Late!

Wow this post is late! It's been almost five days, I think!

I have most definitely not been having the easiest time recently in Berlin. I was so very excited for the weekend trip that I am afraid my expectations far outweighed the actual experience. Well. Let's see. So on Friday I had my last class with my usual teacher and then we all went on the train to Dresden! It was a two hour train ride - which was pretty exciting!

We arrived in Dresden a little while later and from there went to our hostel. We were going to go to a biology museum but my friend was ill so I went back to the hostel with her to rest. I didn't want her to be alone and sickly so I stayed with her. I think it was the right decision. Later that night she felt much better so we all went out to dinner at a game bar!

I got to know the people on the program a lot better and I feel like it was a really good experience.

The hostel was a lovely place! The beds were unbelievably comfortable! The room was bare and white but warm and lovely. They gave us breakfast that was tasty, too!

The next morning we went on a tour of Dresden. It was reallllyyyy cool. Dresden is a beautiful place! It's extraordinarily German. It was a different kind of tour - a sightseeing tour/treasure hunt. We started at the Frauenkirche! It is one of the most famous churches in all of Dresden. We also saw the amazing organ and other things. From the Frauenkirche we went around answering trivia questions and learning about the history.

My group won. :)

Later that day we boarded the train to Prague! It was another two hour train ride to Prague. This is where things got bad. My wallet was stolen as we were getting off of the train in Prague. So I had nothing. I spent my first two hours in the Czech Republic sitting inside of a police station explaining what had happened to an officer who spoke pretty good (but certainly not perfect) English. I do have a lovely Czech Police Report though! Pretty exciting!

After it was stolen we went to the Czech hotel. It was called hotel Bella and was a really cute place. Although I was terribly upset I was happy, too, because there was a Czech TV on which we watched a western. In Czech, naturally, so I didn't understand a word.

After I "decomposed" a bit in the Czech hotel we went out to this bizarre little bar which was decorated with a startling amount of communist propaganda! I don't remember that day very well because I was rather upset...

The next day we took a tour of Prague (which was amazingly beautiful) and then took the 4 hour train ride home!

It wasn't my favorite weekend but it was very interesting and I was happy to be face to face with so much history.

Monday we met our new teacher! He's a very interesting character and the class is a lot of fun - but I feel really bad when I get an answer wrong! He's funny, though, so it's good.

Today I went to school and afterwards we went to a Museum. I got to see  Bismarck's uniform! it was really cool! I also saw the very famous portrait of Napoleon I and also of Louis XIV! Very cool!!

So! That's all there was to it! I hope the rest of the week is better, because the weekend was not that great. Losing my wallet was a big downer... But it's all right. I hope that all is well in SLC.

Aquarium!

Today I went to school! Next week my teacher is going on vacation so after tomorrow I won't see him again! that's all right - I got a picture! Yay!

So, after school I decided to go to the Berlin Zoo/Aquarium. I only went to the aquarium part because it was SO stormy today and the Zoo is outside!

The aquarium was really beautiful! It was packed with children and adults - all sorts of people. It was a lot of fun, though. I'm really very happy that I decided to go!

Here is a picture I took of some jellyfish! Uwah! I can't believe I'm up late AGAIN!! Tomorrow is the trip to Dresden, too! Yeesh! I bought some fun stuff at the Berlin Zoo! I'm verrrrry happy!

It was such a cool aquarium! I've never been to the one in Salt Lake but I was really impressed by the one here in Berlin! There were sharks that were HUGE and really gigantic fish as well! They were all so interesting!

This is a fish! Well - that's rather obvious... but it was a very photogenic fish, I thought. I rather liked the photo so I thought that I would share.

After I went to the zoo/aquarium I went walking around Zoologischer Garten (the area where the zoo is) and found this nifty little mall where I bought some lunch and candy! 

At the store where I bought the candy there was this delightful lady (the store clerk) and as I left she gave me this candy as a go-well gift or something of the sort. It was lemon and verrrry tart! It also tasted a wee bit... um... sharp, let's say. It was tasty, though, and I was happy to have it!

I then took the train back home - very grateful for my umbrella! - and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and doing homework. I also spent a lot of time preparing for my trip this weekend!

Here I am at the Aquarium. I apologize that the picture quality isn't that great (as in it's almost impossible to see my face) but I figure that's okay. I was there.

I won't be able to blog or talk to anyone for the rest of the weekend - sorry! I'm going to Dresden and Prague! I will definitely take multitudes of photographs and when I return there will be a post worthy of the three days I will be missing! I hope everything is going well in SLC! (and wherever anyone else reading this may be)

Today was just another regular school day! Nothing extraordinary happened so... pictures!!

This is inside of the Berlin Reichstag! It's in the gigantic dome which covers the building and were the senators to look up they would be able to see out into Berlin and also to see the people inside of the dome - to remind them who they are working for. It's also very pretty!

A picture of me as seen in the Reichstag mirrors!

Another picture - this time from up high in the dome looking down!

The tunnel by which the Reichstag fire of the 1930s may have been lit! It was preserved and remains down below the building! Very interesting! If it was, indeed, through this tunnel that the spark was carried - that means that it was the Nazis themselves who lit the fire!

From the dome - looking out over Berlin with the German flag.

The front of the Reichstag! It's partly the old building and partly the new one which was designed to fit in the shell of the old after it was bombed during WWII. The front retains the classic and original design!

My gigantic juice box!!!!!!

Reichstag

No pictures today! I'm really sleepy! Tomorrow I think I will post another special photo-only blog (with captions , of course) along with my usual daily message.

I'm listening to Blackbird by the Beatles right now. I suggest you all listen to it!

School. After school we met up with Carolin and then had an entire hour for lunch! it was really fantastic because usually we only have about twenty minutes! I had a lovely sandwich which my host mama packed so I didn't have to worry about that but at the store I did buy some chocolate and crackers! I love German crackers and chocolate... and when it's chocolate covered cracker/cookies it's just so amazing I don't know what to do with myself.

After our extraordinarily long and lovely lunch we met up again and took two buses to the Reichstag which is in the heart of Berlin. It's the parliamentary building. There are tons of pictures online! It's the one which burned down and really sparked the communist fear which helped boost the Nazis into power in Germany. Downstairs in the Reichstag is a portion of a tunnel which the fire may have been started through. It was really interesting to be so close to history.

So - the Reichstag burned in the 1930s and then was all but destroyed in World War II. They have multiple photos from after the bombing. It's very interesting to see how things have changed. The architect was amazing. He kept as much of the old building as possible. He incorporated the old and new and created this magnificent parliament building. It's like a great window - through which the people can see the government and the government can see the people. A transparent government. I like it.

Our tour guide was German (a political scientist who works in the Reichstag) but he spoke excellent English so the tour was in English. I'm glad! It's hard to try to speak German all of the time. It's rather overwhelming. I'm used to it at this point - but it is still strange not to be able to understand absolutely everything.

The tour was about 85 minutes long and then we spent about 30 minutes exploring. There is a dome on top through which tourists and the German people alike can see down into the Parliament chambers. It's to remind the Parliament that they are employed by the people - the people are above them. Very clever, I think!!

After we explored and took many pictures we went to Alexanderplatz and bought bubble tea! Mine was strawberry green bubble tea! Very tasty! I can't really describe what bubble tea is... but it is quite tasty!

Overall it was an exciting and informative day. I loved seeing history in such a first hand manner. Another thing  the architect incorporated while building the new Reichstag was keeping messages written by Russian soldiers upon their victory in WWII. They're from 1945 or so and remain on the old parts of the building. The architecture is a beautiful mix of old and new. I think you should all look it up online - and of course I will be putting pictures up tomorrow!!

Goodnight SLC!

Hats

I don't have any terribly interesting photographs from today so I won't post any up today but tomorrow I will definitely.

Today was probably one of the most relaxed days on the trip so far. I went to school and then went shopping for a bit - after which I came home and relaxed. I really didn't do anything too intensive or thrilling!

I bought another hat! It makes me happy!

I must apologize for the extremely borrring update - but I hope everything is going well in SLC and all is well in Berlin. Goodnight!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend

This weekend was really busy. Once again I am writing really late at night... wah.

So, on Saturday I woke up really early and we went to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. We took a 2-3 hour train ride and ended up at Warnemüde. It's a resort town by the Ostsee! It was very pretty! The train ride was pretty uneventful. We listened to a lot of music and played some intense tic-tac-toe. 

We arrived at about 11 or 12 and then went shopping and to get lunch! Anna and I broke off from the main group (which split up) and went walking down the stores to find sunglasses, dresses, shirts, shoes and a bathing suit. We found it all! The prices weren't too bad, either.

We ended up going to lunch at this strange little shop which had a kind of old German feel. We ordered some pork with cheese and onions and potatoes and some Spezi - which is Coke with Fanta. It's pretty tasty but... really sweet.

Above is a picture of the Spezi. Little did we know that in ordering the drink we had ordered a bee death trap. Anna and I both dislike bees intensely but it seems as though wherever we go we are successfully stalked by at least one wasp. We were sitting outside (at first) and were plagued by a wasp for about five minutes before we asked to go inside.

After we moved inside we thought it would go away but then it returned, much to our horror! It flew into Anna's drink and fell in! We were both so horrified that in an act of pure spontaneity Anna clamped her wallet over the top of the glass. The wasp somehow managed to clamber out of the soda and latched itself onto her wallet. So... she tried to drown it. It didn't work out well for the wasp.

Eventually the waitress came and took the glass - with the wasp - and dumped it out in a bush. We don't know what happened to the poor little insect. The lunch was delicious!

After that exciting little adventure we went to the beach where we rented a Strandkorb - or a beach chair basket thing - and then went swimming. We spent about two hours on the actual beach. After that we went shopping yet again and I found an amazing cowboy hat.

This is the amazing cowboy hat. I didn't buy it. I think I like it, though! It makes my eyes look really blue and I must say the sparkly sequins really go with my personality (sarcasm). 

While shopping we found this neato man who drew an amazing portrait of Anna and another who used some kind of airbrush to paint this tattoo on me. I really like it! It will last for about three days! I think it's pretty! On the train ride back we were rather bored and very tired and so the other girls asked me to draw tattoos on them. That was exciting! 

On Sunday I slept in until 11 and then we went to visit some relatives of my host family. They were so nice! They only spoke German, though, and I was worried that my extremely American manners might upset them but I think that it all went well.

I had ice cream every day this weekend! Also every day this week, I would imagine...

In any case! All is well here in Berlin!

This is the hat which I bought at the Ostsee for winters in Utah. Pretty awesome, I think. 

Goodnight!

Finallly Friday

I'm extraordinarily exhausted right now so I will probably make some considerable typing errors and I will definitely not be writing very much.

School. 

After school a girl invited me to go see a movie with her! So Isha (spelling :? She's from Turkey), Julia, Julia's little sister and I all went to the movies in Potsdamer Platz. It was really fun! We spent all day there eating ice cream, going down slides which must have been 50 feet tall and talking in German. It was a lot of fun.

Potsdamer Platz is really beautiful. We spent a considerable amount of time at the Sony Center which is really fun!

This picture is for an American movie showing at Potsdamer Platz theaters. The one I saw today was an American movie but with German instead of English. It was definitely not my favorite movie.

After that we walked around and I saw the movie poster in the photo above. I'm really excited for the movie so I took a picture. I'm in the photo, too, which I thought was nifty and was why I put it up...

So, that's all I can write for tonight. Tomorrow to the Ostsee!!!!