. I was planning on seeing my friend Max one last time before heading home in a few weeks. Instead, Max will just have to visit Berlin!
Next week is already Easter and that means Munich! My host mom and I are going to dye Easter eggs on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm excited for that! I only have 1 more weekend here in Berlin, which happens to be the weekend before I leave! This Saturday is Poland, next weekend is Munich, then Berlin, and then AMERICA! This semester has flown by! I really feel like my German has improved in multiple ways and am extremely thankful I was accepted into this program and decided to take part. It will only be me and one other UNL student flying home together on the 21st and we're both ready to be back! Don't be surprised if I'm speaking Denglish when I come home, as I do it every day with my host mom here! Hey, you'll get to learn some German then, right?
I'll update next week before heading to Munich! Bis bald! (See you soon!)
Last Saturday, the trip for the day was to Potsdam to see Sanssouci and the garden. I had already been there previously with Jessica, Regan, and Tim. This time was completely different! The sun was shining and it was fairly warm! Spring had definitely made its appearance and we were welcoming it with open arms! My nice pale skin even got a bit sunburnt, but that went away within the next day.
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| Timothy and I in front of Sanssouci |
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| Käthe Kollwitz Museum |
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| "Mother with her dead son" in the Neue Wache |
![[Skulptur: Käthe Kollwitz, Turm der Mütter, 1938]](http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/g0000035_1/200x.jpg) |
| Turm der Mütter |
Tuesday was small panic day. My class would have our test to pass into the next level of classes on Wednesday. Both of my teachers at my language school had already told me that I wasn't a good test taker and that I needed to start meditating. Instead of doing that, I simply began studying earlier and not worrying about the test so much. A giant group of Italians had arrived two weeks ago and have been making school miserable. Since there are so many and they need to really improve their German, they've ruined the school schedule. There are so many of them that they required more attention of the teachers and smaller classes, so everyone had to have their schedule changed to having class later in the afternoon from 2:45-6PM. No one wants to be at school then! I don't love having school at 9AM every day, but I definitely prefer it over class at 2:45 in the afternoon! We all just want to sleep and not do anything else! I had late class scheduled that Monday, but that conflicted with our UNL class and the trip to the museum. My professor talked with the director of our school and they both agreed that those of us taking the test on Wednesday should go to the museum instead of class that afternoon. "It would be a good listening practice for you all." It actually was! Some people were concerned with missing class this close to our test, but if both our professor and the director of our school was telling us to go to the museum instead, I wasn't going to have a problem with it!
Wednesday arrived and my nerves hadn't set it in. I left the apartment to go meet Emily to head to school. I stood waiting for almost 10 minutes before calling her. Normally, we meet at 8:15AM and head to school. We'll get there 15 minutes early if we're lucky. I stood waiting at 8:25AM. She hadn't left her apartment yet and would be hurrying. My nerves quickly set in. I started panicking if I would be late for the test. What would happen then? Would I miss an important part? Would the wait for me? Emily arrived, after some time later, and I walked my fastest pace possible to catch the train. I was basically sprinting to make it to school and my test on time. I lost view of Emily behind me at one point when we were close to school. I wasn't stopping! This test was important and I absolutely hate being late for important things. I walked into the classroom just as Angelika, my teacher, started giving instructions. Pure luck that she hadn't started the actual test! I rushed to a seat and took out my Kugelschreiber! (That's pen in German.) You aren't allowed to use pencil at all. I used to hate writing in pen for things, but that is completely opposite now! It does help that my notes are multicolored with a different color for each day. Anyway! I was feeling pretty good about the test. No panic attack, no burst of tears, no hyperventilating. I placed my water bottle in front of me along with 2 packets of tissues. I knew I was going to be that annoying sick kid during testing, but I couldn't avoid it. I told myself "beer can" with a British accent multiple times throughout the morning to help calm my nerves - just for you, Allison! Hours later, we finished the first day of testing! It was only the writing portion of the test and the next day would be the speaking part.
I absolutely hate speaking in front of people. I'm not quite sure where that dislike comes from, but I've never really felt comfortable doing it. I've always dreaded speeches and especially in a foreign language. We would have to describe a picture for 5 to 10 minutes and then a spontaneous situation that would be picked by the test proctors. My partner for the speaking portion was a girl named Ciindy. Yes, she spells it with two 'i's in her name. She's from the french part of Switzerland. Luckily, she's one of the Swiss kids that I can understand quite well! A couple of the other girls have extremely thick french accents that are difficult to understand German through, but I was lucky! My picture description went well as I then led it into a story, which they loved. I also compared it to the United States, which was something they enjoyed as well and looked for as we spoke. The situation wasn't bad either! I wasn't jittery at all while speaking, which is very rare for me when speaking in those kinds of situations. Ciindy and I had to debate on whether or not children should have a strict relationship with their parents and if rules were good. I, of course, had to take the "rules are good! Strictness is wonderful!" approach. We debated for 10-15 minutes without any real gap in between! The proctors were laughing and nodding their heads as we spoke. One of them made a comment that everything was simply a situation and clearly Ciindy and I would never raise children together since we never found a solution. Both proctors looked at each other and told us we did "sehr gut" and "es war sehr schoen!" That means we did very well and it was very nice! We'll get our diplomas either tomorrow or Friday with our actual grades in the various areas. There was a bit riding on this test for me. I tried to not let that get to me and to do my very best.
Tomorrow is another day of school and the Italians' last day! YES! Saturday I'll go with a group from DiD to Stettin, Poland. It will be cold, since winter is making a brief visit at the moment. It'll be neat to see! I'm a bit sad that they had changed it from Hamburg to Stettin for the trip. I was planning on seeing my friend Max one last time before heading home in a few weeks. Instead, Max will just have to visit Berlin!
Next week is already Easter and that means Munich! My host mom and I are going to dye Easter eggs on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm excited for that! I only have 1 more weekend here in Berlin, which happens to be the weekend before I leave! This Saturday is Poland, next weekend is Munich, then Berlin, and then AMERICA! This semester has flown by! I really feel like my German has improved in multiple ways and am extremely thankful I was accepted into this program and decided to take part. It will only be me and one other UNL student flying home together on the 21st and we're both ready to be back! Don't be surprised if I'm speaking Denglish when I come home, as I do it every day with my host mom here! Hey, you'll get to learn some German then, right?
I'll update next week before heading to Munich! Bis bald! (See you soon!)
Friday, March 16, 2012
Kung Fu Panda ist auf der anderer Seite!
Hello again! I know, I know. I'm falling behind on the blog again! I'm getting slightly better at it though so no worries!
I've had a few adventures the past week and they've been pretty fun! Our group from DiD, my school, went to Rostock last weekend for the Freizeitprogramm. Rostock is up by the Baltic Sea (Ostsee in German). It was a three hour train ride there and back to Berlin, so a good chunk of our day was spent on the train. We had a new group leader who actually created a tour of Rostock for us and wore a little name tag. None of our other group leaders for the activities have done that. She's new and is probably one of my favorite leaders along with Anja. Rostock was pretty and we saw a lot of things. We then went to Warnamuende to see the Baltic Sea and wander around. I took a few pictures, but not a lot.
Speaking of pictures... iPhoto is being difficult and not wanting to transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer. This means that I probably won't get most of my pictures uploaded until after I return to the states. Sorry about that! I can upload them via Facebook when I have internet, but that will take a lot longer than I'd like. I'll see what I can do.
This past week at school was alright. I was supposed to have my test on the 21st and 22nd, but one of my teachers talked to the director of our school and asked to have it pushed back a week. She plead the case of us not being ready and wanting us to succeed and do really well on the test, so Herr Schenk (Mr. Schenk) agreed to moving it to a week later. Woo hoo! Now I have an extra week to stress out and worry about doing well on it!
Today was wonderful. The weather was 20 degrees Celsius here! That's 70F! Finally, the temperature was above 8C. I decided to take advantage of the weather and went to one of my favorite places... the zoo!! A couple of friends came along and it was great! Gwyneth and Olivia came with me and we ventured to the west Berlin zoo. It's absolutely huge and there are so many animals! We saw a panda today and it was great! We also arrived at the sea lions just in time for one of the zookeepers to put on a show! I got some great pics of it and also a couple of videos! I'll have to upload them to Facebook this weekend sometime. I took over 240 pictures at the zoo! All of the animals are so close to you! The cats exhibit is similar to Henry Doorly's, but instead of there being glass inbetween you and the animals, there's only bars! I loved it! There were signs warning you that the lions could/will urinate through the bars. A bunch of little kids were hissing at the lion and we were just waiting for the lion to make a move. Olivia had to leave around 4PM, so we made sure that we saw what we really wanted to see before leaving. I wandered around for a bit after leaving them to enjoy the weather a bit.
Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and our UNL group is planning to celebrate it! The Germans don't really celebrate it or even know what the holiday is. I found that interesting as I had to explain to my host mom what it was. I've brought green shirts with me so I'm ready to celebrate and hopefully find a green beer somewhere! It should be a busy day in Berlin as well. Hertha, Berlin's soccer team, plays Bayern-Munich tomorrow. Hertha has only won 1 game out of their 12 or 13 and Bayern-Munich is doing great in the league. We'll have to see how it turns out tomorrow!
I've had a few adventures the past week and they've been pretty fun! Our group from DiD, my school, went to Rostock last weekend for the Freizeitprogramm. Rostock is up by the Baltic Sea (Ostsee in German). It was a three hour train ride there and back to Berlin, so a good chunk of our day was spent on the train. We had a new group leader who actually created a tour of Rostock for us and wore a little name tag. None of our other group leaders for the activities have done that. She's new and is probably one of my favorite leaders along with Anja. Rostock was pretty and we saw a lot of things. We then went to Warnamuende to see the Baltic Sea and wander around. I took a few pictures, but not a lot.
Speaking of pictures... iPhoto is being difficult and not wanting to transfer the pictures from my phone to the computer. This means that I probably won't get most of my pictures uploaded until after I return to the states. Sorry about that! I can upload them via Facebook when I have internet, but that will take a lot longer than I'd like. I'll see what I can do.
This past week at school was alright. I was supposed to have my test on the 21st and 22nd, but one of my teachers talked to the director of our school and asked to have it pushed back a week. She plead the case of us not being ready and wanting us to succeed and do really well on the test, so Herr Schenk (Mr. Schenk) agreed to moving it to a week later. Woo hoo! Now I have an extra week to stress out and worry about doing well on it!
Today was wonderful. The weather was 20 degrees Celsius here! That's 70F! Finally, the temperature was above 8C. I decided to take advantage of the weather and went to one of my favorite places... the zoo!! A couple of friends came along and it was great! Gwyneth and Olivia came with me and we ventured to the west Berlin zoo. It's absolutely huge and there are so many animals! We saw a panda today and it was great! We also arrived at the sea lions just in time for one of the zookeepers to put on a show! I got some great pics of it and also a couple of videos! I'll have to upload them to Facebook this weekend sometime. I took over 240 pictures at the zoo! All of the animals are so close to you! The cats exhibit is similar to Henry Doorly's, but instead of there being glass inbetween you and the animals, there's only bars! I loved it! There were signs warning you that the lions could/will urinate through the bars. A bunch of little kids were hissing at the lion and we were just waiting for the lion to make a move. Olivia had to leave around 4PM, so we made sure that we saw what we really wanted to see before leaving. I wandered around for a bit after leaving them to enjoy the weather a bit.
Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and our UNL group is planning to celebrate it! The Germans don't really celebrate it or even know what the holiday is. I found that interesting as I had to explain to my host mom what it was. I've brought green shirts with me so I'm ready to celebrate and hopefully find a green beer somewhere! It should be a busy day in Berlin as well. Hertha, Berlin's soccer team, plays Bayern-Munich tomorrow. Hertha has only won 1 game out of their 12 or 13 and Bayern-Munich is doing great in the league. We'll have to see how it turns out tomorrow!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Fussball!!
If you thought Americans were crazy about their football, you've never seen Europeans and their soccer. I was somewhat prepared, but my mind was still blown.
Our professor from UNL got our group tickets to one of Berlin's soccer games! It was Hertha BSC vs. Werder Bremen. My host mom had told me that I had to cheer for Hertha ever since I arrived in Berlin. They had lost every single game thus far in the season, so I wasn't too hopeful for a win today. I decided to be a rebel and cheer for Werder Bremen. While the rest of our UNL group at the game wore their blue and white Hertha scarves, I wore a green Bremen one.
The game was exciting and fun. I had told my host mom where we sat and she couldn't believe what I had told her. I repeated that we sat in the east end of the stadium and she looked at me like I was crazy! The east end is the hardcore fan section and hooligans! She said it was dangerous for us to be sitting in that section, but was glad nothing had happened. I told her our professor had actually gotten them for us and all she said was, "What?! She should have talked to me!" My hostmom thinks she should be planning our group's activities and that I'm not truly seeing Berlin properly. I've been given a "To Do" list and will be starting on that this week!
I spent a good 6 hours or so at Starbucks today doing homework and studying. It's become my hang out spot on the weekends so I'm not in the way of my host mom. It's also nice to have free wifi on my computer and phone! =)
One of the girls in our UNL group got sent back home to America. I guess UNL thought she was a liability and so she left yesterday. I didn't know until we were at the soccer game and asked where she was! I know my professor thinks me being here with my vertigo is a huge risk, but I'm glad UNL hasn't sent me home because of it!
Olivia, Kelleen, and I will be going to Munich for Easter! We get a break from school, which also happens to be the only break we get from school. I took it as my chance to travel, so we'll be going to Munich for our Easter break. The BMW museum and plant are on our list of what we'll visit, so I'm excited! Michael will be jealous!
Michael texted me earlier that Michelle, his sister, is in the hospital since her water broke! I'm excited that she'll have the baby and there will be another little niece or nephew! They decided to not find out what they're having, so it'll be a surprise! I told Michael to keep me updated, so his job is to text me updates as he gets them!
This week will be another busy one with a day trip to Rostock on Saturday with my school. It's up north by the Baltic Sea, so I'll have seen the Baltic Sea two times shortly after one another!
I'm off to write a paper about Goethe and his Sorrows of Young Werther. Yay me. Bis spaeter!
Our professor from UNL got our group tickets to one of Berlin's soccer games! It was Hertha BSC vs. Werder Bremen. My host mom had told me that I had to cheer for Hertha ever since I arrived in Berlin. They had lost every single game thus far in the season, so I wasn't too hopeful for a win today. I decided to be a rebel and cheer for Werder Bremen. While the rest of our UNL group at the game wore their blue and white Hertha scarves, I wore a green Bremen one.
The game was exciting and fun. I had told my host mom where we sat and she couldn't believe what I had told her. I repeated that we sat in the east end of the stadium and she looked at me like I was crazy! The east end is the hardcore fan section and hooligans! She said it was dangerous for us to be sitting in that section, but was glad nothing had happened. I told her our professor had actually gotten them for us and all she said was, "What?! She should have talked to me!" My hostmom thinks she should be planning our group's activities and that I'm not truly seeing Berlin properly. I've been given a "To Do" list and will be starting on that this week!
I spent a good 6 hours or so at Starbucks today doing homework and studying. It's become my hang out spot on the weekends so I'm not in the way of my host mom. It's also nice to have free wifi on my computer and phone! =)
One of the girls in our UNL group got sent back home to America. I guess UNL thought she was a liability and so she left yesterday. I didn't know until we were at the soccer game and asked where she was! I know my professor thinks me being here with my vertigo is a huge risk, but I'm glad UNL hasn't sent me home because of it!
Olivia, Kelleen, and I will be going to Munich for Easter! We get a break from school, which also happens to be the only break we get from school. I took it as my chance to travel, so we'll be going to Munich for our Easter break. The BMW museum and plant are on our list of what we'll visit, so I'm excited! Michael will be jealous!
Michael texted me earlier that Michelle, his sister, is in the hospital since her water broke! I'm excited that she'll have the baby and there will be another little niece or nephew! They decided to not find out what they're having, so it'll be a surprise! I told Michael to keep me updated, so his job is to text me updates as he gets them!
This week will be another busy one with a day trip to Rostock on Saturday with my school. It's up north by the Baltic Sea, so I'll have seen the Baltic Sea two times shortly after one another!
I'm off to write a paper about Goethe and his Sorrows of Young Werther. Yay me. Bis spaeter!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Hamburger in Hamburg!
This last week was pretty cool and fun. As a group from school, we went to the Jewish Museum here in Berlin. The architect designed it in a special way so that the architecture represents history and the sad events that took place. The building is very jagged and has a zig-zag pattern throughout the museum. I took a few pictures which will be loaded onto Facebook at some point along with others. Once again, I'll have to mooch off free internet somewhere to do that so I'm not using up a lot of data on my internet stick.
On Friday, Kelleen, Olivia, and I went to Hamburg to visit the friends I have there. It was great! We were invited to stay at my friend Tim's house where his parents live. I've stayed there before when I was in Germany previously. Jan, Tim's dad, picked us up in Berlin. He was on his way home to Hamburg, so that worked out perfectly for us. The drive was only 2 hours or a little more. They live in a village 30 minutes outside of Hamburg, so it's pretty convenient to travel into the city. Our little group for the weekend consisted of Tim, Birte, Max, Kelleen, Olivia, and I.
Friday night we had a big family dinner. Anja loves to cook and was cooking away when we got to the house. Jan demonstrated the little robot they have that cleans the kitchen. It was entertaining to see it maneuver around the kitchen and then go back to its charging station. Jan asked if we wanted to play the German version of Sorry, so we did! It's a fun game to play, and took a while to finish our game. After dinner we socialized for a bit before heading to bed. Olivia and Kelleen were amazed with the heated floors that the Schlotawa's have in the house. The next morning we ate a huge typical breakfast before heading to Hamburg.
My friend Max, who is how Michael and I met, came along with us. It was great to see him here in Germany! We walked around the city and ate lunch at Jim Block, which is a burger place. We had a hamburger in Hamburg! It was delicious! We saw the harbor where Max told us interesting historical facts about the harbor and a ship that was nearby. After seeing the harbor briefly, we stumbled upon the City Bikes. Max rented two and Birte rented one. There was a total of 6 of us and only 3 bikes. I rode one of the bikes in a few circles and was told I passed the test. I then said I have no balance and would walk to St. Michael's and someone else could ride the bike. I took photos of people on the bikes and also a video. Birte, Olivia, and I walked while the other three rode the bikes to St. Michael's. We saw a few churches and climbed the 453 stairs to the viewing point at St. Michael's. Tim, Olivia, and I threw paper planes off the platform, but theirs didn't fly that well. Mine flew for a pretty good distance and then crashed into a chimney. Everyone decided unanimously to take the elevator back down and then continue our site seeing of Hamburg. We continued walking around to see the different things in the city. It was a pretty productive day and it wasn't even over yet. So far, we had seen the Rathaus (town hall), St. Petri, St. Michael's, and the harbor. Later that night we would do Dialog in Dunkeln (Dialog in the Dark). My host mom had asked me to bring back some special tea that Hamburg is known for, so we got that, which is a whole other story!
Olivia and I had been a little skeptical about Dialog in the Dark. We weren't sure exactly what it was other than the fact that we would be in complete darkness and have to use our other senses, such as a blind person does. It was entirely in German, but it wasn't too difficult to understand! It was our group and then a couple in our group for the "tour". It was 90 minutes long and there were different situations throughout the exhibit. We had our blind man's stick and visited a market, crossed the street, visited the harbor and went on a boat tour, a music room, and finally a bar. These were all inside the building. Everyone had to lay down in the music room. You felt the music along with hearing it. That was probably my favorite room and part of it all! The bar was difficult because you can't see our money at all. Before we started the tour, I put 2 euro coins and some smaller change in my pocket so I knew exactly what coins I had with me. I had to memorize the size and feel of each so that I could pay later at the bar. Dialog in Dunkeln was really cool and everyone enjoyed it! Afterwards, we went to the Reeperbahn so that Olivia and Kelleen could see what it is like. We weren't there late enough at night to really see the nightlife there, so not a lot was going on. A friend of Kelleen's sister met up with us and joined us at a bar for a drink or two. Max called Michael over Skype on his phone, so I was able to talk to him for a bit while we hung out at the bar.
Everyone got pretty hungry after that and we got some food at the Hauptbahnhof and then got on the train to head back to the car. It was a late night and we had plans to go to Luebeck and also see the Baltic Sea the next day before heading back to Berlin. Luebeck was great and interesting. We visited a few churches and saw some historical parts of it. Once again, Max told us historical facts throughout the day. We visited the Baltic Sea where Olivia and Kelleen put their hands in the water. It was a little too chilly to go swimming! Max and Tim were determined to have us try Fischbroetchen (Fish rolls). We found a place and everyone, except for me, got one. Well, Kelleen and Olivia shared one and didn't really like it. I absolutely do not like fish, so I didn't partake in that task of the day. We had to be home for lunch since Anja was making typical goulash for us. She also made homemade ice cream! There was raspberry and blueberry ice cream for dessert. Delicious! We had to get our stuff ready for Tim to take us into the city to the bus we would take back to Berlin. We said our goodbyes and Anja gave Kelleen, Olivia, and I our own bottle of shampoo to take home. She's a hairdresser and cut all of our hair while we were there. I gave her a cookbook and she and I both began to tear up a bit. It had been 3 years since I had last seen her and the rest of the family. Anja hugged me repeatedly and we walked outside to the car where Anja came up to me again and hugged me. She said I was welcome back anytime I want and that I could come back before I head home to the states. Anja and I hugged again and got in the car.
We weren't really sure where to get our tickets for the bus that we had reserved, so Tim helped us. We got our tickets, said goodbye to Tim, and got on the bus. After a 3 hour bus ride, we were back in Berlin!
We got back to Berlin after 9pm and all went our separate ways to where we live in Berlin. The weekend was great and I'm missing Hamburg and the people there already!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Free Wifi doesn't exist
The start of week 8 starts tomorrow. Holy cow! I can't believe it's been 7 weeks already! This is crazy. I almost feel like a true Berliner.
This past week was pretty good. On Tuesday, a group from school went to Berlinale. We only went to look, but could buy tickets for films if we wanted. Unfortunately, there weren't any stars around when we were. I guess that isn't exactly true. The cast from one of the german films for Berlinale arrived as we were there. They were all brought to the red carpet my a BMW. The germans around me seemed to love the cast, but I had no idea who they were. I took pictures anyways. I got a tickets to a couple of films for the festival. I went to one last night with my friend Olivia.
During class, vertigo struck again. I was feeling pretty well so far throughout the day. I blew my nose and all of a sudden things started spinning. I immediately grabbed my purse to take my medicine and shut my eyes. The spinning stopped shortly after and I slouched in my chair. I rubbed my head for a good portion of class and wished I could take a nap. I'm done with my antibiotics for my sinus infection, but my ear is still plugged. Hopefully this time my ear won't remain plugged for 4 months. That was no fun and I absolutely hated getting vertigo often.
On a better note, Olivia and I saw En kongelig Affaere (A Roy Affair). It was a danish film with english subtitles. Thank goodness! The movie was a lot longer than I had expected. It lasted 2 1/2 hours total. I really enjoyed it. It was a period piece and the costuming was amazing. I loved the clothing a lot. It had comedy, love, and of course tragedy. I was completely exhausted after the film and headed home. I immediately fell asleep and that was how my day ended!
I'm currently at Starbucks, probably the ONLY place in Germany that offers free wifi, updating my blog and being a good little student. My next test is in 4 weeks, but I'm going to start preparing for it early, hoping it will help with my inability to take tests. I'm perfectly fine when it's a regular test in a class, but when it's a standardized test or something close to that, I'm horrible.
The weather has gotten warmer and the sun decides to peek out every now and then. Next weekend I'll head to Hamburg with Kelleen and Olivia to visit friends Anja and Jan have offered for us to stay at the house with them, which was great and helps us save money! My friends are helping plan what we should do, which will be fun. I can't wait to see my friends, who I haven't seen in 3 years or so! Once again, it's just crazy how time flies by so fast!
I'm going to continue sipping my chai latte and get started on homework. Tschuess!
This past week was pretty good. On Tuesday, a group from school went to Berlinale. We only went to look, but could buy tickets for films if we wanted. Unfortunately, there weren't any stars around when we were. I guess that isn't exactly true. The cast from one of the german films for Berlinale arrived as we were there. They were all brought to the red carpet my a BMW. The germans around me seemed to love the cast, but I had no idea who they were. I took pictures anyways. I got a tickets to a couple of films for the festival. I went to one last night with my friend Olivia.
During class, vertigo struck again. I was feeling pretty well so far throughout the day. I blew my nose and all of a sudden things started spinning. I immediately grabbed my purse to take my medicine and shut my eyes. The spinning stopped shortly after and I slouched in my chair. I rubbed my head for a good portion of class and wished I could take a nap. I'm done with my antibiotics for my sinus infection, but my ear is still plugged. Hopefully this time my ear won't remain plugged for 4 months. That was no fun and I absolutely hated getting vertigo often.
On a better note, Olivia and I saw En kongelig Affaere (A Roy Affair). It was a danish film with english subtitles. Thank goodness! The movie was a lot longer than I had expected. It lasted 2 1/2 hours total. I really enjoyed it. It was a period piece and the costuming was amazing. I loved the clothing a lot. It had comedy, love, and of course tragedy. I was completely exhausted after the film and headed home. I immediately fell asleep and that was how my day ended!
I'm currently at Starbucks, probably the ONLY place in Germany that offers free wifi, updating my blog and being a good little student. My next test is in 4 weeks, but I'm going to start preparing for it early, hoping it will help with my inability to take tests. I'm perfectly fine when it's a regular test in a class, but when it's a standardized test or something close to that, I'm horrible.
The weather has gotten warmer and the sun decides to peek out every now and then. Next weekend I'll head to Hamburg with Kelleen and Olivia to visit friends Anja and Jan have offered for us to stay at the house with them, which was great and helps us save money! My friends are helping plan what we should do, which will be fun. I can't wait to see my friends, who I haven't seen in 3 years or so! Once again, it's just crazy how time flies by so fast!
I'm going to continue sipping my chai latte and get started on homework. Tschuess!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Berlinale!!
The first words out of my host mom's mouth this morning while at breakfast, "Whitney Houston ist tot." WHAT?! I asked her to repeat what she said, thinking that I had misunderstood her. She repeated it, "Whitney Houston ist tot." I said, "Nein... echt?" She then told me that she had been found in her hotel room. The rest of breakfast was pretty quiet. We usually have a huge breakfast on Sundays and no lunch really. Tonight we had chicken with cooked potatoes and carrots. Delicious. My host mom even took out the Dorothy Lynch and set it next to me. "I know how much you love your dressing when we have chicken!" She's exactly right. It's delicious!
It's Berlinale! It's also very cold and not fun to stand outside at all. I'm going to tough it out and wait in line for tickets for some films tomorrow and also hope to see some celebrities that I know are in town.
Well the highlight of this last week was probably getting vertigo for the first time while here. I thought I had been doing a good job to avoid it, but apparently not. The weather here hasn't helped my health at all, so I ended up getting a sinus infection. Whenever I get a sinus infection, it causes my left ear to plug horribly. My left ear is always the one that gets plugged, never my right one. Odd. Anyway, during class on Wednesday I got dizzy all of a sudden and froze. I mumbled medicine and immediately grabbed my purse. Emily who sits next to me in class looked at me strange for a minute. I told her I needed medicine and that I'd be fine. I took my meds for vertigo and thought "yes! Crisis averted!" Little did I know that vertigo would come back to haunt me later that night.
Our UNL class went to the dome like I mentioned in my previous post. Before we went, I went into another classroom with Kelleen and Emily. Kelleen knows about my vertigo since we had two classes together last semester and would be absent due to vertigo. She gives wonderful massages and was nice enough to give me one before we went to the dome. She also bought be gummy bears. Thank you Kelleen! =) The dome was cool and incredibly beautiful. Afterwards Kelleen and I needed to meet with Olivia about our upcoming trip to Hamburg. Olivia had plans after the trip to the dome, so we had to wait until later to meet up with her. Kelleen and I wandered around and stumbled upon one of my favorite places... the Ampelmann store!! Oh how I love the Ampelmann. The little green and red man on the street lights that tells you when you can and cannot cross the street. He's all over Berlin, but not every crosswalk has him. It varies, especially with where you're at in Berlin. We then went to Dunkin Donuts and hung out until Olivia could meet up with us. We met, chatted, came up with a rough plan for a plan and all headed home.
I had dinner like usual, did some facebook creeping (creeping is caring!), and homework. I went to bed at a decent hour. The next thing I knew I was waking up really confused where I was and everything was spinning. Crap. Vertigo was back. I immediately shut my eyes and forced myself back to sleep. I told myself not to look at the clock and just sleep. I woke up again, but this time nauseas. Great. I waited and stayed very still in bed hoping I wouldn't have to run to the bathroom. I forced myself back to sleep. This happened about 3 more times. The next morning I woke up to every single one of my alarms and fell directly back asleep. I hadn't gotten much sleep and had already decided I wasn't going to school. Birgit (my host mom) came knocking on my door to wake me up for breakfast. Ah, I was late to breakfast too?! I stumbled out of my room and into the kitchen. I sat down and she immediately asked me "Alles gut? ohh nein. Alles ist nicht gut... was ist los?" (Everything good? Oh no, everything is not good... what's wrong?" I told her I had woken up multiple times with vertigo and didn't sleep well at all. She asked me what happened and told me that I should've woken her up. Any time I don't feel well, I'm supposed to wake her up, no matter what time it is. She wanted to know what had happened exactly during the night and I apologized and told her it would be "auf englisch". She told me that was fine and I then began to explain what vertigo is exactly and why I get it. She had been notified by school saying that I had an "illness" to be aware of. After I was done explaining, she told me she had a doctor appointment for her eye later that morning and that I would go along and see the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Birgit asked for my teacher's number, who is here with our UNL group, so she could call her. She called her and explained that I had woken up with vertigo and wanted me to see a doctor before the weekend. Priscilla handed me the phone and we spoke English. She told me she wouldn't be able to make it to the doctor with me in time and asked if I'd be ok with going and able to handle the situation. I told her I felt I was capable to do so. She asked if my hostmom spoke some English and I told her she did. "Oh good! That pleases me!" I told Professor Hayden-Roy I would keep her updated on how I was doing.
German doctor offices are one of the scariest places I have ever been to. Metal instruments everywhere! The doctor was nice and spoke English. Thank goodness. She took a sonogram of my sinuses to prove I had an infection and used about 4 different tools to look at my throat, nose, and ears. It was by far the most expensive doctor visit of my life. I knew I had a sinus infection and only needed the medicine to clear it up. I'm not taking antibiotics and an allergy spray to help keep my sinuses clear. Hopefully I'll be feeling healthy again soon!
It's Berlinale! It's also very cold and not fun to stand outside at all. I'm going to tough it out and wait in line for tickets for some films tomorrow and also hope to see some celebrities that I know are in town.
Well the highlight of this last week was probably getting vertigo for the first time while here. I thought I had been doing a good job to avoid it, but apparently not. The weather here hasn't helped my health at all, so I ended up getting a sinus infection. Whenever I get a sinus infection, it causes my left ear to plug horribly. My left ear is always the one that gets plugged, never my right one. Odd. Anyway, during class on Wednesday I got dizzy all of a sudden and froze. I mumbled medicine and immediately grabbed my purse. Emily who sits next to me in class looked at me strange for a minute. I told her I needed medicine and that I'd be fine. I took my meds for vertigo and thought "yes! Crisis averted!" Little did I know that vertigo would come back to haunt me later that night.
Our UNL class went to the dome like I mentioned in my previous post. Before we went, I went into another classroom with Kelleen and Emily. Kelleen knows about my vertigo since we had two classes together last semester and would be absent due to vertigo. She gives wonderful massages and was nice enough to give me one before we went to the dome. She also bought be gummy bears. Thank you Kelleen! =) The dome was cool and incredibly beautiful. Afterwards Kelleen and I needed to meet with Olivia about our upcoming trip to Hamburg. Olivia had plans after the trip to the dome, so we had to wait until later to meet up with her. Kelleen and I wandered around and stumbled upon one of my favorite places... the Ampelmann store!! Oh how I love the Ampelmann. The little green and red man on the street lights that tells you when you can and cannot cross the street. He's all over Berlin, but not every crosswalk has him. It varies, especially with where you're at in Berlin. We then went to Dunkin Donuts and hung out until Olivia could meet up with us. We met, chatted, came up with a rough plan for a plan and all headed home.
I had dinner like usual, did some facebook creeping (creeping is caring!), and homework. I went to bed at a decent hour. The next thing I knew I was waking up really confused where I was and everything was spinning. Crap. Vertigo was back. I immediately shut my eyes and forced myself back to sleep. I told myself not to look at the clock and just sleep. I woke up again, but this time nauseas. Great. I waited and stayed very still in bed hoping I wouldn't have to run to the bathroom. I forced myself back to sleep. This happened about 3 more times. The next morning I woke up to every single one of my alarms and fell directly back asleep. I hadn't gotten much sleep and had already decided I wasn't going to school. Birgit (my host mom) came knocking on my door to wake me up for breakfast. Ah, I was late to breakfast too?! I stumbled out of my room and into the kitchen. I sat down and she immediately asked me "Alles gut? ohh nein. Alles ist nicht gut... was ist los?" (Everything good? Oh no, everything is not good... what's wrong?" I told her I had woken up multiple times with vertigo and didn't sleep well at all. She asked me what happened and told me that I should've woken her up. Any time I don't feel well, I'm supposed to wake her up, no matter what time it is. She wanted to know what had happened exactly during the night and I apologized and told her it would be "auf englisch". She told me that was fine and I then began to explain what vertigo is exactly and why I get it. She had been notified by school saying that I had an "illness" to be aware of. After I was done explaining, she told me she had a doctor appointment for her eye later that morning and that I would go along and see the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Birgit asked for my teacher's number, who is here with our UNL group, so she could call her. She called her and explained that I had woken up with vertigo and wanted me to see a doctor before the weekend. Priscilla handed me the phone and we spoke English. She told me she wouldn't be able to make it to the doctor with me in time and asked if I'd be ok with going and able to handle the situation. I told her I felt I was capable to do so. She asked if my hostmom spoke some English and I told her she did. "Oh good! That pleases me!" I told Professor Hayden-Roy I would keep her updated on how I was doing.
German doctor offices are one of the scariest places I have ever been to. Metal instruments everywhere! The doctor was nice and spoke English. Thank goodness. She took a sonogram of my sinuses to prove I had an infection and used about 4 different tools to look at my throat, nose, and ears. It was by far the most expensive doctor visit of my life. I knew I had a sinus infection and only needed the medicine to clear it up. I'm not taking antibiotics and an allergy spray to help keep my sinuses clear. Hopefully I'll be feeling healthy again soon!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Time flies when you're having fun!
Hey there! Sorry it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the last update. Nothing much exciting has really happened since the last update. We went to the Stasi-Gefängnis a couple weeks ago. It was really interesting because our tour guide was a former prisoner. He told us his story and it was unbelievable. I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were there. Once again, it was a pretty depressing experience.
I can't believe it's already February 8th! Man, time is just flying by here. We all feel like we're in high school again with our schedule and such. I'm not loving it, but it makes time go by faster at least!
I can't believe it's already February 8th! Man, time is just flying by here. We all feel like we're in high school again with our schedule and such. I'm not loving it, but it makes time go by faster at least!
My new class started last week! It's more challenging, but not too bad. I found out that if I were to pass the highest class, which is called C2, I would be a certified translator. Unfortunately, I won't be here long enough to get through the course. I'll get through about 4 weeks of C1.
Last night, a few of us went to see a Russian opera. It was very... different. It was all in Russian with German subtitles. They call them "Übertitel" because they are shown above the stage. I understood almost everything. It was very abstract and strange. Oh, it was also really long.
Today as a class from our UNL group, we went to see the Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome). It's absolutely incredible!! The church is beautiful and huge! We had a personal tour led by one of the members of the church that does the tours for fun. His name was Andre. He was really nice, funny, and made sure we were understanding as he spoke since the tour was entirely auf Deutsch! I took a few pictures while we were there, but will mostly be stealing the ones that Kelleen took.
Berlinale starts tomorrow!! That's the Berlin Film Festival. I'm pumped! A bunch of celebrities are in town. I'm going to try and see a couple films at least. Some things were being set up today around the city for the film festival. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see just how the city looks! I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of it all!
Last night, a few of us went to see a Russian opera. It was very... different. It was all in Russian with German subtitles. They call them "Übertitel" because they are shown above the stage. I understood almost everything. It was very abstract and strange. Oh, it was also really long.
Today as a class from our UNL group, we went to see the Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome). It's absolutely incredible!! The church is beautiful and huge! We had a personal tour led by one of the members of the church that does the tours for fun. His name was Andre. He was really nice, funny, and made sure we were understanding as he spoke since the tour was entirely auf Deutsch! I took a few pictures while we were there, but will mostly be stealing the ones that Kelleen took.
Berlinale starts tomorrow!! That's the Berlin Film Festival. I'm pumped! A bunch of celebrities are in town. I'm going to try and see a couple films at least. Some things were being set up today around the city for the film festival. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see just how the city looks! I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of it all!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Busy like a bee!
Time is flying by here! I haven't had much time for updating this, so I'm sorry about that! Knowing my memory, I may leave out a few things, but I'll do my best to remember everything since the last blog update!
This last week we had a couple of group trips through DiD. We have to participate in 14 programs with DiD. It's required, but I don't think I'll have a problem with getting that done! It's been 3 weeks and I'm sure I'm close to that requirement.
On Tuesday, we went to KaDeWe. It's short for Kaufhaus des Westens (Department store of the west). It has things from around the world. A couple of people in our UNL group were missing some American items that we haven't had any luck in finding here in Germany. For example, Melinda loves her Dr. Pepper, but can't find it anywhere. Who has it? KaDeWe! I was able to find my white chocolate covered Oreos as well! =) People stocked up on their soda and other goodies from home. It's a huge store. We had to go to the 6th floor for the "grocery" items. They even sell Duffy beer from the Simpsons! It's ridiculous what is sold there! After shopping around there for about 45 minutes, Anja, our tour guide, took us to a church.
It was the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (the Wilhelm Kaiser Memorial church).
It had been bombed badly during the bombing raid of 1943. The remains of the
church are surrounded by walls made of a concrete honeycomb containing 21,292 stained glass inlays. It's incredible to see! We then were set loose by Anja to either continue walking around the famous shopping street Kurfürstendamm or head home. I needed to get a pair of tights to go with my skirt for a concert our group would be attending on Sunday. Emily and I headed to H&M and then walked home from where we were. Kurfürstendamm is the street directly behind the street I live on. It was only about a 30 minute walk home from there.
Wednesday was a normal day of school. It was a very long day, but normal. Thursday was another group trip with DiD. We went to the Berliner Unterwelten. The Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underground) consists of the bunkers that were created underneath the city for protection. Pictures weren't allowed, so I was only able to take a few from the inside before our tour began. It was very interesting, to say the least. The bunkers were ABC protected. This meant they were protected from Atomic weapons, Biological weapons, and Chemical weapons. The structure of the bunkers were very interesting. The walls go in a zig-zag pattern. Why? It was believed that if the city was bombed, the impact of the bomb would spread out over this pattern and decrease it's feeling of impact. It wouldn't feel as strong as if the walls were built in a normal straight line pattern. There is a network underground. We were in the Wedding section. This was the part of town named Wedding. There isn't lighting everywhere. Some of the rooms have it. Everywhere else, there is glow paint to light the walls and help guide you along the way. We saw the only kitchen that was there, the infirmary, the generator room, and another room where the emergency air supply was. That room had a tiny square cut out of the wall about 6 feet up from the ground with blocks blocking off the door. The door behind the blocks is air sealed so that no chemicals can get into the room. The blocks also help keep any radiation out if the room needed to be used. The tour took us to one of the U-Bahn stations that was used as well. Thousands of beds would have lined the station platforms. We went into a room where the door is pressurized and the room had a microphone, but no window or camera. This way, the guard of the door could let in the allowed number of people into the bunkers and then shut off the microphone and close the door. He wouldn't have to hear the people screaming, crying, and begging for their lives. Our guide told us, "Back then, you had to do your job. You'd let it the allowed number and then shut the microphone off and close your eyes and ignore what was going to happen next as soon as you push that button." When the bunkers were redone, they made sure that only curtains were used for bathrooms and not doors. Pipes that could only hold some much weight were used as well. There were no knives or anything else sharp in the bunkers. Why? Suicide. All of these things were done to prevent the number of suicides that were committed. The pipes would break right away if someone tried to hang themselves and curtains replaced doors so people couldn't lock themselves in and commit suicide. The tour was a great experience even though it did have its sad moments and information.
On Friday night, our UNL group went to a puppet show. It was definitely... interesting. It was a parody of Orpheus and the Underworld. This show was certainly not appropriate for children! Even though it was entirely in German, most of us understood what was going on due to the actions of the puppets. It was pretty amusing. Once again, we weren't allowed to take pictures of anything and I would only butcher the story and the description of the puppets if I tried!
Yesterday, Saturday, was another group trip with DiD. We went to Wittenberg, also known as Lutherstadt. It is the city where Martin Luther lived, worked, and preached. We saw his house where he worked on his theses and other writings. It was really interesting to see that. We were in Martin Luther's house seeing the robe he wore, the books he wrote, the people he fought against in the Reformation, and other important artifacts. I got to see the first cup that was created and used for communion when the Reformation happened and communion started being taken in both forms, the wine and the bread. I saw the very first Bible that was written by Martin Luther in high German. That was a really huge deal back then for it to be brought into the German speaking world. I saw the first catechism and other documents that played huge rolls. I saw on Ablass! It was a document sold to people telling them it would save them and put them in Heaven if they bought it. It was the selling of indulgences.
We took the tour of the house, which is a museum now, and then walked to the church where Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses. The door is now a replica of the one he posted his theses against. Our group also walked to the church where he preached. That church was the very first to convert in the entire world because of the Reformation. The pulpit inside is known as the "reformation pulpit". I was able to take pictures in there! I saw Martin Luther's grave inside the church. He was buried inside the church where he posted his 95 Theses instead of the church where he preached.
It was so cool seeing history like that. I absolutely loved it! It's one of the reasons I love Germany. There is history everywhere you go. I go by buildings that were built right after the reunification of Berlin! I see places that still exist after the war and the wall. It's so different compared to living in the United States. I'm constantly learning about something here! There's never a dull moment.
Today our group is seeing an opera in a palace or castle. We have to dress up for it. It'll be another great experience! I have my test on Wednesday to move onto the next level at school. It's a huge test and will take place over two days. Hopefully I can do well enough to pass onto the next level! We'll see how much my studying pays off!
This last week we had a couple of group trips through DiD. We have to participate in 14 programs with DiD. It's required, but I don't think I'll have a problem with getting that done! It's been 3 weeks and I'm sure I'm close to that requirement.
On Tuesday, we went to KaDeWe. It's short for Kaufhaus des Westens (Department store of the west). It has things from around the world. A couple of people in our UNL group were missing some American items that we haven't had any luck in finding here in Germany. For example, Melinda loves her Dr. Pepper, but can't find it anywhere. Who has it? KaDeWe! I was able to find my white chocolate covered Oreos as well! =) People stocked up on their soda and other goodies from home. It's a huge store. We had to go to the 6th floor for the "grocery" items. They even sell Duffy beer from the Simpsons! It's ridiculous what is sold there! After shopping around there for about 45 minutes, Anja, our tour guide, took us to a church.
It was the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (the Wilhelm Kaiser Memorial church).
It had been bombed badly during the bombing raid of 1943. The remains of the
church are surrounded by walls made of a concrete honeycomb containing 21,292 stained glass inlays. It's incredible to see! We then were set loose by Anja to either continue walking around the famous shopping street Kurfürstendamm or head home. I needed to get a pair of tights to go with my skirt for a concert our group would be attending on Sunday. Emily and I headed to H&M and then walked home from where we were. Kurfürstendamm is the street directly behind the street I live on. It was only about a 30 minute walk home from there.
Wednesday was a normal day of school. It was a very long day, but normal. Thursday was another group trip with DiD. We went to the Berliner Unterwelten. The Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underground) consists of the bunkers that were created underneath the city for protection. Pictures weren't allowed, so I was only able to take a few from the inside before our tour began. It was very interesting, to say the least. The bunkers were ABC protected. This meant they were protected from Atomic weapons, Biological weapons, and Chemical weapons. The structure of the bunkers were very interesting. The walls go in a zig-zag pattern. Why? It was believed that if the city was bombed, the impact of the bomb would spread out over this pattern and decrease it's feeling of impact. It wouldn't feel as strong as if the walls were built in a normal straight line pattern. There is a network underground. We were in the Wedding section. This was the part of town named Wedding. There isn't lighting everywhere. Some of the rooms have it. Everywhere else, there is glow paint to light the walls and help guide you along the way. We saw the only kitchen that was there, the infirmary, the generator room, and another room where the emergency air supply was. That room had a tiny square cut out of the wall about 6 feet up from the ground with blocks blocking off the door. The door behind the blocks is air sealed so that no chemicals can get into the room. The blocks also help keep any radiation out if the room needed to be used. The tour took us to one of the U-Bahn stations that was used as well. Thousands of beds would have lined the station platforms. We went into a room where the door is pressurized and the room had a microphone, but no window or camera. This way, the guard of the door could let in the allowed number of people into the bunkers and then shut off the microphone and close the door. He wouldn't have to hear the people screaming, crying, and begging for their lives. Our guide told us, "Back then, you had to do your job. You'd let it the allowed number and then shut the microphone off and close your eyes and ignore what was going to happen next as soon as you push that button." When the bunkers were redone, they made sure that only curtains were used for bathrooms and not doors. Pipes that could only hold some much weight were used as well. There were no knives or anything else sharp in the bunkers. Why? Suicide. All of these things were done to prevent the number of suicides that were committed. The pipes would break right away if someone tried to hang themselves and curtains replaced doors so people couldn't lock themselves in and commit suicide. The tour was a great experience even though it did have its sad moments and information.
On Friday night, our UNL group went to a puppet show. It was definitely... interesting. It was a parody of Orpheus and the Underworld. This show was certainly not appropriate for children! Even though it was entirely in German, most of us understood what was going on due to the actions of the puppets. It was pretty amusing. Once again, we weren't allowed to take pictures of anything and I would only butcher the story and the description of the puppets if I tried!
Yesterday, Saturday, was another group trip with DiD. We went to Wittenberg, also known as Lutherstadt. It is the city where Martin Luther lived, worked, and preached. We saw his house where he worked on his theses and other writings. It was really interesting to see that. We were in Martin Luther's house seeing the robe he wore, the books he wrote, the people he fought against in the Reformation, and other important artifacts. I got to see the first cup that was created and used for communion when the Reformation happened and communion started being taken in both forms, the wine and the bread. I saw the very first Bible that was written by Martin Luther in high German. That was a really huge deal back then for it to be brought into the German speaking world. I saw the first catechism and other documents that played huge rolls. I saw on Ablass! It was a document sold to people telling them it would save them and put them in Heaven if they bought it. It was the selling of indulgences.
We took the tour of the house, which is a museum now, and then walked to the church where Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses. The door is now a replica of the one he posted his theses against. Our group also walked to the church where he preached. That church was the very first to convert in the entire world because of the Reformation. The pulpit inside is known as the "reformation pulpit". I was able to take pictures in there! I saw Martin Luther's grave inside the church. He was buried inside the church where he posted his 95 Theses instead of the church where he preached.
It was so cool seeing history like that. I absolutely loved it! It's one of the reasons I love Germany. There is history everywhere you go. I go by buildings that were built right after the reunification of Berlin! I see places that still exist after the war and the wall. It's so different compared to living in the United States. I'm constantly learning about something here! There's never a dull moment.
Today our group is seeing an opera in a palace or castle. We have to dress up for it. It'll be another great experience! I have my test on Wednesday to move onto the next level at school. It's a huge test and will take place over two days. Hopefully I can do well enough to pass onto the next level! We'll see how much my studying pays off!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Learn from history's mistakes
I knew it wasn't going to be an easy day. I knew that the minute I signed my name on the list to visit Oranienburg. I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I would be seeing, but it wasn't possible. It isn't possible to prepare yourself to see where thousands were tortured and killed.
Everyone met at McDonald's in the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof to begin our journey. Everyone knew it wasn't going to be a happy day. We were somewhat prepared, but how were we supposed to be prepared to see such a horrible place? Everyone was talking about what their previous night was like and what was new with them. We were all in a pretty good mood. We waited for everyone to arrive before purchasing our train tickets. Afterwards, we all went to the platform to wait for the subway to arrive. The subway would take us from the upbeat station at Friedrichstrasse to a dark and depressing place. Our train ride was 45 minutes or so. Everyone was talking with one another. I decided to read my book, Verblendung, and enjoy the long ride.
After the 45 minute ride, we had arrived at our destination, Oranienburg. There were 24 of us in the group. We took up a good chunk of the sidewalk as we walked. Lsya started giving us a brief history of Oranienburg (in German). She told us "Sachsenhausen exists today because they want people to visit. They want everyone to see what happened and learn from it. It is something that should never, never again be repeated." The group got really quiet for a minute. Lsya said we had a bit of a walk ahead of us. We started and talked with one another. I don't think anyone was ready to see what we were going to see. After a long walk, we saw the sign for Sachsenhausen. Everyone stopped to look at it.
We continued our way into the first building where we would pay for our headsets. Everyone had to wait because they had to know how many needed an English headset, a Spanish one, a French one, and any other language that was spoken within our group. We all got our headsets and walked out the doors. Everyone huddled together to find out what time we had to meet back. We had 3 1/2 hours or so to walk around and see what we could see. Lsya recommended that we go to the cinema there and watch the film. After that, everyone split off and made their way down the long road along the side of the camp.
There was a section along the wall with pictures and testimonies from people who were in the camp. There were sad pictures, but there were some happy ones. You could see the pure joy on the faces of the people in the pictures when the US troops came in and helped free the prisoners.
Kelleen, Emily, and I stayed together. We walked around and headed towards the first building we saw. It was a museum. Inside was the uniform of a Nazi soldier along with propaganda that they used. Horrible. Glass display cases lined the walls. They were filled with letters from prisoners, personal items, postcards, and pictures. It wasn't easy looking at the items, but they were definitely interesting. It was interesting to read what they wrote to people outside the walls of the camp and to see pictures of people. Some people had remarkable stories, because they were fortunate enough to survive. The others who weren't so fortunate pulled at my heart. We finished walking around the museum and made our way to the memorial site. We walked past numerous memorials for those who died. This memorial site and the museum sit outside the gate into the camp. We walked through the gate which had "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" on it and stopped. The camp is huge. It's in the shape of a triangle, but a massive triangle. I started to walk along the wall the surrounds the camp. It has multiple sections of barbed wire along it. There was a sign with a skull painted on it and other reading "Neutral Zone". The three of us made our way over to a building we saw nearby. We entered and were welcomed by a room of computers. You could sit down and learn about the different things that went on in the camp. I decided to read about criminal medicine and the research that was done. I read about how the homosexuals had to wear a pink triangle so that everyone knew they were homosexual. I then read about how they were forced or tricked to sign a consent form to be castrated. They thought that if the homosexuals were castrated, then this would eliminate their urge and attraction to other men. They did other experiments of this sort with other groups of people. The SS would make these people go days without food and make them only work unless they decided to sign the consent form. The experiments that went on were absolutely ridiculous, horrible, and pointless. They proved no real scientific evidence for anything!
We walked through the rest of the long building and down the stairs. We saw multiple rooms. I can't remember exactly which ones, but I know we saw a washroom, kitchen, and a dissecting room in that building. I think we may have also seen where bodies were kept before they were dissected.
We walked over to the building beside it. It was similar to the other building with the rooms. I saw the masks that were made of the gypsies by the researchers. These were the exact masks from then. There were so many and all of them were of gypsies. There was the first mask that was made and then the 2nd which was then painted. Most of them had the name of person underneath it, but some were unidentified. There were kits of different colored hair, skin, and eyes. These were used to determine the eye, hair, and skin color of a person who the researchers were studying. They would make notes of which color each was and try to find a underlying pattern for each group of people. Once again, their research was pointless and they didn't come up with any real data.
This building had a room with three screens in it. I tapped the "English" button on the wall and stood back. Each TV lit up simultaneously. "From the view of the SS" on one screen, "From the view of the prisoners" on another, and finally "From the view of a visitor" on the third screen. Kelleen and Emily walked in and sat down in a chair. I continued standing for a minute and then sat down. It was incredible how different the views were. I'd look at the prisoner view screen and see them scrubbing the floors, putting bricks up, digging, starving, and completely exhausted. Then I'd look at the SS screen and see them standing around smiling and laughing, thinking that they are part of something great. They showed a picture of one of the guards handing a prisoner a cigarette, making you think things weren't bad at Sachsenhausen. They were all lies. Looking at the prisoner screen again, I'd see people digging graves for other prisoners. Interviews came on with people who survived and told about what happened. One man told the story of how people from around the world, mostly journalists, would visit the camp. The guards would warn them a day or two in advance of the important visit. This meant that the camp had to be spotless with every bed made and everyone looking they're "finest". If a bed wasn't properly made, the guard would take away food privileges for a week or so. One prisoner gave another his food in exchange for making his bed for him. There were some people who made the beds perfectly, but they still weren't perfect of the guards. It was unbelievable to see all of that.
We weren't able to see all of the camp, because we didn't have a lot of time there. It was definitely an educational experience that I will never forget.
After the depressing part of the day, we walked to cafe and got some lunch before heading to Schloss Oranienburg. I got a bratwurst with potatoes. It was alright... not delicious.
We walked to the palace, which was huge! We went inside and paid 2 euros each since we had such a large group. I paid another 3 euros to be able to take pictures of things. The palace was alright, it wasn't anything super fancy until we went to the basement. There were rooms of giant beer steins! I'm talking like... 2-3 feet tall ones made from pure silver.
Everyone met at McDonald's in the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof to begin our journey. Everyone knew it wasn't going to be a happy day. We were somewhat prepared, but how were we supposed to be prepared to see such a horrible place? Everyone was talking about what their previous night was like and what was new with them. We were all in a pretty good mood. We waited for everyone to arrive before purchasing our train tickets. Afterwards, we all went to the platform to wait for the subway to arrive. The subway would take us from the upbeat station at Friedrichstrasse to a dark and depressing place. Our train ride was 45 minutes or so. Everyone was talking with one another. I decided to read my book, Verblendung, and enjoy the long ride.
After the 45 minute ride, we had arrived at our destination, Oranienburg. There were 24 of us in the group. We took up a good chunk of the sidewalk as we walked. Lsya started giving us a brief history of Oranienburg (in German). She told us "Sachsenhausen exists today because they want people to visit. They want everyone to see what happened and learn from it. It is something that should never, never again be repeated." The group got really quiet for a minute. Lsya said we had a bit of a walk ahead of us. We started and talked with one another. I don't think anyone was ready to see what we were going to see. After a long walk, we saw the sign for Sachsenhausen. Everyone stopped to look at it.
We continued our way into the first building where we would pay for our headsets. Everyone had to wait because they had to know how many needed an English headset, a Spanish one, a French one, and any other language that was spoken within our group. We all got our headsets and walked out the doors. Everyone huddled together to find out what time we had to meet back. We had 3 1/2 hours or so to walk around and see what we could see. Lsya recommended that we go to the cinema there and watch the film. After that, everyone split off and made their way down the long road along the side of the camp.
There was a section along the wall with pictures and testimonies from people who were in the camp. There were sad pictures, but there were some happy ones. You could see the pure joy on the faces of the people in the pictures when the US troops came in and helped free the prisoners.
Kelleen, Emily, and I stayed together. We walked around and headed towards the first building we saw. It was a museum. Inside was the uniform of a Nazi soldier along with propaganda that they used. Horrible. Glass display cases lined the walls. They were filled with letters from prisoners, personal items, postcards, and pictures. It wasn't easy looking at the items, but they were definitely interesting. It was interesting to read what they wrote to people outside the walls of the camp and to see pictures of people. Some people had remarkable stories, because they were fortunate enough to survive. The others who weren't so fortunate pulled at my heart. We finished walking around the museum and made our way to the memorial site. We walked past numerous memorials for those who died. This memorial site and the museum sit outside the gate into the camp. We walked through the gate which had "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" on it and stopped. The camp is huge. It's in the shape of a triangle, but a massive triangle. I started to walk along the wall the surrounds the camp. It has multiple sections of barbed wire along it. There was a sign with a skull painted on it and other reading "Neutral Zone". The three of us made our way over to a building we saw nearby. We entered and were welcomed by a room of computers. You could sit down and learn about the different things that went on in the camp. I decided to read about criminal medicine and the research that was done. I read about how the homosexuals had to wear a pink triangle so that everyone knew they were homosexual. I then read about how they were forced or tricked to sign a consent form to be castrated. They thought that if the homosexuals were castrated, then this would eliminate their urge and attraction to other men. They did other experiments of this sort with other groups of people. The SS would make these people go days without food and make them only work unless they decided to sign the consent form. The experiments that went on were absolutely ridiculous, horrible, and pointless. They proved no real scientific evidence for anything!
We walked through the rest of the long building and down the stairs. We saw multiple rooms. I can't remember exactly which ones, but I know we saw a washroom, kitchen, and a dissecting room in that building. I think we may have also seen where bodies were kept before they were dissected.
We walked over to the building beside it. It was similar to the other building with the rooms. I saw the masks that were made of the gypsies by the researchers. These were the exact masks from then. There were so many and all of them were of gypsies. There was the first mask that was made and then the 2nd which was then painted. Most of them had the name of person underneath it, but some were unidentified. There were kits of different colored hair, skin, and eyes. These were used to determine the eye, hair, and skin color of a person who the researchers were studying. They would make notes of which color each was and try to find a underlying pattern for each group of people. Once again, their research was pointless and they didn't come up with any real data.
This building had a room with three screens in it. I tapped the "English" button on the wall and stood back. Each TV lit up simultaneously. "From the view of the SS" on one screen, "From the view of the prisoners" on another, and finally "From the view of a visitor" on the third screen. Kelleen and Emily walked in and sat down in a chair. I continued standing for a minute and then sat down. It was incredible how different the views were. I'd look at the prisoner view screen and see them scrubbing the floors, putting bricks up, digging, starving, and completely exhausted. Then I'd look at the SS screen and see them standing around smiling and laughing, thinking that they are part of something great. They showed a picture of one of the guards handing a prisoner a cigarette, making you think things weren't bad at Sachsenhausen. They were all lies. Looking at the prisoner screen again, I'd see people digging graves for other prisoners. Interviews came on with people who survived and told about what happened. One man told the story of how people from around the world, mostly journalists, would visit the camp. The guards would warn them a day or two in advance of the important visit. This meant that the camp had to be spotless with every bed made and everyone looking they're "finest". If a bed wasn't properly made, the guard would take away food privileges for a week or so. One prisoner gave another his food in exchange for making his bed for him. There were some people who made the beds perfectly, but they still weren't perfect of the guards. It was unbelievable to see all of that.
We weren't able to see all of the camp, because we didn't have a lot of time there. It was definitely an educational experience that I will never forget.
After the depressing part of the day, we walked to cafe and got some lunch before heading to Schloss Oranienburg. I got a bratwurst with potatoes. It was alright... not delicious.
We walked to the palace, which was huge! We went inside and paid 2 euros each since we had such a large group. I paid another 3 euros to be able to take pictures of things. The palace was alright, it wasn't anything super fancy until we went to the basement. There were rooms of giant beer steins! I'm talking like... 2-3 feet tall ones made from pure silver.
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