(no subject)
Sunday (symptoms lessening, still horrible cough, though at this point I sound a whole lot worse than I feel. My voice was so nasal, that when I was speaking in English to Josh, a bookseller asked me what my native language was): Pottsdam! I was a half hour late and missed the Albert Einstein tower where he conducted gravity experiments, but oh well. That’s what I get for trying to avoid the confusing bus system. After being picked up at the Pottsdam S-Bahn station, we went to Cecilienhof Palace where the last crown prince and his family lived for a time and where the Pottsdam conference was held. The meeting room was still set up for the Big Three and their delegations, and was certainly the highlight of the tour. The rooms were very nicely decorated, but it’s a much, much newer palace and thus cannot compare with the overwhelming opulence of Versailles and the Petersburg Winter Palace. The architecture is rather interesting though sort of Fachwerkhäuserish, and the gardens and forests were very beautiful. (I took pictures of some of the plants and trees Joyce :^) ). Then came a brunch buffet where I finally was able to find some honesttogoodness warm, COOKED, bacon and normal cereals, plus the delicious croissants and European breads :^). And it was free, which was sehr exciting. College has increased my frugality by a factor of 5 at least.
After lunch we had free time to wander around a pedestrian zone in Pottsdam in which Josh (who’s a sophomore baritone student at Eastman) and I made it approximately 50 feet before ending up in a cheap used bookstore (1 euro per book and CD!). It’s fantastic to have a shopping partner who I have to drag out of the bookstore. Miraculously, I only spent three Euros there, walking out with two short novels recommended by the head of Studienforum, and a small book of poems (I’m such a sucker for German poetry, it’s dangerous). We then went a further 50 feet and ended up at a book kiosk where I beat Josh to finding a used book of Goethe poetry for four Euros. After wandering through the rest of the pedestrian zone market and stopping in a nineteenth century church, it was time to meet the rest of the group back at the Pottsdamer Brandenburger Tor and walk to Frederick II (the Great)’s quaint country palace, Sans Soucis. As palaces go, it is rather small, principally because Freddy wanted to use it as a retreat from court life. His wife wasn’t even particularly welcome there, reflected in the fact that most of the doorways aren’t wide enough to accommodate the wide bustles of the eighteenth century. The tour was interesting, and the interior décor was much more opulent, though once again no Versailles, which, considering the palace’s intended reclusive function, makes sense. I particularly liked the library- beautiful wood, crimson curtains and cushions, and many many books in French :^). Frederick II only spoke French, saying that German was for speaking with servants, peasants, and dogs. In his defense, Hochdeutsch had yet to be invented, so German was a fairly agrammatical language at the time, rather unsuitable for poetry and such. After the main palace, we walked through the gardens (the forest and stream were very beautiful, but the main gardens had certainly seen better days) to the Chinese Box, a modest outdoor dining room à la chinoise, lavishly decorated with golden statues. Then we trooped down to the Straße Bahn and rode it to the train station, then took the S-Bahn (Schnell Bahn) back to Berlin.
Monday (cold gradually getting better): Class in the morning (I’m going to stop writing that, so just assume I’m still my usual goody goody two shoes self and not skipping class), then had lunch near Oranienburger Straße w/Josh, then he showed me to a French bookstore. It was a nice break from German (the owner spoke to me in French almost the whole time), and I walked out with a book from an author I recognized from French class and whose book I had liked. Cost me 11 Euros, but ah well. It’s a long book, and it’d cost more to ship it. I’m definitely going to go back since it’s a nice little store with comfy stools that are begging for me to lounge in them. I think I know what I’m going to buy next time too- a collection of short stories by the French author Collette. I really will read them all some time, honest. After that, I took the S-Bahn down to southwestern Berlin and did some travel research in a cheap internet café one of the other students had told me about. Basically, everything except Dresden, Leipzig, or Copenhagen will be far too expensive for my bank account to handle. I may end up just staying here though. The last time I tried to too much, I ended up sick. I also visited the drug store to pick up some nose spray and cough syrup, then went home to practice and relax.
Tuesday (symptoms improving with help of drugs): After school, the whole group met in northern Berlin to ride together to Friedrichshain (NE Berlin) where we had a quick snack in a restaurant, then walked over a nearby theater for our second movie. The plot was ok, but the cameraman was worse than I am with a camera, which is saying something. I felt like I wanted to throw up afterwards, and I was by far not the only one. The more intelligent among us took naps. After waiting for about 40 min for the bus (in the cold and rain, having only a medium weight sweatshirt in defense of the former element), I took it partway, stopped into a bookstore and actually didn’t buy anything (insert applause for amazing restraint on the part of the Christine here), then took the U-Bahn home.
Wednesday (pretty much the same as Tuesday): Panic attack when my ATM card suddenly didn’t work in either the ATM machines or in stores. Luckily, I had just enough money to get lunch at Dunkin Donuts (where the people once AGAIN didn’t seem to understand the “just cream cheese and nothing else on my bagel please” part of my order. I mean, my German certainly isn’t that bad, thank you very much. After panicking, I met up with the group for the Berlin wall tour, this time prepared for the cold with no less than three layers of clothing, including a winter sweater. The tour was interesting, including Check point Charlie (again), a piece of the wall (again), the STASI museum where we saw jars containing smell samples so that the German secret police could track down people with trained dogs, and another museum with an observation tower of the death strip. All in all, the tour was interesting and informative, though I think that next time, I’ll take the elevator up to the top of the observation tower. Except for the remaining pieces, and the double brick line that marks where the wall used to be, it’s hard to imagine that the city used to be divided. So many buildings bridge the death strip gap nowadays.
Thursday (not too much progress in the healing dept.): off to Schloß Charlottenburg again, this time to tour the inside (in German). I understood most of the tour, and the rooms inside are much more beautiful that the yellow exterior. I splurged a bit at the gift store on books on S.C. and Sans Souci, since photos were not allowed on the inside.
Friday: Lunch with a few other students at a café near the school, then internet café for a bit more travel research (no exciting new deals, unfortunately), then home for a bit to get changed for the opera (!) again, then off to grab a quick dinner of the most orange spaghetti I had ever seen (tasted pretty normal though), then met the rest of the group at the Staatsoper, a more traditional building than the previous opera’s venue. The music for Beethoven’s only opera was amazing, and the female lead, despite having been flown in from Innsbruck a few hours previous to cover for a sick performer, was fantastic. I’ve decided I rather like opera, esp. since it’s something the whole group does together, and we can hang out afterwards, which we did for a few hours at the same café I had eaten dinner at. Then it was time to head back home and go to bed.
Saturday (cough much worse due to second hand smoke of previous evening): got up late, had breakfast, talked to my parents again :^), then bought some things for lunch at the grocery store across the street, then hopped the U-Bahn bus and met Dan at Pottsdamer Platz for the Bundesrat’s open house day. There were a variety of activities, including a question and answer session in the Bundesrat’s main chamber, tours of the Bundesrat’s president’s office, an exhibition on the 1830-1832 Polish Revolution demonstrating Prussian sympathy for Polish nationalism, and a reading lounge where a bookseller gave me a book of modern German feminist poetry for five euros when it usually would cost 12. The book is rather pretty, and the poems so far seem to be ok, and hey, it only cost me five euros . Just having books seems to make me happy. I grabbed dinner at the stands near the Bundesrat, then legged it over to the Philharmonic to get last minute standing tickets for Stephanie and I. The concert was fantastic, and the concert hall was very impressive, quite possibly the most imposing and well designed piece of contemporary architecture I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure Emanuel Pahud was the principal flute that night too, and he’s one of the best in the world today (and I had a masterclass with him a few years ago!). We ended up sitting on the stairs between the aisles instead of standing, and no one seemed to mind. It was certainly an experience, and I am definitely going to try to go back. Remind me to stay out of the gift shop there please folks. I debated going to Star Wars afterwards, but I decided I’d better not risk the sporadic night bus system without a concrete plan, and also, I’d really rather see the new movie in English first, not only for comprehension’s sake, but because it’ll prolly be better than the dubbed over version.
Today I basically went to the drug store (a two hour adventure to find the one with Sunday hours), practiced, and (will) clean my room and do a bit of hw. Sorry to people whose e-mails I haven’t answered yet- I need to wait till I can get to the internet café again- but please keep sending them to me! And Joyce, that comment was of perfectly acceptable, even exemplary length (hint hint to everyone else). Good night all, and take care!
P.S. Happy (late) Birthday Colin!
After lunch we had free time to wander around a pedestrian zone in Pottsdam in which Josh (who’s a sophomore baritone student at Eastman) and I made it approximately 50 feet before ending up in a cheap used bookstore (1 euro per book and CD!). It’s fantastic to have a shopping partner who I have to drag out of the bookstore. Miraculously, I only spent three Euros there, walking out with two short novels recommended by the head of Studienforum, and a small book of poems (I’m such a sucker for German poetry, it’s dangerous). We then went a further 50 feet and ended up at a book kiosk where I beat Josh to finding a used book of Goethe poetry for four Euros. After wandering through the rest of the pedestrian zone market and stopping in a nineteenth century church, it was time to meet the rest of the group back at the Pottsdamer Brandenburger Tor and walk to Frederick II (the Great)’s quaint country palace, Sans Soucis. As palaces go, it is rather small, principally because Freddy wanted to use it as a retreat from court life. His wife wasn’t even particularly welcome there, reflected in the fact that most of the doorways aren’t wide enough to accommodate the wide bustles of the eighteenth century. The tour was interesting, and the interior décor was much more opulent, though once again no Versailles, which, considering the palace’s intended reclusive function, makes sense. I particularly liked the library- beautiful wood, crimson curtains and cushions, and many many books in French :^). Frederick II only spoke French, saying that German was for speaking with servants, peasants, and dogs. In his defense, Hochdeutsch had yet to be invented, so German was a fairly agrammatical language at the time, rather unsuitable for poetry and such. After the main palace, we walked through the gardens (the forest and stream were very beautiful, but the main gardens had certainly seen better days) to the Chinese Box, a modest outdoor dining room à la chinoise, lavishly decorated with golden statues. Then we trooped down to the Straße Bahn and rode it to the train station, then took the S-Bahn (Schnell Bahn) back to Berlin.
Monday (cold gradually getting better): Class in the morning (I’m going to stop writing that, so just assume I’m still my usual goody goody two shoes self and not skipping class), then had lunch near Oranienburger Straße w/Josh, then he showed me to a French bookstore. It was a nice break from German (the owner spoke to me in French almost the whole time), and I walked out with a book from an author I recognized from French class and whose book I had liked. Cost me 11 Euros, but ah well. It’s a long book, and it’d cost more to ship it. I’m definitely going to go back since it’s a nice little store with comfy stools that are begging for me to lounge in them. I think I know what I’m going to buy next time too- a collection of short stories by the French author Collette. I really will read them all some time, honest. After that, I took the S-Bahn down to southwestern Berlin and did some travel research in a cheap internet café one of the other students had told me about. Basically, everything except Dresden, Leipzig, or Copenhagen will be far too expensive for my bank account to handle. I may end up just staying here though. The last time I tried to too much, I ended up sick. I also visited the drug store to pick up some nose spray and cough syrup, then went home to practice and relax.
Tuesday (symptoms improving with help of drugs): After school, the whole group met in northern Berlin to ride together to Friedrichshain (NE Berlin) where we had a quick snack in a restaurant, then walked over a nearby theater for our second movie. The plot was ok, but the cameraman was worse than I am with a camera, which is saying something. I felt like I wanted to throw up afterwards, and I was by far not the only one. The more intelligent among us took naps. After waiting for about 40 min for the bus (in the cold and rain, having only a medium weight sweatshirt in defense of the former element), I took it partway, stopped into a bookstore and actually didn’t buy anything (insert applause for amazing restraint on the part of the Christine here), then took the U-Bahn home.
Wednesday (pretty much the same as Tuesday): Panic attack when my ATM card suddenly didn’t work in either the ATM machines or in stores. Luckily, I had just enough money to get lunch at Dunkin Donuts (where the people once AGAIN didn’t seem to understand the “just cream cheese and nothing else on my bagel please” part of my order. I mean, my German certainly isn’t that bad, thank you very much. After panicking, I met up with the group for the Berlin wall tour, this time prepared for the cold with no less than three layers of clothing, including a winter sweater. The tour was interesting, including Check point Charlie (again), a piece of the wall (again), the STASI museum where we saw jars containing smell samples so that the German secret police could track down people with trained dogs, and another museum with an observation tower of the death strip. All in all, the tour was interesting and informative, though I think that next time, I’ll take the elevator up to the top of the observation tower. Except for the remaining pieces, and the double brick line that marks where the wall used to be, it’s hard to imagine that the city used to be divided. So many buildings bridge the death strip gap nowadays.
Thursday (not too much progress in the healing dept.): off to Schloß Charlottenburg again, this time to tour the inside (in German). I understood most of the tour, and the rooms inside are much more beautiful that the yellow exterior. I splurged a bit at the gift store on books on S.C. and Sans Souci, since photos were not allowed on the inside.
Friday: Lunch with a few other students at a café near the school, then internet café for a bit more travel research (no exciting new deals, unfortunately), then home for a bit to get changed for the opera (!) again, then off to grab a quick dinner of the most orange spaghetti I had ever seen (tasted pretty normal though), then met the rest of the group at the Staatsoper, a more traditional building than the previous opera’s venue. The music for Beethoven’s only opera was amazing, and the female lead, despite having been flown in from Innsbruck a few hours previous to cover for a sick performer, was fantastic. I’ve decided I rather like opera, esp. since it’s something the whole group does together, and we can hang out afterwards, which we did for a few hours at the same café I had eaten dinner at. Then it was time to head back home and go to bed.
Saturday (cough much worse due to second hand smoke of previous evening): got up late, had breakfast, talked to my parents again :^), then bought some things for lunch at the grocery store across the street, then hopped the U-Bahn bus and met Dan at Pottsdamer Platz for the Bundesrat’s open house day. There were a variety of activities, including a question and answer session in the Bundesrat’s main chamber, tours of the Bundesrat’s president’s office, an exhibition on the 1830-1832 Polish Revolution demonstrating Prussian sympathy for Polish nationalism, and a reading lounge where a bookseller gave me a book of modern German feminist poetry for five euros when it usually would cost 12. The book is rather pretty, and the poems so far seem to be ok, and hey, it only cost me five euros . Just having books seems to make me happy. I grabbed dinner at the stands near the Bundesrat, then legged it over to the Philharmonic to get last minute standing tickets for Stephanie and I. The concert was fantastic, and the concert hall was very impressive, quite possibly the most imposing and well designed piece of contemporary architecture I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure Emanuel Pahud was the principal flute that night too, and he’s one of the best in the world today (and I had a masterclass with him a few years ago!). We ended up sitting on the stairs between the aisles instead of standing, and no one seemed to mind. It was certainly an experience, and I am definitely going to try to go back. Remind me to stay out of the gift shop there please folks. I debated going to Star Wars afterwards, but I decided I’d better not risk the sporadic night bus system without a concrete plan, and also, I’d really rather see the new movie in English first, not only for comprehension’s sake, but because it’ll prolly be better than the dubbed over version.
Today I basically went to the drug store (a two hour adventure to find the one with Sunday hours), practiced, and (will) clean my room and do a bit of hw. Sorry to people whose e-mails I haven’t answered yet- I need to wait till I can get to the internet café again- but please keep sending them to me! And Joyce, that comment was of perfectly acceptable, even exemplary length (hint hint to everyone else). Good night all, and take care!
P.S. Happy (late) Birthday Colin!