Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Seeing as my Thanksgiving dinner will probably be eaten in the airport, I thought it would be appropriate to write a Thanksgiving blog today. For once, I am all packed and ready to go the day before I leave! I am very excited to be going to London but at the same time, sad that I am missing out on Thanksgiving with my family and friends. I know it's hard to believe that I could miss just being at home doing the same thing, especially when I'm here in Berlin and going to London for Thanksgiving...but it's true! A lot of other people in the program feel the exact way I do; it probably has something to do with the fact that we are all going home very soon! 


I am so incredibly thankful for all my family and friends - how supportive, loving, and caring they all are. I am truly lucky to have such amazing people in my life that love me. I am so thankful for God and everything He has given to me in my life, the blessings and especially the challenges. More than ever, I know that if God can bring me to it, He can bring me through it and it's only because of Him that I can do anything. I feel so thankful that I am blessed with this opportunity to study abroad and venture outside of my comfort zone. 


So enjoy the delicious Thanksgiving meal for me...and Mom, will you please save me some canned cranberry sauce? :]


And in case you were wondering....my 21st birthday is exactly 1 month from tomorrow!

done writing papers!

I'm finally DONE writing my term papers. Thank goodness! I may have procrastinated a little bit, but I turned in one today and my next one isn't due until tomorrow afternoon. Too bad I have 3 more days of classes because all I feel like doing is celebrating and being on break (like everyone back in the States!). I'm actually sad that I won't be able to spend Thanksgiving back in California with family and friends. Guess I will just have to go to London? I am really excited to be in a country where everyone speaks English, no Sprechen Sie Englisch for me! For everyone who doesn't speak German, that is a nice way of asking a person if they speak English.


Which reminds me, I want to list some unique aspects to living in Berlin. I was video chatting with my mom last night and I mentioned that water is not free at all here in Berlin. Oh, what I would do to go to a restaurant and be offered multiple free glasses of water filled to the brim with ice. Another thing that I have not seen anywhere in Europe is toilet seat covers. I definitely just squat it everywhere. I also visited the library at Freie Universität, which turns out to be the quietest place on EARTH. I usually like peace and quiet when I'm studying and writing papers, but this place was just too quiet! Everyone sits in complete and utter silence, not even whispering to another person and not making any noises that even register any sound decibels. It was creepy. Another thing is that, a lot of the time, when someone finds out I'm American, they treat me differently. It's sad because I see other people in my program that are the stereotypical American idiots, but that isn't me! On the train the other night, Michelle and I happened to be sitting with a group of Berliners that realized we spoke English and were American. We were attempting a German conversation but this one guy refused to speak any English and spoke very quick, complex German. When we couldn't give appropriate responses, they went ahead and started talking about us right in front of us! Our German may not be perfect, but we could understand that they were talking about us and saying rude things. 


Remember when JFK's famous quote, "Ich bin ein Berliner"? Let me explain how he called himself a jelly donut. In Berlin, a Berliner is a person that comes from Berlin but in the rest of Germany, it actually is the name for a jelly donut. In Berlin, we don't call those jelly donuts "Berliners", we call them "Pfannkuchen". They're delicious! But in the rest of Germany, "Pfannkuchen" aren't jelly donuts, they're pancakes. Confusing, right? Just don't ever ask for a Berliner.


Coming from Southern California where I am absolutely spoiled with the beautiful weather all year around, I am just beginning to know what cold feels like. Since being here, I have now realized that a scarf in southern California is an accessory and here in Berlin, its a necessity! I don't think I have left my apartment without a scarf since the beginning of October. And unless I want to see the start of frostbite, I wear wool socks. So ugly, but soo warm. And I never go anywhere without my mittens because just putting your hands in your coat pockets ain't going to cut it anymore!


In my classes, we've read research that keeps talking about Germany's aging society. I don't know what these people are talking about because I see babies and children everywhere! I have yet to be on a flight where there is not a infant/toddler crying and throwing a fit. And I swear on every bus and train, there is always a stroller or a kid talking his mouth off. And did you know that Germans get paid to have children here?! That's how much their government wants them to have kids.


Which leads me to my last and most favorite topic Weinachten (Christmas)! You think Christmas is a big deal in America? You need to come to Germany. It has taken over every supermarket, shop, mall, and open area. There are these wonderful things called Weinachtmärkte, that are Christmas markets with delicious food and crafts. Glühwein is also a big deal here. Its warm red wine thats filled with spices and goodness. Also here in Berlin, there are no open container laws. So I can go just about anywhere with my Glühwein, Bier, or anything else my heart desires - even on the trains and buses! In my personal opinion, I think that since its cold here, people drink so much just to keep themselves warm.


I am off to go turn in my term paper...I just need to make it through tomorrow and then on Thursday I will be in London!

Visit to German Chancellery and Foreign Ministry

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit the German Foreign Ministry due to fact that my teacher is a foreign German diplomat - he's pretty awesome! It was really cool to get a tour of the foreign ministry and see where all the meetings are held. Later we had our last mandatory excursion to the Bundezkanzleramt, aka the Chancellor's Office where Angie hangs out. It is the equivalent to the White House so it was awesome that we got a private tour! Unfortunately, my tour started at 7 PM so Angela Merkel was already gone for the day. It was so cool to be in there and see where she holds her press conferences and the Cabinet meetings. You know how heads of governments will give presents to other foreign heads of government? Well apparently Chancellor Schroeder (the previous Chancellor) gave Bush a chainsaw. Because he heard that Bush's chainsaw broke. After living here in Germany for 3 months, that choice of present does not confuse me at all. And I got to take a picture where Merkel gives her press conferences and where just a few hours previous, she held one with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Sadly, my camera ran out of battery in the morning so I will have to borrow some pictures from my friends. While I was there, we watched a film of a brief history of the federal government in Germany. 


One of the images I saw was West Germany's Chancellor Willy Brandt of his famous Warschauer Kniefall. Seeing this image gave me the chills because I have actually visited the site where Brandt spontaneously knelt down and asked for forgiveness from the Polish people, in regards to the horrors of the past that Hitler and the Nazi regime inflicted upon Poland. On a tour in Warsaw, our tour guide took us to this memorial. She told us that the material it is constructed out of was originally intended for a monument to Hitler, but before the Nazis got a chance to build it, they had been defeated. Instead, the Polish people took the material and built a memorial to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Pretty bad ass if you ask me. Brandt's actions was an act of atonement to the Polish people and was a huge step in furthering his easing of tensions with the East. I definitely feel lucky to have been able to visit a place like that and learn about it.

Willy Brandt's Warschauer Kniefall

My visit to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial

After this nice distraction, I should get back to finishing my two term papers that are due on Monday and Tuesday - I'm almost done! Once I finish these, I will only have my finals and then I will be DONE :]

Pictures from Paris!

Once again, I am avoiding writing my papers. The good thing is that I am almost finished with one paper and now I'm focusing on the second one. Since I am at the Freie Universität library, I will take full advantage of the wonderfully free internet connection and upload my pictures :]

At the Love Lock bridge with Nick

On top of the Eiffel Tower with Sally

Eating my sugar & butter crepe!

View from Trocadero

The Love Wall - look and you can see it in German!

In front of the Louvre

Me with a French soldier at Arc de Triomphe

Where Princess Diana's car crashed & her memorial

French Bakery!

Another view of the Eiffel Tower from the Sein

Sacre Coeur

Moulin Rouge

And in less than 1 month, I will be back in California! It's weird knowing that I only have 2 more weeks of classes, 1 week of finals, and a trip to Vienna to visit Sally!

Back from Paris

Although I had an awesome weekend in Paris, it's good to be back in Berlin. It's not good knowing that I have a ton of work to do since I only have a few more weeks of class left. Since Sally's camera takes such good pictures, I insisted on having her take quite a few - so once I get those I will post some pictures.


Friday - With a little bit of help, I managed to make it to my friend Nick's apartment in the 5th district in Paris. Nick took us on a walking tour of Paris at night and we got to see Notre Dame, the Louvre, and a little bit of the Eiffel Tower. Apparently, every night at the top of the hour, the Eiffel Tower glitters - it looked so cool! After eating a crepe, we met some of Nick's friends at an Irish pub that in no way resembled anything Irish.


Saturday - I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa! It was a lot smaller than I thought it. We wandered around the city and saw the Champs Elysees, Seine River, the Arc de Triomphe, and arrived at the Eiffel Tower. Sally and I were planning to climb it, but the line was really long and we were pretty tired. Also, walking down the Champs Elysees, we noticed a really long line. I assumed it was for a museum or something important. Nope, it was just the line for Abercrombie & Fitch. Not the store opening...just a regular day. Ridiculous!


Sunday - I felt like I had already seen so much of Paris already, so my only goal for the day was to climb the Eiffel Tower. And that I did. Luckily, I had Nick as a tour guide, so I never needed a map, he just led us around all day! After that, we headed over to Sacre Coeur (aka Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris), which is a Catholic church on top of a hill (Montmartre) that had an absolutely amazing view of the city. Afterwards, we headed back down and got to see Moulin Rouge. By that time, it was time for me to catch my flight back to Berlin. I have to say that I'm much less stressed out when I travel and I'm learning to be relaxed, especially when things go wrong. On the way to the airport, I was supposed to get straight on a bus that would take me to the airport, but there were police directing me away from the train station. I found the bus stop and there was a really long line and I found out that the buses were running late due to whatever was going on in the train station. Luckily, the bus came pretty quick and when I went to pay for my ticket, the driver just waved me on through. And people say that the French hate Americans? I thought that they were very friendly to me, even the police! Once I got to the airport, I couldn't remember if I was in the West or South terminal, which are quite a distance from each other. I guessed that I was in the South terminal, went and looked at the departures and I couldn't find my flight on it. So I hopped on a shuttle back to the West terminal and realized that I was looking at the 19:00 times (mistaking it for 9:00 PM) when I should have been looking at the 21:00 times. When I got to the West terminal, I double checked that my flight wasn't in the West terminal and hopped back on the shuttle to the South terminal....whoops!

Ooh la la..

I'm off to Paris for the weekend! Once again, I left packing until the last minute. But I have figured out that if I have my passport, boarding passes, and some money; that's all I really need! I am so excited to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louve, as well as Sally and Nick! I will try not to offend the French by asking only for french toast and french fries.

I miss pierogi and the wonderful Polish exchange rate.

So I finally had a chance to upload all my pictures and sit down and write about my experience in Poland. Although Poland was definitely different that I thought it would be, I ended up having a great time. Throughout the entire trip, I constantly felt that I was living in a different time, it felt surreal. The currency over there is zloty which had an exchange rate of 3:1. I am for sure not a math person, but I found myself dividing everything by 3 to figure out what everything cost in USD. For example, my favorite meal which consisted of a giant plate of pierogi with gravy cost 20 zl. This roughly amounts to just under $6. SO good.

After a long train ride from Berlin to Gdansk, I learned that riding in a train compartment is not at all how it looks in Harry Potter. Apparently we were on a busy train because it was packed. As in people were crammed in every seat, standing/sitting in the aisles and in front of the doors. When I had to leave the train, people saw my bag, picked it up, and passed it along because they knew there was no way I could get through all those people with it.

I loved the city center of Gdansk - it was so picturesque and it truly made me feel like I was living in a different time, circa 1940s. It was a small and quiet town, so after the walking city tour on Saturday, we had seen all there was to Gdansk. On Sunday we took a pirate ship to Westerplatte. Yup we actually traveled on a pirate ship! And Westerplatte was probably one of my favorite places because it was the site of an early battle in WWII between the Germans and Poles. To sum it up, in 1939 there were 180 Polish soldiers posted at Westerplatte armed with 3 guns, 4 mortars, and some machine guns. This was only supposed to last them for 12 hours until reinforcements came. Well these 180 Polish soldiers held off 3500 German soldiers for 7 days. They had to surrender due to the fact that no supplies or reinforcements would be coming, but still, it was probably my favorite story.

The next day we went to Malbork Castle, which is actually the largest castle in Europe by area. This is also where I took the picture of me on the "chamber pot". Sorry but I had to do it! It was actually a single, tall tower that was solely dedicated to being a bathroom.

Then we headed on the train to Warsaw, which was a much bigger city with a lot more going on. I went on a couple of walking tours where I got to see the Royal Castle, Jewish Ghetto, Culture Palace, and my favorite park - Park Lazienkowski. From what I saw of Poland by train, it looks kind of old and a little sad. There was also a lot of construction going on because next year, Poland is co-hosting the EuroCup with Ukraine. But Warsaw is beautiful and Park Lazienkowski is completely gorgeous and now I know what an actual autumn is. On our free day, I spent the day with my friend Danielle playing in the park with all the leaves! I also was lucky enough to see a Chopin concert which was amazing! I felt like I could have listened to that guy play for hours and hours.

Gdansk City Center

Gdansk City Center

At the Torture House!

Only a pirate ship.

Malbork Castle with Danielle

Malbork Castle

In Poland they put vodka in your tea, they did it, not me!

Westerplatte

Chamber pots in Malbork Castle

Playing in the leaves! So pretty!

I have no idea what this is. But it was good!

Soldiers standing guard

Culture Palace at night - according to the Poles, the best view of Warsaw is atop here, because you can't see this building. The Polish apparently hate this building built by Stalin, but its too costly to tear it down.

Remnants of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto

Crazy fog while walking across a huge bridge!

Warsaw's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Outside Park Lazienkowski