Day 4-5

The last couple of days have been busy doing museum interviews and observations. Last night I saw the Sex and the City 2 movie, my response is hmmmm...It was a feast for the eyes, but the lines were a tad corny. Sorry! I love Sex and the City and was a bit disappointed. Maybe I need to see it again and give it another try. Parts were really great but the karaoke scene was way dorky.

Anyways I am leaving at 5:30 am for Prague just for the day. A 4 hour train ride each way, but I think totally worth it. I will be safe and I am traveling with another girl from the program.

love
Leah

Day 3-Berlin

Why does one whisper when they speak another language they don’t really know? I know all of you have done it before. I have been cracking myself up while in Berlin because even though I know the German words for please, thank you, and your welcome, it never fails that every time I have to use one of these words I end up whispering it at the person, so they never hear it. I must seem like a rude American. I guess I just have foreign language stage freight. When Paul and I were in Italy 3 years ago we would do they same thing and we laughed about it all the time.

Anyways, yesterday was the Cold War Tour. We had a fabulous tour guide who was quite the academic and highly knowledgeable about the history of Berlin. We were able to see the Berlin Wall and the display of the death strip. I was in awe at the stories he told and how horrible it must have been for the people living in East Berlin that were willing to risk death to leave the communist reign.

I saw a poster for Rammstein (some heavy hard core German rock group that my husband likes) and they had a concert last night. I wanted to go just to make Paul proud but we couldn’t figure out where it was-sorry honey. I can only imagine how scary the concert would have been.

The city is very beautiful. The architecture is amazing-lots of neoclassical, baroque, modern, it is a fun mix of styles, but somehow it goes together nicely.

Today we had to do one of 4 museum observations. It was a lot of work. We were at the New National Gallery for over 4 hours. The Gallery is interesting. Meis Van Der Roe designed it, kind of like Frank Lloyed Wright style. The gallery is very modern art with different colored walls for different exhibits and lots of propoganda art pushing an ideal and very political. I found it fascinating and thought provoking.

I also got to go to the KaDeWe which is the Harrod’s of Berlin (think the fanciest department store you have ever seen.) It was fun but I couldn’t afford a single thing. We also went to the Berlin Philharmonic and saw an amazing concert of Handel’s Water Music (I think that is what it was called---it was in German, sorry Mom I know you will be disappointed that I don’t know what stuff Handel did). I was so tired from the past few days that I kept nodding off, the music was so beautiful that it was putting me to sleep.

I am off to bed now. I am exhausted- a big day ahead tomorrow. We have a tour of Museum Island and another museum observation.

Love

Leah

Day 1 and 2 in Berlin

Check out my photos so far.

http://picasaweb.google.com/leahstone17/BerlinDay1CityBusTour#

Today is Monday, May 24, 2010. I arrived in Berlin yesterday at 8:20 am and after a short taxi ride, made it to the Hotel Ansbach around 9:00 am. Sadly I didn’t pack a pillow and a memory foam pad (J) as the bed really sucks. It rock hard and our pillow consists of a wad of sheets folded in half. I don’t think the bed has bed bugs though (at least I hope). At least I didn’t wake up with any bug bites. I have experience bed bugs before, at a convent in Italy, and it was disgusting.

After unpacking our bags and a much-needed shower, my roommate Stella and I went down for a free continental breakfast. It seemed a bit disgusting that cod and salami was served for breakfast, but Iuckily there was other options like cheese, yogurt, and cereal.

After breakfast I went for a walk and took lots of pictures and my roommate went to the room for a nap. I followed suit a little later. At 4:45 pm the whole group met up at the hotel lobby to take a bus tour of the city. It was so fascinating. Our tour guide was this cute German guy with a hot accent so I paid extra attention. I sat in the front of the bus so I wouldn’t get motion sick and so I had a great view of the city. We drove all around East and West Berlin. We drove past the Berlin Wall for just a quick second, and later we will go back again. Seeing the wall really amazed me and brought up emotions of sadness and wonderment of what it must have been like to have lived when the wall was up. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Island and a million beautiful buildings. I am really in love with city and I have only been here 24 hours.

We ate an amazing dinner where I had spargel (white asparagus-which is currently in season and a delicacy in Germany) and schnitzel and potatoes. It was seriously so good. I was worried I would hate the food here, but so far I am impressed. The bar tender gave us all a free round of amoretto shots and my friend was excited that I gave it to him. He got tanked very quickly as beer is used like water here and mix that with a couple shots of hard liquor and I am sure life was good for him.

I slept well last night; full 8 hours. I don’t feel jet lagged anymore. Today we are going on a tour of the Cold War and I am so excited. I will blog and put photos on my picasa album for you all to see.

Most importantly, I will not be left out on May 27.

Love

Leah

I have Arrived

I made it safely to Berlin and feel like I have ran my head through a wall I am so tired. I arrived at 8:20 am Sunday morning and am forcing myself to stay awake to get over this horrible jet lag.

I am meeting my group in 2 hours. I might take a little nap-nothing to serious.

Auf Wiedersehen

Today I am leaving to Berlin. I am leaving the husband and the pups at home. I am nervous about not taking Charlie, but I think that it would be more stressful to explain to everyone in Germany that he is a service dog. Sadly the ADA doesn't follow you into foreign countries.

I am going to Berlin for a two week school program to study the art and museum management. I plan on eating lots of chocolate and avoiding nasty sausages.

If you know what I should eat or do on my free time please comment so I can enjoy.

Much love, Leah


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