Berlin and a few more random things.

Well it seems like if I don't blog for a few days then I have so much to say! So I'll try to make things semi short :)

I'm in my finals week right now. The semester is set up in 2 terms. I have 1 class that goes the whole time I'm here. Then I have 2 classes that are over tomorrow. I had one final today, I have one tomorrow. And then I have 2 research papers due tomorrow, which of course I've barely started. Then after a week break I start again with a new class.

Berlin was an amazing trip. I posted many picture and actually started putting captions on them. It wasn't really a trip where you go "oh yeah that was really fun!". Not because it wasn't good, but more because of what we did while we were there. Berlin has so much recent history. It's crazy to think that 20 years ago I wouldn't have been able to even travel where I was because of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall dividing the Soviet East and Democratic West. The city itself is not a very "pretty" city per se. Most of the city was destroyed during World War II and has since been rebuilt.

We took a long walking tour the first day and saw things like the place that Hitler's old bunker used to be (now converted into a car park), the Berlin Wall, a Jewish Holocaust memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gates, and much more. It was very interesting and informative, although a little cold. The temperature all weekend was around 0 degrees Celcius. We went out at night and I met a German guy named Freidrich who is now my email pen pal. I think that's pretty cool.

The next day most of our group went to a concentration camp called Sachsenhausen (pronounced saxon how zen). That was a very moving, emotional, and depressing experience. The fact that we were standing there in our scarves and heavy coats and hats still cold helped to put things into perspective as well. Even though everyone was definitely freezing, I didn't here anyone complaining about it. Especially after seeing the thin cotton prison uniforms that were the only clothing of prisoners. I did a lot of studying about the Holocaust when I was younger, but I still learned so much while I was here. I think it's an experience everyone should have in their life time.

Our last day we did more of our own exploring of the city. We visited a bombed out church, Alexanderplatz, the radio tower, the Reichstag where we climbed up a large glass torpedo like structure to look out over the city, and a few more places. It seemed to take a little bit of time to get from place to place. The U-bahn and the S-trains aren't quite as efficient as the Tube. Although the fact that everything was in German also didn't help us out too much :)

My favorite new food is what is called a Kebab. It's not what we think of, meat on a stick. Rather it is what looks like a pita but thicker stuffed with lamb or chicken, lettuce, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, and an interesting garlic like sauce that kind of looks like ranch dressing. Oh and pastries. Germans have amazing pastries!

Well... so much for being brief. Oh well! After tomorrow I have a week plus a little off for our Spring Break. I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow around 3 and come back Sunday night. Then Tuesday I am flying to Rome (random turn around) with 6 other people. The plan is to go to Rome, then Florence, then Venice. We'll get back Monday night from Italy! I'm pretty darn excited!

Part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.


Glass torpedo to climb inside the Reichstag