Pergamon

Montag I had the day off from class so I tried to go the the Gemäldegalerie but I never got to it. I walked down in the wrong direction first (for some reason Potsdamer Platz was very confusing that day) and then wandered into the Deutsche Kinemathek Museum für Film und Fernsehen where the man working at the desk told me it that both museums where closed, but explained how to get to the Gemäldegalerie for next time. I'm always grateful when I bump into nice strangers. Later I met up with Rosie and Laura and wandered around near Alexanderplatz, but we didn't do much. I didn't sleep much at night either so I suppose it was a somewhat meh day.

Dienstag was, therefore, the day I was somewhat sleep deprived. There was a DDR tour after class. The tour guide was the same from all the previous tours (Neue National Galerie, First day, Potsdam) and I had to ask Ben to translate, though sometimes I understood. We ended by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. After the tour we had a surprised of beer payed for by the program, so we sat around (tour guide and tour-guided) and I mostly listened, but a lot of it was basic enough conversation that I didn't feel totally lost. Ben and I where the last ones to leave. I think that was the longest primarily-in-German conversation that I had been able to participate in, at least by being able to understand the jokes. And then when I came back to the flat there had been another delivery of local foods, including smoked tofu (new for me) and spinach (actually, I think it may have been chard, the stalks where red. the spinach-y thing from last time was chard too, call Mangold here) and potatoes, so Tilman Sasha and I had dinner. I think I may have skipped dinner otherwise, so doubly thankful.

Mittwoch we had an after-class trip to the Pergamon museum, which was great. Ben was really excited to re-visit the Islamic art section, but I liked the Cuneiform-embedded statues and Greek mosaics as well.