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.