First Week in Berlin

When I got back from class yesterday (Friday) there was a church barbeque going on in the courtyard, and for some reason bagpipes starting playing, and later they sang hymns and other songs while cleaning up.
Then I went down briefly to see the fuzball game. I fell asleep at 11 and woke up at 2 to music pumping and people singing along loudly and presumably dancing, it was American music i.e. Wannabe by the Spice Girls, which played twice, all the way through. I wanted to be able to be out there dancing to the silly music, but I also just wanted to get back to sleep. It was a Friday night, and Germany had won the game against Greece, so the noise was to be expected.
 ~
On Sunday, I finally met Sasha and then he gave me a tour (which was very useful, I still get lost but I know how to get back to certain key places and orient myself from there, so I don't get too lost, and I now know  little bit of the function and history of some of the buildings). And then later that day the fuzball game(so much excitement when Germany won)

a street down from where I'm staying

Monday on the way to take the placement for the German classes I did manage to get very lost, mostly because I was nervous and couldn't think straight - circling around a block for about 40 minutes, even though I was only a couple blocks away. The fact that the testing was in a different building and I had no way of knowing did not help. The fact that it was an hour later than I thought meant I still came there right on time. There are about 60-70 of us. We were given a speech, and the only part of it I could understand was that we are not to speak English, just German (but since I don't know any German, that was the only part of the speech I could guess at the meaning). I couldn't fill out any of the questions on the placement test.
I came out and met people, and was relieved when the first person I met, Lichen, had never taken German either. We got a tour of the place by one of the students who are working with the program (Charlotta) and then ate at the dining hall and had a 2 hour tour of Berlin (but all in a fairly small area) of which I understood practically nothing.
At this point everyone wanted to sit down before wandering back, and I had met a few people, so we went to Hackescher Markt and got some bubble tea (of all things). (Lichen Singapore, Philosophy UChig, Hannah Canada Maria Canda and left to meet her parents Rosie England Linguistics with concentration in German, Michel Hong Kong, European Studies Carolin Canada)
 
Tuesday after class we quickly went to the Berlin Wall by Warschauer Straße, but not enough to take it in which is why I really did want to go on the tour today. I'll go some other time, camera in hand. (Lichen, Hannah, Rosy, Ben Philly Bassoonist Eastman School of Music, Nina Sweden, Carolin). We then went to a park. First I tried to get to the park where I had played fuzball the first day, but I couldn't' find it, and then we went to Hackescher Markt, which turned out to be where the park I was trying to find was anyway (embarrassing).

Wednesday we went to a mall that turned out to be exactly the same as a mall anywhere else so a few half of us left to rest. But then later met up with plans to go to a pub or something. I think almost everyone else lives in the Humboldt accommodations, at Tierpark, and I was late getting there and then ended up retracing my steps to Alexanderplatz to find the pub. Unfortunately the pub Ben had in mind didn't have space to accommodate us (it was such a nice looking pub too!) so we wandered around, a light drizzle coming down. (Laura England Nat England Hannah Rosie Maria Ben Ruben Norway Literature) until some of us where very hungry and settled for an Italian place (once again, of all places). It was nice.

Thursday we went to a giant book/music store near Friedrichstraße, and Rosie and Laura accompanied me to get a phone or simcard, which I still have yet to figure out how to use, or how to turn off German T9 (Lichin, Ben, Michel, Lin) and then the girls and Michel went to a German second hand store. I can't figure out where it was right now but I got a pair of shorts and skirt so...I'll ask. We were supposed to meet up later but with my phone not yet set up and Alexanderplatz so large I waited for 50 minutes and left (they waited for 40, and I came 15 minutes early...so we were all there at the same time, but it didn't help)

Friday Laura and I split from the group to pick up some sunblock. We went to the Jewish Museum (as had most everyone else) but we came later and I think stayed longer; for about two hours.
It did not make as big an impression on me as I had expected, or as had the Holocaust Museum in DC when I went there in 8th grade (though I understand it is a Jewish museum not a Holocaust museum). It seemed somewhat sterile and conceptualized, neat little relics behind glass, information on Jewish culture, most of which was not new to me.
There is a room of fallen leaves filled with abstract faces in agony, and a group of people my age where holding them up to their faces, taking group pictures with smiles, missing the entire point (tactless, especially since the faces represent the dead, or as the museum captions where consistent in saying, 'murdered').
That's not to say I don't think it's worth seeing, there are parts of it that are really well executed and made the trip worthwhile, and the architecture is literately dizzying is some parts of the building.In fact, the architectural part of the museum is what makes it, not the content inside, for the most part.





























I will make an attempt to write more frequently (and thus shorter texts)