Blogs from Berlin, Germany, Europe - page 162

Hello!!! We are writing this blog from a block away from Checkpoint Charlie, in the official no-crossing zone!!!!! We're on a tour of this area of Berlin, and have learnt a lot of history and gotten to see all the amazing spots including the Brandenberg Tor, Reichstag, Topography of Terror, the spot below which Hitler's bunker was, and of course, the Wall. Amazing. All right .. gotta go meet up with the rest of the group, but will write later. We left Amsterdam last night, transferred at Bruxelles and got here (more on that later) this morning. Have been staying with family and it has been great. ... read more

No pictures this time. Sorry. I wanted to spell out my typical day or week. I get up anywhere between 8 and 10, watch the Brandenburg tv channel or maybe Eurosport, and write a quick paragraph or two in my thesis. The shower works and I use it. Eurosport was awesome during the Olympics...at least 12 hours a day of live coverage. I eat dark bread, farm-fresh yogurt, muesli-cereal, garlic salami, cheese, and black tea. Pretty simple and healthy. Not much fruit in the diet here...only apples seem readily available in wintertime. If it's one of the three days a week (or so) I go to Adlershof or Schoenefeld, I try to hit the road before noon. It takes up to an hour to get there, and sometimes three connections on mass transit are required. Once ... read more

I am so excited, I have solidified my plans to study abroad in Germany (hopefully, if I get into the program). I am doing a program in Berlin through Lexia which is a hands unstructured program where the city of Berlin is used as a resource for research and classes and art work. Going to Berlin will be an amazing experience, but what is more amazing is how easy traveling is these days. After studying the migration of people from east to west in America, and learning about how it took them sometimes years to get from one side of the country to the other, it puts some perspective on being able to travel so easily today. All you have to do is go online and book a flight, pay with a credit card, go to ... read more

I got a haircut today. I don't care much what my hair looks like...I sorta go for the low-risk / low-reward do. But it's always a challenge to get a haircut in another language. So, now that I have short hair again, I thought I'd write about German/Berliner haircuts and style. I guess the stereotypical German haircut is the mullet. "Business up front, party in the back," according to Ben Yoder. The female crewcut is another one that comes to mind. Finally, there's the central/eastern European tendency for some women to dye their hair red, purple, pink, blue, whatever. (Not that they're the only ones that do that...but a lot do!) Well, let me tell you the score: In West Berlin, folks pretty much look like Americans, but more formal and less fat. The moustache is ... read more

John is my very first visitor, and a visitor is a good excuse to play "tourist". He was in London visiting his little biological brother, and he stopped over in Berlin to visit his little fraternity brother. Yesterday we walked all over "downtown" West Berlin...Ku'damm, the Europa Center, Tiergarten, Zoo Station, the new Embassy Row, and the KaDeWe department store. Highlights include: the Hertha Berlin soccer club gift store, throwing logs across the frozen pond in the Tiergarten, and the jaw-dropping "food court" atop KaDeWe. (Sadly, no Virginia wine was for sale.) We each got a "Berliner"--a jelly donut--and it's delicious! Ich bin kein Berliner. Ich hab' einen Berliner gegessen. We also went to the Reichstag, which is like Germany's Capitol Building. It's the only old building in the new government quarter, which is where the ... read more