Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 661

5-7 July: AN OPERATIC PLAY about Joan of Arc with full orchestral complement set in St. Marien cathedral; a Dr. Marcuse horror show interpreted by a dance troupe in two-dimensional fashion behind a black-and-white screen to a constant underlying droning sound. One earns ten minutes of applause, the other yawns and walk-outs. This is the nature of the performing arts during this Theater der Welt festival -- so varied, so unpredictable. Then a rather conventional play with corner staging -- audience on two sides -- three men fishing (not an exciting premise to start with) in an abandoned underground shaft (that's better), the dialogue full of allusions to Argentina's political past. Sunday's finale is a collage of graphic arts and photos projected onto two buildings at University Square, various visiting multi-media artists capturing Halle's theatre history ... read more

We started our second day in Berlin, knowing our roommate, slightly better than before. We previously encountered her as we arrived, managing to lock her into the room we were going to share. Although we didnt learn her name, we learnt that she would be travelling through eastern Europe, to our next destination Warsaw and then onward to Russia-which interested myself greatly. But again she kept herself to herself and we didnt learn much beside the fact she was an accountant and was taking a year out to do a journey which would take her to China. That sounds like an adventure! But obviously not as much of an adventure as the one your intrepid travellers have been following! Berlin day 2 began with us having what I would consider a traditional Berliner breakfast of a ... read more

Here are some of the accounts written by our students of their weekend with their host families. I will post more as I get them, but this should be a good start. I just thought it would be fun for you to be able to see what all of the kids are up to over here. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Over the weekend I did a lot of swimming. On Saturday we went swimming for six hours at ,,Die Insel'' with Shelby and Maren. On Sunday we went to the Baltic Sea with Shelby and Maren. When we got there we went swimming at the swimming hall in the center, for three hours. After that we went to the beach, but it was too cold to swim. Later a thunderstorm started so we went home. Thats my weekend!! Shayla ... read more

An easy morning, sticking, cutting doing the scrap book. Then lunch at Das Franco with an Italian waiter that had forgotton how to be a friendly Italian, and then on to start Heinerfest properly. Oh the excitement, fire engine rides, princess carriages that fly in the air, big wheels thrice, swinging chaires and a mini roller coaster - all going really well until the house of fun turned into the house of horror as Onita got stuck between to spiralling punch bags, Asha screamed at the spraying underfloor stuff, and Jay fell on top of the moving walk way. Thank goodness for our very own super hero who saved us, carried us out and then spent ages calming us down. Back to safer stuff like bratwurst and chips, beer and the Ratskeller with friends ....... and ... read more

Arrived in Berlin this morning (sun) after an overnight train from Brussels...very tired from the prison-like accomodations of the train beds. Our time in Amsterdam went by very quickly, there is too much to take in in such a short period of time...basically, we kicked things off by heading off to one of the many city squares where people congregate and mostly just puff down heaters or hit up the dope. Having a rough of idea of what to expect in the red light district, we were pretty much astonished at the overwhelming display of debauchery that awaited us when we by chance came across one of its many allys. Well past midnight, it was like walking down the strip in Vegas except that here the hoes were in the windows and were way better looking! ... read more