Back to Adventuring!

Since we really wouldn't be doing anything today (Tuesday) Malane let me have the day off. I decided to make the most of this surprise holiday. I really wanted to go to the Neues Museum (where the Egyptian collection and Nefertiti's bust are housed) buuuuut turns out the Museum was closed for the day because of some construction. SO instead I headed over to the Berliner Dom to get some pictures from the top. Everyone had made a big deal about the amount of steps, but I blew it off (They couldn't be that bad!) As it turns out, they ARE that bad. Everybody including myself, was huffing and puffing by the end of it. Finally I made it and the view is absolutely amazing!

After then I decided to head over the East Side Gallery, which is the longest standing chunk of the Berlin Wall. It was made into an open air gallery a few years ago. Artists from all over the world were invited to paint/graffiti sections of the wall. It was fabulous and I ended up walking the length of it twice because it was so interesting.

Then I decided to head over to the Topography of Terror, which is a timeline of the war and events leading up to it in Berlin. It includes videos, audio recordings and lots of photographs. It's set up right next to a section of the Berlin Wall.

But first I got lost and wandered through Nikolaiviertel, which is a restored medieval village area with cute little shops and the Nikolaikirche.

After that and the Topography of Terror I hit up the mall, Alexa (which is a girl name not a mall name in my opinion) This place is huge its like 5 stories and full of hundreds of shops. I bought a nice fleecy jacket because It's crazy cold here for some reason. Even the locals are saying its not normal for it to be this chilly. And now I'm off to bed to get ready for another teacher day in the morning!

First Teacher Day!

Monday morning I got up early and headed into school for my first day! My cooperating teacher Malane, met me by my hostel to show me the easiest way to get to the school. This week is a preparation week so we didn't have to be in until 9:30 and the kids don't start coming until next week. I had a quick get to know you meeting The Head and a few other administrators and then we had a big meeting with all the staff from the three schools. I will be working in the Middle School (which is not the same as an American middle school. Its younger kids) After the meeting Malane gave me a tour of the school, which is small in comparison to most of the schools I've worked in. After that we attended a behavior management meeting. After the meeting, Malane was just going to be sitting around the classroom waiting for the electrician to come fix something so she let me go home. I went back to Wombats, my hostel, and took a needed nap. After that, I went exploring some more. I walked around and visited Hackescher Markt which is the really quaint area with shops and cafe's. I ate dinner at a Thai place (I had been craving it) and headed back to Wombats to turn in early. (One of my newer roommates found the amount of time I spend sleeping, disturbing. He asked me worriedly if I was sick. I told him I was a very busy person, and as a result, tired.)

Busy, Busy!!

I've got a few days to catch up on!

Well, Sunday I come downstairs on time and went on the walking tour that I missed the other day. Unfortunately it was raining on and off the whole time. Fortunately, I met some really cool people! Eemaam, a girl from India (though she goes to school in London) who was staying at the same hostel as me and Mark, form London who was staying at a nearby hostel. We walked together during the 3 1/2 hour walking tour which, because of our enthusiastic guide, turned into a 4 1/2 our walking tour.

We visited places like the Brandenburg Tor, the Holocaust Memorial (The rain seemed fitting here and I took some really poignant pictures), the unmarked site of Hitler's Bunker, one of the only Nazi buildings to survive to today, Checkpoint Charlie, the Square where thousands of books were burnt and now there is an empty bookshelf underground for all the books (there is a plexiglass window in the square for you to look down) and various other places. It was absolutely fascinating! While on the tour Eemaam, Mark and I decided to go one a pub crawl later that night.

So after the tour, which ended at like 4:30, we all went back to our hostels. I grabbed food and took a nap, annnnndddd overslept. Big surprise. So I threw on my clothes and quickly did my hair, etc. and ran downstairs. Thankfully Eemaam took a nap and woke up late too. We hurried to the coffeeshop to meet up with the pup crawl tour guide. While there we met Ramsey, also form London, and Hilary (the first other American i'd met so far). The guide then took us to the first place at around 8:45, which was this really cool bar with East Berlin paraphernalia all over the walls. We drank German beer and had some Jagermeister shots. The second bar was in the red light district and the guide told the boys in our group not to bother the prostitutes cause they all carry mace and they will use it. Here, Eemaam and I chatted with some guys from Argentina. The third bar was called Silberfisch; it was really small but fun. The fourth bar was called Zapata had a Latin band playing, which was great to dance to. We also ran into a really cool Australian who was on our pup crawl (I can't remember but I think his name was Ross?) There was the option of going to a club after this bar. Our guides only request was that we, "wear our sober faces" for the bouncer. This place was awesome! Matrix (the club) had a fairly large dance floor and an amazing DJ!! WHen we got there he was playing remixs of classic 90's songs like Spice Girls and Michael Jackson then the music evolved into current hits. I think we danced for like 2 hours straight. At about 3:30 we decided it would be best if we took a cab home. All six of us piled in the cab and annoyed the hell out of the cab driver on the way home.

More Adventures!

Today I woke up late annnnnd missed the tour I was going to go on. So I decided to try and figure out the S-bahn. I managed to find the correct train to get me to Tiergarten with only a few issues. I was going to walk through the Tiergarten park but as soon as I got off the train I was distracted by an antique market. As I was wondering through it (after I had just purchased a crepe for lunch) it began to pour. Since it had looked nice out earlier I did't have my umbrella or rain jacket with me. I got soaked again. That'll teach me....

So I headed back to the hostel to change into some dry clothes and ended up taking a little nap (Jetlag's a pain in the butt).

After my nap I went back out to Tiergarten and walked a ways through it. The park is absolutely beautiful with bikepaths and lakes and all kinds of trees and plants. I took a little detour and visited the Reichstag. I continued up the road and saw the Brandenburg Tor and stopped for a snack of Currywurst (which was delicious!).

My walk home took me in front of the Beriner Dom and Museums that I had visited yesterday. Today though, the Lustgarten (the grassy area right in front of them) was full of people and music. I stopped where a big group of people had gathered and watched a Peruvian dance group. Then there was some kind of announcement in German and all of a sudden these firebreathers come running out of the Altes Museum. This music starts up: Think tribal beats with whispering and chanting. An old lady in white carrying a loaf of bread and a whole bunch of half naked women under bubbles come walking down the stairs. Then these crazily dressed people on stilts start dancing about. There were all kinds of different outfits and body paint. (Go to my facebook for all the pics) The whole thing was quite strange but very interesting!

Soon after they disappeared, the German announcer comes on again with some long spiel involving the word "helicopter" a whole bunch. Everyone in the crown looks up as this helicopter flies overhead and drops millions of bookmark-sized pieces of paper. A lady next to me explained that on each piece of paper is a poem. Apparently Germans like poems because this helicopter dropped millions and millions of this paper. It came around like six times. The paper would flutter down and people were going crazy, laughing and snatching it out of the air. Even the adults were jumping all over; I was almost landed on twice. By the time the helicopter was done there were no papers on the ground, people were even jumping into bushes and shaking trees to get them. All around me people were comparing cards and reading poems. I managed to grab four, each with a different poem on it. I'm going to translate them tomorrow.

And then I walked the rest of the way home, and now I'm exhausted.

First adventures in Berlin!

My first day in Berlin I basically puttered miserably sleepy around the Wombats hostel lobby until lunch time, when I met Lillian. We grabbed lunch together and chatted. She lives in London now but is from Brazil. This past year she spent travelling all over Europe to Spain, and Greece, the Netherlands, etc.

After lunch, I was finally able to check into my room. I hurried upstairs where one of my roommates who was clad only in boxers (Stein from the Netherlands) showed me how the stupid lockers worked. I then took a loooong nap. After my nap I wandered around Berlin for a while (it was raining, I got soaked), ate dinner and fell back asleep.

Yesterday morning I decided to do some more exploring even though it was still drizzling. (Though first I had a very interesting chat with Jeffy the 50 year old black gay diva/photographer. He hinted that some of his shots are pornographic. I'm too scared to check out his website.) I first traveled to the TV Tower or Fernsehturm. Its this really high tower that gives you a 360 view of Berlin. From the top I was able to pick out the places I wanted to see that day.

Next I got horribly lost. But found my way back by following the tour buses.

I then went to the Berlin aquarium which was kinda small but interesting. The best parts were the mirror maze and the elevator that goes straight up through a fish tank. (Check out facebook for more pics!)

Then I wandered over to the Pergamon Museum to see things like the reconstructed Pergamon Alter and the Ishtar Gate as well as other old, interesting things. (Facebook for more pics)

Later, I had dinner with some of the teachers of BBS. They all seem like funny, interesting people and I'm really looking forward to Monday. My cooperating teacher rode the U-bahn with me to dinner, but since I left earlier than her I had to take it back by myself. SCARY!! Though with some pedestrian help I made it back in one piece.

I was then greeted by Rudi the (inebriated) Italian and a skivvy wearing couple canoodling on the bed. (Really, if you're staying in a five bed dorm there is no reason for two half naked people to be in the same bed. I'm pretty sure another of my roommates,Ivana, from Brussels, who is very conservative, was about to kill them.)

Airport Issues.....

Mom dropped me off at the Richmond airport early so I had an hour and a half to find my way to where I was supposed to be.

I checked my luggage and was going through security when, of course, the stopped the little scanner thing on my carry-on bag and called over the search lady AND security. Everyone stood my while I frantically tried to remember if I had packed a pair of nailclippers, or knife or something. Turns out the brush cleaner for my make-up kit was a liquid and wayyyyy over the oz. limit. Security lady gave me the evil eye. I quickly told her she could throw it away and thank goodness security didn't swoop in and drag me to some back room to interrogate.

The flight to JFK was uneventful, thought the lady next to me looked like she was going to puke the entire time.

Once at JFK I had a 6 hour layover until my flight to Berlin. Boring...

The flight to Germany was roughly 7 hours and not that bad. Although I still can't find a comfortable position to sleep. I got to Berlin and collected my luggage and then went to find a taxi.