Courtney

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-07-16T23:41:00

2006-07-16T22:25:31Z

Today I went to the Wannsee, which is a beautiful lake outside of Berlin. I saw an old man with a handlebar mustache wearing a speedo, but I didn't take a picture of him. Yesterday I went to the Love Parade and I'll dedicate an entire post to that after I've gone through the hundreds of photos I took. On thursday I took the final for my politics class. I come back next sunday and I can't believe it.

Under the cut:
1. Pictures from the world cup finals

2. Pictures from the zoo

Last weekend was the world cup finals. The game took place in Berlin, and by noon Potsdamer Platz was filled.

Nadia, Allie and I went to Olympia Stadion to find a bar where we could watch the game.

Weltmeisterschaft crowds

Italian fans

We didn't find a bar, but we did find this warehouse where someone had installed a big screen tv. It seemed like there were mostly italians, but maybe that's just because they were louder. It was a lot of fun.

AND NOW, THE ZOO!

The zoo was pretty neat. Here I am with some pigs.

Allie and the rhino.

It was really hot, so Vanessa, Nadia and Lindsay went in the fountain with all the little kids.

Seriously, I can't wait to show you Love Parade pictures. Stay tuned!

Wir bummeln durch den Stadt

2006-07-12T22:20:36Z

I have two tests tomorrow (why am I updating?), so I sat in this pizza place and studied but mostly people-watched for three hours earlier tonight.

Pictures from the walk home.

Last friday I went to the turkish market in Kreuzberg with Nadia and Alex. It poured about fifteen minutes after we got there. I went back on tuesday though and bought olives, mixed nuts, nectarines, a cucumber, and several meters of fabric for 7 euros.

Last week I also saw the Prime Minister of Aserbaidschan give a talk on the relationship between Aserbaidschan and the EU.

This place has become one of our hang out places. Beers for 2 euros, pizza for 3, hookah for 4. We even study there.

"Wasps, Horseflies, and Mosquitos: How to protect oneself from summer insects." This german newspaper knows exactly what is on my mind!

My politics class went out for dinner the other night after a debate on Turkey and European enlargement.

candid shots!

the fernsehturm

It's the tallest building in Berlin!

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche

Holocaust Memorial

Grzegorz, Elio, Drew and Grant at the IES center.

Prater Garten in Prenzlauer Berg, my favorite part of the city.

This picture is also of a scene in Prenzlauer Berg. It's from last saturday after Germany won against Portugal. People filled the streets and just kind of hung around because everyone was in a good mood and didn't want to go home yet.

Jewish bakery/restaurant that we ate lunch at one day.

His shirt said "Help! I'm getting married." He asked for a kiss but I just signed his shirt.

I'm not exactly sure why we're posing like this.
THE END!

What I've done that I don't have pictures of: Yesterday I went to an open-air movie theater in Volkspark Friedrichshain. They were showing a french movie about a lighthouse, dubbed in german, and I could only understand a little bit of it so I was kind of bored. The set-up was great though and I wish there was something like it in Boston. I also watched "Sonnenallee" in german class yesterday and that was in German and I did understand a lot of it. It was teen-riffic and about life in East Berlin during the cold war and I loved it.

Last night I had my first night bus experience. I didn't realize that the trains have only been running all night because of the world cup. It's kind of a bummer, but the bus is actually pretty convenient and takes me right to the station near my house, so I shouldn't have any complaints.

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-07-10T23:17:00

2006-07-10T22:34:25Z

Today in german class Dan made a german pun. The professor asked us to pass in the postcards we were supposed to write for homework, and he said "Mine is a little brief!" Brief means letter in german. LOL!

I don't feel like writing about this now! But here are pictures and they're pretty nice.

Alexis, Jeff and Dan waiting to get on the overnight train.

Here's Marie in our train car. Although she and I were the shortest people in our car, we totally called top bunks.

J. Scott Vandermeed and Sabine came with us! Scott is the head of Brandeis Study Abroad and Sabine is a german professor at Brandeis who is also teaching a Jewish history course for this program.

I woke up and looked out the train and this is what I saw.

We got to Poland around 9am, had breakfast and set out for a five hour tour of Krakow with this woman:

About 80% of what she said was "neh neh neh neh" and she had her eyes closed whenever she talked because she was concentrating so hard on speaking english. "Neh neh neh there are neh neh 100 Jews in Krakow neh neh now I take you neh neh neh to the church neh neh of Pope John Paul II."

I can't tell you anything about most of these buildings because I was really tired and not really paying much attention to our crazy polish tour guide. But they sure are nice buildings!

Lucky bell

No fatties allowed in the bell tower.

Inside St. Mary's Church

Traditional polish dancing and singing is so fun! I'm not joking, it's a kind of dancing I could really get into.

The next day was our trip to the Slovakian border for another tour of a castle and a river boat ride. On the way, there was traffic that slowed us down for about an hour. Thomas juggled for everybody:

As did Lindsay:

medieval castle

in the dungeon

Riverboat ride along the Slovakian boarder!

It started raining fifteen minutes into the two hour tour.

EY ZIDANE VAFFANCULO EY!!!

2006-07-09T22:34:50Z

I just watched the world cup finals in this giant warehouse or something next to Olympia Stadium with a bunch of Italians. wowie-wowah!

Haben Sie eine Flasche Wodka?

2006-07-02T06:30:37Z

Pretty much everyone in Berlin speaks english, so even when I try to speak german to them they usually hear my accent and respond in english. In Poland it was nice to be able to use my german when I needed to because a lot of older people there (especially in the countryside, which is beautiful by the way) don't speak english but do speak german.

More about Krakow, Pope John Paul II's church, a riverboat ride in the pouring rain, my thoughts on overnight trains, and the trip to Auschwitz later.

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-06-24T23:05:00

2006-06-24T21:09:18Z

I went to the Jewish Museum today and the lady at the door wouldn't accept my Brandeis ID for the student discount because it doesn't have a date on it. I wanted to be like, "Did you see? I go to BRANDEIS! Jews LOVES Brandeis, you should let me in for free."

I think my host mom has a boyfriend. A man in leather pants came over today and they rode off on his motorcycle.

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-06-24T12:03:00

2006-06-24T10:37:32Z

About 35 of the 40 or so people on my program went to Prague this weekend. I'm a little bummed they're not around, but I'm using this as an opportunity to do the things I want to do and not just go to the internet cafe/beer store or a pool hall or the irish pub because that's what everyone is doing. Also, we leave for Poland on wednesday and after that we only have three weekends left, and I'd like to go to Holland one weekend to visit Mike, Andrea, Rachel and Marnee. I want to spend time in this city. When I explained this to one guy on my program, he actually said, "We've been in Berlin for a week and a half, what else is there to see?" I thought he was joking, but nope! I don't dislike anyone, but I think a lot of them came here more for the World Cup than for Berlin itself.

I had a really nice day yesterday. I hung out with Alex, a guy on my program who also decided not to go to Prague. We drank beers and lounged around in this park:

Ok, so I don't have any pictures of the park, but you can tell from that sign how big it is. Later on we ate indian food and I discovered that Alex has a swing in his room! He hadn't noticed it because it was tucked up in that rafter.

The other day was la Fete de la Musique. On every June 21st in Berlin for the last ten years or so, there are parties and concerts all over the city in different parks and clubs to celebrate the longest day of the year. I was going to a beer garden with Nadia and Jan to watch the Argentina-Holland game when we stumbled upon a park where this german ska band was playing a show. There were a bunch of people there and we stayed a while and danced and it was a lot of fun.

This is where Michael Jackson had the baby dangling incident!

And this is what remains of the Berlin Wall.

This is a sign at Checkpoint Charlie, one of the crossing points between East and West Germany during the Cold War.

On the square across the street from Humboldt University (which, btw, was the site of many Nazi book burnings) is a touristy art exhibit called "The Buddy Bears."

Each bear was designed by an artist to be a symbol of his or her home country. Obviously this is the United States Buddy Bear.

I like the one in the middle.

Serbia and Montenegro's Bear is covered in bullet holes.

Unfortunately I didn't get to take a picture of my favorite because my camera ran out of batteries. My favorite bear was Moldova's, which showed a cartoony traditionally dressed Moldovian man showing a cartoony tourist where Moldova is on a map. Now I know where Moldova is! Educational and a good sense of humor.

Last but not least, one of my favorite places to go and watch games...because there is more to do than watch games.

There is usually live music and a lot of people around. It's pretty nice.

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-06-18T22:05:00

2006-06-18T20:29:33Z

On Saturday I went on the IES field trip to Potsdam. Potsdam is located to the southwest of Berlin and was part of East Germany after WWII. The city is interesting because it has these beautiful old Prussian castles and historic buildings that went unmaintained for years while it was occupied by the Soviets. Even where there have been renovations, the Soviet style architecture of all the post-war buildings makes it a really strange looking city.

The Soviet Union wanted to distance itself from the Prussian legacy, so it had no problem knocking down the castle that once stood next to that church and building that yellow office building.

We love 9:30am tours on saturday mornings.

One of the areas that has been renovated.

And right across the street, a building that hasn't been renovated. This is what pretty much all of the buildings in Potsdam looked like after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Old Dutch Quarter kind of reminded me of Boston.

Frederich the Great's Castle, Sanssouci

errrbody

the greenhouse at Sanssouci

DAS IST ALLES. I have a german test tomorrow I have to study for. Tschus!

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-06-18T20:41:00

2006-06-18T18:42:31Z

HEY DAD, HAPPY FATHERS DAY! I found your store in Potsdam.

WELTMEISTERSCHAFT VERRUECKTHEIT

2006-06-15T16:49:31Z

Germany won its second game in the first round last night, which means that they'll move on to the second round. They scored in the 91st minute, putting them ahead 1-0 against Poland. It was a great game, so of course Berlin was kind of wild last night (Don't worry Mom and Dad, wild in a nice and friendly way!) I took this video in the train station right outside a part of the city where a lot of people go to watch the games.

There is a specific kind of funny reserved for germans singing american pop music.

2006-06-14T09:39:31Z

I've only seen one bee since I got here and I can buy two beers for a Euro. There are also amazing flea markets all over the city on the weekends. I love Berlin.

Yesterday my politics professor took us on a short walking tour of the city. Croatia played last night, so at times it kind of looked like Berlin had turned into a Where's Waldo? puzzle with a bunch of people dressed in red and white to throw you off from finding the real Waldo:

Most of what I do here revolves around soccer games. Most of the plans anyone on the program makes begin with meeting somewhere to watch a game, then ending up at a bar or just walking around the city because it stays light until around 11pm (and then gets light again around 3:30am!) I've met a few german people and talked to them in some sort of English-German hybrid about anything from Spongebob Squarepants to George W. Bush to how they struggle with having been told since they were very young that their grandparents were murderers. Berliners have been very friendly, except for one group of drunk guys who threw pebbles at our table and started saying "god save the queen!" We told them we weren't British but they didn't understand.

Classes started last friday. German class is kind of a mess because the teacher speaks very little english, but I've found that you can get points with language teachers for being enthusiastic and having no shame when they make you do silly things like sing the "Der Perfekt Hamburg Trip Rap" (an-an-an-angekommen!) Anyways, because she speaks in german the entire class, I'm sure my german comprehension will get better, so at least that's good.

Last but not least,

This is my room.

There is also a table and a dresser but I didn't take pictures of them.

This is the view from my room. That big metal structure once had something to do with storing fuel, or something.

This is the balcony off the den.

And here is the kitchen. Like the rest of the apartment, it's brand new and very modern. It even has a dishwasher, which is uncommon in Germany. You can also see the unfinished porch right off the kitchen.

And this is the view off the porch. Schoen nett!

Here are some pictures

2006-06-12T21:30:49Z

Here I am with Marie and Nikki. We're drinking our first german beers.

And here we are drinking our first beers in the subway! It's legal!

Just one more alcohol-related photo...

Berlin isn't just about beer. There's also the World Cup.

I went to Brandenburger Tor with a few friends to watch the first game and it was wild.

Marie and I are Deutschland fans.

Last but not least, Dunkin Donuts! The serving sizes are tiny here. Nadia ordered a small fruit coolata and it was smaller than a small coffee is in an american Dunkin Donuts.

Soon I'll post pictures of my apartment, but for now I think this is enough. Ich liebe Berlin, aber muss ich jetzt mein Hausafgaben machen. Tschus!

I have to change these blog colors soon

2006-06-09T20:13:48Z

European people have such a great way of wearing hats. Take, for example, British Airlines:

Also, the U-Bahn employees here in Berlin wear berets and look really sharp. It's almost too fancy.

But enough about hats, I love this city. Today was the kick-off day of the world cup. Germany won the it's first game against Costa Rica. I bought a Deutschland flag and went to this huge amphitheater to watch the game with two girls on my program from Brandeis, Nadia and Nikki, and a girl from Georgetown named Marie, but my knees were getting sunburnt and we wanted to be drinking cold german beers, so we left. We found this Vietnamese restaurant in Mitte where the owners were drilling holes in the wall to install a newly-purchased tv just in time for the game! Ubertoll!

My apartment is amazing. I live on the sixth floor and my room has two huge skylights. There are no curtains though so I woke up at 3:30 this morning beause it was getting light in my room. I've solved that problem by just getting a skarf and wrapping it around my head. My host mother said she would get curtains soon. My host mother is a typical tall, thin, blonde and somewhat private german woman. Her tall, athletic, blonde son came over for dinner the other night (he doesn't live here, he's 26) and made fun of me for not being able to pronounce his name (Mauriz, pronounced Mao-r-r-r-itz or something). They're both very nice and speak english very well, so I haven't really been speaking that much german. There is a french girl who also lives in the apartment, and because she speaks no english and I speak no french, we have to speak german. I haven't seen her much because we're on different schedules, but I feel like it would be really good for my language development if I sat down and talked with her.

I'm going out again in a couple minutes. I'm going to the Prenzlauerberg in the northeastern part of the city with a few people to see what's around there. Oh, and did I mention I'm being really friendly? This kid on my program came up to me and said "You're the friendly girl, what's your name again?" I'm almost surprised by myself, go me for not being awkward. I just don't want anyone to feel left out because we're only here for seven weeks, so what's the point of not asking someone to come along? Wow, Berlin is so fun. And this paragraph is so disjointed, so I think it's time for me to go. Tsusch!

my cell phone number abroad

2006-06-02T20:31:38Z

+49 17610071044

cour_in_berlin @ 2006-06-02T00:40:00

2006-06-02T04:41:24Z

This is my journal for my study abroad trip to Berlin!