update!
Things don't slow down around here, and i wan tot quickly let you know what i've been up to!Friday= afternoon in Potsdam, a city right outside Berlin. Spent a few hours walking around the court of Fredrick II- beautiful gardens, paths, his summer home and the huge main "house". Dessert and tea ensued :) Caught the Germany WC game at a restuarant in Kreuzberg. Friday night I went to another performance in the old Brecht Theater: "Denk an Deutschland" (i think), which was two actors reading, acting, and singing texts of Heine. Beautiful solo piano interludes as well.
Saturday= early wake up and day trip to Dresden, which is 2-3 hours southeast of Berlin. Dresden is a beautiful, old city in former East Germany. A professor from Freie University went with us and gave a great tour of the historic "alte stadt" (old city), saw two incredible churches- the Frauen Kirche, huge St. Basilica like on a smaller scale. Stepped inside the Catholic church briefly and heard the only remaining Silbermann organ in Dresden. Lunch in a touristy, but very German restaurant. Huge ball of flour/egg/butter accompanied the meal... so rich i couldn't stomach it! Germans are intense.
Sunday morning Kat and I checked out the Ev. Lutheran church that is down the block. Lots of 17th century organ and hymn singing. PHILHARMONIE sunday night!!! A Mendelssohn piece (orchestra, soloists, and choir from Humbolt University) was the first half, and the second half, the orchestra played Shostakovich's 5th symphony! AMAZING. such a neat building and listening space! I'll never forget it :)
Monday- class. I particularly love my Jewish Berlin class. We do a lot of reading, but I really am enjoying our discussions. We spent part of the afternoon in the Bavarian Quarter- a nice area in former West Berlin, which had a fair amount of Jews before the war. We spent time walking around the area, which is spotted with over 80 signs up on lamposts, each sign with a restriction written on it that was applied to Jews during the Third Reich. Berlin is choc-full of Memorials I've learned.
July 4! Morning- we went to the Holocaust to the Murdered Jews of Europe memorial. A lot of debate preceded it's implementation, and it's still greatly debated now. 7/4 BBQ hosted at the Berliner Yacht Club on the Wannsee. Dinner followed by swim in the lake :)
Class and 3 hour tour of the REICHSTAG, the Germany Parliament Building. Pretty exhausting 5 days! Finishing up the evening with some "hausaufgabe" and planning a 2 day trip to Prague this weekend with some friends :)
posted by Jayne @ 11:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home