a packed week back in Berlin

I've been literally on the move ever since I stepped foot into the Berlin train station. Today, around ten days later, is my first lazy day of staying inside since I was in Boston more than a month ago. The apartment is incredibly quiet with only with a bit of music and the wind outside. Somehow no interesting classes seem to be offered on Wednesdays, so while I may end up having class on Friday mornings (which would NOT be optimal) I will probably have Wednesday's off this semester. That brings me to all of the things that have been going on ON TOP of the beginning of the summer semester and finding classes and that whole thing. Once my schedule gets a bit more set in stone I'll be able to tell you more about what i'll be learning about in the next few months. So here goes, from penguins to pneumonia:

- Erin makes a stop in Berlin!

While on vacation from her Tufts-Abroad program in Paris, Erin Bruynell spent a couple of days in Berlin. She had some unfortunate mix-ups with the Paris ticketing offices, who booked her train for a day after she had planned, and had put them in first class unexpectedly. But that meant that we just had a couple of hours to get together before she was going to head on to Munich on a night train on Monday night. So literally fresh from the train I took the subway with my luggage to Erin's hostel. We went to one of my favorite cafes (St. Oberholtz in Rosenthaler Platz) and had a leisurely dinner while catching up. She was ready to leave Paris, and I was proud to announce that the prices in Berlin were nothing compared to what she's used to. Sadly we had very little time, but again, we've got to take those chance encounters as they come and make the most of it. Short but sweet, and her traveling buddies from Paris were both nice and funny. I hope she had a good time surfing the beer gardens in Munich :-)

- My first German "Frat" party

A friend of mine named Johannes, whom I met in the cafeteria last October, has recently joined a Frat. In German it's called a "Studentenverbindung", which literally means a student connection, but what it really is is a bunch of guys living together under certain rules and conditions. And they have parties... from the one I went to my impression is that they are rather tame parties that involve controlled amounts of good beer and lots of grilling, but according to Robert, the Verbindungen are known for getting pretty toasted with their alcohol. At least that's the way it is in Heidelberg, which has the fanciest and oldest frats in Germany (probably older than in the US). The big difference is that there's nothing greek about these frats. There used to be a big fencing-culture around them; different members of the frats would have to fence (literal sword fighting) against other frats in order to be initiated. 

Johannes invited me that afternoon and gave me rough directions. The first thing that impressed me was how nice the neighborhood was - tree-lined streets, totally quiet in West Berlin and not to far from the University. They lived in a big brick building. The grilling happened out back, where a bunch of people, not just the frat members, had already been eating around picnic tables. I recognized some of Johannes' friends from the physics department (he's a physics major) and chatted with them before getting food. The frat members had a ribbon that they wore around their chests, one meaning that they've "passed the test" and one meaning that they're the new guys. Apparently after your second semester of living in the house you're expected to pledge; you have to study the history of the frat, learn a few songs (I believe), and then pass an oral exam before you're officially a frat member. I have no idea if Johannes is actually going to have to learn how to fence... I read some stories written by the true American Mark Twain from his travels abroad, and he described some of the fencing-competitions in Heidelberg as being intensely bloody... I didn't stay for too long but really liked meeting some new people and seeing the atmosphere. 

- A very small visitor invades our apartment

Anna warned me before I came home that my room was currently "in use". When I got home I received all accompanying explanations: Anna's sister Melanie and her husband Manuel were visiting for the week, with their 17-month old son Jakob. They were staying till Friday and would really really appreciate it if they could use my room, since they could close the door and it would be better for the baby when it goes to bed, at around 8pm. At first I felt slightly awkward, because secretly I was furious at not having access to my room after being so exhausted and having been to so many places. All I wanted to do was collapse on my bed, eventually do laundry and unpack. But alas, it was probably better that I still had some close in a suitcase and could easily move to Anna's room for a few days. There was no use fighting it, and the adorable blond-haired little Jakob, with his stomping feet and generally drooling mouth, convinced me that it would be okay. Plus, I was mostly worried that when Robert's two brothers come into town that Thursday night, there wouldn't be any room for them to sleep over... so really it was better to be flexible about it all. Anna and Diego even gave me their bed to sleep on because they felt so bad about the whole situation. 

The entire apartment was general commotion at all times until the baby went to bed. Melanie and Manuel wanted to see a few things in Berlin (this was their vacation), so Anna pretty much put off her University for a week so that she could show them around. I didn't have to go grocery shopping for an entire week because they always had so much food around. But it was fascinating seeing the little munchkin. Melanie had another one coming too, a girl, expected this summer. On one hand I was convinced all over again that babies were far too exhausting, but on the other hand something that Melanie said really stuck with me: "we would just be such boring visitors if we didn't have Jakob here with us". He was a really lively addition to the apartment. And Melanie and Manuel were incredibly friendly; they even gave me and Robert their address in Freiburg and want us to stay with them if we're ever in the area.

- The Berlin Zoo

Last Wednesday I had no class and was planning on just enjoying the peace and quiet of the apartment while the crew was out seeing Berlin. BUT, the plan for the day was the Zoo... when would I get another chance? A beautiful day, good company, a little one to get excited about the animals with... So all six of us (5 1/2...?) stood in line at the Zoologische Gartens awaiting entry.

 An hour or so later (it was a gorgeous day, lots of visitors, young and old) we were overwhelmed with all the places we could go to in the zoo. The place had everything: lions, giraffes, polar bears, penguins, you name it. We started at the elephants (there was a baby!) and made our way through the monkeys, the chickens, the pelicans, the muskrats, the zebras, the sea lions, other funny things i can't name, the one elusive tiger, and finally, after much searching, we discovered a lazy and somewhat dirty Knut chilling on some rocks in his own private area. 

Jakob probably saying "da!" to Diego and his dad, Manuel

KNUUUUUUUUUUUUT  

Knut was at one point the pride of Berlin; the polar bear was born about four years ago and has a total sop story to go along with it. The mother totally rejected the baby, so a zookeeper took the mother's place and they were always together, little baby Knut and the zookeeper. They were literally famous; people came to Berlin JUST to see Knut. In the fall the zookeeper died, and in the meantime Knut has gotten pretty big, so now the big question is where should be live? Should they build him a larger habitat in Berlin or move him elsewhere? Who knows, but like Anna said, Knut was in reality dead boring and the penguins and seals were much more fun. 

Diego towering over Anna and me

...AND this one is for you, Ronny :-)

- Volkspark Friedrichshain

I left the Zoo a bit early (well, what is early? we were there for a good five hours) to meet up with Kate for some more macaroni and cheese.... mmmmm, but unfortunately her supply has run out, so i'm not sure what we'll do for the next time... We then walked to the park near her apartment, the Volkspart Friedrichshain. Even though it was nearly dark tons of people were out chilling or grilling in the park. We walked to something called the Märchen Brunnen, the fairy tale fountain, built by one of the Friedrichs a couple of hundred years ago. The place was astounding! Just in the middle of the park was this place literally out of a fairy tale, really really beautiful. I hadn't even heard of the place before - just goes to show that the prettiest parts of Berlin are hardly touched upon in the guide books.

- A long Thursday night

Robert and his brothers arrived from Gera, where they were visiting their father (and where Steffen lives permanently). All was already a bit chaotic because, as I feared, the apartment was rather crowded. Anna and Diego were here, planning on sleeping in their room under the hammock, Manuel and Melanie hadn't left yet and were in my room, and Robert and I had Anna and Diego's bed. That meant two floor spaces for Steffen and Tommy. 

All would have been reasonably okay had Tommy not become totally sick during the night. It started with a sore throat, but then he couldn't fall asleep because he was shivering so much. Robert and I heard nothing of this, since we were unable to sleep due to Steffen and Diego's harmonious snoring. Anna finally got up to ask Tommy if he was okay. He didn't have an answer. She suggested that he go to the hospital. I know I speak for Robert too when I say that we didn't take Tommy seriously at that point; Anna was certainly right, but we just kept thinking maybe he'll feel better once he gets to sleep. Big brother Steffen took the decision-making responsibility. He and Tommy left to go to a taxi line to ask them where the nearest hospital was. Luckily there was one next to Sudkreuz, so only around a twenty minute walk from my apartment (good to know for the future...). They came back a couple of hours later, and after a brother-meeting they decided to take Tommy to their grandparent's apartment as to avoid him being in contact with the baby. They couldn't diagnose anything at that point, but he was clearly not doing well enough to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. It was about 4 in the morning at that point; their grandparents live an hour away by S-Bahn. They woke up their grandparents, who were happy to take care of Tommy for a little bit, and had some breakfast before heading back to Kreuzberg to tell us about everything that happened. 

I'm pretty sure the only people that got sleep that night were snoring Diego, Melanie, Manuel and definitely the baby, who woke the rest of us up at 7 like he usually did. In any case, Robert and I needed a few coffees and were exhausted for a couple of days before we recovered. But Tommy was the real one recovering. He didn't make it to the birthday party the next day, and was really glad to head back to Karlsruhe to his Mom. Katrin must have checked his blood again when he got there because she called us back with the news that Tommy had pneumonia, but was doing much better.

- Finishing up last semester

Somehow that Friday Robert and I still managed to go to my university and get a lot done. He got a cheap student-priced hair cut while I picked up readers at various copy shops in Dahlem. I went too and fro buying a few books for my classes in addition to some school supplies, and then I went back to the BCGS Büro to see Carmen. Right away she deluged me with things I needed to get done (it's always like that, a bit stressful but now I'm used to it) and with changes to the summer semester, etc. But what was most exciting was realizing that all of my grades for the Winter Semester were in and done. Somehow despite all of the language difficulties and lack of library books or workspace and general berlin confusion I managed to do very well last semester. Who would have thought? I surely didn't expect that; my goal was more oriented towards surviving and getting everything passed in. But it's a nice feeling at the beginning of the summer semester, to know that I could do it once, and perhaps I could do it again. 

- A 150th Birthday Party

Helga and Dieter, at the head of the table

The main reason that Robert and his brothers came to Berlin was for both of their grandparents 75th birthday parties. Saturday April 18th has been written in my calendar since they invited me before christmas. Helga, Robert's grandmother, had her birthday exactly on that day and Dieter had turned 75 a couple of months before. A few old and new friends of there's were there along with Robert, Steffen and I, Robert's father and his wife, and her daughter Nora. It took about two hours for Robert and I to actually get to the party, but when we did it was worth it. 

In a small "Gaststätte" in Köpenick, Berlin, a tram ride from their apartment, we met in a private room for food, food and more food. We started with introductions over coffee and cake (two different kinds), then ordered drinks and talked, and then had a little program with poems and odes to the birthday couple. When we were all good and hungry again we were served a tasty buffet dinner. More drinks. Two more items on the program: Robert's Dad read some funny stories outloud and then we played the DDR quiz game. Of course, Dieter knew every answer to every question asked, and could even give us an annotated version with more information than the quiz-game gave us. So when I asked, for instance, how long people in the DDR had to wait before getting their trabant (the only cars available), he'd respond, well, that depends on the model. I was impressed and astounded, but the crowd was all east-german, so they knew the answers too. We had dessert, more stories, and then Steffen, Robert and I (Tommy was still recovering in their grandparent's apartment) made our way back home. 

- Heeeeeertha BSC

I am perhaps not supposed to mention this.... but maybe the right people won't see this entry. Robert "played blue", meaning he skipped out on one or two courses on Monday to stay an extra day. The primary reason was to stay in Berlin a bit longer, but the secondary reason was because I had gotten three tickets to see Hertha BSC play soccer against Werder Bremen that Sunday afternoon. Kate came too; it was our first experience at an 1te Bundesliga game. We are total "soccer tourists", but still it was a ton of fun... as soon as we neared the Olympic stadium we could hear the super-fans singing their songs and the ground was literally shaking. We were sitting in the Bremen section oddly enough, but Robert confessed that he wanted Bremen to win the game. Haha, but they didn't! Berlin won 2-1. We ate delicious bratwurst and got some souvenir cups. At the end of the game I realized that I had spent a lot more time looking around at all the other fans and people than concentrated on the game, but so it goes, a Berlin-experience not to be passed up.

Olympic Stadion

- DJ Dahlem

On Monday night I finally went to a frisbee practice. This is pathetic; Monday was literally the first time that I've worked out, I mean really worked out, since last summer I think. I've never been more out of shape in my life. But I was set on taking the first step and going to a practice, just to see what it would be like. It took a ridiculously long while to get there - around an hour - and to my disappointment there weren't any women (even though the website indicated that it was a "mixed" practice). Luckily three more women showed up and once we got beyond the drills and started playing I felt right back into the swing of things. The practices that I went to in Heidelberg and this practice is much more casual than the practices we have back in Chicago. I can play whatever position I want (in Chicago we usually stick with the same ones) and we keep playing until dark. 

Of course I was absolutely dead by the time we were half-way through... it's pretty hard to hide being tired in frisbee, since the player you're supposed to be defending ends up scoring all the points because you can't catch up to her/him. But oh well. No use in getting hard on myself. The walk from Sudkreuz was good for my muscles, but nonetheless my entire body has been aching ever since, and it's been two days already. I'm going to give myself a little time off before going to the next practice, do a little running in between to get back into it a bit slower. Really I'm playing frisbee to meet a few new people, and when I'm dead tired that's a bit hard to do... so, we'll see. 

- Springtime in Berlin

Spring is here! Because of the weather differences, Karlsruhe had the warm weather before Berlin did. But it has literally been sunny for the passed week and will continue being sunny at least for one more. The leaves are fully out, and some flowering trees are already starting to lose their flowers. And the Waterfall is on! The Kreuzberg in the Victoriapark has never been more beautiful. I explored some new parts on my run today. I doubt that I'd get any work done sitting in the park, but really all I want to do is spend as much time in there as possible. 

Berlin Zoo, back entrance