Vancouver: Raindrops keep falling on my head...

Another rainy day in Vancouver! A few friends from Germany emailed to say it was snowing over there- I'm so jealous! I'd love for a few flakes to fall. Especially this weekend- I'll need some cheering up, because as we end the term, the stack of work on my desk just gets higher and higher! Looking out the window right now it seems more like 7:30 instead of 3:30! 

So, I've been 25 for about 2 weeks now, and I don't like it one bit. All of my friends are settling down, and I'm ready to go backpack around the world! There's so many things I want to do first, so many places I want to go! Luckily, Colin is on the same page, so that's good! 

2 Weeks ago I threw a collective birthday party for myself and my friends Susanne, Florian and Mads. (we all have birthdays right around the same time). The party turned out to be a great success! We even turned my dining room into a disco! All in all, a very very good time. 

The next weekend my parents came up for a visit. They met Colin and we all played card games and walked around Granville island. We also went to see Dinosaurs 3D at the Imax- boy, my dad was loving that! I never knew he liked Dinosaurs so much! :o) It was a fantastic visit and great to see them!

Friday will be my last German 100 class before we give the final test- they will be presenting skits and I'm really excited to see them try out the german I taught them. 

These last two weeks will be intense: I have a 20-min presentation, 2 final papers and 31 German 100 Finals to correct. Not to mention finishing my Fulbright application to teach english in Austria and my proposal for the CAUTG (Canadian Assoc. of Univ. Teachers of German) conference in Ottawa in May. Whew. And just when you think it's over, well, over christmas break I have to read a book called "Das Zimmermädchen" and write a book review about it. :o) Something tells me break will go by quite quickly!

Thinking about time always reminds me of this quote from Goethe's Faust:

"Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen: Verweile doch, Du bist so schön!" 

("I will say to the moments: Linger! You are so beautiful!")

Last weekend Clover and Derek came up and went with Colin and I to a concert. The next day (after a might tasty breakfast) we all went over to Lighthouse Park. Although it takes a while to get there, it's always worth the effort. :o) That evening we went to see the new James Bond film (I swear, Colin was so excited he was going to burst into a million pieces!) Unfortunately, we were a tad late and ended up sitting in the 2nd row! I think we had a good time anyway, though :o) 

This weekend will be a bit quieter- lots of working and cooking. Tonight I'm making Veggie Lasagna (I have a great recipe if anyone is interested!) and tomorrow we're going to Granville Island for some scallops and veggies for some fettuccine! Yum! And afterwards some magnificent fried banana creation Colin's been raving about. I love having a boyfriend who loves to cook! I think I'm getting spoiled :o) 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my american friends!  

Vancouver: Fall Back

Everything in Vancouver is going well- busy though! Last weekend we had "canadian thanksgiving", so I got to go down to the states (and my mom made me turkey!) for a visit. We had a BBQ at Suzies and I got to see all my best friends. I stole this picture from Suzie's blog since my camera was broken (thanks Suz!). I've since gotten a new one- so be on the lookout for tons of new pictures!

School is going well, my students are about to write their mid-term, which I'm sure scares them, and scares me a bit as well, since I'll have to correct it all! Today we did a lesson on Mozart and read a whole text together! Pretty exciting. My little 8 year olds are doing ok as well, although let me tell you, teaching them is most likely the most stressful thing I've ever done. It's exhausting to try to control 8 squirrely 8 year olds! Today one of them, Alsek, told me that – and I quote – I wasn't as retarded as he'd thought. Compliment? Anyway, in my second class, Matthew dropped his shoe in a water filled ditch during the break, and who came to the rescue? Only the best teacher ever! I got down (in a dress, mind you) and leaned over the edge to fish out his waterlogged shoe, while all three little boys were holding my ankles. Thank god no parents were around to witness that little scene. Poor Matthew had to go shoeless for the rest of the time. 

I got a fun tip this weekend from my friend Nik about my master's thesis. Not many of you know, but I've picked a thesis topic- mass media manipulation and quality television in Germany. Basically the idea came about from reading a text by Walter Benjamin called (translated from the German) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

and also recently seeing the Hans Weingartner film Free Rainer. Anyway, Nik tipped me off to the debate in Germany spurred by a famous literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, who refused an award at a TV awards banquet on Oct. 12th in Cologne, basically saying all the other shows recieving awards were crap. Interesting. But now I have a very controversial and appliciable topic! 

Last weekend Clover and Derek came up from Bellingham and joined me and my friends Susanne and Phillip from Switzerland for the UBC Apple Festival. The weather was nice and the apples were crisp- I even tried a new "unpatented" apple called Golden Aurora Gala. Afterwards I took Clover and Derek to English Bay and to my favorite Indian restaurant, which I'm also excited to take Colin to someday soon! This week is pretty busy though- tomorrow I'll knock out some reading (since I'm swimming in it!), Wednesday there's a reading by Kevin Vennemann, a friend of Guido's from Berlin, on Thursday we're going to see Vicky Christina Barcelona (hmm... Woody Allen STILL at it, eh?) and then finally The Notwist concert on Friday. Saturday my friend Lydia and I are attending the Goethe Zentrum's teacher conference. I'm really excited, since I'll be attending a workshop about integrating the songs of Wir Sind Helden (my favorite band) into our german lessons! That evening I'm making enchiladas for Colin before we all go to the Parade of Lost Souls on Commercial Street- I'm a tree and he's a lumberjack... but believe me- we didn't pick them out together! ;o) More pictures to come...  

Vancouver: Back in the swing of things.

It's been about a month since I've been back in Vancouver. That means it's also been about a month since I've started the last year of my master's degree at UBC, which means that I'll be writing my master's Thesis this year. 

My first weeks here were hectic- balancing 2 seminars, swedish and teaching 3 classes (more on all that later...) but were made more enjoyable by the presence of Solen's friends from France, who shared our house for a while. I really enjoyed coming home to an environment francais and try to speak with Solen a bit (even if I tend to butcher the language). We also took a sunday to re-decorate our house. We covered the "charming" leopard painting over the fireplace with geometrical fabric, got a new rug and some new lamps, and hung new curtains in the dining room and kitchen. The place has never looked better! 

I started a new job 3 weeks ago as a german teacher at an after-school once-weekly german school in Richmond. I teach a group of 8 8-year-olds – 6 of which are rowdy boys! (which, yes, unfortunately, IS as bad as it sounds) and another class of 3 9-year-olds (which, by contrast, is heaven). I don't have too much experience with that age-range in general, but let me tell you, it's making me rethink the idea of procreation. 

My seminars at UBC this term are on "Nation and Migration" and "Critical Theory". Nat & Migrat (as I call it) is centered around the question if one can have a "national and normal" german identity after the Holocaust, and also looks at the idea of a "native country". We've got TONS of reading (about one novel per week with supporting articles) - but it's incredibly interesting and the discussions are always productive. Next on the list is "Critical Theory" with Steve Taubeneck- a class required for me to graduate but that I'm nonetheless happy to take. We've been mostly reading Nietzsche and Heidegger (moving on to Derrida next) which is great- plus for the final paper (25 pgs) I get to use the same topic as my thesis (and thus killing two birds with one stone, since I'll get 25 pages of it out of the way in the first term!) 

I'm also taking Swedish (3 times a week- not nearly enough!) and have become slightly obsessed- especially with anything musical by way of sweden- namely: Lykke Li (who I have tickets to see with Lydia - our new PhD'er - and Robb, her finance). Jag älsker svenska! 

My grown-up german class is going well- this year we're working with a strict study guide so there's not too much flexibility. Although that didn't stop me from inviting Florian (another new PhD'er from Munich) to my class friday to give a talk on beer (since I realized my lowly knowledge wasn't going to satisfy their thirst for information). I've also been playing german music before class- we've covered: Wir Sind Helden, Kettcar, Die Ärzte, Fettes Brot, Roger Cicero, Farin Urlaub, Tomte, Clueso, Seeed and the Notwist (who, although they sing in English, I advertised in class since they're playing here in a few weeks- and I'm going!).

Although I have tons of work to do, I'm excited for Friday night- my friend Colin (from last year) and I are going to see a hockey game- Seattle vs Vancouver! Doesn't get any better than that! Well- it kind of is on par with yesterday... I went swimming with my friends Florian and Susanne (she's a visiting PhD student from Zurich) in the Pacific!! We had a picnic on Wreck Beach and enjoyed the beautiful vancouver weather- which has been lovely! Vancouver is one of the best places in the world. 

Düsseldorf: An overdue visit!

Back from 4 days visiting my good friend Andi in Düsseldorf. Unfortunately his girlfriend Ruth was visiting her parents in Ostfriesland, so she didn't get to come with us down to visit his parents in Koblenz. Andi picked me up at the train station on Saturday afternoon. We went back to his and Ruth's apartment and after lunch at their favorite restaurant, the 12 Apostles, he took me for a little tour of Düsseldorf. I barely got to see anything before it started raining cats and dogs- we got soaked through and through! 
After showers at home we packed up and hit the road to drive down to his parents house, about 1 1/2 hours south. It was so much fun to cruise along the autobahn at over 100 mph! 

Sunday, after lunch with the family (his mom Hannelore, dad Hermann, grandma Antionia and brother Stephan) we all went to the french festival together for some ice cream. Then Stephan, 

Andi and I went to another festival and saw a comedian named Rene Marik, who does hilarious puppet shows of a mole with a speech impediment, whom I don't really understand, but find 

great. :o) 

Afterwards we took a walk around the Deutsches Eck, where the 

Rhine and Mosel rivers meet, but since it was so hot out, we headed home to chill out. 

That evening we BBQ'd and played a few hands of Skip-bo

 before watching Jürgen's vacation video... which started with his visit in Berlin and ended with his trip to the South of France

 and Monaco. It was great, although a little long. ;o) 

The next day Andi's mom, Hannelore, Andi and I went on a little tour of the Rhine. We went to Germany's oldest authentic medieval  Castle- the Marksburg. (which made me giggle- since it's 

basically the "my dad's castle" since his name is Mark) :o) 

It was amazing. It was never destroyed (unlike the others- the French ruined most of them or during WWII) because it was 

on a hill that was too much trouble to climb up. ;o) ha. Also apparently it's wasn't that important strategically. We took a tour and saw the wine cellar, the kitchen, blacksmiths, bedroom (with the smallest bed I've ever seen- for 2 people!) and the main hall. 

It was great. My favorite was the small herb garden circling the castle. Very pretty :o) From there we drove to see the Loreley- where we watched a 3D movie at the info center and then Hannelore showed us a secret place to get great views- we even found a little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere which sold drinks and cake. It was great! After we went a little further south to the city of  Kolb, where Marie Antoinette was passed off to the French, on a little island in the Rhine. All in all, it was a great day! 

That night (after a delicious dinner) we met some of Andi's friends at a beach bar on the river- where we could drink and wriggle our toes in the sand. It was great! 

Tuesday we got up early and drove back up to Düsseldorf- where I finally got a bit of a tour without rain. Well, for a bit. Luckily we ate lunch while it rained, so we weren't caught. 

We also got asked to be test subjects for new gum that wriggly was testing- all not so great- probiotic gum? What? Yeah. ;o) After we shopped a bit and then picked up Andi's girlfriend Ruth at the train station, went for dinner, then they dropped me off and I sat on the train for 5 hours back to Berlin. ;o) That was about it. But it was such a good visit- Andi and I both thought it was like nothing every happened- like we hadn't not

seen each other for 3 years! It was great :o) Hopefully I can get back there next summer too :o)

Only one week till I leave for home! Oh the sadness! I'll miss Berlin, but I'm super excited to see my family and friends at home! 

Berlin: Obama-rama!

The past two weeks have been crazy busy! I attribute it to no more school and tons of free time. Last weekend Debbie, Clover’s best friend, came to visit. We had a little dinner party and then went out dancing. :o) 

The next night we all went out to a bar called “Zu 

Mir Oder Zu Dir” which basically means: “Your place or mine?” ;o) There we met up with two of my british friends, Dicky and Julian, who are hilarious. Everybody started getting tired around 1 or 2, so people were dropping like flies, and Dicky, Julian, Jordan and I ended up drinking beer in a little park afterwards. It was “good fun”, as my scottish friend Kelly would say. 

The next night I went out to dinner with Clover and Debbie. We took a long walk which took us along the berlin wall, which was neat to see up close. 

Jordan came to live with me for 10 days, after leaving the student dorms. We had so 

many adventures! We visited a town called Spandau, which is medieval and has a citadel (which we didn’t pay to tour, but was impressed -nichtsdestotrotz- nonetheless). We also saw the site of the ’32 Olympic Games- um, which we also didn’t pay to tour. ;o) But the next day we went with our friend Kyle to Potsdam- and it was beautiful! There is a palace called Sanssouci surrounded by a giant park- with more palaces hidden around it! There was an old windmill, an orangerie (which, I’ve come to d

iscover, is quite a popular thing with the royals), a “summer” palace, and a chinese tea house. It was all so beautiful, and all so spaced out! When we got back into “town” we discovered the dutch quarter- very dutch indeed :o) My highlight of Potsdam was a restaurant we discovered called - seriously - “Der Butt”. Classic!

The morning Jordan was going to leave, I had set the alarm for 9, so that we could go to the store and she could get some chocolate before catching her ride to the airport. Getting up at 9 was harder that day than ever before, but we managed to get up and go catch a bus to the store by 9:30. I looked at my cell phone to see when the bus was coming, and was confused to see it said 7:30- so I shook it because I thought maybe it was broken. Anyways, the bus came and we noticed it was mostly older people on the bus- and when we got to the grocery store, we looked at the big clock on the Pankow city hall and burst out laughing- it WAS only 7:30!!! My cell wasn’t broken at all- my alarm clock was! We’d gotten up 2 hours too early! So we went back home to sleep before “actually” getting up. 

This last week I’ve also discovered a new passion: cemeteries! I really really like cemeteries. I’ve visited 3 so far and seen the graves of many famous people (ok ok famous to me) - The Brothers Grimm, Hedwig Dohm (by accident, ha!), ETA Hoffmann,

 Bertolt Brecht, usw. I even went to the place at Wannsee where Kleist shot himself and Henriette Vogel.  Crazy! 

The last few nights were big movie nights for me. Tuesday night Joanna and I saw “Get Smart”- which was hilarious! I was quite literally rolling around laughing. Wednesday I went to

 see Checkpoint Charlie and at  night I met up with Jenny and Kelly to see Mama Mia- and am still singing in my head- “mama mia, here I go 

again, my my, how could I forget you”. :o) The german man next to me kept dancing in his seat- snapping his fingers and bouncing his knees. I kept waiting for him to burst out of his seat and into song. But don't worry Sal, I'm still going with you when I get back! (and buying it as soon as it comes out!)

Last night Joanna and I met up for Obama's speech in Tiergarten. 

While I was waiting for her at Potsdamer Platz I noticed tons of people crowding the doors to the Ritz Carlton, and before I know it, Obama walked out! Well, surrounded by gaurds, but still! Exciting moment. 

Anyway, Jo and I made our way to the Siegessäule, where 300,000 people were expected to hear him talk! We got a good spot near one of the big screens where we could see and hear pretty well. He gave a great speech- which, although cheesy in a few places, also pretty uplifting. Good stuff!

Today it's over 90 in Berlin- and I have a cold!! I litterally laid in bed all day and dragged myself out to go to an internet cafe. Tonight I'm going over to Dicky's for a drink- maybe it'll help! Tomorrow I'm taking the train to visit my friend Andi in Düsseldorf. Hope my cold doesn't kill me before then! 

Verliebt in Berlin

First of all, I just want everyone to know what a good mood I'm in!!! Berlin is beautiful. I can take the trains without looking at a map now and earlier I got asked directions and was able to give them! Now I'm siting in my favorite cafe drinking ice tea and getting ready to work on my paper for class. The guy next to me is drinking a latte and reading a Calvin & Hobbes anthology, and, like usual, there is fantastic music (this time it's Air) :o). [that's me at Potsdamer Platz- out to dinner with Valerie]

The last few weeks have been pure soccer fever here due to the EM. German played against Turkey last wednesday (which is quite significant in relation to German/Turkey relations). We went to watch the game with 500,000 other people at the Fan Mile at the Brandenburg gate...

 

which was... an experience ;o) It was awesome, but let me say, I was glad to survive it. Germany won in the last few seconds,

 which of course lead to utter chaos. Then sunday night, we played

 against Spain in the finale (Spain had beaten Russia). I decided to do something nice for myself and not watch the game with 500,000 people, but instead with 30 outside at a cafe with Nate,

 his girlfriend and some others. It was pretty fun since his friend's girlfriend was spanish, as were the friends she brought, so we had a friendly multi-language rivalry going on for a while. Unfortunatly Germany was no match for Spain... on the way home I overheard someone talking about how much more gracefully the Turks lost compared to the Germans. Interesting. 

Speaking of German/Turkey relations earlier, we went to the open air theater and saw a film 

called "Auf der anderen Seite" (on the other side) by Fatih Akin, a turkish-german director. I've seen 2 of his other films, both good, so I had a feeling this was worth a peak. It turned out to be 

a great film (I'm not going to spoil the plot though: check it out!)- I highly recommend it!! 

My friend Jürgen from Koblenz visited this last week. Since he wakes up at the crack of dawn, we were running around Berlin for 10 hours a day. No wonder I'm exhausted! We went and went and went. I was excited to be able to visit the Pergamon Museum finally, and saw the 

special exhibit on Babylon- truth and myth. "Truth" be told, the truth section bored the crap out of me... which is kind of to be expected when compared with something as thought-provoking as Myth, which was really interesting. My favorite part was the

 special room for "language confusion". An artist had written a letter in german and then sent it around the world to something like 26 different countries to be translated- like a giant game of telephone. The final translation was from Hindi back into German and it nowhere even resembled the first letter! I found that pretty interesting. The Museum also houses a large part of a greek alter which is considered one of the "new" world wonders [see picture]. 

Jürgen and I also visited the DDR museum- which was fantastic as well. It was an interactive museum, which meant we got to try on DDR clothes, pretend to drive a Trabi (oh, and dad, I was wrong, they had to wait up to 16 years for one!), and even walk into a 1960s DDR style apartment. They had food, textbooks, tv shows 

and more for us to play with. It made it a lot more real for me- I

 love interactive museums! 

Tuesday we met up with Jordan to go to the Zoo!!! It was fantastic- really beautiful. I had a good time making fun of the german words for some of the animals... for example: 

"Erdmännschen" (Little Earth Man) = Meerkat and "Flußpferd" (River Horse) = Hippopotamus.  I laughed myself Kaputt. Of course the highlight was seeing Knut the Polar Bear. (see left - and heck yes he has his own Wikipedia page!) He's a bit older now and a bit dirty from playing, but still quite the attraction.  

Last night we went to the "Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas" (the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe- [see picture right]). I'd been before, but never to the underground info center. It was incredibly well done- each room seemed to appeal to a different sense and

 each was appropriately quite dark- one room was all for reading the history along the walls and included pictures of key events,

 another for reading personal letters/diaries/telegrams of the murdered to family members, which were illuminated on the floor. Another room had "family" stories- giant plaques dedicated to some 10 families throughout europe who were persecuted. They had family portraits, then explained the fate of each family member. There was a room where you could sit in the dark and hear short personal histories of people murdered. In another room you could listen on phones to people telling about their story- which I found the most chilling. I only listened to one- about a woman recounting how she was lined up with 

others along a pit to be shot, but jumped in before she was hit. She talked about the dead bodies falling on top of her and being scared that she'd be crushed to death. She could feel being buried by earth after the guards had checked that everyone was dead. After laying still till she knew the coast was clear, she lifted her head out of the earth and said she could see places in the ground which were rising up and down- the wounded breathing. Pretty chilling stuff. 

Afterwards, we checked out the New Synagogue in Berlin, which had been part of Kristallnacht and pretty scary to see in person. 

I also finally made it to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens)!!! It's the second biggest department store after Harrod's in London- A dream come true, might I add. My favorite section (besides books/dvds, of course) is the 6th floor- completely dedicated to gourmet food- they even have the liberty bell made out of chocolate! I took a picture of all the tasty cakes for my grandma [see below], who I knew would have had a ball there! I wish I could bring a piece back for ya, grams! 

Tonight I'm going to the Gorki Theater with Joanna to see Urfaust, then to the birthday party of someone I don't know :o) I'm pretty excited! 

--------

Ok, so took me a while to open this post. :o) Theater on Saturday was good [picture of the theater] – Urfaust was done up a little modernly- a bit more blood, holy water and lipstick as I would have expected. Afterwards Jo and I met up with my friend Dicky and had some delicious red wine. Sunday I brunched with some friends at "Bilderbuch Cafe" where each breakfast is named after a fairy tale! I had 1001 Nights. ;o) Tomorrow it's off to see one of my favorite bands, the Mad Caddies!!

LG aus Berlin!

Berlin: ... So sehen Sieger aus ...

ACHTUNG: this is very very long. just wanted to warn you. get a cup of coffee or something. 

First of all, I want to say HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWÜNSCH to my dear friend Darin, who just found out he gets to be a teaching assistant in Dresden next year! I'm so so so happy for him. So Darin, let me tell you a bit about the day I spent in your future home. So Dresden, which is about 2 hours south of Berlin, is 

absolutely beautiful. The bus ride was pleasant and our first stop was at the oriental-style Palace Pillnitz- right outside of Dresden. [see picture left- jordan, me and valerie] The chateau was really gorgeous- japanese influenced architecture right on the bank of the Elbe river. Saxony ruler August the Strong even imprisoned his mistress there for 49 years! 49! (she was too influential, so all agreed she had to be taken out of the picture). They had beautiful gardens- even a "tree garden" with trees from all over the world! (even conifers from the pac nw!) After leaving Pillnitz, and driving with our HUGE bus through the narrow streets of the villages around Dresden, we finally made it into the city.

After a tasty lunch in the Neustadt (or the new part of the city), we all took a tour of the 

Altstadt (old section). Our tour guide was really interesting and informative-

 I even spent some time talking with her about our favorite

 operas and painters. We started our tour at the Semperoper (the 

opera house: see left), which had a pretty rocky past. Dresden, as most of you know, was pretty much destroyed during the allied bombings on Feb 13 and 15 of 1945, so much of the city (including the opera house) had been reconstructed during the GDR time, who decided to rebuild in the old tradition. After reunification, some buildings were rebuilt in a modern style [see picture upper left]... our tour guide said it was an important debate that is still being discussed. One building that was not rebuilt during the GDR is the Frauenkirche. [see below] They left the ruins as a war memorial- the reconstruction wasn't actually finished until 2005! 

Only one small tower of the church had been left standing- the new church was built around it and some old stones were reused-and placed in exactly the same place thanks to modern technology! We also saw the Zwinger Palace- in one word: 

AMAZING!!! [see picture: left) Once a fortress, after August 

the Strong became King of Poland, he wanted to make something nice for himself- thus the Zwinger. He kept adding on this grand (and I mean GRAND) palace (in different architectural styles, mind you) till August's death and money ran out. It's definitely one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in Europe. Anyway, even though we were there for only one day, Dresden is absolutely amazing (also coffee-wise: as my picture below can attest- it's not Timmy's, Darin, but it'll do, eh?). 

The next day (sunday) Jordan and I went to the Flohmarkt (flea market) but only got to enjoy it for an hour before the skies opened up and we were practically drowned! We got trapped under an awning with about 10 others while lightening, thunder and torrential rains blasted around us. After, I went to the Berliner Ensemble to see a play called Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht. The Theater itself was beautiful and although the play was a bit hard to understand (due to the main character's thick Hitler-esque accent), it was great. 

Thursday we had an excursion for class to Anna Seghers'

 apartment in eastern Berlin. (the author of the book Transit

 we've just finished). She had a small, unremarkable apartment where she lived after her exile in Mexico city. Anna had over 10,000 books (in all languages) in her apartment- which of course made me quite excited. She was quite the Kafka fan too, so

I couldn't help taking a picture. We watched a film adaptation of the book Transit and there was an american actress speaking German in it- her accent was so bad and our professor joked that that's what we all sound like. :o) That night we all got together to watch Germany vs. Portugal at a beer garden on the Spree river- which also got rained out, but we made it back to Clover's apartment in time for the 2nd half. [picture upper right: me and clover at Kiki Blofeld, watching the game] Now, since Germany won (!!!) they'll be playing against Turkey tomorrow! (So sehen Sieger aus... sha la la la la) We're going to the Fan Mile at the Brandenburg Gate to watch- it'll be crazy! I bought a "Deutschland" t-shirt today, so I'm all ready.

Friday we left for the weekend to Weimar- a city about 3 1/2 hours sw of Berlin. I was so excited to go- Weimar was home to Goethe, Schiller, Bach, and so many more! Our youth hostel was fantastic (I shared a room with my friends Valerie and Kelly- see above). We went out with Charlotte and Dorothy, who work for the program, and ate at the feet of Goethe and Schiller. Now, for those of you who don't know Goethe and Schiller (*gasp*) you don't know what you're missing- seriously! 

They're only Germany's most famous authors, who both lived in Weimar (Goethe for more than 40 years, Schiller for only a few) but they exchanged many letters, ideas and opinions during their most of their lives (Schiller's was considerably shorter). The statue is impressive, in front of the National Theater. 

Both men are the same height (although Goethe was a full head taller) to show that the german people value them on the same level. Goethe (on the left) is looking straight ahead to symbolize his rationality- Schiller, in comparison, is looking in the distance- displaying his inclination for dreaming- also, his 3rd button on 

his vest was left undone- symbolizing his youth. We also toured their houses- Schiller's was less impressive, but had a workshop room where we could all practice writing with feathers [see pic]. :o) Goethe's house [see left] was amazing- it still had all the original furniture! He collected thousands of pieces of art- all displayed (well, replicas) in his house! Also, he was interested in the sciences and did a study on colors- which was reflected in his choice of wall paint colors- each room a different color! It was great! You could stand in one room and look through the doors of about 5 rooms at a time and see each color- blue, yellow, red, ect. It was fantastic. 

Also I ran into Ursula, who's doing her PhD at UBC in Vancouver, at the market there in Weimar (ooo where Valerie and I bought rings that make us feel like Captain Planet). Anyway, Ursula dragged me back to the house she was sharing with my professor, Gaby Pailer, and Karen, another PhD

student. They're in Weimar translating the letters and poems of 

Charlotte Schiller (the wife of "the man himself"). It was so random to run into them! In the afternoon we toured the city some more, and, as you can see, I got quite friendly with a red cow. At night, we went and listened to a jazz quartet outdoors during the Fete de la 

Musique- and randomly saw a dance troupe perform in the street! All in all it was a beautiful city- it was amazing to sit under a tree that Goethe – THE Goethe – once sat under!! I also saw The Gingko Biloba tree [see upper left ] that inspired one of his poems (the link is to the poem). The tree is still standing there and the distinctive leaves resemble a heart, which inspired his love poem. Thusly Weimar has Gingko Biloba fever- there's even a Gingko Biloba museum! 

On Sunday (after a lovely fire alarm at the hostel) we left Weimar for the former concentration camp, Buchenwald, which is about 8km outside of town. I don't have any pictures because I thought that taking pictures was disrespectful (you can see the wikipedia page for pictures- click the link)- and it made me quite upset when people were snapping pics so lightheartedly of the crematorium, the train tracks, or the hospital-esque barrack where prisoners thought they were being examined by a doctor, only to be shot in the back of the neck. It was hard to see, but since most of it was demolished by the communists, there weren't too many buildings. One creepy thing still left was the bear enclosure, belonging to a sort of tiny zoo that the SS men had built for their children. The chilling thing was that it was right up against the barbed wire fence of the camp and a stone's throw away from the crematorium... which means that taking your child there to play they would also undoubtedly see the prisoners (and that the prisioners would see the animals and playing children) and smell the smoke from the ovens. Not to mention how they treated the animals of the zoo- humanely, in contrast to how they treated inmates (one of which, Amy- you might be interested to know, was Elie Wiesel). Our tour guide was very informative- but also very young. It was interesting to see how disconnected she seemed to it all. I was disappointed I didn't get a chance to talk to her after. All in all it was a sad, chilling experience, but I'm really glad I went. 

After Buchenwald we went to cheery Erfurt, a medieval town in Thuringia. Erfurt was beautiful! It was hot as snot outside so I was happy to find a river flowing through the city that we could put 

our feet in- there was even a bridge with shops built along the sides! [see left]. One of our "chaperone's" sister, who lives in Erfurt, came to meet us and showed us where to get great ice cream- 10 different types of spaghetti ice cream! It was heaven. We also hiked up the citadel [see below] and lounged under a giant tree. A very relaxing afternoon- but lemme tell you - a scorching sunburn is definitely not a fantastic souvenir. 

Sorry that post was so long! I'll try and update more often so they'll be shorter. Tomorrow is the Germany-Turkey game (cross your fingers I don't get mauled in the crowd!) and then on Monday my friend Jürgen is coming to visit! I haven't seen him since I lived in Trier (about 3 years ago!) and so it'll be great to have some time with him. Anyway, as always, LG aus Berlin!

Berlin: Arm aber Sexy.

Whew this week just flew by!  Class is going really well- we were each given presentation topics, and I get to prepare a list of questions to ask during our tour of a local publishing house, the Aufbau Verlag! I'm so excited! They've published some really great authors, like Anna Seghers, whose book Transit we're reading for class. We've also been analyzing some poems, 

which I find really exciting. Ok, enough about the schoolwork! Tuesday I met up with a friend from home, Christian, who was on his way to his new teaching job in Switzerland. We had a tasty dinner in Prinzlauer Berg before getting a drink and calling it a night. On Wednesday I met up with some girls from my program for a boat ride up the Spree river. Since the weather has been in the 90s every day (seriously! oh... Darin, that's about 30s for you... heehee) the boat ride was nice, although we didn't see anything new to me, although I did get to see it all from a different perspective. We floated by Museum Island, the ARD Broadcasting Studios (to be toured on the 15th) and the Reichstag Building again. It was a fun day... I got a sunburn to prove it :o) 

Thursday was another long day of classes, after which Valerie (my friend "also" from canada!) and I started our new Thursday tradition... going to Museum Island! The museums there 

are free every thursday from 6-10 and during the summer there's also free concerts on the steps of the Cathedral. We're tackling 

one museum per thursday... this weeks: Old National Gallery. There we saw my favorite romanticist Caspar David Friedrich and Valerie's favorite frenchie Monet. After trudging around 3 floors of mazes, nooks and crannies, we went over to the Cathedral and saw that the Bundespolizei Berlin Orchester (Berlin's police orchestra) was playing on the steps! They even played Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Needless to say, it rocked my socks off. 

Friday Nikolas came to visit! I met him at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and the first thing we did, of course, was go in search of Döner. **which will remain the best in Berlin until 

proven otherwise** Anyway, Friday night (after some tasty Radler -with Sprite- near Käthe Kollwitz square... Fete bei Käthe!) we went to the Freiluftkino where we saw Martin Scorsese's film Shine a Light about the Rolling Stones. Mick Jager was doing this crazy pelvis dance the whole time... Man, he can really move for a 65 year old! Although I forgot a sweater and froze, I thought the film was great :o) 

Saturday we spent the day at Wannsee, [see right] where we met my friend Shawn and his boyfriend Andreas... unfortunately they were already there and sitting in the famous german FKK area. (FKK -Freiekörperkultur... aka Free Body Culture- and yes, I have a link!) The water was warm and Valerie and I spent the whole afternoon wading while Nik read the Economist. That night we ate at a great resteraunt on Potsdamer Platz called (I think...) Vapianos. [Above left: Me and Nik enjoying coffee.] It was serve-yourself and mighty mighty tasty- we had some pizza with god-knows-what-on it. (but it's now my favorite, so I'd better find out... I think maybe thin cut beef, tuna paste, baby lettuce... anyway, it's was amazing.)

Sunday we made a quick stop to Badeschiff to meet up with Shawn and Andreas [see pic below]

and then went off on a grueling search for Spaghettieis. (Wikipedia has an article for everything!) We never did find any... which makes me sad. (There isn't going to be any Spaghettieis in NYC, Nik!) Anyway, later we settled in to watch the Europameisterschaft soccer game: Germany vs. Poland (2:0... which is awesome, since both goals were made by a polish player! Go Germany!) [pic above right: Kelly, Valerie, Nik and I out for a drink Saturday night] Monday morning I was off to school while Nik got to sleep in before catching the train for a nice long -and boring, so I hear- train ride back home. 

This next week will be quite busy as well: I have a short paper due for class and we're all going to Dresden on Saturday... I can't wait!! I've added some pictures of my room [see right], as well as the plaque for the Berlin Wall [see picture below] that I walk over every day to get to the train (I live in the "east"). Anyway, I'd better get started on my reading for class. Liebe Grüße aus Berlin!!!

ps... I've been quite obsessed with Adam Green lately (especially "Bungee"), and -randomly- I was reading one of the NEON magazines my roommate keeps in the bathroom (don't ask me why) and found out that Adam Green's great-grandmother was Felice Bauer... who was engaged to Franz Kafka!