Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Day 7 May 9-- East Side Gallery, Reichstag, and a Bar


Day 7 May 9, 2012
Holy crap I have been in Berlin a whole week already!! This is crazy time has gone so fast and we have already done so much but there is so much more to see. Today we had our first class. Boo! We had to meet with our groups this morning to discuss a chapter in Ladd. I had chapter three with Kristin Emily and Karl. I went to class but kind of dozed off for most of the discussion because it was a review of our pre-departure meetings. Meetings went from 9:30 ish to about 11:00 and McInnis didn’t show up til about 11:30 for class and it went til almost 1:00. Then we were dismissed for lunch and had to meet again at 2:30 for sightseeing.
Today for sightseeing we went to the East Side Gallery and walked the whole thing. It was really interesting and some of the artwork was AMAZING! I realized how immature some people are and that they needed to graffiti some of the pieces. After that we hung out in a grassy field and just chilled and waited for McInnis to finish before he headed over to the Reichstag. The Reichstag is a HUGE super beautiful parliament building near the Brandenburg Gate. It was destroyed in WW2 and rebuild to part of its former glory afterwards. It is famous for its glass dome on top and the motto above the main enterence. “For the German People”. It was interesting that today we had to go through basically airport security to get into the building and really we didn’t even go inside we just went to the top to look around. Its free but we had to have background checks and passports to get in. The reason for this sudden change in security measures (it used to be completely open to the public inside and roof) is because about 18 months ago some crazy Austrian decided he wanted to bomb the building and German government would have none of that so they completely altered the security and now everyone needs to make appointments weeks in advance and get background checks and cool stuf like that. Later in the trip we get to tour the inside but today we just went to the top and walked in the dome and had a view of the city. We spent a good deal of time there just looking round and seeing what there was to see. After that the whole group when out to dinner at a little Italian restaurant on the west side of the city. I had a pizza with ham mushrooms and rocket. Rocket is sort of like arugula very peppery. After dinner we headed back to the apartments and Nate Ryne and I decided we wanted to go get a drink at a bar before going to bed so we asked for directions at the local bakery and they sent us down the road a mere 500 meters where there was tons of stuff we didn’t know existed. It was kinda scary and finally we just picked one and it turned out to be a punk bar. That sounds weird but that’s the only way I can describe it. The bartender was the super edgy chick but she was really nice and helped us out picking what to drink. We had Jack and Coke, Cherry with Vodka, and their special a Moscow Mule. I didn’t like the Moscow Mule it was made with cucumbers and I thought it was weird but Nate drank his really fast. Then we walked back to find that my roommates suck and had a party while we were gone. Just kidding, well not about the party but about the fact that my roommates suck. They are great. I come home just at the end and we chatted bit before getting ready for bed. On the bright side because they had people over for beers tonight we have tons of bottles to turn in for deposit. And the can/bottle deposit here is way more ranging from 25-75 cents a bottle depending on side and material. Tomorrow we have class again at 9:00 and McInnis is coming to get us to lead us back to his apartment. I am not looking forward to class at all considering it is just after 3 in the morning now and I am still writing. 

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