Berlin (part 4)

This blog post will probably be focused on just one day, but we'll see how much I feel like writing after I post the plethora of pictures that will inevitably be needed to convey what I want to show you: Wednesday, after class, a friend and I met up with Matt and decided to go to the Berliner Dom. It was only 4€ with a student discount, and I got lots of pictures!

Looking to the front of the cathedral

The pulpit

The super-impressive organ (sorry if it's blurry)

Each corner had a mosaic of a different gospel

The pictures at the front of the cathedral

And then we climbed up the ~300 stairs (not too bad, compared to some other places!) to the top of the Dom and I got some pretty awesome pictures, if I do say so myself!

The Fernsehtum from a bit higher up!

Our friend Karen with the sculpture/statue

Underneath the Dom were the crypts, which had some pretty well-known people in them (but of course I can't remember the names of any of them - there was a Frederick or two!). It was sad seeing the little baby coffins. But I did like this that you had to pass by at the end:

The text says "Er ist nicht hier; er ist auferstanden" which is "He is not here, he has risen."

After the Berliner Dom, we stopped for dinner and some drinks before heading over to the new synagogue, which we'd heard is pretty. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by trees, so you couldn't really back up to get a good picture of it. It was very pretty though!

Karen wanted to see a Märchen fountain (fairytale fountain) so we went there next.

On the way to the fountain...I'm thinking the bike path was put in after the light pole...

There were a bunch of little statues around the fountain that were all different characters from fairy tales. I didn't actually get a lot of pictures here.

I liked the turtle though, so I got a picture of him

So that was Wednesday! I'll update again soon-ish covering my last days in Berlin and getting into Villmar, where I have lots of pictures again.

Bis dann!

Berlin (part 3)

Continuing...

The next day, Saturday (July 6th), I went on a tour of the escape routes from East Berlin to West Berlin.  I didn't actually take any pictures from that, since it was kind of an exhibit more than anything - plus, Matt reminded me just now that we weren't allowed to take pictures. That's probably the main reason, then. :P We obviously did a tour in German (English tours were only once a week on Wednesdays or something) and I didn't get a lot out of it since there were a lot of words I wasn't familiar with, but I did kind of get the gist of some stuff. It was interesting hearing about the ways the Germans would try to escape and then how the Soviets would counter their strategies. I guess there were parts of the wall that went through buildings, so the windows in those buildings would be boarded up since people would try to jump out of them to escape.

That evening, I went with a small group of friends to a memorial for all the Soviet soldiers that died in World War II (about 25 million Russian civilians and soldiers died in WWII, says Matt, though the memorial commemorates 5,000-80,000 Soviet troops that fell in the Battle of Berlin, which was April to May of 1945).

Soviet Memorial

Sunday was much more laid-back, since we had a couple things we wanted to check out but we didn't really have a schedule.  The first landmark we hit was Checkpoint Charlie, which was the US controlled point in Berlin that crossed into the Soviet side. Apparently there was a Checkpoint Bravo as well, belonging to another country.

Yup, that little booth is Checkpoint Charlie. (To the left of this picture was a McDonald's, because America!)

After the checkpoint, we wandered over to the "Typography of Terror," which was a free exhibit showing the buildup of the Nazi power in the 1930s and showing how they treated everyone.

Hint: They didn't treat Jews very well. (sorry about the cut-off picture; the sun happened)

As a little side story, I was wearing a sundress that day (which you'll see in a later picture) and I had someone come up to me to make sure I was wearing sunscreen. I've been pretty OCD about applying my SPF 50 so I actually haven't gotten sunburned at all! (Knock on wood...it's supposed to be 90 in Paris while we're there...)

Trabi Welt, or Trabi World

We saw this while walking. Trabis were the little cars that they had in East Germany during that time; I guess they weren't very good/reliable.  (I hope you're not expecting a lot of cool history facts in these posts because I am not good at that sort of thing, and I say that because I feel like with this picture, I should be giving you fun little facts. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen for now. But if you want to read up about them, here's the Wikipedia article!)

After the Typography of Terror, we hit a flea market that someone had recommended to me, but a lot of the prices were pretty expensive, so I didn't get anything. We then moved on to the holocaust memorial, which I'd gone to four years ago with Hannah's class.

The stones aren't very far apart and then they get a little bigger the farther in you get, and the floor also drops pretty suddenly, so even though they might not seem that tall, some of those stones are easily 10-15 feet high. The last time I was here, we (the class) had had a pretty good time getting on top of them and jumping between them until a policeman came and told us to stop.  I didn't re-create that memory for obvious reasons, but I did re-create this picture:

See? No sunburn! :)

Then it was back to the daily grind of class from 9-1. After class on Monday, I went with some friends to the Ritter Sport store, which some of you might recognize that name - you can buy Ritter Sport chocolate at Meijer and Target, but there is much more of a variety in Germany's Ritter Sport.

Ritter Sport Colorful Chocolate World!

We went in about half an hour before they closed, so there weren't many people there, which was really nice. There was an option to "make your own" variety (one of the filling options was rhubarb, which was quite intriguing to me!) but that would've meant waiting for a while for the chocolate to set, so we opted out of that

That's all for now - I have to pack to go to Paris tomorrow, so I should probably get going with that. What else do I have to update you on for Berlin? Well, we went to the Berlin cathedral again, along with some other miscellaneous Berlin pictures. And then I'll have updates from Villmar, where I am currently! Hopefully that will be up relatively soon.

Bis bald!

Berlin (part 2)

Continuing from my previous post:

After Sunday, which basically sucked, we all got settled in and had to go to the IIK (International Institute for Communication, I think? except obviously in German) the next morning.  Everyone else from Eastern just had to go to the information session, but I had to stay and take the placement test for classes.

I'll talk about the class stuff in this post and then the rest of this post and the other posts will just be all the sight-seeing that I did with various people. So I tested into the 6A class, which is level B1,2 (a native speaker is level C, I believe, and after B1,2 there's B2,1 and B2,2) and I was glad about that because from what I'd heard from the people who tested into that class in Düsseldorf, the work was grammar points that I really wanted to work on. ("Ich lasse mir die Haare schneiden" or "Der durch die Stadt rennende Man", for anyone reading this who can speak German).

Unfortunately, we all found out relatively soon that the classes in Düsseldorf didn't go so much by the book and were actually working ahead, so my class was very much reviewing a lot of stuff I'd learned in high school (future tense, subjunctive, which prepositions go with which verbs - though that one was nice to do!).  But anyway, the people in my class were interesting and quite diverse: students from Uzbekistan, Spain, Denmark, Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan, the US, and Macedonia (as in the country, obviously). I had class from 9-1:15 (along with half of the Eastern students), and the other half of us from Eastern (including Matt) had class from 2-6:15.

After my placement test, I went with Matt and another friend to go explore a little bit:

Reichstag, or the government building (I believe I did a tour of this when I was hear with Hannah's class in 2009 - don't remember much from the tour since I couldn't understand German as well then)

Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), which used to be the entrance into Brandenburg

Fernsehtum (TV tower) which you could pay like 12€ to go up, but we didn't really want to

Philharmonie, where the Berlin Philharmonic plays! Unfortunately, they were on their summer break when we were there, so no concerts for me :(

The next day, Wednesday, I apparently didn't take any pictures, so I don't think I did anything remarkable - probably went to the store with my roommate and worked on some homework.

Thursday, I went out with Matt and a friend again in the evening to check out a little bit of the city at night. We weren't out super-late since we still had class Friday morning, but I did get some nice pictures.

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral - to be continued...)

Siege Säule, or the victory column from beating Napoleon

Nighttime scenery!

This one is really pretty to me...kind of nostalgic seeming, somehow.

Friday was a long day, because I meant to get a nap in the afternoon and never got around to it. After class, we went to a Döner place and had to wait in a 45-minute line since someone said they had amazing Döner - it was really good, but I'm not a fan of waiting that long, especially when I can't sit down! But apparnetly this little stand was one of the four original Döner places, or maybe it was just one of the four best - one of the four something. I'm fuzzy with details, sorry. 

After lunch, we went to the Eastside Gallery, which is part of the Berlin wall that is still standing and has been painted all over.  Most of the art was really impressive (some was just not as appealing to me, but you could tell there was some talent on that wall!), though there was graffiti on a lot of it since it's Germany and there's graffiti everywhere.  Apparnetly this might not exist in the near future because a company wants to tear the wall down and build expensive apartments on the river for the rich folk; people are very unhappy about this idea (myself included) since it is such a part of Berlin/Germany's history! Only time will tell, I suppose. Guess it's good that I got to see it!

The sun was juuuust over the wall so I couldn't actually see what was in the picture, otherwise I would've gotten all of "Berlin!"

That evening, I went out with Matt again (and some other friends) to see more buildings at night.

The Reichstag at night

Brandenburger Tor at night

Berliner Dom at night

Coming up in the next post: a tour (that I don't think I actually took pictures on), a couple memorials, and a chocolate store. Stay tuned!

Bis dann!

Düsseldorf and Berlin (part 1)

I have been back in the land of reliable internet for a couple days now, so I'm overdue in writing a post to update you all! My last couple weeks have been much more eventful, so I will be breaking up Berlin into a couple different entries. Just to update you on my current whereabouts, Matt and I are staying with my exchange family from 2009 in Villmar (a tiny town near Limburg, which is a bigger town/village about an hour away from Frankfurt) until Friday morning, when we'll head off to Paris to visit my aunt and uncle. It's been so great seeing them all again! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My last week at Park-Krankenhaus Leipzig was fairly uneventful.  I did get to lead a music therapy session completely alone rather unexpectedly; one of the therapists had a meeting she'd forgotten about and asked me to lead the session while she was gone so she wouldn't have to cancel the session for the patients.  Thankfully it wasn't a psychotherapy group - I don't think I would have had the language skills to successfully do that. It was the older patients, so they do a lot of listening and improvisation and less talking. It ended up going well!

On Saturday (June 29th), I left in the morning to go to Düsseldorf, where I could hang out with Matt and the rest of the Eastern group for their last weekend in the city.  My train had a 20-minute delay waiting for another train, so I missed my connecting train from Frankfurt to Düsseldorf and had to go up to the travel office and ask when the next train was - luckily there was one in 5 minutes from a platform I could get to fairly easily, so I booked it over there and got on just before the doors closed! (I was also glad to have a EuRail pass - basically I didn't have to pay for another ticket because the pass is good for an entire day.)

I got into Düsseldorf around 3:30 and Matt took me back to his host family's house and then we went back out to meet up with the group and wander around the city a little bit.  We ended up just eating dinner and not really doing any sight seeing, but it was nice to hang out with people!

The Rheintum (Rhine tower)

Looking over the Rhine just after sunset

The next day, Matt and I went to a castle - or supposedly, it had said it was a castle and that's what he thought the first time he'd been there. It was more like a manor. Definitely pretty, definitely not a castle. :) There were really pretty grounds and I got some pictures, but they all look pretty similar so I'll just post one.

I have a weird obsession with "path pictures".

That night, Matt and I talked to his host parents for a while (and I made the discovery that my favorite beer is actually alcohol-free) and then we went back out to actually do some sightseeing. Got a couple more cool pictures.

The next day, July 1st, was our day to travel to Berlin. The day started out pretty successfully, but due to a normal train delay and then being re-routed due to flooding, our train came in an hour and a half late and the person that was supposed to meet us at the train station wasn't there anymore.  After some calling and whatnot, we figured out where we were supposed to go and set out to get there. About halfway there, though, the bus line stopped since it apparently stops at 6pm. Long story short, we were supposed to get in to the train station about 3 and then be at our apartments by probably about 4, but we didn't get to the train station until about 4:40 and didn't get to our apartment complex till after 8. It was a long, crabby day for everyone.

I did get a picture of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof though!  That train station is HUGE. The tower things you see on the side are 5 (maybe 6) stories tall.  There are two sets of tracks - the ones in the upper level, and then there is a lower level where more trains can come and go. Then five stories of stores and restaurants. Pretty intimidating!

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

I will update more a little later, but I'm going to go eat lunch. 
Bis bald!

Last Weekend

The title of this post actually has a double meaning: it's mostly going to be a summary of what I did last weekend (June 14-16) when my boyfriend came to visit, but this weekend right now is my last weekend in Leipzig!  Next Saturday I'll be headed off to Düsseldorf to visit my boyfriend, and then I'll be going with him and the other people from Eastern to Berlin on Monday to get to our two weeks there, where we will be doing a language program (second one for them, obviously the first one for me). I really like Leipzig, but I'm reeeally excited to be around people I know and to have people to hang out and go out with. It's kind of been a lonely two months.

But...on to what we did last weekend when Matt was here! To start off, he had class Friday until about 1 (or 13, if you're going by military time, which I've definitely gotten much better at since that's what they use over here!) and it takes about five or six hours to get to Leipzig from Düsseldorf.  He left around 2 or 3 and was supposed to get in a little after 9, but his second train had been canceled because of the flooding.  So he had to take a regional train that doesn't go as fast and stops at more cities and didn't get in till a little after 10.  I didn't mind - I was just happy to see him! :)

Waiting in the train station...this was definitely one of the times I've been most excited to see someone!

The first thing we did Saturday morning was head over to the Thomaskirche again and look around a bit inside. Pretty big church! I'm not sure I would call it "gorgeous" or anything, but it was definitely really cool to see!

The stairs leading up to the pulpit

Looking to the back of the church

Up at the front - the plot on the ground is J.S. Bach's grave!

Some old instruments!

(sorry, the lighting in here was really dark)

 Next, we headed back outside and decided to just wander around a little bit. Matt found a steeple in the distance and was like, "let's go there!" so we did. It ended up being a Lutheran church, St. Peterskirche.  We couldn't actually go in this one, but I got a bunch of pictures. The lighting is kind of weird since it was really sunny, but you get the idea.

Glamor shot!

I'm not entirely sure what this building was - I think it might have been the Neues Rathaus (new town hall) but don't quote me on that!

Next up was lunch - we had decided we were going to get Döner, which is a Turkish meal similar to gyros in a way - a wrap with lamb and veggies (though you can get it with chicken). No tzatziki sauce though, and wayyyy more vegetables! Basically, it's awesome. So we finally found a place that was open and got some Döner and Mezzo Mix, which is something I remember having the last time I was here and really liking it. Mezzo Mix is just coke mixed with orange Fanta, actually.

YUM! I may or may not have gotten food everywhere while eating this, a fact that Matt did not hesitate to make fun of me for for the rest of the day... :)

As a side note, the guy in the store asked us where we were from - he originally thought we were from the Czech republic. Matt commented that he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad reflection of our German. :D But the server was actually born in Iraq and moved to Germany when he was ten - I think he said he was in his 20s, but I don't really remember now. Matt asked him what he thought of everything going on there right now, and he said he didn't really know much about it but "people are dumb." That made us laugh.

After lunch, we went to Völkerschlachtdenkmal, which is a war memorial from the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 where Prussia, Austria, and Russia defeated Napolean.  It was built in 1913, so this year, there are apparently a ton of concerts and stuff there since it's kind of both the 100- and 200-year memorials.

Don't mind the crane...

There were four huge statues in the corners of the inside

If you want an idea of how big they were, here you go!

Like the little narrow twisty stairway with barely any handholds to get up and down? (There's a designated "up" and "down" staircase, for the record.) Matt and I took the elevator because I didn't wanna deal with a ton of stairs.

The view from the top!

That stupid crane again...ruining all my pictures...also, this was taken through a chain link fence, so please excuse the little blurry chain link at the bottom right corner!

It makes me laugh that you can see how much taller Matt is than I since the angle is different for the same view.

After going to the monument, we headed back to the city center to hear the Thomanerchor Motet concert. It was really cool hearing such great music in the church where Bach worked, but Matt and I were both kind of tired at this point in the afternoon (concert started at 3). Also, the concert was kind of a church service - they read from Luke, there was a homily, and we said the Lord's Prayer (I do have the text to it in German now, so that's cool). Matt joked that I was the first person to get him to go to church on a Saturday. Muahahaha. :)

That was pretty much all we did Saturday - we were both ready to just chill for the evening since we'd done so much walking! Actually, we did have to go to the store to get some food, so we schlepped over to Rewe. There is an apartment complex on the way that I finally decided to take a picture of.  I don't know if it's the color being so dated or if it's how simple it looks or what, but I can seriously picture this apartment building in particular being around during when Leipzig was part of East Germany.  One of those "if the walls could talk" kind of things that makes me wonder what sort of things might have happened in this building.

Sunday we had to go to the Hauptbahnhof to see if Matt's train was canceled again (it was) and then figure out a new way for him to get home, which actually worked out because he got a train that went straight to Düsseldorf without transferring at Hannover or Frankfurt.

We wandered around a little since I had been trying to find a store pretty much the whole time I'd been here without success (we ended up finding it). Saw two kinda cool things:

So colorful! It's the side of a building.

A memorial/statue for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - I think Matt said there are four in the world and three of them are in the USA. Don't quote me on that though. I'm kinda bad with facts sometimes.

So that was last weekend! It's weird to think I only have four days left at the hospital and then I'll be done...I'm working on my report that is basically what I've learned here and my impressions.  Friday I'll be packing/doing laundry and then Saturday it's off to Düsseldorf! Hopefully I'll be able to update maybe next Sunday or at some point in the near future! I should start having more interesting stories to tell you all as well, since I'll be around people and going out more and stuff. :)

Tschau!