Caspar David Friederich
Today I went on a field trip with the 5th grade class downtown to the local library. It's amazing how much the background noise is reduced when there is a whole children's section of movies, books, and computers to occupy them (and how much noise there is otherwise!). The teacher let them stop at a playground on the way back and scrambling all around on this play train they looked more like 1st graders then 5th graders...its a nice way to be in the world, to find everything so fascinating, to get totally wrapped up in stuff, to just play. It was really fun to watch, sitting there in the sunshine.
I managed to open a bank account today, so that's exciting...although, not really that exciting because I have to wait 1 week for the money from my traveler's checks to show up there and 2 weeks for my actual card so that I can withdraw money. They seem to like the weeks of waiting thing here...
The house Caspar David Friederich grew up in is now a museum, which I paid 50 cents to visit today... This grand museum consisted of: some copies of his sketches, the original basement which was his father's soap and candle shop--and a few sliding glass boards explaining his history (which were actually located in the gift shop). I think it was the smallest museum I've ever visited.
On Sunday there's an election in Meck-Pom for the state senate (Landtagswahl), so there's posters and placards everywhere. Of course the most interesting ones are those of the fringe parties and here that's especially the leftist parties, like the PDS and NPD (in case you know anything about German political parties...). Like the popular one for the NPD just says "Es reicht" (as in, its enough!) and thus, time to vote for them. These parties some see as Neo-Nazis, but this state is largely farmland and there are definitely some people that agree with them here. Citizens here are worried that not very many people will vote and then the only people who do vote will vote for these fringe parties, who will then gain more control of legislation. The PDS "The Linke" (the left) had a rally in the Marktplatz today, with a band playing, flyers being handed out and even a plane flying overhead saying "Vote PDS". It should be interesting to see what Sunday brings...
I managed to open a bank account today, so that's exciting...although, not really that exciting because I have to wait 1 week for the money from my traveler's checks to show up there and 2 weeks for my actual card so that I can withdraw money. They seem to like the weeks of waiting thing here...
The house Caspar David Friederich grew up in is now a museum, which I paid 50 cents to visit today... This grand museum consisted of: some copies of his sketches, the original basement which was his father's soap and candle shop--and a few sliding glass boards explaining his history (which were actually located in the gift shop). I think it was the smallest museum I've ever visited.
On Sunday there's an election in Meck-Pom for the state senate (Landtagswahl), so there's posters and placards everywhere. Of course the most interesting ones are those of the fringe parties and here that's especially the leftist parties, like the PDS and NPD (in case you know anything about German political parties...). Like the popular one for the NPD just says "Es reicht" (as in, its enough!) and thus, time to vote for them. These parties some see as Neo-Nazis, but this state is largely farmland and there are definitely some people that agree with them here. Citizens here are worried that not very many people will vote and then the only people who do vote will vote for these fringe parties, who will then gain more control of legislation. The PDS "The Linke" (the left) had a rally in the Marktplatz today, with a band playing, flyers being handed out and even a plane flying overhead saying "Vote PDS". It should be interesting to see what Sunday brings...