Okay, first and foremost- this entry is going to be insanely long. I should start with a few things to preface it. Item one: I LOVE THIS CITY. Berlin is alive and amazing and wonderful. Item two: THERE ARE LIKE 250 PICTURES FROM THIS WEEKEND I am trying to choose just the most interesting ones or the ones with me in them, lol, so I apologize in advance. We got up bright and early (seriously, like 7 AM) and had breakfast at our hostel and then set out for our tour, which started by basically getting to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which is the main station. Dr. G told us about the history about the West and the East, and the division, and cool stuff like how nothing was built next to the wall when it was there ... read more

Today was a pretty uneventful day for me. Anna and I had our last TUD observation of the week today, which was a Bioengineering class. We managed to come in again just as they were doing a role-play presentation, this time a seminar where they gave information about Hepatitis B and the link to cancer and cures. The teacher was really nice and awesome, and we just sat in the back of the classroom by two of the students and listened to the simulation seminar. It was really cool and they did really well. We hit up the grocery store again (we have to go so often because we just can't carry that much!) and then Anna and I ventured past old downtown to find this Italian restaurant that the other girls went to last night ... read more

There is only one picture with today's entry because my camera batteries died and I didn't have any new ones with me, but that's okay; today was important. The morning was spent just getting onto campus with the group and filling out paperwork and doing things like getting our schedules. Anna and I totally lucked out, because the middle school we are observing doesn't need us until next week, so while everyone else starts their observations this week, we don't start until next Monday- AND ours is the closest one, so we have way less of a commute. We went over lesson plans with him, etc etc, and mostly it was just bureaucratic stuff. Then we came back around 2 and Anna and I hit the grocery store again. We have to go so often because ... read more

Last night proved to be "Dr. G takes us on the tram and then into old downtown Dresden", which meant more walking but also more things to keep us from falling asleep. The tram/train & subsequent transportation systems (other than taxis) are free for us since we have TUD student cards (the Dresden university we are technically part-time students at). This is actually cool for me, because I've never studied abroad, so it's fun. We haven't actually seen the university yet, but it's past my dorm up on the hill, and I imagine we will go soon in order to get university wi-fi set up on our laptops so we have unlimited internet on campus (our dorms are not technically part of campus). We got to old downtown and walked around a little bit, with Dr. ... read more