It's just a hop to the left.

I just double-checked my calendar to make sure only a week had passed since midterm break. For some reason, it feels like so much longer . . . even though the fact that we are this far into the semester is also a shocking feeling. I can't quite grasp time here. And what with losing daylight savings and it getting dark tonight at 5, I'm just stuck in some strange little Berlin warp. Which is fine with me, just strange.

This week was also quite a full week. Wednesday, we went to see Swan Lake at the Deutsche Oper. After a bit of a wardrobe malfunction, I arrived just in time to meet the group for the ballet. And while I tried to like it and enjoy the movements of the dancers and the juxtaposition of the colors, I don't think ballet is my thing. Yet I experienced it and for that I am grateful. In December I have a ticket to The Magic Flute and I'm hoping I enjoy that more. At least they'll be speaking.

On Thursday the UMD group went to Wittenberg to tour Martin Luther's hometown, or at least the town he lived in for much of his adult life. It was a tiny, cute little town and it was hard to believe we were still so close to Berlin. It was so different--almost like going back in time. We went inside Castle Church, the church he posted his 95 Theses on, and even though the church had been almost entirely rebuilt since Luther stood inside it, it was still pretty neat to see. We then saw St. Mary's Church, which was where Martin Luther preached and where the reformation began, and the Wittenberg University and Martin Luther's house. I was born and raised Catholic, but I am not strictly religious--more than that, I enjoy history. I not only appreciate Martin Luther's hatred of the indulgences and general greediness and corrupt behavior of the papacy at the time, but I also appreciate how this act of religious disobedience CHANGED THE WORLD. I would never have gone to Wittenberg had it not been required for class--it wasn't really on my to-do list--but I am glad I got to see it and think about how the world has changed since.

The next place we went would've been on my todo list not because it was enjoyable or pretty, but because of its world-changing magnitude also. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is located right outside Berlin and housed many of Hitler's political opponents from Berlin as well as Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and the other groups he deemed unworthy to be a part of his ideal Germany. What surprised me firstly was how close it was to Berlin. We often, as Americans born well after WWII, wonder how Germans could've let this happen in their country. And we learn a number of . . . what's a good word to put here . . . reasons? excuses? WWI decimated the country and the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of its dignity and resources. The Great Depression hit. Hard. A charismatic leader stepped forward promising jobs and a way out while also placing blame on someone else. Then of course fear--I can't step forward or I'll get locked up too. While I don't know if the little suburban streets looked anything like they do today, but we passed through little neighborhoods walking from the train station. I understand fear and mob mentality--I just don't understand how one could go to sleep at night and possibly look out their window onto a concentration camp. But I guess what could that person have done?

Sachsenhausen is still bleak and horrible looking, even when it is filled with just somber tourists. I couldn't imagine it while in working order. I was also surprised at the size of it. I was told it was a smaller camp--nothing like Auschwitz in size or murdering capacity. But it was still a huge enclosed space of land, with places where bunkers were marked so one could attempt to imagine what it was like 80 years ago. While I am glad I got to see this and take in the history of the place, it was a rough Friday afternoon.

Birthday, Bier, and Snow!

This week, I celebrated a number of things. Like everyone else, I was stoked for the end of midterms. I had three in a row on Thursday--none of which were cake walks--and spent the next two days watching That 70's Show and preparing for my bigger celebration--a visit from a friend from home and my 24th birthday, in order of importance. Bright and early Sunday morning, I picked her up from Tegel and thus began our long week of tourist-ing both in Berlin and in Munich.

It was fun to be able to show someone new what little I have learned about Berlin and Germany so far. We of course went to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag and a number of other monuments and museums--the Deutches Historiches Museum is amazing, as was the Berliner Dom and the Jüdiches Museum. But you can find all these in a guidebook--what I really showed her was a love of the Ampelmann.

We also went to München for a whirlwind two days of tourist traps and mountain climbing. I won't bother to post a picture of the Glockenspiel--voted the second most disappointing tourist attraction behind the Atomic Clock in Prague, only because that one is four minutes longer. While Kayleigh loved its four out-of-tune songs playing at the same time while little men poorly jousted or danced about the plague, I thought it was a little cheesy. However, it fit perfectly into the landscape of Munich. I caught myself wondering when the cheesy kitsch would end, but then I remembered--this is where it all started. I was not in Busch Gardens or Epcot or Helen GA--a town near my grandmother's housed designed like a town in the Alps--I was actually in Munich, where it all began. And as you would expect, it was much more an endearing town then the rip-offs back home can really capture. There are tiny buildings everywhere and old-style churches and two town halls--no skyscrapers anywhere downtown. While Munich, like Berlin, was decimated after WWII, a law was passed in Munich that all the buildings in the downtown area have to look similar to the old buildings and be below a certain height and in the old style. There is no Potsdamer Platz here--their version of moving on after the war was trying to recapture and commemorate what was destroyed, and they had the time to do so. Berlin so soon after the war was thrust into the Cold War in a way that perhaps Munich was not, allowing it to remain quaint.

Kayleigh made the comment that while Berlin reminded her of New York, Munich was more like Boston. It's interesting to note that my freshmen year in college I went to a school in New York while Kayleigh graduated from Boston University and spent her time abroad in Dublin. We're attracted to the same types of cities, even abroad.

In what many stereotype as true Bavarian fashion, we also went on a Beer Hall tour that evening. And I learned that it is in fact a true aspect of Bavarian culture. They love their beer, and not just during the end of September. We went to two beer halls, one of which being the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler made his first speeches (creepy), and a small brewery and restaurant. In Munich, brewery restaurants like the one we went to only sell that beer in house--no bottles, even in Munich, or even in a gift shop to be sold to the public. It is only available in the restaurant. Our guide took us around where they brew the beer and we nibbled on toasted barley, wheat, and took a whiff of some hops before enjoying our massive liters of beer.

Surprisingly, there was also snow in Bavaria. After a quick bus ride from Munich, Kayleigh and I were in about six inches of snow and staring at what must be one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. The Alps are epic. I have never even seen the Rocky Mountains and only driven through pieces of the Appalachians--I never really knew I was missing anything glorious until driving out there. The castles we saw also were pretty intense too--Ludwig II, who may or may not have been insane (and maybe murdered!) built three castles in the Alps, two of which we saw. The first, Linderhof, was a smaller palace modeled after Versailles with rococo decorations and a grotto we couldn't get to which had electricity for his late-night theater productions. The second was magical. It has to be--it is the design for Disney's logo and Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. (Haha, bad joke, but I couldn't resist.) Neuschwanstein is built up a mountain near Ludwig's childhood home and was meant to be his fairytale Medieval castle. Throughout the castle rooms are scenes from Wagner's operas--my favorites were Tristan and Isolde in Ludwig's bedroom. It was most definitely worth the trek up the mountain and the stairs in the tower--and besides, I had to work off all that beer from the night before.

Sadly, classes have to resume, Kayleigh has to go back to work, and life has to start again. While in Munich I was very much the tourist--and often a cranky one at that, especially during the 10 minutes in front of the Glockenspiel--in Berlin I had the pleasure of showing someone what I knew already. Yes, Brandenburger Tor is a self-explanatory S-bahn stop, and yes, she had a guidebook and is very capable of tooling about the city by herself, but I like to think that because I knew something about the city, more than just the wall and the Hitler, we both had a more worthwhile and enjoyable time.

Happy Birthday to me. :-)

Midterms.

It's hard to believe that we are at midterm already. Not just because classes seem much more real and intense when you spend a weekend reading what you probably should have weeks ago. But it's wierd to think that our time here is half over--I leave the 12th of December, so a little over 2 months left.

Since I couldn't get a hold of my speaking partner Claudia this weekend, I spent the time instead doing what I probably would have done, had I been in Maryland. I studied. I procrastinated. I saw an English movie in probably the nicest movie theater I have ever been in. I even had a giant soda and candy. It is strange that after only a few weeks here, life has slowed down enough to feel like I am living here, not just trying to absorb every museum in sight. When I was in London, we didn't get to cram in quite as much as I wanted to see, yet we were staying with actual Londoners. They took us to a pub, gave us great directions, and took us on a super scary car ride on the wrong side of the road. In that way, I think we got a better view of actual London, as opposed to just medieval castles and tourist spots. Mind you, the Tower was awesome. But just as awesome was being able to see a part of what the city is like to those who are lucky enough to live in it.

Next weekend, my friend Kayleigh is coming to Berlin for my birthday/midsemester break. Not that I am by any means an expert on Berlin, but I do have some places in mind, I know what to look for, and I know vaguely where things are located. While we are of course seeing the Brandenburger Tor and eating Currywurst, we will probably also do something that doesn't scream Berlin. And I think that is perfect. You can't get to know a city in a whirlwind week of museum hopping and list checking--sure, check off that you saw the Berlin Wall from the Bucket List, but we're getting to see more than that too.

Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang.

I've worked in restaurants for about 8 years now and for the most part, I've never had a Fourth of July off. From my understanding, however, it is mostly barbecue, beer, and fireworks. And a lot of the same was used to celebrate German Reunification, just on a much larger scale. Brandenburger Tor and the Tiergarten were packed with people everywhere, eating sausages and drinking and rocking out to the random music on one of 2 stages. It went on for a long and wasn't particularly German themed--I got Paella (delicious too) and a couple large glasses of sangria, before I indulged in my bratwurst. In the United States I can understand how a celebration of our independence from England can be so lacking in celebrating independence--we've had 234 years to celebrate. The US has been a world power for almost everyone's lifetime and imagining ourselves as less than that, much less as a colony of another country, seems far off and far fetched. We take independence for granted.

Germany is in a much different place, historically. Most of its citizens can remember, some more vividly than others, a time in which there were two Germanys. Those who can't remember that I'm sure at least have parents, teachers, neighbors, someone who does and probably has opinions about it. And while the scene at the Brandenburger Tor was one of a huge party, the few hours in front of the Reichstag were not quite as carefree. A number of videos showed footage from 1989-1990 and Helmut Kohl received a standing ovation from the crowd when he was introduced. Skydivers with German Flag parachutes jumped down behind us, a German choir sang--in both English and German--and the night closed with the crowd singing the national anthem with the German Flag waving on the Reichstag and fireworks. Even though I didn't understand most of what was going on, it was a pleasant evening, and one I was glad to be able to witness while here.