Monday was a fun packed day, but it started way too early! My 8 o'clock class on German Jews in the 19th Century was my only class on Monday, because my 2 o'clock class was cancelled for the week. After class I rode the bus to Charlotten Bahnhof to find the Waschbar. The other Ole Miss girl, Alexandra, had seen this cafe/bar, where one can go to wash/dry his/her clothes. Since my building only has 1 old washer that is always taken, I needed to find a place to wash ALL of my clothes. After 5 minutes of walking I found the place and decided I would go back to my apartment and grab my clothes. I packed 6 kg worth of clothes into 2 huge IKEA bags and I headed to the Waschbar. I was sooo self-conscious going in... I really though that I would be the only person actually washing clothes at this place, but luckily, I was wrong! There were other people with comforters, towels, sheets, and many IKEA bags! After buying the tokens for the washers, I picked a booth and sad down for lunch and a quiet afternoon of reading. It took me a million tokens to wash and dry all of my clothes, but thanks to their WIFI and my reading assignment for class, the afternoon flew by! 
Once back in my room, I hung the clothes that I had that were still a bit damp. Since I still haven't found a drying rack, I had to improvise....
While things dried, I headed out for a quick run. I can't explain how jealous I am of people that can run... I know it is something that you build up over time, but between my impatience and my tendency to get bored, I don't know if I'll ever be able to run a long distance (or a reasonable one). Oh well... I guess I have to start somewhere.
After running, I got to skype with Blake, who is living in Istanbul. He has been following my blog and graciously offered to listen to my thesis rants and give me some advice! It was absolutely the best! He gave me lots of helpful tips that I will be putting to use, just as soon as I get done with a book for my class. The conversation left me very inspired to organize my life and get to work! Oh side note, I met my roommate!!! Someone came by and knocked on the door. She said that she heard one of the people living here had moved out, and I explained to her that I didn't know if someone was living here or not. I explained to her that there were things left here (a few cups, cookies, a towel, etc), but I had never seen anyone. She then told me that she will be my new roommate, as long as I am planning on moving out after the semester, because she wants to live somewhere where her boyfriend can move into next semester. I assured her that I would be gone after this semester and she was glad to hear it! She seems very sweet, is German, and studies English. She has not moved in, because she still has a place in Berlin, but she will be moving in slowly in the coming weeks.
Tuesday I woke up in time to head to campus, do my homework, and run to class. After class, I headed straight to the main street in Potsdam to sit at the Starbucks and read. Why Starbucks you ask? Again, it is the only place (other than the laundromat/bar that has WIFI). My goal for Tuesday was to make a dent into the book that I have to read for my class on Wednesday. This class is fully dedicated to two accounts of survivors from the concentration camp in Oranienburg. The book I have to read is really two book, each one written by one of the survivors. I have found one of the books in English, but the other one has never been translated. It is great great practice, but goodness it is taking me soooo long to get through it!!!! For the first few pages I looked up each word I didn't know, but by the time I got to page 4 I realized I had wasted like 2 hours!!!!!!!!! After that I decided I would just read through the first section and then re-read and look up what wasn't clear. I had to get through the first 10 pages before Wednesday, because these pages described the town where the Jewish man lived before being transported to the concentration camp. On Wednesday, our class was making a trip to this town and we were going to use his story to get to know the town. After some long hours at Starbucks, I headed back to my apartment. It was going to be the first of 4 late nights for me... This week I worked with the new RebelTHON exec team in Oxford to interview all the applicants for next year's board. This meant that Tuesday night, between 12:30 and 2:30, I Skyped with Maia, Zach, Wil, and Claire in order to go through applications and set up times for interviews. As you can imagine, Wednesday morning was no fun!
On Wednesday I had to meet my class at the train station at 8:30, which meant I had to leave my dorm at 8:00... Clearly I was not happy to be up that early, but I was really excited to go to Rathenow, the town I had read about. Once at the train station I met my professor and the class and got on the first of 2 trains headed to Rathenow. The ride was 2 hours, and it was about the most awkward 2 hours in my 2 months here. I hadn't really met anyone and I ended up sitting next to my professor both times, so I just read... Soooo awkward. Once at Rathenow we met our guide, who is a historian that has worked with our professor on the survivor's history. She gave us a tour of the routes that the man describes in his story. After that, we headed to the culture center, where our professor and the historian handed out letter to us. The letters were written by many different "witnesses" of the night that our main character was arrested. He was a Rabi in Rathenow (there was a very small Jewish community), who reported a Nazi official who beat him up. The official was sent to jail, and our main character was extremely hated by all of the Nazi officials in the town. On the night of his arrest, he tells that a man attacked him, and since he though he was drunk he just ran home. Once he reached his home, however, another man attacked him. At that point, our main character decided to fight back and stabbed him with his keys. The man turned out to be a Nazi officer and he made sure that our main character was arrested and sent to the concentration camp. The letters that we read provided different stories that were reported about the event, but all of them were from people who clearly wanted our main character arrested. This exercise was extremely interesting, because it helped me see how one uses letters in order to reconstruct a historical event. After our exercise we went downstairs to eat. Only 3 students, the professor, and the historian decided to eat at the culture center, so I got to talk and bond with them over lunch. It was actually both really interesting and relaxing. The professor made me tell the historian about my research and they both seemed very impressed. After lunch we continued the tour around town and went to a school, which was the empty high school that was used to keep prisoners in before transporting them to the concentration camp in 1933. The visit there was unreal. First the woman guided us to the gym, which looked exactly like the picture in our book. There we found a class playing volleyball...
Then the lady took us upstairs and showed us a timeline that was posted on the wall that showed the school's history. Our professor quickly pointed out a mistake and told the woman about the book they had published (the one we are reading). She could not believe that the school didn't know anything about the book... I wasn't that surprised for some reason. The lady then took us to a classroom. None of us were sure why!!!! It was soooo awkward!!! Even our professor was confused. The kids stood up when we entered, until the lady told them to sit... I was so confused and so were the rest of my classmates. The lady introduced us as a class from Potsdam and then we left. Legitimately the most awkward and pointless thing.
After the tour we headed back to the station. I really liked the town and I loved getting to know the people in my class! It was a wonderful experience. On the way back I got to talk with the professor and two other students about my research. The professor thought that I was doing this research for my dissertation and when I told her it was for my bachelors and I had to be done by December, she didn't know what to say... guess what, I don't either!!! She gave me a few good suggestions on libraries to go to and also recommended a registry of rabbis that might have my grandmother's grandfather's information. I will try to go find it next week! I am sooo glad that we were able to talk a bit so that she can continue to give me helpful pointers throughout the semester.
After getting home I went on a quick run through the park. I ran the longest I have since I got here and loved the awesome weather.
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| Runs in the park |
I was sooo exhausted when I got home, but I had a message from one of my classmates from March reminding me that there was a get together in the outskirts of Berlin. Since I have been missing out on a lot of outings due to my foot, I really wanted to go. The trip took about an hour, but the place was amazing!!! The houses were precious and it was literally in the middle of nowhere! Soooo cute! I was glad to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in weeks, and we had a blast sharing our crazy class stories and planning trips in the months to come. At around 11:00 a group of us headed home. I would have stayed longer, but I had to be home in time to start interviews for RebelTHON!!! My Wednesday did not end until 4:00 am when we interviewed the last person, but it was soooo worth it! We had such amazing applicants and I was thrilled to get to listen in on the interviews! (technology is an amazing thing!)
As expected, Thursday started off pretty late! I went to class, and then I headed to the paper store. My goal was to get all the necessary things to organize my life. This week I realized that with the amount of reading, writing, and learning that I have to do before July 31st, I better get on it fast!!!
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| Finally starting to get organized |
Today, Saturday, I finally slept in and then got up to head to town. There I found a band playing on the pedestrian street. It was really unexpected, and sadly.... really out of tune! Hahaha, I started my walk toward Starbucks (my reading nook) and got a Bratwurst for lunch on the way! Once settled in with my coffee a parade started right in front of my eyes... It was the strangest thing. Noone was watching, but for an hours groups of bands and people paraded in really strange and varied costumes. I still haven't figured out what it was, but here are a few pictures:
That is it for now... I am lacking inspiration to write today, so excuse my poor writing...
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