A few weeks ago I went on an awesome six-hour tour of Potsdam with my mom and a couple other flight attendants. My tour guide was a very outgoing dude from Missouri. I had been to Potsdam before, but only to Sanssouci and its grounds. On this tour, we went all around town and saw where the Potsdam Conference took place and where the Berlin Wall used to separate Potsdam from West Berlin. I'm hoping to go back when it's warmer and maybe take a boat ride and go to the beach (this time we didn't see any of the infamous FKK (naked) people, (un)fortunately). It's funny, because the next time my mom was here (this past weekend actually), we went to the museum under the Jewish Holocaust memorial, and who did we see but our favorite tour guide Missouri? Gosh, Berlin is a small place.
The tour guide in front of Potsdam's very own Arc de Triomphe-like thing. Wish I captured his incredibly tight jeans and funny stance and arm movements in this picture.
My mother crossing the threshold into some church? Although we Black women are tall, this was quite a low entrance.
A memorial to people who unsuccessfully tried to defect to West Berlin by crossing the water. Technically the dividing line was in the middle of the water, but they put the Wall on the Potsdam side.
Site of the Potsdam Conference. It was held in this huge, gorgeous English manor. The Soviets left a nice present for the Americans, British, and French--a red star made out of flowers, which you can sorta see here.In honor of Leap Day, I hosted a little party at my place. It didn't even come close to matching the usual Berlin student parties, primarily because my apartment is so small that I didn't bother to invite more than 10 people. It was still good to hang out with some friends without having to leave my apartment! And a friend of mine was staying with me for a few nights before moving into her own place--she is doing the Bundestag internship here in Berlin. Lived across the hall from me in Mass Hall way back in the day. I think she makes the seventh person I've had stay with me since moving to Berlin! And I'm still expecting more visitors!
Jenny, my Harvard friend, and Ashraf, my Yemeni friend
My American friends Susana, Calvin, and Jim, and my tandem partner, Sandra
Another American friend, Briana, my Russian/German friend Konstantin (coolest name ever, not cool to be reading Newsweek at a party), and me(I don't just have American friends, but sometimes it's nice to be able to have good English conversation!)
About this past weekend--On Friday I went to the movies with the 11th-graders, who you would think would be mature, but because they are the babies at my school, they act like it. My goodness, I never want to go to the movies with them again! I had already taken another group to the movies before, and they behaved wonderfully. Perhaps because the entire 11th grade came, and especially because the movie was the incredibly weird Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There," they went crazy. They talked throughout the movie, laughed and yelled at each other, and stood up 10 minutes before the movie was over, thus causing me to miss the whole end. But what a terrible movie to take high-schoolers whose English isn't that good to. I mean, I didn't even get what was going on, and they have barely even heard of Bob Dylan before. Friday night some of my 13th-grade students and I went to the theater to see "Endstation Sehnsucht," which is "A Streetcard Named Desire" in German. We had read the play--perfect timing that it is going on in Berlin right now. The man playing Stanley (Marlon Brando for those of you who have seen the movie) was Ben Becker, a really famous German actor. It was great to see the play after reading it--it just felt fulfilling and I know my students enjoyed relating what they had read in English to the German stage version. I think a lot of them were kinda surprised that I could understand it--many still don't know that I speak German--and it's cool that they always speak English to me, even outside of school. Makes the teacher in me happy!
On Saturday I went to the museum below the Holocaust Memorial and also saw 27 Dresses with my mother. Did not expect the movie to be that good, but I actually really liked it a lot! I recommend it when you want something light-hearted but not horrendously cheesy or girlie.
Last night was one of those nights you just relish. It was a friend's birthday, and beside going out to a great restaurant and eating cake and drinking champagne at her host family's apartment (ok, I watched people eat cake, thanks to Lent), we hung out in this grungy cellar listening to what was described to me as a country-rock band. Pretty much the best music ever--Johnny Cash and Carter Family covers. The Carter Family songs were all Christian-themed ("Keep on the Sunny Side" was their best cover), and despite the band making fun of that ("I'm the devil, exorcise me!"), I really appreciated it. I don't know if the birthday girl herself would have chosen the venue, but at least I was joined by like three other people in my enthusiasm for the group. Also had some great conversation with Americans I hadn't met before, two German friends of the birthday girl, and a random Spanish guy who was born in the U.S. and has lived in Germany the past seven years and thus has no accent in either English or German (so jealous!). One of those situations that really confirms how much better my German has gotten, since I could talk about everything from politics to music to religion in German. However, I unfortunately could barely say anything in Spanish without automatically reverting into English, which is incredibly sad considering that my German at its best is still not as good as my Spanish at its best. Anyway, when I got into bed at 4:30 AM, smelling like smoke (what smoking ban?), I was thinking how it is these random experiences that really make my time here worth it. I just can't see myself having done that back in the U.S.--going out with a bunch of people I don't know at all and meeting random people and going to random bars and random concerts. Definitely seems to be a typisch Berlin activity though! Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures, but here's one of the happy birthday girl:
We took a lot of pictures of stuff at the restaurant, including the snazzy glasses. There was a budding restaurateur in our midst, and he analyzed the menus, silverware, bathroom, everything. I now know what it's like when I talk too much about linguistics.A couple other random things:
Anna, my friend from Harvard, me, and Yumi, my friend from Japan
My tandem partner driving a Trabant ("Trabi") at the DDR Museum, which provides a fascinating look at life in the GDR. Sandra actually was about 13 or so when the Wall fell, so she really experienced life in the DDR. Her family actually had a Trabi, like most East German families. Average of 19ish years to get one!
This is a typical GDR living room. The great thing about the DDR Museum is that everything is hands-on--and there are so many authentic items, like this entire living room. Definitely glad apartments no longer look like this here (well, for the most part).
While Yumi and I were taking pictures in front of this Berlinale sign, these two guys from a German tv station made us pose for a really long time for their video camera. Wonder if I was on a German tv show?
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