2nd Museum Nth Game

Sunday I went back and did my hw and then met up with them again, (Johnathan Alabama,  Robin Alabama, Nat Art undergrad Art Management and Something masters, Rosie, Maria, Hannah, Ben, Michel, Laura second gap year Film and works as an Extra in things I've heard of). We were planning on watching the England-Italy game at Haufbanhoff since that is what I had done the day before, but it was raining and the table umbrellas there did not do anything. The only option in the area was to climb under the bridge and watch a big screen across the river, but no one got on board with that (though I thought it was a great plan, personally) so we went to a pub Nat suggested a pub by Schlesisches Tor. It was dry and the candles where lit and the chairs mismatched and I got my first bier (Flensburger pilsener) but I left before it ended because I had forgotten my key and didn't want to ring too late.
    Yesterday I went to the German History Museum. (Jasmine LA Oberlin Maria Hannah Rosie Laura Caroline.) The top floor was dedicated to early Germany and the ground floor to WW's. The entrance-way was nice and there is a huge hall filled with nothing and a glass roof and then all the information on the ground floor is crammed in a series of rooms, the second floor a little bit more breathable. Most of what I read was the post WWI (economy, debates about monarchy, stab-in-the-back myth)  and WWII. Lots of propaganda posters, models, events of various sizes

Eberswalder Straße

I just realized that the beginning of my last post was redundant. I guess I had the words in my head and did not feel like I had put them down (even my phrasing was the same)
also: my phone finally works (they gave me two simcards. one that is for the phone from the company I bought it and the other just a random simcard. I have no idea why)

Last night, after staying in all day and taking three naps (yes, three) I went to Haufbanhoff station with Andreas and Charlotte and Andreas's colegue from Latvia and we watched the France-Spain game.

There were a few places you could watch, and one of them had a fake beach set up but you had to pay 3 euro for a food ticket so we went to a different place.

It's a really pretty station, though the construction detracts from it in this photo. Spain won. 
And today I met up with some classmates, we went to a flea market at Eberswalder Straße (Hannah, Maria Rosie, Michel, Laura, Caroline and Ben, who was complaining that we had tricked him into shopping)
 


We got food, Hannah got a necklace-watch, and then Hannah and Maria left and the rest of us went to walk around. We kept bumping into people from the German-classes, I guess everyone felt like hitting the flea markets. There's not much else to do on Sunday; the stores are closed and the museums are filled with tourists. Of course we look like tourists too, cameras out.

 But how could we not? That building demanded to be photographed.

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)

Getting to Berlin

I didn't sleep well the night before but I had the stroopwafelsYulka brought from me from Germany with my parents as a parting tea-before-bed event. It seemed fitting.
Папа drove me to the airport and we checked my bag and he walked me to security. I had to get patted down, I think because of my hairclips because after I took them out the following two checkpoints went smoothly. 
My trip went from Logan -> JFK -> Amsterdam -> Tegel in Germany.
I was waiting in JFK and wrote the following:
It's interesting how no matter where you go faces become familiar - you see a person once; standing to get bags checked, riding in the airtrans, boarding a plane - and when you get off and see them again; bag pick-up or waiting for another plane-they are someone you already someone you know, you might notice some personal details- a guy with sprained angle and great cheekbones, a girl for whom an airport-worker found a ring that was lost, a curly-haired boy and traveling with his father, a couple who's origins I could not identify. Even if it's just one person and three other  and all of them soon will be forgotten, but for now they are familiar.
(the guy with the cheekbones turned out to also have a final destination in Tegel)

Two airport ladies were really helped me figure out how to get to the Delta area. I waited in JFK after picking up my bag (there was a marine there-I feel like I always see way more army men in the airport than anywhere else. Also an Asian woman and her child were wearing flu-masks, which I thought was odd.) and got some food and went through security again. I talked to an old man on the plane to Amsterdam. He was going to Norway, he had red eyes and faded brown-green eyes, black birthmarks sprinkled on his brown cheeks, and an arm that had been severely damaged so I helped him open packets of food. The plane-pasta was actually okay. By the time I got off the plane my back was in a lot of pain, because I had been trying to use the food tray as a place to put my head and sleep. It looked really pretty from the sky, the little streets and little houses.

After landing we had to run. There was a stewardess waiting for us with the flight number and Berlin written on it. You would think that a one-hour overlay would be calmer than speed walking across the airport, speed getting-checked in security, speed stating my business in Berlin. There were about 20 of us, which was the majority of the people on the small plane to Tegel.When I got on the plane I realized that, though my phone could pick up on the European airwaves, it did not want to use them. Not to send a text home, not anything.

Flying down to Tegel I noticed the eight electric windmills, and brightly colored houses.
Once I got on the ground I realized I had forgotten the instructions Sasha (who I'm renting a room from) had given me as to how to get to where I was living. Thankfully Tegel allows for 5 minutes of free wifi, so I wrote it down and wrote him an e-mail saying my phone wasn't working.
I took the bus. I was confused as to how to use the ticket because on the mbta you just tap it if you have a charlie, or feed it to the reader if you have a ticket, or feed it money if you don't have either. I had bought a ticket at the machine, but you need to get it stamped and it's not right at the entrance to the bus, but a few steps further. I felt dumb and I was exhusted.
On the metro I got a lot of weird looks. My suitcase is huge (we don't have a medium sized suitcase at my house: and the small one's zipper popped open when I tried to stuff everything in there) and an orange hicking/camping backpack. I got off and sat down under the bustop area. It was glass and I figured I would be visible there. So I sat there. For a while. And this lady was sitting there too, and the a man came over and they were talking. And looking over. And talking. Until they finally asked me if I was waiting for the tran (first in German, then in English) and then they helped me by first letting me use the phone (but it, of course, turned out I had written down the wrong number) and then by helping me find an internet cafe, the woman only spoke English and Swahili, the man knew German as well. The internet cafe was 1.50 for an hour (I payed .50 since I was there for less.) I wrote down the address and e-mailed Sasha. He wrote back saying that he had to go to work at 11:15 and I said I'll go back to the bus stop (but he didn't know what I meant by that.) I didn't even know what time it was because (once again-of course) I rushed out and didn't think to look at the time on the computer, and it didn't say the time on my phone.
He still didn't find me and it was raining and somehow nobody knew that meant can I borrow your phone. I teared up a bit out of desperation. Finally I just got a cab and then I stood in the archway of the building next to it (because it had a deeper archway and thus kept me from the rain). Three people used a key and walked in the building. As the door was closing, I slowed it down so it wouldn't shut all the way.
Got my stuff, and walked in.

Inside turned out not to be inside. It was like an outside corridor into a courtyard in the middle. Two doors in the corridor. I stood there and very soon a young woman asked me in German something and then it turned out she could speak English (thankfully I live in student housing, so people can speak English) She rang the apartment for me and got one of Sasha's apartment-mates, Andreas, and I got let in. It was about 1 by then, I had arrived at the airport at 8:25.
Christian (another of the apartment-mates, and there's a fourth person who I haven't yet met) and Charlotte, who was visiting them, turend out to be really really nice.
At this point, after being so upset and so tired I was incredibly relieved. And the apartment is really really nice. I e-mailed home to say I was okay and then we had tea and strawberries and good bread with butter and honey and it was really lovely. I showered and I tried to stay awake and then slept for an hour. They had invited me to play futball so I got a knock on the door when it was time to get up and I quickly changed. Went downstairs and met up with a bunch of people at the courtyard entrance and walked over to a park that had an enclosed red-surfaced area to play. There were two little boys there so we played with them too. People would stop and watch us play: a boy and his father, a couple on a walk, two high-school aged boys with beer, and then it started to really rain and we played until one more goal and walked back.
We came back and once again I tried not to fall asleep but then did anyway, for two or three hours. Woke up, ate a little bit of pasta that Christian offered me (but I didn't want to take a full serving...) so I ended up eating a sandwich they had given me on the Tegel flight, and went to bed around 12.

I woke up a little before 9 today and made tea and ate the banana and baked-good (the rest of my  Tegel plane meal) and then felt sleepy again. A little before 10 I got a knock on my door and finally met Sasha. He is going to show me how to get to various places. Christian studies theology and Andreas studies economics, Charlotte I supposed studied something like political science, by her accent I think she's from England but she recently lost her job (sortof...the person she was working for decided to go back to her area in Germany, and the new person is a little bit crazy, so even though he offered her a job she turned it down, but she has an interview tomorrow.)

We are on the third floor and I look down I can see the courtyard and across the windows of the chapel, and the bell rings (often, more than once an hour.)


I think that is all for now.

Tips from Christo

He's currently in Heidelberg as part of German Immersion

• get used to drinking beer instead of water because it's generally cheaper
• don't smile, because to Germans it's a sign of aggression and it means you want to steal their spouse
• recycle
• they also don't say 'excuse me' as often as we do (if you accidentally bump into someone they don't necessarily apologize so don't take it as rudeness)

I started packing this morning. I still have to finish. And clean my room. And stop freaking out.
Yesterday I realized that the site on one hand says "all level of German" but on the other hand says "elementary German (minimum A2)" meaning year two, which is more than I know.
(http://www.sprachenzentrum.hu-berlin.de/international-language-school-en/sommer-2012/dib1/index?set_language=en&cl=en)


but I can't really do anything about it. I'm not particularity  good at learning languages (or...I haven't managed to learn Spanish despite all the years I took it at my high school)
Maybe it'll be better this time. Hopefully I'll pass the class and get the credits trasfered. Worse comes to worse I just don't get the credits.

That's what I'm telling myself because I'm freaking out. 

Mama's Birthday

 See? Happy. Because I also made lasagna. Spinach Mushroom Lasagna
(loosely based on this recipe).

Almond Flour Cake

It was my Mama's birthday yesterday so I  made a fancy cake. Almond flour is not cheap, but...it's make of almonds, so it's delicious. I found it in the gluten-free section of the supermarket. This cake is not 'airy' or 'light', but it is really good. I made it yesterday and it is very much gone by now.

  

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter 
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 cups almond flour, divided use
• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 cup sugar

(Be careful when separating the eggs. If you get even a little bit of yolk into the egg whites, it is very unlikely that your egg whites will peak.)

recipe from midgelet with my commentary in italics

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. (image 1)

Beat in the egg yolks, then stir in 1 cup of the almond flour.
Set aside.
(I also added a teaspoon of lemon zest and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Even though I've never made this cake before, I figured it might be a good idea to offset the sweetness with some zest, and while I have nothing to compare to, I didn't regret it)(image 2)

In a separate, very clean mixing bowl of an electric mixer, use the whisk attachment and whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Slowly add 1/4 cup of sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.
(If you are having issues getting the whites to peak, add a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Also, you do not really need to wait to add the sugar, you can do it while beating the egg whites--I've made meringues way too many times) (image 3)

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites and the remaining 1 cup of almond flour into the egg yolk mixture, alternating whites with the almond flour. (image 4)

Pour the batter in a 9-inch pan (with 2-inch-tall sides) lined with a circle of parchment paper.
(I just used a bundt pan, and buttered it instead of using parchment. It came out pretty easily) 


Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack and run a clean butter knife around the edges to loosen before inverting