Easy as Eins, Zwei, Drei …
WWII Memorial
Week two has been great! I really love this city. I have learned a little bit of conversational German, and can now count! It is a little bit easier to order things at restaurants and calculate how much things cost. I still cannot really follow the conversations that my host family has, but I can pick out a few words that I know.
On Monday, the other exchange students and I went to a near by mall for a shopping excursion. We all stick out pretty easily among the Europeans, so we decided we’d buy some new clothes in an attempt to fit in more. However, we strayed from this idea a bit when we just ended up buying some of the most ridiculous clothing that we could find, and parading around the mall. It was fun.
Statue of Alexander Humboldt
I’m starting to become closer with some of my host sister’s friends. Also this past Monday I went to a surprise birthday party, which was a lot of fun. We went swimming in her pool, which felt great because it has been pretty hot. Tuesday, I also went to see Slum Dog Millionaire with another friend of mine. It was in German, but I had seen it previously in the US, so I didn’t mind.
On Wednesday, our onsite coordinator took us to see the Hackescher Market, and the Jewish Synagogue, but first we went and had lunch at a really great Indian restaurant. In the town where I am from, we also have a pretty good Indian restaurant, however it is terrible compared to the one that we went to on Wednesday. The Synagogue was really interesting! It was completely destroyed after the Second World War, but it has been completely rebuilt since then. It has a really nice Jewish history museum dating back about 200 years. It was quite interesting.
The German History Museum
Today, my host father took me to see the German History Museum in Alexanderplatz. It had exhibits from the entire history of the nation, from the Germanic Tribes and the Holy Roman Empire, to the Unification of Germany. It was very interesting. They had all the uniforms and weapons of the soldiers that fought in all the wars. It also had a special exhibit on the year 1989, which is the year that the Berlin Wall fell. On our drive home, we stopped by a section of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. They had left a large chuck of it up because numerous people had drawn lots of art on to it. A lot of it was really cool political art from when the wall was still around. I got a ton of really great pictures!
I am starting to miss my family a little bit, but at the same time, this is an incredible experience. So I’m trying to enjoy every moment of it. It is a little difficult at times, but I’m keeping in touch with them as much as I can.
Great first weeks in Germany!
Art On The Berlin Wall Writing on the Berlin Wall
