Daily Diary July 6-7

July 6, 2013

Late into the morning, I woke up to the sun shining through my 4^th floor window at the hostel. This was our last full day in Berlin, and I wanted to make the most of it. Roxana and I had been talking about going to Potsdam, so I mustered up my strength, knocked on her door (possibly waking her up), and we headed out on the S7 train. We used the U-bahn map that Julie had given us along with our metro passes which indicated that the S7 terminated at Potsdam hbf. To our surprise, the train terminated at Wannsee, 3 stops before our destination. The metro routes had changed since the publication of the map we were holding (Feb.  2013) and the new map at the station (May 2013) showed us that we merely had to hop on the S1 to get to Potsdam.

Once there we had no trouble finding the stand where we were able to rent bikes, which was conveniently located on the platform. There were only three bikes left – if we had arrived any later there may not have been any more. We navigated our way through the station, taking some of the slowest elevators known to man, and bought a town map at the tourist information booth.

We ended up not referring to the map very often because Potsdam has maps on the street and very useful signs pointing us in the direction of the main attractions. The first stop was St. Nicholas’ church, whose tall dome was visible from the train station. Roxana observed that the edifice looked surprisingly clean for having being built in the classical period. It turned out the church was in the process of being renovated, and consequently the inside was not as impressive as the exterior.

Next we headed to Schloss Sanssouci, the main reason for our visit. We entered from the outskirts of the park, and every step into the park was more breathtaking than the last. The main palace area was closed to bikes, and in an attempt to find an alternate route we came across a family of swans chilling by a lake. There were a few ugly ducklings that were actually not very ugly, but rather fluffy looking and larger than ducks. In my attempt to get close up video and pictures I was almost chased by one of the parent swans but survived unharmed thanks to Roxana’s warning.

The bike route happened to be on the other side of the entrance, but failing to consult our map, we locked up our bikes with some difficulty (we were only given one lock for both bikes) and headed into the gardens on foot. The gardens were very symmetrically laid out, and it seemed to be the peak season for flowers. Tiered gates adorned with ivy decorated the path up to Schloss Sanssouci, which stood magnificently on the top of a hill. In front was a fountain surrounded by white statues where people relieved themselves from the heat by the misty fountain spray. We made our way up to the palace and marveled at its beauty. San souci, meaning without care, was the summer palace of Frederick the Great and was decorated according to the rococo style which followed the baroque period. The interior décor of this time period were works of art, breaking free of the strict regulations defining the baroque style. We were eager to visit the inside of the palace, but the tours were sold out for a couple of hours so we decided to purchase the last time slot at 17:30 and explore other places first.

We headed off to the city center and had a nice German salad whilst sitting in the shade on Brandenburg Straβe. From the restaurant we could see the Brandenburg Gate (Potsdam’s, not Berlin’s) and a clock tower. With our stomach’s content, we hopped on our bikes again and biked through Sanssouci park, this time finding the correct route. The park looked large on a map, but it was much more manageable on a bike and we were able to see all of the main attractions.

Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate

 In front of the New Palace

 New Palace

 Chinese House

Orangery

We finally made it back to Schloss Sanssouci and ate ice cream bars before heading to our tour. Though Sanssouci is of a modest size (for a palace), the interior décor did not disappoint. Every room was ornately decorated with chandeliers, paintings, sculptures, etc. and I was only half listening to the audio guide because my energy was focused on observing every little detail of every room. My personal favorite was the concert room, where there was a gilded spider web on the ceiling centered on where the chandelier hung down from. Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the rooms because I did not pay the 3 euros for a photo permit. 

After returning to Berlin I grabbed a Döner Kebap for dinner with Tarra and ate while sitting on the bridge. Then I packed up most of my belongings and headed to Amar’s, the Indian restaurant we had visited frequently and come to love. We had a lovely evening wrapping up our stay in Berlin and were treated to complimentary drinks.

July 7, 2013

Today was our last day in Berlin. After checking out of the hostel, Stephanie, Lynn, and I went to the Ostbahnof train station and reserved tickets for our post program travels. The woman helping us did not speak very much English but we were able to communicate by her speaking German to us and us responding in English. She was very patient and helped us for the better part of half an hour.

We headed back to Die Fabrik to have lunch. Lynn had been raving about Die Fabrik Café’s meatloaf (read her daily diary) and so as our last meal in Berlin the chef made us a special order, as they were still serving breakfast. Even with high expectations the food was absolutely delicious. At the end of our meal we snapped a photo with Ostana, one of the waitresses we had gotten to know. She invited us to friend her on facebook and offered to show us around Berlin if we ever came back. 

We still had an hour to kill before heading to the airport so Lynn and I went to Fuhrpark to sit in the sun instead of in the hostel lobby. We returned after 15 minutes because we could feel our skin starting to burn.

Fuhrpark

Julie, Edgar, and Manuela arrived at the hostel and we gave Manuela a card signed by everyone in the program. Manuela escorted us to the train station and we had a bittersweet goodbye with her. She made our stay in Berlin so wonderful and we will miss her a lot.

The flight over to Madrid was fairly smooth with a bit of turbulence and we arrived a half hour earlier than anticipated. No one’s luggage got lost, though Edgar did experience some trouble with his suitcase which did not roll. After two transfers and some wandering, we finally found our hostel and tripled up into rooms. Most of the rooms only had two beds but one room had three singles which the guys gladly took. Exhausted from the day’s travel, everyone grabbed dinner and headed to bed.

Daily Diary July 4th-5th: James Pabiniak

When I saw that I was assigned to cover the 4^th and the 5^th of July, I knew I would be responsible for covering our celebration of the most American holiday. On the morning of the fourth, we visited the headquarters of a Turkish soccer club. It was particularly relevant for me as my topic is about sports, specifically racism in soccer. It was fascinating and captivating to hear about the club’s history and how they were constantly abused because of their race, from both fans and referees alike. A girl who played for the club’s (the name of the organization is Turkiyemspor) youth team showed us a great place to get kebabs, which are particularly delicious street food and are a specialty of the neighborhood where the club is located.

After lunch we went to the law office of a manwho offered free legal consultations, as well as German classes, to local refugees. There was a refugee camp nearby, and it was surprising to see the society that had been constructed in the local park. The people in the law office were some of the kindest we had met while on this trip. They not only got us coffee and water, but when they saw they didn’t have any snacks rushed out to the store to buy us all popsicles. The talk illuminated several of the issues that faced refugees today, particularly how hard it is for people to come into Europe from other countries today. After the Second World War, Germany accepted almost all refugees, in the recent years they have adopted a much stricter policy which makes it hard for people to start new lives in countries such as Germany.

It was a bittersweet evening as we searched for an American restaurant in the middle of Europe. With the nearest burger restaurant, Burgersteig, being too small to seat our group, we went to an Indian restaurant where we were graciously treated to free drinks and discounted food. Although we initially felt sad about missing fireworks, we met other Americans who wallowed with us, and we were filled in on all the action through social media.

The next day was free until, and most people chose to catch up on sleep and news from back home. I personally went to a museum, the Topography of Terror. The museum was free to enter and was based in the old SS headquarters. It detailed the Nazi rise to power, and had an overwhelming amount of information on how Hitler grasped control of Germany. When I finished at the Museum, it was time to meet for dinner and we were treated to a delicious meal at a very cute and classy restaurant. Here we were informed about everything we needed to know about our impending trip to Spain. After dinner we retired back to the hostel and almost everyone fell asleep to end a tiring week. 

Daily Diary: July 2nd & 3rd

Two more eventful days have passed by and our time in Berlin is drawing to a close — it's hard to believe our program is close to halfway done. I have mixed feelings, because I'm just getting to know Berlin and would love to explore more...but at the same time, my excitement for visiting and learning in Spain is increasing by the second!

Dienstag (Tuesday), 2 Juli

We had a leisurely start to the morning and met together at Die Fabrik at 1:00pm. Many of us headed to our next-door cafe for a "milch kaffee," croissant, pastry, or fruit cup for breakfast. I spent the morning catching up on some reading, updating my blog, and trying in vain to get our Internet connection to work long enough to download some articles for my research, before venturing out for lunch near our hostel.

At 13:00 (getting used to European timekeeping!), our group met with our guest speaker Alex Valentino, who spent some time informing us about the situation of the Roma population in Berlin. Then, we headed southeast for the neighboring district of Neukölln to visit a Roma dwelling. Alex told us about the generally undesirable living conditions that these people have to adjust to, and that in general, these immigrants don't feel comfortable going to the police even in the face of injustice. It was interesting for our group to hear about the experience of a group of people we haven't yet had much exposure to. The complex we visited housed around 500 Roma immigrants (!!) and there were lots of people out and about, particularly children, when we walked through. The adults viewed us skeptically at first — unfamiliar visitors are generally dealt with cautiously, we were later informed. In the end, we ended up learning a lot about this underserved group of people. Plus, it was very interesting to explore a new area of Berlin. We were told Neukölln was a poorer district, and it definitely opened our eyes to how different the various areas of this massive city are. (Quick comparison: Seattle's population is about 621,000 while Berlin's is 3.5 million.)

The sun bursting out of the clouds created a very cool effect on the
incredible mural in the middle of the Roma dwelling!

Students looking around the dwelling.
500 Roma people live here.

Interacting with the adorable and friendly children!

Jessica made a new friend in Neukölln!

Afterward, we branched out for group research meetings and interviews, and some of us came together later for a viewing of the movie The Lives of Others in our classroom at Humboldt. It was a very well-done film and despite being in German with subtitles, it captivated my attention the entire time. I really enjoyed gaining another perspective into life in Germany in the Cold War era through a different medium.

Watch this movie!

Mittwoch (Wednesday), 3 Juli

Craving something a little more substantial for breakfast, a couple fellow students and I ventured out for omelettes on Wednesday morning. They were delicious! Plus, our friend/Berlin guide/recent UW grad, Stephanie Hare, taught us a few more words and we were fairly successful in ordering in German. With a successful start to the day under our belts, we headed for the U-Bahn.

Our omelettes only cost 2,50 euros! Great start to the morning.

Metro travel is old hat for us by now, although some of us still get a little flustered when the plainclothes officers spring to life to check our tickets :-)

As a group, we went north today to Prenzlauer Berg. We walked to the Waffel Haus to meet one of our guest speakers for the day, Thabo Thindi. Thabo is from South Africa but has lived in Berlin for about five years, and his presentation was an engaging mix of music, film, photography, and personal anecdotes. My favorite quotes from him:
"Everybody has a story and everybody IS a story."
"The street ... is my university."
He spoke about the often impersonal interactions of daily life, particularly with the homeless population. For example, many people either pass by those living on the street or simply toss them a few euros without even looking them in the face. Thabo focused on getting to know these people by photographing them for his project, "Faces of Berlin," and doing something simple like asking how their day was going. I found his talk very interesting and relevant, and I'm hoping to use some of his examples and findings in my final research project, which focuses on perceptions of homelessness. 

Settling in for our guest speaker,
Thabo Thindi

Fun wallpaper in the Waffel Haus!

Some people stayed at the Waffel Haus for lunch, and others ventured out to see more of Prenzlauer Berg. Tarra and I ended up making our way to a Thai place and compared our impressions to Seattle's version. It made us feel kind of at home, where every other restaurant on the Ave is a Thai restaurant! Conclusion: fairly similar, although here they aren't as heavy on the peanut sauce in the phad thai. All in all, very delicious! Observation from this and many other meals: people here simply do not drink as much. I had to carefully ration out my 0,2 L Cola to last my entire meal!

Beautiful Tarra with beautiful Thai food —
complete with a carrot sculpted into a flower!

Kira and I later stopped by a cafe on our way to Humboldt for some gelato —
the friendly guy behind the counter gave us samples of about half of these!
Delicious.

We ended our day together at Humboldt with one more guest speaker, Claire Waffel (pun intended?), a visual artist. It was interesting to have these two guest speakers in the same day, because while they are both artists, each person interprets the word very differently. Claire specializes in photography and art education, and she showed us some projects her students have worked on as well as some of her own. She spoke about the challenge of incorporating art into the classroom, but that it is also very rewarding for both student and teacher in the end. To read and learn more about Claire and her work, visit her website at http://www.clairewaffel.com/.


What has struck me about a great number of our guest lecturers is that nearly every one of them apologizes in advance for their "broken" English — but on the contrary, they have all impressed me with their English abilities! What's more, this is often their third or fourth or fifth language. I like to think I'm semi-fluent in Spanish, and I don't think our lecturers have been giving themselves enough credit.

This concludes my daily diaries! Tomorrow is 4th of July, so we might have to seek out some American food or get together as a group for a mini celebration :-)

Tschüss!!

Daily Diary: June 30th and July 1st

This was our first free weekend in Berlin and for me, a very restful one.
Everyone split up and did their own research and exploring. Some people checked out Museum Island, others watched the Spain v. Brasil soccer match or returned to Alexanderplatz for some shopping. The fire alarm went off at Die Fabrik and it took the firemen and polizei about half an hour to figure out how to turn it off (apparently it was a glitch in the system). Those of us who sought refuge from the noise in the cafe received drinks on the house. I also decided to have dinner there and they have an awesome meatloaf with potatoes and eggs...but I digress.

I used the weekend walk around Berlin and try and find some interesting street art and graffiti, which is literally everywhere. I don't even know if I remember seeing a blank wall during my walk. There were a lot of political messages in the graffiti: I found quite a few pieces that referred to Marxism and revolution. I noticed a lot of distinct tags, for example, the pig that I have attached on this post. Artists paint these small pictures all over the city to mark their territory, it seems. There was also a lot of pieces that I would call art, not graffiti. A lot of these pieces were huge and elaborate and it seemed like they were commissioned. The dead animals on the wall were done by a Belgian street artist known as Roa. He has pieces in the same style of animals all over Berlin. "Roa is reflecting the life in his works, the death is an inseparable part of life and the only certain thing in it."
http://www.streetartbln.com/blog/murals-by-street-artist-roa-in-berlin/#more-1055
 I think it's really interesting to find out more about the artists and the messages that they are trying to convey with their works, but I also think it takes away a bit of the mystery and the beauty of the art itself.

Other than that, I checked out a model search fashion show at Alexanderplatz for Elite Model Management and had schnitzel for dinner one night (at the place near the Warshauer Strasse station), which was wonderful.

Besides the gloomy weather, I think this weekend was a good one for all of us, whether we were resting, exploring, or researching for our project.
I've attached some pictures below!

c

German News in English - Resources

Der Spiegel International on-line in English:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/

Press Europe (Frankfurt)
Founded in 1949, this major conservative-liberal daily is a reference tool in business circles and among intellectuals, who appreciate its literary supplement, Feuilleton. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or FAZfor short, is the German daily with the widest circulation abroad and one of the world’s largest networks of correspondents, which makes it by and large independent from the press agencies. One historical peculiarity: the paper wouldn’t run photographs on the front page till 2007. Read more... 

Germany's international broadcaster (DW)

DW represents Germany in the international media landscape. Germany’s international broadcaster conveys the country as a nation rooted in European culture and as a liberal, democratic state based on the rule of law.

As part of its statutory mission, DW works independently to present events and developments in Germany and the world and picks up on German and other points of view on important issues. It promotes exchange and understanding between the world's cultures and people. Deutsche Welle also provides access to the German language, the daily life and the mentality of the people. Read more.... http://www.dw.de/germanys-international-broadcaster/a-15703993

Current News of DW: http://www.dw.de/

Youth Unemployment NGO on FACEBOOK

Youth Unemployment

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

Interested in European policies concerning youth, employment, internships,
non-formal education, entrepreneurship, mobility 
Visit on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/youthunemployment?ref=ts&fref=ts

Daily Diary June 28 & 29

Our first Friday as a group was a very long day of three lectures. After our final breakfast at Die Fabrik, we took our usual S-Bahn route to Humboldt for our 10 o’clock lecture. Dr. Viola B. Georgi spoke about how history is taught in multicultural classrooms. It was interesting to discuss how history is personal: through living it, learning about, or caring about it. I could relate to the quotes by students who found it hard to care about history that does not represent their own narrative. We had a lunch break on our own, and then reconvened for our second guest lecture. Dr. Reinhadt Isensee, of the Humboldt American Studies department, talked to us about the German education system. He explained the system of gymnasiums, including his own perspective as a parent, as well as the differences between German and American universities. He also invited us to attend his classes, one of which is called “The World According to Disney and Pixar” and needs to be offered at the UW in my opinion. Our final lecture was from Rainer Ohliger. We started with group activity in which we learned that American students are impatient, self-absorbed, entitled, and interested in technology and sports while Europeans students are intelligent, fashionable, multilingual, independent, and culture. Obviously our group of wonderful people is an exception to the stereotypes. He then talked about youth unemployment around Europe. Unfortunately the day had worn down our attention spans, but we made it through and all headed back to the hostel around 6pm for a dinner and a nap before our free evening.

Saturday was a free day and most of us slept in. A few adventurous souls however, left at 7 am for a day trip to Poland. I spent the day exploring Tiergarten, German for animal garden, with Jessica. The park is in central Berlin and spans 520 acres. We took shelter at the Victory Column during a short burst of rain which unfortunately made our pictures less than impressive. The column, built in the late 19^th century, marks the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War.
 

On our way back to the Bahn, we discovered a playground that would not have been allowed in the United States. In addition to the usual swings and slide, there was a zip line, a stand-up see-saw, a trampoline, and a very tall climbing structure.   

 

In the evening, most of the group met up for a boat tour on the Spree River. It was still a bit chilly so we had the boat almost to ourselves. We were able to see a lot of Berlin’s main sights and landmarks.

We split up again for dinner, but the common desire was for a warm, sit down dinner, so many of us headed for the Indian restaurant near our hostel. We all headed to our warm beds, hoping for a warmer end to our weekend and looking forward to next week.