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!