love parade, holocaust memory, etc., etc.

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Long gap in writing, much to report! Saturday was the 'Love Parade' in Berlin, which is basically a giant techno festival/rave in the Tiergarten in the afternoon and at various clubs later in the evening. I went with Nathan (a friend who is here visiting) even though I hate techno because it is such a hyped up event, my travel guide calls it one of the 25 things not to miss in Berlin. I can't overemphasize how ridiculously overhyped this thing is! If you like walking down the street with masses of people wearing far too little clothing and dancing very badly and giant trucks blasting techno, while dodging broken bottles and men carrying blow up sex dolls and trying to avoid having your eardrums blown out by people screeching on whistles, then you might like it. Otherwise, it is more than eminently missable.

Near the Tiergarten, however, is a jewish holocaust memorial park that is really striking and powerful. It is basically made up of a broad swath of grey, coffin shaped columns. On the edges the columns are low, the height of benches, and you actually see people sitting on them and snapping casual fotos. Looking in from the edges, it looks like the whole area is full of these 'benches'. But then, if you start to walk between them, the ground slopes downward and very quickly you find yourself walking between columns that stretch well over your head and block your view except for a narrow stretch directly in front of you. Occasionally you'll see other visitors walking ahead of you, but then they turn a corner and it seems as though they've disappeared. The metaphors here are all obvious, and the exhibit is really powerful. (Nathan took a picture of me here that I'll post as soon as he emails it to me, I think it captures a bit of the feeling of the place).

Actually, in the last few days I've had numerous opportunities to see and experience how the holocaust is memorialized here. Yesterday Nathan and I went to the Jewish Museum, which houses a two story exhibition on Jews in Germany since the 8th or 9th century. However, before you can enter the main exhibit, you go through a set of 'axis.' While the 'axis of continuity' takes you onto the rest of the museum, the 'axis of exile' tells stories of Jews who escaped during national socialism, often children who had to leave families behind. This leads into the 'garden of exile,' which is strangely similar to the holocaust memorial I described above, a square filled with tall columns that block your view and make you feel isolated and unbalanced (the stone walkway here seems to be built in a way to actually make you feel unbalanced). The other is the holocaust axis, full of momentos, letters, pictures, etc. of families that were murdered by the nazis. It leads into a room guarded by a museum attendant. It is hard to describe this room, but essentially you feel as though you have entered a gas chamber. I could describe the architecture, but I won't because I don't think it would capture the horrific feeling that one has standing in there. It is profound, and profoundly disturbing, though of course extremely important.

Sunday was more fun. I had brunch again, this time at a different restaurant than last sunday. This one served even more amazing veggie salads, including one that had ceviche in it, and a rather bewildering array of desserts. It was fab. Then we went for a walk in Kreuzberg, a neigborhood in Berlin. There's a big hill there that I'm told was basically a place where they dumped all the rubble after the war. Now it's a park with a waterfall and great views of Berlin.

So, as you can see, I've been doing a bit of sightseeing--it's nice to have a visitor as it gets me out and doing things and not letting it all go until right before I leave! I'm still having some emotional ups and downs about being herekin Germany, about learning German and being a foreigner and missing home and people there. My class is better than it was the first week--I think I wrote about how I was moved up and have a better teacher--but it is still 4 hours of school everyday and is rather boring sometimes and there are one or two people in the class who make me want to poke out my eyes with a sharp stick. But this is small potatoes, I am learning and seeing a lot and it's wonderful to be here.

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