Cheers.

Instead of taking a nice leisurely weekend to relax after Paris, I went to London . . . the city in Europe I was most looking forward to seeing. And it was amazing. I am a bit obsessed with British history--especially Tudor era, gotta love a scandal--and poor Kate probably put up with all my super excited rambling and random facts while looking around the city. Especially at the tower of London, where we went to first. It was amazing--especially because it just blends into the landscape. The White Tower on the inside was built by William the Conquerer sometime soon after 1066, and the whole thing was finished by the 1250s. I had a particular desire to go here, more than anywhere else, because of Anne Boleyn. There is a glass memorial to the seven people executed inside the Tower itself and Anne is buried inside a chapel directly behind there--I know this is horribly morbid, but I was so excited to get to be there and I even spent the very few minutes on my phone to send a text to my mom about where I was standing. While Notre Dame and Versailles were beautiful and Sans Souci was interesting and relevant to where I am living now, London was always my dream city to visit--English majors unite.

I was not disappointed, even when some other plans fell through--Westminster Abbey closed super early on Saturday and contrary to what I was told, there is no platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross (we looked.) Wandering the city was super enjoyable and most of the big landmarks are within walking distance. We started at Picadilly Circus, saw the Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and ended at a pub in the center of London with fish and chips and steak and ale pie. Kate's friend lives in Blackheath, near Greenwich, and we got a great view of the skyline of London and as an added bonus stood next to the spot that marks the split between the hemispheres. Definitely wasn't on my todo list, but it was a beautiful day and a beautiful view.

Its strange coming back to Berlin this time, mostly because its starting to feel like a strange city again. As nice as it was to have that week in France, especially in the beginning when we still barely know each other, and as glad as I am that I got to go to London and see buildings I have been obsessed with seeing for the last decade, I feel as if I was just starting to get a grip on Berlin before all this happened. Whatever German I knew at that point, all 3 sentences, is harder to access then it would've been had I been here that whole time.

Before I left for this semester, I was reading blogs from other students abroad--trying to find a clever name for this blog, among other things--and one of the things I read was that you shouldn't spend all your free time traveling. Sure, take advantage of the opportunity, but don't forget where you are. I think the next few weeks will be a focus on just that--Germany, and Berlin. I don't want to leave here wishing I had done more things, seen more things, learned more German. I want to order a meal in a restaurant, or from a Kebab stand (why can't we have this in DC?!?) and not have the person immediately switch to English. While I feel like that in particular will take time to accomplish, I will be in Germany the entire month of October--now's the time to start practicing. Ich möchte ein Döner Kebab bitte!

An American in Paris.

Before going into this blog, one should know something: I never had any real desire to go to Paris. It's unbelievable, I know, because Paris was once the center of the world, and is still a cultural powerhouse. And it's beautiful. And while I hoped to get there one day, if FU-Best's field trip hadn't been to Paris, I would not have gone while in Europe.

However, looking back on my week in France, I was pleasantly surprised by Paris. Mind you, at first I was not--the trains were hot, crowded, and would occasionally lose power while in motion and stop, and Paris is sooo expensive and full of tourists and annoyed Parisians. (I would be annoyed with all of us too.) And like any other vacation, the first day I got a horrid sunburn, complete with sunglass voids and a necklace line. Dirk even made skiing gestures through the window the next morning. Thanks for that.

Yet Notre Dame Cathedral was awe-inspiring and humbling--both the mass on Sunday and climbing the tower a few days later. As cheesy as I thought the Eiffel Tower would be, in person it is gigantic and at night, beautiful. I went to the Louvre, and while I knew it would be awesome, it really, really was. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks, but there were so many other paintings there that I love that I didn't know were going to be there--Raft of the Medusa by Gericault, The Death of Sardanapalus and Liberty Guiding the People by Delacroix, and the statue Cupid and Psyche. The last place I saw in Paris was the Louvre, and what a send-off. All my unpleasant or ambivalent attitudes towards Paris were drowned out by glass pyramids and oil paintings.

Normandy was awe-inspiring in a different way, and I was definitely more excited about going to Normandy then to Paris. I've always been a history buff, and World War II history is what brought me to Berlin in the first place. Both my grandfathers fought in WWII and my Uncle Ralph fought on D-Day--being able to walk on Omaha Beach was amazing, and also humbling. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been on, which I think is appropriate--after all that happened there, it should be turned into something natural and serene. The beach deserves it, as do the men who died there.

After another 15 hour bus ride back to Berlin, I was completely relieved to be back. To be back home. What an interesting thought, that my tiny apartment in Berlin could feel like home to me. Maybe its because I got to go to bed after an incredibly long bus ride and use the internet at length, but I think it's also something more, and it might help to explain how I felt about the two cities. Paris was definitely a tourist city, and I acted like a tourist. I don't speak French either--too bad we didn't go to Spain, where I might have been of use to someone--but I didn't really try to learn. I spent all my time at major landmarks, trying to cram an entire city into 5 days, and then an entire war into 2 days. Berlin has a different feel to it. I'm taking my time, attending school, ordering by number at the Asian food shack around the corner from the apartment, even though the man always points to double check my horribly American-accented German, while throwing in some museums and landmarks. Its nice to be able to live in a city completely foreign to you and attempt to learn from experience, as opposed to cramming a guidebook into a week. Not that I am knocking vacationing by any means--I spent one day in Rome a few years ago and the few hours spent in the Vatican were awesome and I am glad I got to have them. Yet it is definitely a nice and new experience to have time to spend and time to form an opinion.

Whoa.

After a week has gone by, I still find myself overwhelmed by all the history here. I still feel like a tourist, which I actually don't have a problem with. Just because I have an apartment, need to grocery shop, and can public transit like a German-speaking pro doesn't mean I don't want to see everything in my guidebook and cram my camera full of pictures of cheeseball traps and harrowing monuments alike.

After a relatively uneventful first week of class, which felt so normal and home-like, we went to Potsdam. We went to Cecilienhof first, which is where the Potsdam Conference was held at the end of World War II. Going through the tour, the German tour guide nonchalantly talks about where Stalin sat, his secret door, Churchill's girth, the flags on the walls, Truman's office--these people were here. They walked these halls, used these offices, sat in those chairs. Whoa. I wish I could have taken pictures just to have proof that I was in the same room that the conference was held and the world was settled, so to speak, after being destroyed during the war. And if that wasn't enough, we then went to Sanssouci, Frederich the Great's summer palace.

Sanssouci, roughly translated to "no worries", is beautiful. Gold rococo walls and paintings everywhere and a marble domed sitting room--intense. The garden was the best part, in my opinion. It was so extravagant! Our guide said there are 75 gardeners and they probably need more to trim all the trees and save the fig trees during the winter. Around a large fountain down a fig tree-covered hill were 10 statues of Greek gods and goddesses--decadent. And beautiful. Maybe its partially because I focus so much on English history in college--I love me some Henrys--but I forget that Germany, or Prussia to be exact, has this kind of history too. I make the claim that it is also overshadowed by the modern history of Germany, at least for me. A large part of the reason I chose to come to Berlin was that modern history--WWII, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, David Hasselhoff--but it was pleasantly refreshing to wander around beautiful palaces and think that there is more to this country then Hitler and Stalin and what they did to it.

I, however, could not escape wanting to see WWII memorials. This afternoon Elly and I went to see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is near Brandenburg Gate. The memorial is not as spelled out as the Soviet War Memorial with the weeping mother and the soldier smashing the swastika. But I don't think that's what this memorial was going for, and I don't think it is any less effective. The large square is filled with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying sizes and it is part of the landscape of the city. I think that is what I found most striking--it isn't in the middle of a field with one entrance and exit. Instead, you can enter it from any point and wander as you choose. People were sitting on the blocks, laying in the sun, eating. Children, and a few 30 year old men, were playing hide-and-seek. I am not saying I know what this memorial means, but I think part of it is that it is part of the city, just like the Holocaust is a part of Germany and its history now. It was not meant to draw attention to this horrible aspect of German history, but to commemorate and keep moving forward.

Both because I am still in cheesy tourist mode and because we weren't that far, Elly and I then went to Checkpoint Charlie. I love that it is still an intersection. If I ever drive in this city, I will go out of my way to drive through Checkpoint Charlie, just because for so long people could not. It was exactly what I expected--crowded, expensive, and there was a McDonald's on the corner. I love how in this city one can start at a memorial as somber as the Holocaust Memorial, pass through the Topographie des Terrors, and end at something like this, where you have to pay 2 euro for a pic with some fake soldiers. In one afternoon, you can run the gambit of Berliner history. Whoa.