Part II

This past Wednesday we had another excursion day with our class. This time we went to a museum called “The Story of Berlin.” It was interesting and had all the history of the city including a huge section on the DDR of course.

After going through the museum though, they took us beneath the museum to one of the bomb bunkers that was built in case of an atomic bomb attack. It was never used but had crazy amounts of beds and these weird bathrooms. Actually, it was extremely creepy down there. I stopped behind the tour to take a picture or one area and my camera wouldn’t work so of course by the time I did get the picture everyone had moved on to a complete other section of the bunker and I was left alone. Let me tell you, I booked it. I looked up a realized there was silence surrounding me and everything was basically dark besides this blue light that lit the place a little. I don’t care whether or not the place was actually used… that place is the exact place where ghosts would love to haunt. So yes, I high tailed it through horror-film looking hallways until I found the group again.

This is the picture I stopped to take. Told you it was creepy

The bathrooms they would have used

Beds

And alas, there was an “I am embarrassed for my country” American on the tour. Yup. This woman, who just fed every American tourist stereotype, was ridiculous. Not only was she rather large wearing socks up to her mid-shin with sneakers, camera around her neck, and sweating as we stood there (it was not hot down there) but obnoxious. Immediately when the tour began, she’s waiving her hands in front of the tour guide’s face and challenging everything she said. When we stopped to look into a window of a room, the focal point of what the tour guide was talking about, she stood in the middle of the doorway and braced herself across it so no one could see into the room. Instead we just stared at her. I can’t even justly describe it. I had to laugh. She continued to interrupt the tour guide and point out things about the bunker that the tour guide was just like “actually no mam’ that is not how it happened…” You know when you watch a show or someone and you feel embarrassed for them? This was one of those times. After the tour, I looked at the kids in my group and they were all said, “and that is why Americans have a stereotype.” But the day was fun all in all.

We went to Schloss Charlottenburg on Friday, which was only like 20 minutes from my apartment. The castle is HUGE so we only toured the “old section” but that took like 2 hours in itself. Most of the upstairs of the castle was destroyed by bombs in WWII, which was really sad. They recreated a lot of it, which I always hate because I don’t feel like I’m looking at the actual thing anymore. But the parts that were preserved were really neat and the garden was beautiful. They wouldn’t allow photography inside so all I have are outside shots. Oh well.

Garden

Don't ask

This weekend was pretty crazy. First, the street I live on had its first Schroderstrasse day. All of the people on the street opened up their apartment building and had cakes, coffee, games, live music, wine, beer, and so on and so on. It was like a giant neighborhood party but in a city so it was even cooler. All of the apartments have courtyards in the middle of their buildings so they all had different things set-up inside. I have been walking by this alley everyday and I catching a glimpse of this really old building when I walked by. I have always been curious to go see it but I felt uncomfortable because it’s next to where people live so I finally got my chance this weekend! It was made in the early 1900’s and there are broken windows and stuff. People live in the building adjacent but almost a part of it. Other than that it is run down and so old I love it. It looks like it would have amazing history inside if someone let us go in. We did get to go into the creepy basement of another building though where a girl had made “art”. I don’t know how she worked down there alone because it was really scary. There was an old phone on the wall from 1904 that still had numbers for the police that dated back til then (Volkspolizei). It was cool.

The building to the right of the red brick church is mine

They do it in Germany too

Kids making massive bubbles

That is the old building. Not to frightening with kids out front but very OLD

Basement art. The sheet flew up and then dropped to the floor over and over again

Old telephone

Then, later in the evening, there was a bunch of bands that played. One was from Austrailia and I bought their sampler CD. Theyre really good. There was this 80 or so year old woman that popped her head out the window and started dancing to the music. She then came out on her balcony to dance too. It was so cute. I have a video Ill see if it lets me post it.

In between scary art basement and dancing granny, we ventured down to the main part of the city because they were celebrating Christopher Street day. It was a gay pride day and over half a million people flooded the streets. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen! There were ridiculous costumes and floats everywhere. Kathleen and I jumped right into the crowd and everyone was dancing and having a good time. I loved it. Ill post some pictures of it. I can’t even imagine what Oktoberfest is like.

At the end of the night, everyone from our apartment buildings sat in the court yard and they projected Mama Mia on the wall of the building. It was a really cute family evening. Germans love American music and all the moms (and Kathleen) were dancing and singing Abba like crazy. Perfect ending to the night.

Oh, also, before the parade, we ran into a group of street performers that were fun to watch. Ill post that video too. Keep watching til the end its when it gets good.

and another one

And this is just a cool door

Oh and I forgot one thing about Hamburg. During our tour, we started hearing people in the distance yelling the same thing again and again and eventually ran into a huge demonstration against the Iranian president. I thought it was interesting because I have never seen a huge protest and I had been following the situation on the news.

This is the end tail of the protest but it went for miles and police we everywhere

Guten Morgen!

I haven’t update in a while…again…so I think I will break this up into sections so it’s not so long.

First, speaking to Charlotte’s class went pretty well. I forgot to take a picture of them while they were all still in their seats but I got a picture of the classroom. Her school is neat because it’s at least 100 years old so it has a Harry Potter Esq. feeling to it.

Charlotte and two of her school friends

The kids were great and asked a TON of questions about the US. It’s so sad that their 11 year old English is 100x’s better than my 22 year old German. But they asked a lot about the size of our cars, malls, and if we had a lot of money. I thought that one was funny. I guess the size of our “stuff” equals money in their mind. Maybe once it did, but not anymore. They also really liked the part on the Palisades mall because of the roller coaster inside. It took a little bit to explain to them though that not every mall has one though. I think that was disappointing.

The classroom

This is also hard to see but its what a piece on the outside of the school looks like

Anna, kathleen, and I made our venture to KaDeWe which is like Harrods in England...aka WAY TOO expensive for me. It was a really cool mall because it wasnt like they had stores but just floors with designers on them and different merchandise. (Kat you would have gone nuts in here) It actually felt weird to not be able to walk into individual stores. They had a large kitchen and food section upstairs which I found some spices. I bought my Uncle (hi Uncle Rob) a spice that I think is very German? I couldn't read all of the ingredients so that's how I could tell it was full German :).

KaDeWe

I also went on an excursion to Hamburg with Anna and a lot of other students from Fubis. I had to get up at like 5:00 am in order to make it to the school by the time the bus left for the excursion. Unknown to me, the trains do not run as often on the weekends. So I literally JUST made the bus. But on my way down to the bus, tons of kids not older than 16 kept getting on the trains, coming in from their night out. It was funny for me to see these kids that are so young out partying until the morning but it’s because the drinking age is so much earlier here. Still, I can’t imagine my parents ever allowing me to disappear all night at age 16.

Then, when I switched trains , I walked on with my bag and my head phones on an sat across from three Turkish men. They were probably like 40 but immediately one said in German:

„Das ist ein Englische Madchen.”

„Wo?“

„Uber da! Sucht!“

Which translates to them saying, „Look that is an English girl. Where? Over there.” And them all staring at me. Then they started talking about English people in Turkish because I kept hearing the word, but I don’t get it! How do they know? I literally only had on a jacket, jeans, and my ipod. I didn’t even say a word for them to know my accent. How do I have English written on me? My host mother thinks it is the flip-flops. Maybe so, but it was funny because they thought I couldn’t understand them. That made me happy because they were saying it as if I had no clue what was going on.

Anyways, I finally made it to the bus and sat with Anna. I don’t know how I do this, but I always manage to make friends with people who are early risers…Rachel meaning you. Anna is one of those people who is up in the morning and wide awake…Mom, that’s you too. Those people are like another breed of human. So, Anna is one and we ended up talking for the entire 5 hours down to Hamburg. I was so tired we were almost a little delirious and laughing at everything. Everyone else around us was completely passed out but Anna and me.

Once we go to Hamburg we checked into my first youth hostel! So, first off, I am sure there are Hostels that are not so nice but WOW. This one was awesome. Ill put up a picture of our room. It was nicer than a lot of hotels I’ve stayed in and what makes it better is it is made for people our age. It’s affordable so it has a bar and everyone our age in it. There were some adults too but I liked the young atmosphere there.

Here is our hostel room...kind of hard to see but it was really nice trust me!

We put our stuff down and then went out into Hamburg. They were having a fair that weekend so there were tons of stands out everywhere and games. Mom and SJ, you would have gone crazy because they also had a flohmarkt (Fleamarket). But within the first 10 minutes that Anna and I were standing beneath a tent to look at stuff, it started DOWNPOURING. It came out of nowhere. It went from pure sun to pouring harder than I have seen in a while. There was also a period of hail balls that fell. We were caught under this little tent without jackets or an umbrella. There were a lot of tables under the tent so we really has like an inch of protection from it all.

Some of us once it was sunny again

Eventually it stopped, and we made a run for it. The sun came back out only to down pour again 15 minutes later. We took cover in a café this time and got a sandwich for lunch. Later that day, we went on a tour of Hamburg. I took the tour spoken in German because, well, that’s why I’m here. It understood most of what she said but every now and then I would ask one of our leaders to translate something. After the tour, a bunch of us decided to get coffee at what was pointed out as the best coffee in Hamburg. So we all ordered and Irish Crème coffee…bad decision. It was like drinking straight liquor and it made me so jittery from the caffeine that I was still a little shaky by 9:00 that night. Ugh. Gross.

The Death of me

We ended up going out to Hamburg’s red light district that night. More so accidently than on purpose but it was really interesting. We went to a club or two which were semi-normal and sandwiched between 100 or more strip clubs. There was literally a strip club every 5 feet. There were people out everywhere too. I was glad I was with a big group of people because not everyone there looked so friendly. At the end of the night we stopped at a German McDonalds….it had to be done. I am a little ashamed that we did but nonetheless it tasted the same as ours.

The next day we went on a boat tour, which was not too good. They took us all around the giant barges but there was nothing “pretty” to look at. Plus our tour guide was a little crazy and kept saying “yo” at the end of every sentence.

Hamburg Boat Tour

After that we went to Hamburg’s Immigration Museum. That was cool. W
e went to the place where almost everyone went before they left for Ellis Island. It was like seeing the other side. They had computers for you to look you family up in and I found ours. They also had an old draft card on file that was filled out by my great great something. He had handwritten out where he was from (Pozzilli Italy) and signed his name. Everyone from my family was on there…including my Mom, Dad, and older brother. SJ, Jeffrey, and I weren’t there though so…maybe we need to register? They had records of everywhere we have moved too and our addresses. It was very interesting and also a little crazy that someone knows so much about our family.

Immigration Museum

We decided to get in the beds that they would have slept on...not sure if that was allowed

Kelly and I on another bed

Picture I took of an unsuspecting boy...I got a weird look from him when he realized I was photographing him.

We didn’t get home from Hamburg until really late and I had an extremely hard time getting up for school the next day.

P.S. Finally! I meet the childhood obsession of my life (forgot to post this)

Oh and I just thought these pictures looked interesting

Another week in Berlin…6/18/09

Another week in Berlin…

The days keep flying by as I knew they would. Before I know it, I will be back on a plane to the US and my entire time here will feel like a story. I will have photos and this blog, but I am certain I will not be able to fully believe the grasp the impact of my experience here until I am home. I sit on the Sbahn everyday with my ipod, sometimes playing music, but most of the time on “pause” so I can listen in on other peoples conversations just for my own self achievement. A little creepy, yes I know, but the more I listen the more I am able to start feeling like a part of the culture and not just some outsider. They speak so fast but I feel a small sense of accomplishment when the conversation ends and I have the understood the gist of what they were saying.

There are also times where I can almost imagine that I am in a city in the US. They have very similar things to us but then I will walk around a corner and see a building that has Germany written all over it and I am reminded that there are few places in the world with history like this. I love seeing the buildings covered in old stucco and some with hay roofs. These aren’t as common here in Berlin as they are in Bavaria but you can find them nonetheless. Or the buildings so covered in vines you can almost hardly tell that they are clinging to the walls of a house.

And then there are the bakeries. I know I have already talked about them but they are a part of my daily routine. I started running today because if I continue to enjoy my coffee and croissant every morning, I may need a lift to get me into the plane. But the cafés here are social. People come sometimes on the go but usually to sit a chat with their family or friends. It is common for a person to stay for hours in a café. We’ve done it. They have amazing cakes and other masterpieces and their bread is unbelievable. There is a small stand by my school that we go to during out breaks and eat a sandwich with wurst, cheese, tomatoes, and some delicious dressing for a euro! The man that owns the shop loves us and gives us free chocolate sometimes. The coffee is also phenomenal though much smaller than ours…like everything else.

Speaking of chocolate, I am in the homeland of my favorite chocolate, Milka. Instead of Hersheys covering every shelf next to the register, beautiful little packages of all kinds of Milka are stacked perfectly and forcing me to buy them. But I don’t mind. The other night I was in my apartment and had a craving for it. So, it was almost 12:00pm but I decided what the hell? I’m in Germany where Milka is bred so go get some. Now, you might think that Berlin, being a city and all, would have shops open almost all hours of the night. Negative. NY is the only city apparently that doesn’t sleep. Berliners definitely sleep. I walked for forever but finally found an organic store that was open and bright purple Milka packages were shining next the register. MMM.

Anywho, this past week/weekend, we continued to explore around Berlin. We visited the Reichstag (the German Parliament building) and it was really interesting. There, of course, is a lot of history as well. It was once partially burned and there are still writing on the walls left by the Soviets. We took a ton of photos…Ill post some here.

Me and Berlin

Me again and Berlin

We also almost got pick-pocketed. Not really, but there are these women that will work together to take your money. You wouldn’t even know they were together but they come up to you with a card that has some writing on it and ask if you speak English. Then the other woman tries to take something out of your purse while you are distracted. They are usually Turkish women but we noticed one trying to do it to Anna and one tried it on me a few days earlier. We followed them for a while to see if they actually did it to anybody and I think they noticed us following. Oh well. No one got pick pocketed though.

I also went to a German High School play this week. Very interesting…I didn’t quite understand all of it but I got the idea. It was cute and cool to see a school play in another country. During intermission, they had snacks except not quite the same snacks that we do. They had wine, sandwiches and waffles with nutella or applesaft (kind of similar to applesauce but a little different).

Cast of the German play:

The next day, we woke up and went to the Berlin zoo! I can’t remember the last time I went to a zoo. Maybe Washington DC, 6^th grade. Anyways we had a ton of fun wandering around looking at all the crazy different animals. Their zoo was cool because most of the animals you could get really close to. They hardly had barriers around them. You could step over them if you really wanted they were so low. The monkeys and tigers and stuff were behind glass but everything else was reachable. After our tour around the zoo we went back to the biergarten we love and got some more pizza and beer.

Seal

Goat I think?

Kathleen and I at the zoo. Anna yelled at me immediately after and said quote "Um, can you like smile please?" Haha sooo that is why there is a second

Just Chillin

I spent an afternoon with Kathleen, Anna, and my family. My Host mother made this ridiculously phenomenal cake and invited them over for coffee and other snacks (I’m telling you to expect the enlarged size of me that I will be the next time you see me. You’ve been warned). We went out around where I live and saw the Berlin Wall although I have already seen it. We took a bunch of pictures and stood with one foot on the East side and one on the West…how touristy. Then we hung out in a park near the wall for a little. Charlotte was on her Uni-cycle, naturally.

Us climbing the wall. Ignore the fact that we are on the West side pretending to climb over to the east...

Anna standing where the wall was and us on the East and West.

Charlotte

Charlotte and her Mom

So thennnn for school on Wednesday, we got to go on an excursion. Our teacher took us to two different markets in Berlin. We were split into groups and had to fill our the prices of different things and interview 6 people about why they like the markets and why they come there and so on. The first market we went to was AMAZING. We were across the street and could hardly see the market and could still smell the fresh fruit. It was a primarily Turkish market and they had so much stuff. Everyone was interested in what we were doing and stopped to talk to us. One of the sellers filled out most of the answers on our paper for us too which was awesome and then gave us free huge slices of a fresh watermelon. Everyone was really curious about us and gave us free things. It was pretty amazing. We tried some Turkish sweets and bread which were really good. They had huge stands with fish that looked amazing and meat. All of it was off the boat fresh and so cheap! We got a pound of cherries for 1 euro. I loved it and I will definitely go back. The second market had a lot of amazing food things too but it wasn’t as good. The Turkish were more friendly, loud, and just happy to be where they were. The first one was more social and I felt like I got more of a culture experience out of it. At the end of the day we all sat at a café and discussed the two markets. We got an Eerdbernbowl which was a large glass of wine with strawberries in it. Sehr sehr lecker. Really really tasty.

The Market had Bagels even bigger than ours:

I dont know what it is but it's a monster

Tomorrow I have to go to Charlotte’s school and present about America to her class. Kathleen is coming too which will help so I don’t get lost. Another friend of theirs is a teacher and wants me to come to her class of eighth graders too. I think its kind of interesting because we used to have Germans come to my class too. So the roles have switched. It should be fun hopefully but Ill let you know how it goes. And this weekend…I am going to HAMBURG! Im excited to travel elsewhere. Not that there isn’t a million things to do in Berlin but it will be nice to get out for a weekend. My family always wants me home with them which is the point of me living with them but I am excited to get out and explore. I’ve been getting to know kids from my class a lot better so I am excited to spend some more time with them.

Well, that is all for now. These things just keep getting longer and longer…sorry! Ill try to update more if I can and I’m putting up a few more pictures by request of an avid reader, Courtney Jent.

Bis Dann!

Oh yeah and my family took Kathleen and I out to dinner last night. We had Vietnamese place...also so goood. Its very similar to the Taste to Thai.