The Monday after my trip was a national holiday, so I used the time to lay in bed and recuperate from my travels. Really, I was just lazy! Tuesday involved a whole lot of German Grammar and Wednesday involved a lot of class. Wednesdays are my crazy days! At 8 I have my German history class in German that covers two accounts of prisoners in the concentration camp of Oranienburg during 1933 and 1934. Then at 10 I have my Ethics in the Talmud class followed by German Grammar. I really HATE German grammar.... I don't like it at all and no matter how much I study.... I just can't get it all!!!!!!! Anyway... after class I tend to walk the gardens to Starbucks to do my homework. I have been getting a lot of comments on my frequent visits to Starbucks... so let me explain. Yes... there are a lot of unique cafes here, but none of them have wifi... In order to do my homework... I need wifi! Yes, I have internet at home, but my goal is to leave my room and get some walking in! The 1 hour walk helps deal with the amount of chocolate and bread that I am inhaling! Thursday was a monumental day for me! My first test... in my German language class!!! yikes!! Turned out pretty well!! I got a 1,3 (1 being the highest and 6 the lowest) which was the highest grade!!! Who would have thought?!?! NOT ME! After my test I headed home! With my window open I suddenly heard a drum set. I thought I was losing my mind, but noo.... someone had a drum set outside my window. Soon he was joined by some guitars and a harmonica! I had a lovely little concert for a good 2 hours!
Side note: I wanted to share something that took over my week last week... An amazing story and an amazing, Zach Sobiech. He was an 18 year old boy from Minnesota, who died of cancer last week. But as he said, "he didn't lose." He spent his last months writing songs to leave hist words for his loved ones, and one of them, "Clouds," was recorded. His story was spread all over the internet. His message is inspiring and uplifting and I hope all of you will watch this short video made about his life. As I watched his videos and read about his life, I found myself hoping to somehow live up to the legacy that this boy left behind. I promised myself that I would try. Try my best to make people smile and try my best to live life to the fullest. As he said, "you don't have to find out you're dying to start living." If you haven't watched his story click here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NjKgV65fpo) Last week, on the day of his funeral, his song "Clouds" hit number 1 on iTunes... We could all learn so much from this boy.
Friday was a busy and also eventful day! It started early at the main train station in Potsdam, where I met my Wednesday history class. We all got on the S Bahn and rode for 1.5 hours to Oranienburg, the site of the concentration camp we are studying. I didn't really know what to expect... but I didn't find what I expected. At the site of the concentration camp, one only finds a wall that remains... the rest was destroyed in bombings. After our walk there, we traced the escape route from one of the accounts we read. This was incredible! We started close to where the men were taken to work. There, our narrator, escaped by walking away and hiding all the way to town. There we traced his steps until he got a taxi that took him to an unknown (to us) train station. After tracing his steps, we went to the museum found in Oranienburg, where we were able to read more about the camp and its victims. I found again many letter resembling the ones I have... not in context but in look. Overall, the trip was very helpful in helping us understand what our narrators explain in their books. However, the most shocking and horrifying fact were already revealed to us in their stories.
Since Berlin was closer from the concentration camp than Potsdam, I decided to stay in Berlin and head to Prenzlauer Berg. I rode there with a new friend I made, Kristina. We had talked on our first excursion too, and she is very sweet! A bit soft spoken, which makes understanding her a little hard, but incredibly nice. Once at my cafe, Rosalyn, I started working on my "sister trip" for this summer. After a few minutes I got a text from Colby and a message from Ryan. Ryan, a friend from home, is currently traveling with twins Kate and Beth around Europe. They arrived in Berlin on Thursday and were here until Monday morning. I met up with them Friday evening and got to enjoy their awesome studio that they rented in P.Berg. Soooo nice!!!
After talking we headed to our favorite Italian restaurant! We had a blast catching up! It is so nice to have people from home here! I'd never met Beth, but she is so incredibly nice and we all had a blast!
Saturday was another fun filled day. I am so incredibly lucky to have so many great friends!!! I met up with Ryan, Colby, Beth, and Kate on Saturday morning (noonish) in Potsdam. The day was dreadful! Rainy, windy, and cold!!! What a day to WALK through Potsdam and the gardens! The first stop was to take them to get some lunch. I had eaten a salad at home, but I knew they would be ready for lunch. Colby and I took them to our favorite Backstube and they got some yummy looking paninis! After that Ryan and I headed to Kaisers to get us drinks and the girls and Colby made a stop at H&M to get tights. Poor girls, it is waaaay colder than anyone would have expected it to be!!!!! With their amazing attitudes we headed to the Palace Gardens and walked for over an hour in the rain. They were such a pleasure to be around! Who would have thought anyone would be so happy to be walking around in the rain! The girls had forgotten to bring "Steve" (what they call their Rick Steves books) to Potsdam, but I tried to give them some fun facts about what we were seeing!
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| Schloss Sanssouci |
After our walk we took the train back to Berlin. It was a huge day in Berlin! The big game!!! Dortmund vs. Bayern!!!! The train was packed with fans ready to watch the game from Berlin!! Once in Berlin, the rain and wind had increased tremendously, but again... our crowd stayed positive!!! We walked all the way to the Ritter Sport museum (chocolate museum), where our group bought the typical chocolate gifts to take home!
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| Dilemmas... which kind to buy |
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| Which kind shall it be??? |
After that we walked to the Topography of Terror museum that outlines the rise of the Nazis in Germany. With my trip to the concentration camp on Friday, I was a little overwhelmed... but the information was crucial for my research. So I sat with Colby and shared my wish... "Man I wish this was all in a book, so I could take it with me." "It is!" he said!!! So off I went and bought the English version of the entire exhibit! And another book on the persecution of Jews in Berlin too. I am so happy to have found them, because they will help me with my class work and my thesis (hopefully!). After the museum we took a train in the pouring rain to the American Diner, where we planned on watching the game. Great planning apparently! But.... they asked for reservations! They let us eat, but made it clear that they wanted us out before the game... which started at 8:45... we arrived at 6:30... So doable, but not what we had planned. After introducing Kate, Beth, and Ryan to the beer tower... we ate and headed back.
The train was soo empty.
Such a huge difference from earlier in the day, but everyone was at home
now watching the game! When I got home I
skyped home and informed them of all the goals before they were aired there!
Haha a minute difference makes a huge difference! I went to sleep thrilled to have shared such a wonderful happy day with such wonderful people!
Her restaurant was absolutely precious.... and EMPTY! I couldn't believe how nice it was!!! After a few minutes people starting piling in and the place was hopping in no time! Oooohhh!! I haven't mentioned asparagus yet! They are everywhere!!!! Tis the season of asparagus in the German state of Brandenburg!!!! There are stands everywhere (including my street), but I hadn't had any until I went to eat with Hannele! There I ordered some delicious fish with asparagus! And they were sooo tasty!!!!! Our conversations are so surreal... I don't really know much else to talk about but her past, and I know sometimes she doesn't want to talk about it... but then sometimes I know she feels like I'm the only person left for her to discuss those stories with... it is unreal. Somewhere during our conversation we started talking about her parent's stolperstein (the plaques placed for Jews persecuted by the Nazis) that they put in about 2 months ago. I told her that Colby and I had looked for them, and she said she would be glad to go show them to me! As she explained, since her part of the street was bombed and restructured, the government had assigned a different place for their plaques.
After lunch, we slowly walked to the SBahn and went to Alexander Platz. From there, she guided me with her memory to the plaques. I was in awe.... She was disgruntled by the dirt on them, so I tried to clean them up for her.
After reaching the stones, Hannele was a bit tired so we settled in for some coffee next door. While sitting there, she noticed a girl dressed in a strapless dress with some wraps on the legs... (like as part of her outfit)... The girl was a bit bigger and really looked ridiculous considering the cold! Hannele just couldn't process it! She was so funny! She said, "at first I thought she was part of a theater group, but all the others look so normal." She is just so sweet... As I sat there with her I so wished my Oma could have been sitting with us. Wouldn't that have been amazing!
Even though I thought we would be heading home after this, Hannele insisted that she had the strength to go find the stones for my grandmother's aunt and cousin. I had the address, but we weren't very close. Hannele told me what bus we needed and we got on it! It took us through all of Berlin and Hannele was my tour guide!!! She was awesome! What was unbelievable was the fact that she hasn't done this in decades!!! She hadn't seen some of these streets in years!!!! She just kept saying, "WOAH, this didn't use to be here!!!!" Unbelievably, she still led me to the next bus and told me where we needed to get off. She got on and off the bus like a champ!!! After our last bus... it started pouring down rain, so she got her umbrella out of her purse... TO GIVE IT TO ME!!! Unbelievable! I told her to keep it and she said ok. But we waited at the bus stop for the rain to let down a bit. Then we began our walk to Sybelstrasse 5. It was a pretty long walk 10 or so blocks... we took 5 or 6 breaks to let her catch her breath, but she was amazing considering it was pouring down rain!
I was so impressed! Once we reached the house, we cleaned up the stones and discussed how to go about finding who initiated the placement of these stones. Why? Because someone has to pay for them to be put in... They are 120 euros a piece... which means that someone knew her... or maybe no. Hannele said a lot of landowners with records tend to do it... I guess I will have to do some digging.
After finding the stones, we headed back to her house on the subway. Once at her house, she had strawberries for me and we went back to the books. She also brought out some old Berlin maps and showed me where exactly she had lived... she's right... the German government was WAY off when they placed the stones... but she says it doesn't matter... it's not like the stones fix anything. After an hour or so I headed out! I figured she would want to rest after her incredibly active day! I'm glad she got to see so much that she hadn't in years! I hope she enjoyed her day as much as I did, because I felt incredibly fortunate to have her!
From Hannele's I went to meet Colby, Ryan, Beth, and Kate and the Brandenburg Gate. Colby and I waited there while the crew visited the Reichstag.Side note: Ducks are like pidgeons here! While we waited, we saw ducks walking around everywhere!! So funny!!!
While they did that, Colby and I stressed over finding the perfect place for their last dinner in Berlin! We wanted it to be extra special!!!!!! By the time they got back 1.5 hours later, we had settled on the Greek Restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg! Why? Because they had treated us really well when we went, the service was incredibly polite and engaging (something unheard of here), plates were large enough to share, and drinks are cheap. Alexandra met us there and we had a ball!!!! We were there for hours and the guys were super happy with the place! Overall 5 stars and we will be returning!
But dinner was just the beginning of our adventure! We got done with dinner at 10:20 pm. My next train home... was at 11:40 pm from Alexander platz... Alexandra lives in the outskirts of Potsdam, but she takes the S Bahn home. I could too, but then when I get to the main station in Potsdam... I have to wait for a bus or train to take me home (bus - 30 minutes, train 5 min plus 15 min walk). The issue Sunday night was that there werent any connections for me to take from the main station.... Soooo I had to wait 20 minutes alone at the station in Alexanderplatz for my train. Now picture this:
Sunday 10:40 pm --- Alexandra and I arrive at Alexander Platz
- We find a store open (HUGE DEAL since on Sunday everything is closed) and we buy chocolate
- We go stand outside the station for a bit
- Guy playing the trumpet is playing the theme song from Superman and Auld Lang Syne...
- Drunk guys walk by and sing along to Superman
- We go back inside
- We are standing by the platform for her train
- I look up and behind her is a terrifying looking man standing an inch from her, looking high, drunk, and crazy.
- I scream "Oh my Gosh!!!!"
- Alexandra turns around startled
- Homeless man walks away after we say no to his MUTE offer to sell us a newspaper
- everyone around us chuckles at my mini freak out
- Alexandra gets on the train
- I go to wait on the platform for my train
- I find out that it is 10 minutes late
- I wait 20 minutes alone in the dark
- trumpet man is heard in the distance and suddenly cracks on the high note of Superman theme song
- trumpet man struggles to get sound out of the trumptet
- trumpet man gives up on superman and returns to Auld Lang Syne...
- Old woman with a cart comes and sits by me
- Woman starts talking about how crazy the cold is and how she forgot to get groceries yesterday, so she had to come to Berlin to find an open place, which was torture. Now she won't be home until too late and won't get to cook anyways...
- I try to nod without speaking too much and revealing my poor German.
- across the train track a group of REALLY cute guys gets into a train (wait guys!!! where are y'all going?? can I go with you???)
- Train comes
- Woman wishes me a good night and does NOT get on the train??
That was the strangest hour I endured in a while. It was a mixture of panic, stress, laughter, and sleepiness! I am so thankful I don't take the S Bahn thought! That's the train Alexandra takes and it is full of scary strange people at night! Hahaha, she has stories to last a lifetime! My lovely regional train is full of lovely quiet people that let me listen to my Nicholas Sparks Book on tape (in German) without disturbing me!
Monday morning was rough, due to my late date with the regional train! After a quiet day, I spent the whole afternoon studying. Tuesday was also a quiet day of studying. I opted for studying at Starbucks, but because of the weather I took a bus. There I worked on irregular verbs, verbs with prepositions, and many more tedious things that I don't want to thing about anymore. A woman approached me while I sat there and asked me for directions in English. After a bit we switched to Spanish! It turns out they are a Venezuelan family living in Dallas! Too funny! She was super nice! My other experience at the cafe involved three precious little boys that were having a blast with some planes. They threw them all over the place and people were sooo annoyed! I was loving seeing them running around.... But then... one of the planes hit me. I thought one of the moms was going to die of embarrassment but I laughed and told her it was completely fine. I mean, they were too cute for words!! At closing time, I was forced to go out in the pouring rain and get the bus! After a long night of studying I hit the hay!
Wednesday, also known as today, was rough. Before class I made myself a spinach and cheese ommlette and made sure I was ready for my big day! Test 2! My first class was fine and my second one too. During my two hour break I studied some more and memories prepositions and verbs. Then came the test... HOW is it possible that after so many years of German I have gotten away with not knowing these things. And most importantly why can't I learn them!!!! I spent sooo many hours on this material!! And then I took the test, and it was useless!!! We were tested on theory instead of applying what we knee... and then... came the verbs... ugh... I don't even want to think about it!! We only have 2 tests in this class and this one was awful!!!! I guess I can't do anything, but it is so frustrating seeing all the other students being so carefree (since they don't need grades)!!! The teachers don't even care about giving grades, because no one needs them!!! BUT I DO!!!! Yikes! Anyway. I came home and got my things ready to go do laundry at the Waschbar... only to find out that I had lost my raincoat somewhere today... Since it was pouring outside, I decided to stay in!!!
It actually all turned out perfectly!! I got to make homemade gnocchi, while I skyped with my best friend of all times Amy.
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| Rolling dough while chatting with Amy |
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| The finished product!!!
It reminded me all over again of how incredibly lucky I am! Who
cares about this test? Who cares about any test really? I am sooo
lucky to be surrounded by such incredible friends and family (near and
far). No matter the day, no matter the situation, and no matter the
distance I am always lucky to have incredible people around me. Thank
you all for putting up with my craziness! I fell like the luckiest girl
in the world!
Fun fact: Tomorrow evening I am getting on a night train to Budapest! It was a last minute trip to join Ryan, Kate, and Beth!! I have to come back to do homework, but I will get to spend all of Friday with them and then take the train back Friday night! Crazy, but super fun!!!!!
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