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.