Good news! For me, at least. The Euro is losing its value, and so in comparison the US Dollar is slowly rising in worth. I started paying attention to my allowance recently, and within two weeks it rose by four Euros. Yay!
Also, I was talking a lot with another English speaker, and he told me that I use the word „thingy“ a lot... I only use it because I have forget what the word is called in English.
And my mom sent me a box of candy! ^^
I have also been thinking about starting to post in German as well as in English... sure no one would read it, but oh well ^^.
31.01.10
I know I wrote about this day before, but I didn’t mention that my host mom came back from the south of Germany this day.
01.02.10
A Monday, and the first day of February! I was walking to the Topography of Terror (an outside exhibit about the history of the area where it’s now situated, more about that later), when I saw a very nice looking building. I was a bit nervous at first, because there was a cop patrolling outside of it, but I walked inside anyways. Here's a picture of it from the inside, rather elegant, isn't it?
I found out it was the building for Berlin’s parliament. So basically it is where the Parliament of Berlin meets to do those things that parliaments do. And it’s also just for the state of Berlin (Germany has 16 „Federal States“, and Berlin is big enough to be its own state), not for the other areas of Germany. It was really cool inside, but mainly because I thought it was the meeting ground of the actual national German Parliament (Bundestag). But, I did find a nice little cafeteria inside.
Right across the street was the Topography of Terror. It’s a collection of pictures with information about the area. The area is so important because it used to be the headquarters of the SS during World War Two. In fact, the government of that period was mainly headquartered in that area, not just the SS. There was also a Gestapo prison there in the cellar. In the war the SS-headquarters were extremely damaged, and instead of rebuilding them, the Germans tore them down. And then built the Topography of Terror exhibit where the SS headquarters and Gestapo prison used to be. Here’s a link to the actual website, in case you want to know more.
Topography of Terror
Afterwards I found a souvenir shop where I could buy 10 postcards for €4. I of course took advantage of this deal. The postcards in Berlin are really nice, in fact this guy I met from England thinks the best part of Berlin is the post cards. Speaking of which, I slipped on the ice outside of the souvenir shop, and this guy who was walking by with his nose buried in a map asked me if I was ok. I asked him if he needed help finding something, and then I walked with him to a holocaust memorial. That is how I met the guy from England.
02.02.10
I went over the neighbors to cook with them. We made „Rouladen“, a traditional German food where you basically beat up the meat before you cook it. The end result is a rolled up thing of meat with seasonings, or basically whatever the cook wants, smeared on the inside side of the meat strip. To make it though, you need to first take a mallet and hit the meat so that it has the same thickness in all areas, and it will also become wider and looser. Then we smeared mustard on the inside, sprinkled bacon and onions over the mustard, and then rolled them up and cooked them. We also made an orange flavored cream, and „Spätzle“ (a type of noodle).
03.02.10
I met up with a friend in a café in a store by my school. Then we realized neither of us wanted to actually eat or drink anything, so we walked to the Luftwaffen Museum that’s behind my school. The planes were really cool there, but it wasn’t too informative... but I believe that’s only because I’m not really into planes. But it was definitely nice to see all the different kinds there ^^.
Afterwards I went home and my new community representative came over. I was assigned a new one because my old one is now my host mother, in case someone missed that ^^. But, she’s really nice and just started going to college last fall, and offered to show me her university. I’m the first exchange student that she has had to look after.
04.02.10
I met up with the British guy again at the Siegelsäule statue in the Tiergarten. Here's a picture of the statue.
Then we walked to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. Afterwards I lead us in circles looking for a Döner shop I had eaten at one time with my boyfriend. I found it like a half an hour later. I felt bad for dragging him all over the place... but then we went to Museum Island. We reserved a time slot for us at the same museum I was at before with the Egyptian collection, the Neues Museum. I got something to drink before it was actually time to go in, and then we looked at the museum ^^. It was a lot of fun though, because the museums were all free (except for two because they had special exhibits) on the island, and we ended up really just looking at all of them we could get into for free ^^. We weren’t really studying every exhibit... if we were, then we wouldn’t have been able to see them all in one night. But then we went to the Altes Museum and looked there. Then the Bodes Museum. The last two weren’t as interesting as the Neues Museum, but one of them had a very nice (and HUGE) coin collection.
To end the day, we walked towards his youth hostel, and found a restaurant to eat at. The English guy had his eye on a traditional German good called „Eisbein“, and we ate that. It was pretty good, but there was so much food! The only bad part is that it’s basically a pig leg with some side-food, and the leg still has the outer layer of skin on it.
Then, I kind of freaked out because I didn’t really realize that my options on getting back home were limited, and I was sort of in the middle of Berlin... my host mom had said it would be ok if I started heading back at 10pm, but I had planned on taking this one bus that didn’t run anymore because it was too late, and la la la la. I basically didn’t get home until midnight. My host mom looked up on the Internet how to get home for me, and she told me to take this one train, and it was really late... I was waiting for I don’t remember how long. But then I got to Spandau, and she picked me up from there ^^.
05.02.10
I dragged myself out of bed rather early, and got on the subway system to Oranienburg. It’s a really small, sort of out of the way town. Or, at least I believe it is small... and I had to take some crazy subway connections to get to it. But, I was going to meet up with the English guy there, but the information I had given him about how to get there from his hostel wasn’t so up-to-date (sometimes there are last minute changes on which platform a train will go to), and he ended up needing to take a different route and being an hour late. It wasn’t his fault though, so I didn’t mind so much. I walked to a bakery and ate a donut. Then I walked to McDonalds and ate a cheeseburger. I was rather hungry, because I didn’t really eat that morning, since my stomach had been hurting me.
Anyways, he finally got there, and we starting walking. And on the way, I swear one sign said „Sachsen Hausen 2,0 kilometers“, and the next one said „Sachsen Hausen 2,6 kilometers“ :(. But, as you might have figured out, we were walking to Sachsen Hausen. I doubt any of you know what that is. Or maybe you do. It was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis, and as a „special camp“ by the Soviets. It was one of the major concentration camps in Germany. And did you ever hear of that one plan the Nazis had, where they were going to counterfeit an enormous amount of British (I’m not sure if they had been planning on counterfeiting a second country’s money as well or not) money, and then drop it into England to super inflate, and destroy, the British economy? Well, they succeeded in making a crapload of money. And they did it at Sachsen Hausen.
At first, we were just walking by ourselves, but then, I heard something. Another American! And he was leading a tour group! Of course, we followed them. I thought he might get mad (since technically, people were supposed to pay for a guided tour), so we drifted off for a while, but then we found him again, and I flat out asked him if we could follow. And we could ^^. It was definitely interesting there. And extremely sad. Without the guided tour though, we wouldn’t have understood what most of the stuff was, so if anyone goes there, do NOT go without a tour guide!
But, in the end... I can definitely say that it was awful what the Nazis did. It’s one thing to read or hear about what they did, and it’s another thing to actually stand there and see the remnants of what they did.
Afterwards, it was getting late, and I took the English guy with me to Spandau and showed him around a little. I showed him the local church, the Rathaus, the huge shopping mall, and marzipan. And I also spent five minutes talking to a salesman for him because he wanted to buy some German sausage ^^. Then, I showed him how to get home, and got home myself.
06.02.10
I really can’t remember if I did anything productive. I was just so tired...
Oh wait, I washed my clothes!
07.02.10
I watched the beginning of Shrek 3 with my host mom, and then she and my host dad walked to a restaurant, while my host brother and I left an hour later for the restaurant (we took the bus). We got there and had really nice meals. I had little pieces of chicken with rice in a curry sauce. The same restaurant has special events going on sometimes. They have a back room where it’s all decorated like a medieval castle, and people are allowed to eat in there once a week ^^.
Then I walked back with my host parents, while my host brother walked a little bit, but then got the bus to go back home. My host mom and I went to walk over the river in this one area, when I made this picture.
Just one last question. Do you like green cheese? I do!
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