I put on my overcoat and walked into winter, my teeth chattered rythms

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Alright, so I’ve been in Berlin for about a month now, and not surprisingly, I’ve done a lot here. Berlin is a fairly spread-out city, so it sometimes takes a little while to get places, but there are so many museums, exhibits, parks, churches, castles, and other interesting sites to visit that I could spend a semester here even without classes and not see everything I want to see. Still, I’ve managed a fair amount in the past few weeks. I’ve been to the theater twice, the opera once, around 10 museums, a special “Green Week” fair, a Stasi interrogation prison, the office of the Bundeskanzlerin, and I’ve even taken a day trip to Poland.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Berlin is that most people continue to speak German with me instead of reverting to English after they realize I’m not a native speaker.

I also LOVE the food! It’s so easy to find vegetarian options here, since Germans are obsessed with “bio” organic foods. My host mom is Brazilian, so there’s a lot of variety in our dinners. The German “fast-food” is also awesome, since it consists of small Turkish stores with Falafel and Döner (usually not for me unless they sell the vegetarian variety).

What I’m really looking forward to right now is our Midterm break. Sadly, I’ll be taking midterms on my birthday and all of next week, but the week after that, we have off. I’m taking a trip with my friend Michelle to Paris and Barcelona, and our friends Aaron and Tim will also be there for part of the time. We have guidebooks for both cities, and have a lot on our sightseeing plates, but we’re also determined to spend at least one day at the beaches near Barcelona.

So...I’m off now to write papers and study for midterms, but I’ll try to post again as soon as I can.

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Photos

Wall o' Beer
One of the exhibits at Grüne Woche was dedicated to displaying one beer from each of Germany's thousands of breweries

Mineral Watter
another Grüne Woche exhibit

Superlong Foosball table
in the carpentry and wood exhibition at Green Week

Lambchops
Green Week actually started out as an agricultural fair, but now agriculture is relegated to only one of the buildings in the ginormous conference center

Bavaria Exhibit
Lederhosen included

Old Post Office
in Frankfurt am Oder, a German city from which you can cross into Poland easily

Michelle
we're silly

us
Told you so!

Rathaus Frankfurt am Oder
the town hall

Poland
Not much there, is there?

Just kidding
That's the real border town in Poland. Note how well maintained the German side of the bridge is...

Welcome to Poland!
I did really go

Awesome grocery store
Since we still had the majority of the money changed leftover at the end of the day, we came here...well worth it!