Hallo aus Berlin!

the Wall

I forgot my key before running out the door to school this morning, so I'm locked out of the apartment until Katherine gets back from an errand. So here I am in the internet cafe on the corner of the block that has been my home for the last 4 weeks. It is interesting, definately far fewer Germans have personal computers and internet than Americans, so internet cafes, particularly in large cities such as Berlin, are very popular for the local population.

When I walk down Adalbertstrasse (our street) to the internet cafe or busstop, I cross a 'canal', which is actaully a very long park that is about 10 meters across and lies parallel with a road. It is the former No-man's Land that lied between the two walls (the Berlin Wall was actually at least two walls, with No-mans land (a death strip) in between). And this afternoon after classes, we had a group outing to the Berlin Wall Documentation center in Berlin. We had a detailed tour outside by a section of wall. The history of how the wall went up over time, flight attempts, the differences between the West and East, how the wall got more advanced to ward of escape attempts is all fascinating. Today only 280 meters of the wall remain around all of Berlin. People might wonder why more wasn't kept up to memorialize the 30 years that the wall stood, but in 1989, Germans were scared and really just wanted to get rid of it.

Had another doener for lunch today- so I think I'm averaging about one a week here. One of my favorite things is just noticing local residents gathered with a friends or even just solo standing outside such 'Imbiss' stands eating their lunch or dinner.

So it's supposed to be about 100 degrees here tomorrow -- i really will be appreciating the air conditioning and ice cubes when i get back home!

posted by Jayne @ 7:50 AM