Day 28

Day 26 May 28, 2012

Not much to report about today. I woke up around noon and ate lunch. I made a pizza and Kristin had cereal. I burned my pizza a little but it was still good. Then after lunch I decided to start packing and Kristin did laundry for the last time before she heads to Poland. I am almost completely packed except for the clothes that I am going to wear for the next few days and my shower stuff. I forgot how much stuff I had packed and how much I bought! Hopefully my suitcase isn’t over weight because I have no room to move stuff around. Around 3ish we headed to Alexanderplatz to get internet so some people could turn in their last assignments that were technically due on Friday. Ryne came down around 5 and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him tonight at our little café that we go to all the time.  I told him I didn’t want to go because I have a lot of food still in the apartment that I have to eat before I leave and because I didn’t think it would be open because of the holiday today. I don’t remember which holiday McInnis said it was but Germans close everything on Sundays and holidays. Plus I am getting a little low on money and I don’t want to have to pull more out before I leave on Thursday and I already told Kristin I would go out with her tomorrow for broccoli cheese pizza because tomorrow is her last night. Tonight I might be going out for a drink or two but I am trying to get my stuff together and get ready for home. Tomorrow I want to see one of the two aquariums in Berlin but I don’t know if I will. I think the rest of the group is here until at least Wednesday so I want to make sure I see everyone and spend time with them because I don’t know how much I will see them when we all get back to the states and our lives begin again. 

Side Note

Sorry my posts have been choppy without a ton of detail. If you want more information or if something isn't clear comment on a post and I will try to give more detail. I got out of the habit of blogging every night and when I do blog I seem to have little time.

May 27- First day off and re-visiting the zoo :)

Day 25 May 27, 2012

Today I was able to sleep in! That was amazing. I woke up at 10:45 when Abbey knocked on our door to see if we were still going to the zoo today. Of course I wanted to go to the zoo again so Kristin and I got out of bed, ate our Chocos and got ready for going out. The plan was to be out the door by 11:15 or 11:30 so we had plenty of time to spend there so we wouldn’t miss out on anything. Well one thing led to another and we didn’t end up leaving until 12:00, because Kristin decided to ask Colin and he said sure and then we had to wait for Karl to get out of the shower so Colin could brush his teeth then we figured we should ask them too and he wanted to go so him and Emily had to get ready. Then we got on the train and had to pick up Ryne at Starbucks, and stop at an ATM so I could get money so by the time we got there and in the Zoo it was almost 1, but that still gave us 5 hours to wander before the animals got put away for the night. I love zoos so I was really excited to be able to go back and see what I didn’t before. We went the opposite way we did with McInnis to make sure we didn’t miss anything. I though it was cool to see cows in the zoo. After the zoo I broke down and went to McDonalds for the first time this trip and probably the first time in 3 or 4 months back home. It was ok, but still McDonalds.

We bummed around for a while after the zoo until about 8 then Colin Kristin Karl Emily and I went out for Indian food and drinks. It was really good but my food was a bit spicier then I was expecting. We had a few drinks at Molotow Cocktail and I stole their menu so I could make the drinks at home :p

We got back around 11 and we realized Ryne had been missing for over 4 hours and no one knew where he was so we went looking for him. We didn’t find him but when we got back he was in bed and sleeping so we must have just missed him. Shortly after I took a shower and went to bed.

May 25 and 26- Last Days of Class!!!

Days 23-24 May 25-26

Friday was our last day of class. We met as usual at 9am and discussed our final papers about art, media or architecture. Class lasted about an hour and a half and he didn’t give us any free time before we headed out on our excursions for the day. We headed over to the West to visit the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedӓchnis Kirche. The Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedӓchnis Kirche is a memorial of a church that was bombed in WWII and was basically left in ruins to show the destruction. It was covered in scaffolding which sucked because we couldn’t see anything because they are working on it to preserve it. We were able to do inside and into the new church that was build next to it but it wasn’t the same because from train station it looks like a modern office building. After the church we walked down Kurfürstendamm, a high end street in Berlin. This is where all the rich people shop. Now it’s a big tourist attraction too but shops are expensive and while walking Ku’damm we stopped at a LEGO store and reminisced about our childhoods and played with LEGOs. I got my picture taken with Woody from Toy Story and kind of considered buying a Harry Potter Hogwarts castle…but I didn’t. After the LEGO store we walked down a bit further and went into Kaufhaus des Westens or KaDeWe. The KaDeWe is a super high end department store. It’s famous for being a huge attraction in the West and things are crazy expensive. I was looking around with Ryne and he wanted to buy underwear but they were upwards of 30€ or about $40 a pair. It was insane we found men’s jackets for 5000€ and watches and accessories for more. There was a pet section were we found dog collars and bowls for around 125€ and stuffed animals for kids on sale for 49.95€. It was crazy. I walked out with nothing which is perfectly ok with me because I don’t have that kind of money and even if I did I wouldn’t want to pay $60 for a toy kids drool all over. Anyway after KaDeWe we went back to the apartments because we had time before McInnis picked us up for dinner and before we went to the top of the Fernsehturm. McInnis took us to a fancy restaurant for dinner, it was called WeinGrün. It was super delicious and really expensive but he (well technically UNI) paid for everything except for our drinks. I had vegetable gnocchi and fried mushrooms and for dessert chocolate lava cake served with vanilla ice cream and a cappuccino. It was so good. Our bill was over 360€ which is almost $500 but it was so good. We sat at our table next to the river for a while just talking and joking around, enjoying our last night together with everyone as a group because Travis was leaving first thing in the morning. Then the sun went down and it got cold, the restaurant gave us blankets and we talked some more. Finally at a little after 10 or so we decided to pay out bill and head over to the Fernsehturm. The city is so beautiful at night, we decided not to get on the train and just walk to the tower, it took less than ten minutes from the restaurant. When we got to the tower McInnis bought our tickets and we headed to the top. We took an elevator to 203meters which is about 666 feet or were the giant disco ball sits. We walked around and got to take some cool pictures of the city at night. It was beautiful, and so different from an American city at night. There were almost no cars on the roads and you could see forever but it wasn’t overly lit up. It would also be cool so see Berlin from the tower during the day but I don’t want to spend 12€ to go to the top again. After the Fernsehturm Ryne and I used the internet for a while before heading to bed because we had to meet with McInnis in the morning for one more day of sightseeing.

We were up at 9 on Saturday to say “Goodbye” to Travis because he was heading back to central Germany to spend more time with Denise in her home village. Kristin and I went back to bed after he left and slept until almost 11. We ate breakfast and got dressed and waited for McInnis to pick us up at 11:30. We were going a ways away to visit the Babelsberg Filmpark. Babelsberg is the German equivalent to Universal Studios, kind of. At least that’s what I have been told, I’ve never been to Universal Studios. The train ride was pretty long because we headed to the far south west corner of the Berlin area. It took about 40 minutes then we took a bus for about 10 minutes give or take. The film park was one of the most expensive places we have visited at a whopping 17€. The first thing we did when we got there was go to the stunt show at 2:30. It was really cool. Then we walked around the park for a while and rode a little kid’s boat ride. We got our picture taken with King Kong and ventured to a medieval city and to the Old West. The Old West was poorly done and names of places on buildings were accurate but that might just be because its German and they forgot that English doesn’t squish words and things together, it was still cool though. We didn’t stay too long because it wasn’t that big of a place and we wanted to get back.

When we got back we went to the grocery store and returned bottles and got groceries to get us through the rest of the week. Then when we got back me and Kristin made dinner and hung out. Ryne came over later and we had a heart to heart because he was really missing home and just needed to get some things off his mind. Then I helped him do his laundry in the tub before we headed to Alexanderplaz to get internet. I was showered and in bed before 2:00. It’s nice to know I am done with everything excited hanging out and doing what I want to do and seeing what I want to see. I have a feeling the next few days will go really fast. 

May 23-24: My Birthday! and Knoedel!!

Day 22 May 24, 2012

Yesterday was my birthday J and I didn’t blog. We had class at 9am and I didn’t wake up to my alarm so Travis woke me and Kristin up at 8:55, Kristin ended up not going to class because she was sick and spent most of the night throwing up and just generally not feeling so well. In class we discussed a short story McInnis had us read. It was actually a decent story and I didn’t mind talking about it. Discussing took a while and after discussion we were allowed to do whatever we wanted until 6:50 when McInnis was going to pick us up to go to a poetry slam. I didn’t go out on the town because I wanted to make sure someone was taking care of Kristin and that she would feel better. I did some laundry and went on a dinner date with Ryne to our secret spot. We made it back just in time to meet McInnis. The poetry slam was pretty far away and little did we know at the time but it was in Berlin’s gay district at a gay bar. It was funny and the poetry was good from what I could understand. One person presented in English and he was really funny, some of the German speakers spoke way to fast and didn’t annunciate very well. We left after the first round and headed back to the apartments because it was getting late and I wanted to go out for drinks for my birthday. When we got back Liz bailed because she was tired, broke, and getting a headache, so it was just me, Emily, Karl, Nate and Ryne who went out. We went to Molotow (?) Cocktail which we had gone to before the first weekend we were all here and then to a Mexican restaurant down the street further. It was good and cheap and made me really want to go get some Los Aztecas, so this weekend me and Collin are going to go back and get burritos.

We come back pretty early, which is fine because we had a busy day planned for today. This morning McInnis picked us up at 11 to head over to Potsdamer Platz and visit the Sony Center and the film museum inside. The Sony Center is really cool and there is a movie theater there so Ryne and I decided we are going to see Dark Shadows the new Jonny Depp movie on Saturday night. I’m excited, the movie is playing in English but I think it will be cool going to a famous German movie theater. After the Sony Center and Museum, McInnis gave us a few hours to get lunch before meeting him at his apartment for a movie. Collin and I were really craving Knödel (Kloβ) which is a giant potato dumping so we searched the city for an authentic German restaurant that served them (they are hard to find in Berlin because they are a Bavarian dish).

The movie we watched with McInnis wasn’t horrible but not great either. I believe it was called Solo Sunny but I can’t remember. After the movie we went back home and me and Ryne worked on homework for tomorrow, ate dinner, and now we are blogging. It’s still pretty early here but I am tired and an going to shower and go to bed early tonight hopefully. 

Art Galleries and Shopping :)

Day 20 May 22, 2012

Not much happened today. We didn’t have class this morning but McInnis came at 10:25 to pick us up to take us to the Neue Nationalgalarie, a modern art gallery. There were some pieces that were really interesting, other things just really confused me. McInnis wanted us to really appreciate the art so he had us sit down and draw 2 of the pieces we saw so we would slow down and pay attention a little more. It wasn’t bad, I can’t draw to save my life so it was a good thing that he didn’t grade us. After he let us go off on our own at the gallery, Ryne and I walked around and just before we were about ready to leave we ran into Travis and he told us we should go to the exhibit titled “Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture”. I’m glad we listened to him because that was by far my favorite part of the whole place. The exhibit was in a completely dark room, and there were projectors projecting shapes and lines on the floor and walls that slowly moved to form different shapes and designs. Maybe that sounds a bit lamer in writing but it was really cool to see and we just walked around and talked and watched the shapes change. I really liked it. After the sculptures we went outside and sat in the shade and waited for the rest of the group. It was really hot so sitting in the shade was nice. Then we headed back to Alexanderplatz and Ryne Kristin Travis and I went shopping and first we went to New Yorker and there I bought a pair of sunglasses (because I broke mine on the pub crawl), a scarf (because it was cute and only 1EURO) and a tank top. We lost Travis while we were in the basement so Kristin Ryne and I headed over to Alexa, the huge mall in the middle of the city. There we spent way too much money. Luckily Kristin and Ryne talked me out of buying lots of things, including 3 pairs of shoes. I bought some head phones because the lady on the plane that broke mine, a cloth bag, and we went to build a bear, where I made my first ever. I made a sheep and named her Schaf, which is German for sheep. I dressed her in dirndl, which is the female equivalent to Lederhosen. She is freaking cute! Kristin and Ryne also made one. It was lots of fun and the lady who helped us was absolutely amazing. Then we took Ryne to H&M and got him some sexy European clothes so he fit in here a bit better. It was a good day and we didn’t get back til 6:00 or so. Then we bummed around until 10:15 then we headed to a bar and had a drink, only one before we came back to the apartments. I attempted to take a shower but it was super cold and we had no hot water so I washed my feet and went to bed. 

Day 19- I have no title.

Day 19 May 21, 2012

I didn’t write again last night and honestly I don’t have a reason except that I was a bit tired and didn’t want to. It was still late when I went to bed and there wasn’t much for me to say. Yesterday was Sunday so we didn’t have our class in the morning which is always nice. Kristin and I didn’t wake up til around 1:30 and then we decided we wanted pancakes for breakfast. Always a good idea. The pancake mix was pretty simple and we only had to add milk and shake. They weren’t like pancakes in the US, they were more like crepes but still really delicious. We did have to meet McInnis in the afternoon for a tour of the Reichstag Parliament Building. It was actually really interesting and we saw a lot. We had to meet McInnis at 3:10 in front of the security checkpoint. Our tour wasn’t until 3:30 but we needed time to get through. The tour took around 90 minutes and the woman who did our tour just walked us around explaining the history of the building and what happens where. After the Reichstag we all headed back to the apartments. Ryne and I went down to the bakery for a while until the server crashed, then we decided to go on a little date and we walked a few blocks to this little café restaurant. We each had a few beers and we played cards and talked. It was nice to have some down time and just relax. Our waitress was really nice and we both were able to practice our German a little, because I’m pretty sure she didn’t speak English. We got back round 11, then I showered and Phil called and I talked to him for about 45 minutes before crawling into bed and going to sleep.

Today we had class as usual at 9. I woke up around 8:35 which is pretty early for me and ate breakfast then got dressed and headed to class. I forgot to mention in earlier posts but the cereal Kristin and I eat every morning is absolutely delicious! It’s made by Kelloggs but we don’t have it in the States. Its called Chocos. I am thinking about bringing some home to eat there and then writing to the company saying to sell them in the US they are that good. Anyway, class was pretty boring. We talked about architecture which no one in the class except for McInnis cares even remotely about. He had us read an article in class which was a huge waste of time and I would have much rather slept. After class I took a nap until 11:30 or so and then made myself a Bockwurst, which is like a giant tasty hot dog, but not the cheap ones. Shortly thereafter, McInnis was here to pick us up and we headed over to the Bauhaus Archive. McInnis made it sound super cool when he talked about it but honestly I was bored out of my mind while we were there. It’s a museum kinda, but for a movement of a style of design. I don’t really know how to explain it. But we couldn’t take pictures so I can’t even explain. It’s trying to find the balance between function simplicity. So everything was really modern and I didn’t think most of it even looked cool. I have a pamphlet that might have more information for you if you are interested.

After an hour at the Bauhaus Archive, we met with McInnis to discuss what we liked and didn’t like for about 45 minutes and then we were allowed to go do whatever we wanted. We decided to go back to the apartments and play cards and relax. Shortly after we decided we all wanted Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti Ice Cream). I’m not sure if I already explained what this was but basically, on a plate you get a dollop of whipped cream, on top of that is vanilla ice cream that was pushed through a contraption to make it look like noodles. Then it is covered in strawberry sauce and sprinkled with white chocolate flakes. It looks like a plate of spaghetti and is absolutely wonderful. Then we played cards at the apartments again and later I made real spaghetti and chicken schnitzel for dinner. We also had a few glasses of white wine with dinner. After those few glasses of wine we decided to keep drinking since we don’t have class tomorrow and we invited people over and all had a few beers and a drink we created called orange sherbet, which is Captain Morgan and MezzoMix (a drink we don’t have in the US which is Coke mixed with orange Fanta). We sat on the balcony and talked and listened to music. It was a good night. Around 12:30 I got in the shower and now am journaling so I can get to bed early again.

We don’t have class tomorrow, but we are meeting to go to an art museum, which I am sure I am not going to like because that’s not really my thing but I am really excited about no class. I might not journal tomorrow but I will for sure Wednesday night because once again we aren’t having class but we are going to a poetry slam and that sounds pretty cool. Good night J