So, my internet here has generally been hanging by a thread and the fact that I am able to sign onto this blog site today is nothing short of a miracle honestly. Oh well, I'm going to buy a new internet stick tomorrow. It'll cost me a bit more than the one I have now, but hey, I want to be able to skype you beautiful people. Aka: you're worth it. So, lots has happened in a week; days here seem to be filled with way more activities and emotions than in my normal home life. I suppose this makes sense; we're supposed to make the most out of our time here, which means cramming an ungodly large amount of things into one day. But hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. One of the most exciting yet terrifying events of the last week or so was my apartment building catching on fire. I live on the 10th floor here, in an old 70's style apartment building made out of concrete and what not. It's quite ugly on the outside honestly. But anyways, on Tuesdays from 6-7 we can go and buy the coins we need to use the washing machines down on the first floor. So, I went down at 6 sharp (I needed those damn coins.. still do.. ) and the elevator opened to a bunch of firemen storming through the door only to find me, the confused american, staring at them. Of course they started asking me questions in really fast and stressed German, which let me tell you, sounds so unbelievably angry, you have no idea. Ok, maybe you do, but still. My immediate reaction was to pretend I didn't understand German and run up the 10 flights of stairs to my apartment (which had smoke passing my window and balcony.. the fire was on the seventh floor), grabbed my laptop and passport.. yes.. the two most important things, oh and my cellphone, and then ran back down. I ended up going to Senta's for the rest of the evening and just hanging out with her while the situation was taken care of. Apparently a woman's oven was left on and started the apartments on fire. I really don't know much about it, but my apartment is fine, it was just a really confusing situation. But, hey, it spiced up this blog a little!


Ok, so, in regards to my title of this post, I went to Berlin this weekend! The IUSP program which I am in here took myself and 43 other American/Canadian/Australian/New Zealand/Mexican students to Berlin for the weekend to help us all bond and to allow us to see a little of Germany. We only really did three main planned activities with the group, otherwise we were left a ton of freedom. This was a little strange to me, because in any other trips I've taken with school or any programs, we always had a strict schedule with rules and what not, but in Germany, this is definitely not the case. True, we're way older than the high school groups which do these usual trips, and should be guaranteed this additional freedom, but holy man. They really didn't give a crap about what we were doing, except when a few students were late for the bus ride back to Marburg. So yep. I spent my time in a variety of ways.

Thursday night we arrived late to Berlin after an approximately 8 hour bus ride (with two minor stops). It was already about 9:30 when we got there, so a few girls and I went on a short walk around the block by our hostel and then just went to bed. It really wasn't all that exciting, but our hostel was really quite nice. I'd never stayed in one, and was actually quite skeptical before we got there but hey, I'd definitely recommend testing them out! It gives you really the cool, chill, traveling student feel. I don't know how to explain it, but it's definitely ... rad? hmm. Ok well I tried.

Saturday we woke up early, ate a free breakfast at the hostel (which was actually pretty legit.. yay for hot rolls!) and then went on a walking tour of Berlin. We really put on the miles this weekend, walking everywhere. I probably walked across Berlin and back about 5 times over, but hey. I saw a ton of cool stuff that I wouldn't have seen had I been on a bus tour or something. And sometimes, you really find the most beautiful things hidden away in the back alleys or off roads... so in the words of Robert Frost or whoever, take the path less beaten. Ok, thats enough thoughtful advice. But yes, I saw things such as the famous TV tower, the Brandenburgtor, Alexandersplatz, churches, museums, the oldest University in Berlin; a ton of very beautiful, very old and very interesting sites. One of my personal favorites of the stops on our tour was a memorial to all the books burnt in this one square during Hitler's reign. Through a panel of glass in the middle of the square there is an empty library with enough shelves to hold 20,000 books; the number of books burnt on that night. It was really quite a powerful memorial.

On a lighter note, I saw a chocolate shop in which they built the Brandenburgtor, the Titanic, a famous Church in Berlin and something else I can't remember out of pure, German chocolate. Hmm, it's like I can almost sense your mouths just watering over this from about 5,000 miles away. Glorious. Me being not completely in love with this product, wasn't nearly as amused as you all probably would have wished. I attempted to take photos, but they didn't turn out so great. Let me know if you're interested in seeing them though. Or if you want to know more about my tours; if I continued writing about them, you'd be reading a short novel. Here are some pictures though.. what you all reeeeally want to see haha.

These are from infront of the American Embassy ^^ :)

Feet by the Berlin Wall .. well where it used to be, that is. 

So that, in a capstone, is my first day in Berlin.  I clearly didn't post all the photos from that day, so again, let me know if you'd like to see more.  I took approximately 300, so I have plenty to share.  The second day I was extremely exhausted and didn't end up waking up until about 11 am.  At 2 I met up with the group and we went to the East Side Gallery, which is parts of the Berlin wall which have been painted with huge murals.  Before going to the wall, I just figured it would be some graffiti with little impact on me; just some unique artwork to write home to my Uncle John about.  However, to my genuine surprise, the emotion and impact of the art on me was quite strong.  Each painting held so many feelings; both faith and disappointment in humanity, anger, frustration, empowerment, hope, strength.  They were all there, screaming out from the small slabs of concrete with such a power that I am still, almost one week later, totally amazed.  I sound so odd even to myself writing so strongly about what some would call simple wall art, but I guess something about that wall just intrigued me.  If you're ever in Berlin, go see it, and then tell me if I'm completely off my rocker, or at least still on the edge. I apologise for turning this entry into a mini photo album, but hey, I figure you'd like to see at least some of them to gain an image to go with my writings.  Ok so the wall.

(Freedom)

Ok, so maybe my pictures really aren't of the super serious wall art that "moved" me.  But hey, they're still pretty cool.  Some are pretty bold, but oh well.  Welcome to Europe I suppose.  Sunday we basically just woke up and took the bus back to Marburg, which again, took forever.  My Ipod became my best friend.

In other news, classes began here on Monday.  I have German language class from 9-1 everyday, Monday through Friday, and then a German Culture Course from 2-4.  The language class is really long; no matter what spin you put on learning Grammar and sentence structure, four hours is not fun.  Reality of life.  But oh well, I'm learning, which is the most important factor.  It's actually kind of a neat experience, that class, because my classmates are from all across the world, and many don't speak english.  Therefore, we are ultimately forced to converse in German.  It's a new experience for me, but it's forcing me to practice more than I ever have before in my entire 7 years of learning German.  The girl who sits next to me in class is from the Ivory Coast, Africa.  She's definitely interesting.  One thing I did notice about class here though, is that people are very free with their cellphones.  A girl from Saudi Arabia answers hers like twice a day.. in the middle of class.  Like, oh, you  know, whatever.  It's chill.  And the professors just keep going.  At home they'd have a hissy fit and probably complain about not earning enough to deal with us students, but I guess they just really don't care here.  Completely mind blowing. 
It's raining here, almost always.  I should be completely annoyed and burnt out with this city and wishing to be home in the sun and the warmth, but I can't seem to fall out of love with this country, the people, the little cultural differences and the language.  People are always asking me, are you homesick yet?  Granted it's only been two weeks, but considering I haven't had an ounce of homesickness yet, I'm wondering to myself, is this where I've always belonged?  I mean yes, Green Bay will always be my home, and I'm an American no matter how hard I try to perfectly match my outfits.  But, when i'm here, its almost another home to me.  It's comforting and relaxing.  I'm not having a difficult time adjusting to the culture (except figuring out how to keep my shower at one constant temperature...) so everything is just great.  This experience I'm having now, well, I already know it's going to be the time of my life.  This has always been my dream, and I'm so unbelievably thankful that it is turning out to be truly everything I ever wished it could be.  And on that note, I'm going to go sop through the rain, mud and puddles, jump on a city bus, go to my old apartment building, and crawl into my warm German bed fresh from IKEA.  Oh and before I forget, if any of you ever come to Germany, don't buy the prepackaged meals or one step pastas.