Apartment Video

Alive After Oktoberfest

Heyyo Everyone


Just wanted to post that i had a great time in Frankfurt and München and survived Oktoberfest!  Pictures coming soon!  Now its back to school work.  Doing a project on Sasha Waltz-  really awesome choreographer in Berlin.  She combines dance and architecture performing in buildings instead of just on a stage in a theatre-- say wa! cooool


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxdq2hdnBc4



<3

Architecture homework kindof...

brief explanation of these photos!

Awesome spot behind an embassy !

 

memorial roof... compare to potsdam pic of green canopy ..interesting contrast maybe

Column of Victory in Tiergarten

Found this graffiti!  

Going to Frankfurt and München this weekend for Oktoberfest...

<3

where i live and my week

ok i dont know if this is going to work but i uploaded a video of where i live but as a pic so it probably wont play. if it works ill upload the rest the same way

Anyway this week I had my two papers due which were pretty interesting and tons of german homework.  when they say study abroad is not a vacation theyre right. annoying tho!

friday we had a mandatory excursion to postdam platz. it was rainy weather and took all day.

reaaally rococo palace so i had arcade fire's song rococo stuck in my head all day haha

sanssouci palace-

 gardens behind palace leading to their giant backyard- public park now 

fake ruins in the background-- pretty for the royalty to look at

saturday i went to the olympic stadium because i had to write one of my papers on it... basically soo nazi propaganda.. really eerie place but still hosts the soccer games.. going to one of the games in october! hold 100,000people

that night i went to club xberg. too crazy for me
http://www.berlinfestival.de/info/club-xberg/


did work and such during the week.
today walked around prenzlauerberg and aaallmost bought an english-german translation book but decided against it. oh well ive been ok so far
tonight is stammtisch!


<3

PanoramaPunkt

Ugh the internet in my apartment is terrible.  I just typed up the whole story for this and when I tried to add a picture it stalled up and everything I wrote was gone. (although I guess I cant complain..)

Ok so these pictures were taken on Tuesday.  I have class from 9-12 and again at 430.  The evening class is my art class and our teacher decided to take us on a tour of pieces around the city instead of viewing them in the classroom.

After my morning class i took the ubahn to Wittenberg platz to the bank.  I got there at ten after one but they are closed from 1-2.  Luckily there was a farmers market in the platz (farmers markets are all over!)  I bought this spinach mozzarella ravioli soup thing from a russian lady and sat in the park.  i was writing in my journal when a old grandpa aged man asked if he could share the bench and commented on me being left handed.

I pulled out my map of an area I have to study for my architecture class to get a resident's perspective.  after talking for a bit, all in german-- my only understanding the main ideas of what he was saying and responding in broken german-- he pointed to a building in Potsdamer Platz and said the word "Fahrstuhl" a word I had just learned the week before.  If it had not been for this word my day would have been completely different.

"Fahrstuhl" means elevator, and I understood that he said you can take it to the top of this building in just a few seconds and you get the entire view of the city.  after going to the bank i got back on the ubahn and found the building.

I went inside and talked to the information desk worker-- again in german-- and found out it cost money to get to the top so I got a brochure and was thinking about leaving when he handed me a ticket fo free!

It was amazing!  I would absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin.

http://www.panoramapunkt.de/de/willkommen.html

View of east berlin behind me ~24th floor

east berlin

south west berlin

view of the building i was standing on.  the top of the building is the shape of a triangle.  this is the 25th floor-- the floor below has a little more space and history plaques with information and pictures that are very interesting.

office building next door-- love that you can creep on the people working!

top of sony center

Today, Wednesday, I caught up with homework and had another fieldtrip (i guess they are more like mini specific lesson tours) for my architecture class. also had my first german chocolate-- it should be illegal.

<3

Weekend

Friday ~8 other students and I went on an Alternative Tour.  http://www.alternativeberlin.com/tours/freetours/index.html


Would definitely recommend to anyone who appreciates street art and the sub-culture of Berlin.  Our tour guide was amazing and is an American living in Berlin on an artist's visa. She told us all the really cool places to go (and where she hangs out) and during the tour we stopped at the best falafel place!

RAW area-- great graffiti 

On Saturday we went to a flea market where I bought a necklace.  Really cool and one of many markets!

 
After we walked around Mitte and went inside the KaDeWe-- crazy expensive collection of things and American food like Betty Crocker cake mix for 8 Euro!  Definitely recommend a quick trip inside.  Buffet on the top floor -reasonably priced german very delicious looking food- definitely want to try when the rents visit --hint hint :)

In the Bahn (like a train or subway) Station this dog is waiting patiently outside the grocery store.  Dogs are commonly not on a leash and I guess its ok to leave them by themselves inside.  People with dogs, even on the sidewalk, generally do not let you pet their dog :(

On Sunday I went to Mauerpark.  Its a huge park with a flea market, karaoke, random performers and people just hanging out.  Massive-- thousands of people here! 

For a ton more pictures--

http://www.facebook.com/mauerpark.berlin?sk=photos 

Crazy Robot thing someone made that you could give water and then it would move and shoot the water on the crowd... only in Berlin.

 After the park we went swimming in this lake a little ways away-- Weissensee. Soo nice-- we went all the way to the fountain!


Ok so now we're all updated!  I have to do some German reading and have a test tomorrow!  Also have two essays due next week (thankfully only a few pages each).




Auf Wiedersehen!


<3

Altes Museum (thursday)

Hey everyone sorry for the really bad break there!  There was a problem with the internet and was a pain to fix auf deutsch but I should be internet-connected for at least the next month.

Last week was my first week of school and I have already learned a ton!  

I have German language learning class from 9am-12 Monday-Thursday which is a lot of Deutsch but I love my teacher.  There are only 11 other students in the class so it is easy to ask questions and she keeps the class interesting.

On Tuesday from 430-7pm I have my "Art and Dictatorship" class with Herr Schmitt who seems nice and a bit strict.  We have a field trip to the Jewish Memorial tomorrow which should be very interesting.

Wednesday same time, same teacher, I have my "Architecture in Berlin from the 19th Century to Today."  I also really like this class and we have a field trip on Wednesday also.

After Thursday's class three other girls and myself visited the Altes Museum (free with our museum card which the program gave to us!)  I liked the building but it houses ancient artifacts, and once you've seen one really old stone thing you get the gist.  Inside wasn't actually that big and we were able to go through the whole museum in about an hour.

On our way there..

Reichstag Building-- governmental building with rebuilt dome.

Brandenburg Tor.. I spy Darth Vador and a Berlin Bear... also there was Mickey Mouse, soldiers from all different time periods, and a crazy guy making huge bubbles.

View of the Berlin Cathedral from inside the second floor of the Altes Museum.. best part of the building.

After the museum we split a pretzel from a bakery stand.  Best pretzel ever!  I think the german food is good- only complaint is the ton of butter they always put on any sandwich.