8 weeks in and still being a professional tourist

Where oh where to begin???

It has been one week since I last posted and I have many experiences to share. I also had a bad day yesterday, and I kind of want to write about my feelings surrounding that as well...

Ok, I think chronological order is best for my brain. 

Last Friday I had a sore throat, so I decided to just stay in. It was my Italian friend's last day in Berlin, and she invited me to meet her for dinner, but I decided against it because I wasn't feeling well. Not too exciting...

Saturday was a big day! Anne and Sandro (Anne's boyfriend) came over for breakfast and then took me on a hop on/hop off Berlin City Tour. It was my birthday present in action! We rode a double-decker bus around Berlin and were even serenaded by the tour guide. We got off at a couple of stops to walk around, including at one point for cake in this glitzy restaurant near the TV tower at Alexanderplatz.

It was neat to learn some new facts about the city I have called home since mid-September.  While most of the site-seeing served as a review for me, the bus tour still managed to introduce me to a few new corners of Berlin that I would like to return to on my own to explore a bit further. Despite getting caught in the rain with only my little umbrella for the 3 of us to share, we had a good time :)

By the time Anne and Sandro dropped me back off at home, I only had one hour to join the pig party and get my things together for the zombie party. First the pig party: Lutz and Barbara had a bunch of their friends over for a big dinner party complete with a giant pig in a pan that must have been 4 feet long. This was the same group of friends we rode the draisine with (the bike thing on the railroad tracks...back on September 29).  The pig tasted soooo delicious, and it was fun to have so many people over at our place. It felt very homey and jolly!

BUT I couldn't stay long. Anne and Sandro came back to pick me up, and we headed to one of their friend's places to get zombified.  Let me explain. We were going to a club that was hosting a zombie-themed Halloween party, and the guy whose place we got ready at works at MaskWorld.com, which is some costume outlet, so he had all the blood. Anyway, we got dressed to impress, and then hopped on the train to meet more friends on our way to the club in Berlin. Anne and Sandro's friends looked AWESOME. Strangers at the train station were asking to take pictures with them! I think that is pretty unusual for Berlin where no one talks to people they don't know.

Let's just say the actual party left something to be desired. The venue was quite small for such a large-scale event. There was really only one dance floor, and the music was not so great for dancing. It was hot, crowded, and stuffy. I think it was a shame that the party guests obviously put a lot of effort into their costumes and make-up, but then it was too dark in the club to really see the details! Ah well, I think the best part of most nights out is getting ready with friends :)

So that was Saturday: bus tour, lots of pig, and zombies. Whew! I was exhausted by the end of it.

On Sunday, I went to Potsdam with my host family! Potsdam is the capital of Brandenburg, the state where we live. (In case you are confused, we live VERY close to Berlin. By the way, Berlin is a state AND a city. But we officially live in Brandenburg. Berlin is surrounded by Brandenburg. Check out the map.)

A little geography lesson never hurt anybody. Ok, so back to my Potsdam trip...

Potsdam is a beautiful old town with lots to see (castles, museums, etc.); unfortunately, I picked a bad season to visit because most of the beauty went into hiding for the winter :( Nevertheless, we went into a neat little museum of miniature figurines made of tin, observed the former king's castle from the outside, walked through the royal garden with its many [covered and therefore completely blocked from view] sandstone statues, and walked through the Dutch quarter, where the houses were built to reflect the architecture of Holland when a bunch of Dutch people came to live in Postdam to dry the land (historically, the Dutch are known for digging canals and such). Pictures!

One of my favorite moments from our Potsdam trip occurred just moments before our family picture (above) was captured. Lutz - who barely spoke any English when I arrived in Germany - actually asked a stranger IN ENGLISH to take our picture. He didn't notice he was speaking English until we pointed it out to him! Haha, Barbara thought it was hilarious that he spoke English to a fellow German without even realizing it. It made me smile :)

In the middle of our site-seeing, of course we had to stop for "Kaffee trinken" (for me this means drinking hot chocolate and eating delicious cake in the middle of the day for no reason). I love Kaffee trinken! That is probably one of the things I will miss most about this place. I seriously can't have enough sugar...

Potsdam is definitely a city I would like to visit again in the spring or summer when the statues are not hidden in boxes...Overall, it was a very nice outing with my host family, and I'm so thankful that they all dedicated their entire Sunday to showing me a city they have already seen (Barbara went to university in Potsdam!).

On Monday after school, I was back to being a tourist! I headed to West Berlin to visit a couple of attractions that I had either read about in my Lonely Planet Book (thank you Boe family!) or heard about from my host family/teacher/classmates...

First I had a delicious lunch that made me sort of miss working at Noodles & Co. (hey, it was fun most of the time! plus the 70% discount didn't hurt either...), and then I headed to a famous church that was destroyed during WWII and the ruins are currently being preserved as a memorial. I thought I was going to see an old bombed church in the middle of a city center.  Unfortunately, they are working on the church, and so the outside of it was covered for construction. I was a little bummed, but I was able to go inside a sanctuary that has been restored for holding worship services.

I then used a new app on my iPhone to find my way to Schloss Charlottenburg (another castle). I have seen so many castles in Germany, it's unreal! So, I took a city bus for the first time to get there. Now I have used nearly all of the available modes of public transportation here: train (city, regional, and the high-speed), underground, tram, and bus. I'm a master of getting around Berlin :)

Sad news: The castle and surrounding museums are closed on Mondays. Little did I know...Oh well, I took some pictures from the outside and hurried home before it got too dark. It was also raining. I really dislike being cold, and I dislike cold rain.

Alright, moving right along. Tuesday was Election Day! I volunteered to present to my class about the election system in the USA. Not to brag too much, but I was pretty proud of myself. Like my teacher said when I had finished, "To present on a complicated federal voting system is hard enough, but to do it in a foreign language?! You have my respect." :) I have come so far with my German! Next week I start level B1. If you are interested in learning more about my school or seeing pictures of the campus, you can watch a short video and further peruse the website here.

Tuesday night I was eager to see the results of the presidential election, but the 7-hour time difference meant the winner was announced in the middle of the night here. Fear not! I randomly woke up at 4:30am and watched the results unfold on my laptop until Obama was declared the winner at 5:25am. It was important to me to see the results live - I didn't want to feel like I missed out!

Which brings me up to Wednesday. Another big day! Lutz invited me to come along with him on one of his roadtrips for work, and we headed north to the Baltic Sea! (Yes, this means I skipped school.) Our first stop was the city of Stralsund. Another cute, old German city showcasing Gothic architecture complete with a harbor on the sea.

Did you see it? Did you spot him? Scroll up again...That is no ordinary bust of some old dead guy. I recognized him immediately, got really excited, pointed obxiously, and exclaimed "I know that guy!" King Gustav Adolph of Sweden - the guy my college was named after (Gustavus Adolphus College). I only walked by an identical bust every day for 4 years. I felt like I had transported back to St. Peter, MN for a second, and it was wonderful :)

It was quite cold and windy as we walked through the city of Stralsund, but we knew the trip would not be complete without eating some fresh fish. Lutz ordered us a couple of "Fischbrötchens" from a guy on a boat that had been made into a little food stand. I was surprised to find that the fish was cold! I don't think I have ever eaten just raw fish on a bread roll. I guess there's a first time for everything.

We then made our way to a fairly new museum on the harbor called the Ozeaneum.  This was definitely one of the nicest museums I have ever visited. The exhibitions covered the biology, chemistry, and geology of the world's oceans and included many interactive models as well as live marine organisms.  It really made me want to watch Finding Nemo again (for the 457th time).  

After the museum, it was time for Kaffee trinken - my favorite time of day! Lutz and I each enjoyed a scrumptious piece of cake and warm beverage before heading out to brave the cold and continue our walking tour of the city. Our final visit in Stralsund was to an old church. I REALLY like going inside old churches. I'm not religious, but there is something so peaceful and magnificent about the grandiose architecture, immaculate sculptures, and sky-high ceilings that I find very intriguing. I feel so safe inside a church. It's almost like I step into a different world. It's a wonderful space for reflection.

Did you know Germany has islands? I didn't. (Refer to the map above for a pictorial representation of their locations.) Germany's largest island,
Rügen, is just 3km from Stralsund, so we crossed the new bridge to
Rügen and then immediately turned around to head to our next destination. Now I can say I've been on a German island :)

Our second destination for the daytrip was Greifswald - another city on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It was dark by the time of our arrival (another thing I dislike - when Daylight Savings Time ends), and I walked through a street of shops while Lutz had some quick appointments for his job. We braved the cold and rain for just a bit longer as we walked along the harbor and to the end of the peninsula (which German's call a "half island"), then had dinner at a nice restaurant near the water. Of course we had more seafood! I had a spinach cream soup with tiny shrimps and then a main course of pasta with salmon. Yum!

Needless to say, I was tired and slept most of the drive home. We arrived back home just before 9:00, and I went straight to bed. I couldn't stay awake at night if my life depended on it. That's just me. Take it or leave it.

Thursday: My bad day.  I can't put my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I was an emotional wreck.  It started during my first class at school. The teacher began the class by attempting to engage us in a discussion about the financial crisis in Europe and borrowing money from the government and reading a text about the political history of Germany after WWII, and I just wasn't picking up on anything. I felt like I had forgotten all German.  My teacher made a comment about how we all need to study our vocabulary more (after I couldn't think of the word for "Constitution"), and then he took away my iPad when I tried to search for a word's definition (a perfectly normal thing to do when you're learning a language, yet the teachers here hate it). Anyway, it really wasn't anything out of the ordinary - all of that has happened before - but yesterday I had had enough. I missed home. I wanted to quit school, pack my things, admit that I wasn't as adventuresome as I thought, and take the next flight home. I was on the verge of tears, so I just walked out of the classroom and didn't go back until after the class was over. I hid out in the bathroom until the motion-detecting lights left me in the dark, and then I went to the computer lab on campus to write some emails to a few friends. I didn't even go to my second class; I just went home. I felt stuck and lonely and sad. I wondered what I was doing here and then started contemplating my future - where I wanted to be, who I wanted to be with, what I wanted to do - that all can be quite overwhelming (especially on a bad day). I missed the comfort and familiarity of home. I missed the good ol' days of being a worry-free child. I missed my time as a college student at Gustavus. I missed my comfortable living situations in Mankato. Most of all, I missed being around people who know me. Like, REALLY know me for who I am. I still don't feel like I have any real friends here, and that can bring me down some days. Whenever I am sad, I seem to think about things that make me even more sad. Things that I can never change, like the deaths of my mom and Alec. I was just digging myself into a dark hole that seemed insurmountable. I could barely hold back my tears at dinner. Thankfully, my host family didn't make a big deal out of it and tried their best to make me feel relaxed. I also was lucky to receive a few nice messages from family members I hadn't heard from in months, and I talked to my Dad. That was really nice, but made me miss home even more. My dad reminded me that I can do anything, and I'm not the kind of person who gives up. He is right.

I am feeling better today. I was back to my normal self in my classes and then hit the gym before coming home for what I hope will be a relaxing weekend. Tomorrow I think I am going to visit the site of an old concentration camp. I also plan to stay busy with studying and planning my upcoming trip to London.

Thank you for reading :)

Measure your life in love.