The Weekend

I don't have any big plans for the weekend other than hopefully getting over the jet lag. Today I woke up at 2 pm, and I headed out around 3. I'm going to walk to Dussmann's bookstore, which is the largest bookstore I've ever been in, just to browse some of the books on my M.A. reading list (and possibly purchase some...). I'll also be on my lookout for a farmstand selling strawberries--my mom found me a recipe for strawberry and goat cheese bruschetta, and I want to try it out. Other than that, I think I'll walk around my old neighborhood, which is just a block north of where my apartment is, and see if there are any new cafes or shops. Ok, well I am running out of time at the internet cafe, so I think I will post this, then head out!

I hate flying, but I love Berlin

So I got to Berlin around noon today, and it is almost 7 pm right now... My first flight was awful... Air Iberia has the most ghetto airplanes I have ever seen. It must have been 90 degrees on the plane, and there were no little individual vent things like the second plane had. So I kept feeling like I was having hot flashes and was pretty miserable. I think this one guy a few rows up was staring at me because I was so sweaty. And then the Spanish people are all wearing leather jackets and peacoats... ugh. My boarding pass for my connecting flight in Madrid lied to me, and sent me to the entirely wrong terminal, but thankfully I found out the mistake in time because I had to take a freaking TRAIN to get to the right place! And then on my second horrible Air Iberia flight they played some muzak including something from the Kenny G Christmas album (I know--my parents own it).

Once I finally got to Berlin I went to get coffee and a danish to eat, since we had to pay for food on the second flight (and since the free food on the longer flight didn't tempt me) I hadn't eaten in a while. And I take the coffee and my change, but leave the pastry--omg, jet lag is clouding my cognitive functioning. The rest of the day was filled with meeting the former tenant of my apartment (which is very nice and in the most awesomest neighborhood ever) who handed the keys over to me, then unpacking, grocery shopping, almost falling asleep, eating some Rote Grütze (a kind of berry mixture with vanilla sauce, omg yum and semi-healthy), then I walked about 45 minutes to Alexanderplatz to use the internet, look into a monthly transportation pass, and to figure out my cell phone situation. I had a cell phone from Austria, but apparently if I put a German SIM card in it, it might have locked up forever, so instead I bought a new phone for a mere 10 euros... I think that is pretty awesome, no matter how crappy the phone is.

Well, I am not sure what else there is to tell about my first day, other than I went about it in a daze since I am so tired. So I think I will take the U2 (subway line) back to my apartment and get to bed.

More Procrastination

Since I'm really not in the mood to write my paper still (although it's due at 5 pm tomorrow), I thought I'd do another posting.  So another one of my favorite things about Berlin is the very creative graffiti, such as this masterpiece.   I did a great presentation for my art history class during my year abroad on graffiti.  When you are there long enough, you get to know the graffiti artists.  There was one guy who did a series of pasted on drawings of this blonde guy who kept getting into household accidents.  And there are dozens of bananas around an area with a lot of art galleries. It's really so creative.  And it goes all the way back to political protests against the Berlin Wall (only on the western side of course).  The one day I skipped class in Berlin (I had to leave early to go see Franz Ferdinand in concert, so I didn't want to preten to get sick halfway through my second class to make it there on time) I actually went to the largest standing section of the Berlin Wall, and it had a really big impact on me.  Mostly because I realized that this was how I was spending the only day I'd ever skipped school--I still wanted to learn about Germany, to gain some insight that I couldn't come by in the classroom.  I really hope I have some moments like that again this June, to remind myself why I am putting myself through the stress of getting a PhD at Harvard--out of love for the German people, German culture, and German history.  

Fifteen Days and Counting

I should be writing my last final paper on the film Lebenszeichen by Werner Herzog, but I thought I'd set up this blog that I plan to be using during my trip to Berlin.  Most of the month I will be taking an advanced German course at the Goethe Institut, but that's only 4 hours a day, so the rest of the time, the hope is I'll be doing something interesting that other people might also be interested in.  Berlin is a great city, with outdoor "beach bars" complete with sand along the river, an indoor "beach bar" complete with sand a few blocks from the apartment I'll be living in, and if I get sick of fake alchohol-themed beaches, they have a real one just a few miles to the southwest on Wannsee.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting the city again!