Some random fillers...

Oh Gaul...it's been a month...hehe let's just agree that I'll post when I post, k guys? Es tut mir so leid! It's been a heck of a month full of lots of adventures of all degrees. For the next little while I think I'll just put a stream of favorite photos and stuff...whatever...I'll stop trying to prep you for what may or may not be coming after this...but I will say that these are some highlights from June in Berlin.

We completely broke down and went to see Avengers 3D in English when it first came out. But ih, man, it was worth it. Seriously, it was amazing! I wasn't sure what to expect going into it, but was utterly mind-blown by everything. Iron Man was especially hilarious, most particularly when talking to Captian America or Thor. We almost went back to see it again. This time, since it was new, the theater was full of all ages and so we were not the only ones audibly reacting to the movie. But perhaps that's because it was playing in English....Please know that we are not pointing to the Titanic poster, rather the Avengers.

This is the ceiling of the Sony Center, where we saw the Avengers. At night the colors continually change. It's huge!

Hailey and I on top the Franzoesicher Dom ("French Cathedral") in Berlin

Elise...so high above that maddening crowd.

Der Franzoesicher Dom

We climbed some 275 steps up this amazing spiral staricase in the Franzoesicher Dom's belltower. And while we were there, the bells rang and it was glorious; we had to celebrate the moment.

Which we actually did by getting some delicious ice cream across the street! Our entire group got one, and I don't know if the cashier was happy for the business or more annoyed by us all coming at once. Descending, like the mad students we are!

Inside the church/museum described below

Entrance to the church/musuem

Inside the New Guard House, (designed by Schinkel) is this. This empty room. With one statue, on one engraved plaque, under one open-air sky-light. It is a reproduction of a work by Kaethe Kollwitz (whose museum we later went to!) It's modelled after Michelangelo's Pieta of Mary and the dead Christ. This is entitled simply Mother with Dead Son. It's a memorial to all the soldiers who died in the world wars and their families, most especially their mothers. Kollwitz's son died in the war and she became almost obsessed with her own kind of muckraking on war. She mourned the "necessity" of sending sons, fathers, brothers onto the battlefield because of, ultimately, someone else's pride or greed. She was and older artist. I just really liked this set up; the mother clutches her son's body and year-round is subjected to the elements. She's rained on, snowed on. It just seemed really powerful and fitting. But please, don't take this praise as my own protest against war exactly...it's just when you look at history and take it all in, so many patterns rise forth and in the end I just want to go up to humanity and shake their hand and pat them on the back for all the noble and good things and then simultaneously bonk them on the forehead with the heel of my palm for all the stupidity and selfishness. Ok, ok, off my soapbox now...

Just for comparison, this is a copy of Michelangelo's Pieta that we saw in the crypt beneath St. Hedwig's church. Mary and the body of Christ. And yes, there is seriously a church named that. And yes, many references to Harry Potter's owl were made that day. :)

WE WENT TO THE OPERA! No, seriously. We saw Wagner's The Valkyries in the Deutsche Oper house! And oh crap it was epic! It's all about the Norse gods and we had THIRD ROW SEATS!!!!!!! I love being a student in Germany, because Germany loves us and gives is discounts for everything. I'm part of the smaller opera and theater class here so we've going to several things, but this was our first. Keaton, Elise and I could not believe our seats.

We could see the orchestra in the pit! Do you see those harps? Oh, man this music is so amazing live. I could FEEL it! And oh, the voices were just mind-blowing. Before, I'll be honest, my mom and I liked to kinda make fun of opera singers. And I think in recordings our mockery was a little justified, but it is not the same live. They have no mikes. Guys, their voices are just that incredibly HUGE that they can overwhelm and entire massive opera house. Oh and the set was freakin awesome too.
 

This was great. We went to the New (?) National Gallerie and got to see some pretty awesome and famous sculpture and paintings. This is one of the casts of the Thinker. Have you guys seen Night at the Smithsonian? Hehe, oh dear. Well, I'm dinking, I'm diiiinking, I'mmmm...diiii...nnkinnnnngggggg....

WAGNER!!!! Dude, we just went to see his opera, which a new experience for me, though not as much for Elise cause she's awesome and knows way more about music than I ever shall, but we were both rather excited to see him...er...his portrait.

This is by Caspar David Friedrich, who is possibly the entire class's favorite now. Have you guys ever read Tennyson's "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tinern Abbey"? I love that poem. And I've been to that abbey in Wales and it kinda looks like this, even though there's no connection, except in my own head between the two. Friedrich, was of course German...not Welsh. Anywho, he's cool.

This is a painting by Schinkel, that same guy who was also and architect. The dude's good, right? I liked this one a lot. It's hard to see in this, but there's even a peacock.

MONET"S SUMMER!!! I saw a Monet!!! And I think I was actually prepared enough to appreciate it.

GAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! This is Psyche and Cupid! From one of my two favorite myths ever! Next to Ariadne and Dionysus they are my favorite, and actually have a bit of a "better" story. It is one of the only cute, sweet, happy love-story endings in all of Greek and Roman mythology. I'm not kidding. You should look it up. I squealed like the mature college student I am. Technically at this point in the story, when she drips her candle wax on him accidentally while seeing him for the first time, she shouldn't yet have her butterfly wings, because he didn't maker her a goddess until later, but whatever. She's cool. Who else has butterfly wings and marries the god of love?

Elise, Hailey, and I on top of the Berliner Dom, which is massive and intense, but never actually Catholic. It was always a Protestant church even though it is every bit as elaborate as most cathedrals.

Der Berliner Dom

I promise this was not me, but the graffiti, though technically defiling the Dom, seemed pretty perfect as we gazed across the expanse of Berlin before us. I'm in Europe, and I'm pretty darn happy.

 

 

Elise, Hailey, and I in front of the stage for our second opera, the Marriage of Figaro. It was hilarious! And though very different from the Valkyries, still really great. The stage here is framed by an arch of flowers, you know like a huppa. (Anyone seen Gilmore Girls, when Luke builds one for Lorelei? That's what I kept thinking of...)

So one Saturday morning I'm lazing around just reading in bed and Elise decides to make some eggs for breakfast. To her dismay she pulls out an egg with a feather on top. She came in to me in complete confusion and disbelief. A pretty ridiculous version of the debate, which came first- feather or egg? ensued.

So how perfect is this? This was the night Germany beat Portugal, right after the end whistle. We came late to the watch the game at the Fan Mile, which stretches between the Brandenburg Gate here and the Victory Column. We came up out of the U-Bahn station right as we won and the confettti was shot off.

Despite our lack of proper attire, Haiely, Keaton, and I figured we had to celebrate with the Germans, though not quite to the same extent. It was amazing to be there with the entire city celebrating, but also a little gross....Beer was everywhere. No, seriously. This woman accidentally nudged a drunk couple and the guy completely freaked and threw his beer all over her. She was drenched! Unfortunately so was my entire left leg, since I was walking right behind her. Mmmm, nothing says German like a beer-covered blonde, right?

This is the Siegessaeule, or the Victory column, which is the opposite end of the FanMile when Germany plays soccer (cough, true football, cough).

Later we climbed to the top of it too and this is one of the views. It now stands at the center of a round-about in the center of Tiergarten, the biggest park in Berlin. It used to be somewhere else in the city, but was taken down during the war for safe-keeping and then re-set-up here afterwards.

Sorry, I just thought the spiral staircase inside was rather impressive. Apparently BYU wants us to have really toned calf muscles by the end of this trip. So many stairs!!!

We had a fireside one Sunday in a memorial park for the Berlin Wall. A church member who had lived in the Est the entire time told us his experience of the war and particularly the day the wall came down. It was awesome to hear this guy and his wife while sitting in it's shadow...literally. Once it came down, graffiti finally began to cover the East side, which was kept white during the war.  We enjoyed some samples in particular this goofy little angel.

...and this word. It's not German. And not English, though it looks a lot like His Toe...of course as my dad already so cleverly pointed out, for the picture it ought to have read, Her Toe.

Further down are just these internal metal bars. We were of course obliviously not being silly or irreverent in the slightest and merely trying to evoke all the emotions around the wall and the separation it caused. You know, like desperation to be on the other side (Lisa, Becca, Juliana, and I), depression at being trapped (Elise), and apparently satisfaction and contentment with the situation too (Renae).

So while waiting to meet our group one morning we were rather early and had time to kill. So naturally as we waited in front of Berlin's most iconic structure through which kings walked, the statue on top of which Napoleon stole when he first paraded through, and in front of which Hitler rallied the Nazis, JFK declared himself a jelly-filled donut (ein Berliner=pastry, Berliner= inhabitant of Berlin, a translation mistake I think I already explained), and Reagan proclaimed, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" and later David Hasselhof (yes, the Baywatch guy) sang Looking for Freedom after the wall fell, in front of this gate Elise and I finally broke down and became true tourists posing proudly between these chatty officers. Best part? The American soldier had a Russian accent. No joke.

Week "2" or How to Speak like Flock of Doves

Alrighty, so I’m already kinda behind. And by kinda I mean rather a lot. Dang! And I really can’t count because the first entry was more like week one and half and so this is from 1.5 till now-ish...I'll try to take some wise advice I received and attempt shorter entries more often... How are you guys doing? What’s new? Courtney had a birthday since I last posted, so happy birthday, brother! Also, happy birthday to dear Marieke and Melanie as well! 

Ok so after last posting I met up with a dear friend of mine, who I've really gotten to know rather well over the years, but haven't seen him since Christmas! And then I run into him here in Germany, crazy, right? Well Senior Sore Throat and I go way back, so it's hard to be parted for too long. And as Fate and her clever little sisters would have it, I of course never meet him without our other pals Monsieur Stuffy Nose and Herr Nasty Cough catching up with me the following days. We had a marvelous time together learning new German vocabulary like husten (to cough), mischievously missing classes and generally avoiding the company of others since we just have far too grand a time together! Have no fear though, we've parted ways, and I am back to being responsible...-ish. But, ah, Senior, Monsieur, and Herr left me with some new hobbies and valuable lessons. 


Lesson 1. Even in a magical land full of wonder and pastries such as Germany, YouTube can still offer plenty of entertainment for an evening. If any of you are, you know, looking for some distraction in your life and you don't for some reason have a Netflix account (tisk, tisk) the first three seasons of Castle are on YouTube. I like to think of it as a murder mystery cop show with a hint of literary humor and a dash of the absurdity of Pysch's Shawn Spencer. Plus, Disney's movies in German are also online and oh, nothing sounds as fantastically villainous and evil as a Disney villain's song auf Deustch. 

Lesson 2. Although it seems as though every single drink on this continent is carbonated, it's not true. Perhaps Elise and I ought to have realized this sooner, and taken to heart the wise words of Hagrid to a the young Harry Potter upon reading his bizarre list of magical school supplies to buy for the year:

Harry: Can you find all this in London? (imagine that tiny little British accent now please)
Hagrid: (with eyebrows raised significantly and glint in his eye) If you know where to go.


Non-alcoholic, non-carbonated, non-energy-drink, juice? Toothpaste bigger than my pinkie? Anti-itch creme?  Can one find all this in Berlin?! YES! JA! One must simply branch out from the uber-cheap Netto's grocery store we frequent. Oh. But not until making complete fools of ourselves shaking the juice bottles to test if they were carbonated or not because the words we found for carbonated in our dictionaries are nowhere to be found on these bottles of course. You'd think it be easy, but they all bubbled when we shook them..so then you try listening to them and look even more...special. Admittedly one of my not-so-intelligent thought processes.

Lesson 3 This one was something Elise learned. I can fall asleep do just about anything when I'm tired. But I have this half-asleep state where I drift in and out for awhile and can have a seemingly coherent conversation for a little while that eventually turns in protestations of, "No, No! I'm not sleeping, I'm awake. I'm awake! I'm a-" YouTube, movies, reading, anything. And then I don't move. So this is what Elise awoke to one morning, which moment she lovingly preserved photographically.

Lesson 4 Like airplane food, desperation and lack of options can reduce one to make some interesting food decisions. Fortunately McDonald's' food is ALARMINGLY tastier in Europe. What the heck, land of the Brave? When did the land of Free Spreach and other societal advances suddenly loose all sense of taste and become the land of heck-they're-so-desperate-and-lazy-we-can-feed-them-anything-labelled-"MEAT" (Taco Time, I'm taking to you!)-and-get-away-with-it-mwhahahahaha? When did Americans decide to murder their arteries and taste buds simultaneously? Why is it that fast food is an acceptable option here and shops and bakeries and eateries in subway stations here don't make me want to hide my money, grip my purse like my first-born child, and suck on some Peptobismal before ever eating there? USA, I love and miss you, but man we've got some things to work on.

Lesson 5 How to Speak Like a Flock of Doves
You see, the thing is that when I'm/we're tired enough, but not willing to go to sleep for whatever reason, our conversations naturally take a turn for the ridiculous and giggly. We are, in essence average teenaged girls. It is at times like these here in Berlin that Elise and I have begun to master the art of speaking like a flock of doves. Also, it has been made known to us on this study abroad that about 2% of our classmates can tell us apart. And even Hailey, who has known us the longest, still confuses our names on occasion! Ok, ok, we're roommates, we're both blonde, we both have brown-ish eyes, we're in the same grammar class, we know each other well, we laugh at a lot of the same things, but we only occasionally answer to the other's name because Hailey's been mistaking us for over a year now! Then one of the guys comes up to us one day and says, "there's a theory going around the group that you are actually the same person." And then anther girl asks if we're related, we say no, and immediately another asks, wait, what?! I thought you guys were twins! Wow. We've been with these guys for a few weeks, and they still can't tell us apart! Mwhahaha, oh the possibilities.  Ok so, then there's this comedic sketch of Brian Reagan's that fits this entire trip so perfectly because it's about a time when he, under the pressure of small-talk, casually proclaims to love art, which is completely false. It's one of those moments where the words just seem to come forth, unbidden, out of your mouth in a stream too rapid for your brain to stop. Some call this word vomit. But for Brian, they come out like a flock of doves, flying about, spreading the confusion all-around. And they can never be called back!  So one night, after Elise and I had finished watching some Castle (for my health, you know, cause I was sick) she says, "You know, Bonnie, you can't get hurt on this trip, cause if you die (always words that indicate the beginning of an endearing conversation) I'll be the only one able to ID your body, and there's no way I could handle that! ID-ing a body would be just too terrible." So we figured that if one of us dies, people will at least finally tell us apart, right? That is, once the other IDs the body. And thus flew the first of many flocks of doves.

Just to promote the same-person theory, we walked through a doorway in the Pergamon museum and simultaneously turned to either side, pointing and calling out for the other to look at the same awesome dragon detailing from the Ishtar Gate excavation.

Pretty sweet, right? Apparently the unicorn myth started right here.

We have made it our mission, and really it is the duty of experiencing a foreign culture, to sample every bakery, dessert shop, and ice-cream stand we come across. Hazelnut flavored ice-cream? Yes, please.

In the Nikolaikirche (one of the oldest buildings in the entire city!!!!!!), there are many tombstones and effigies with impressively morbid depictions of death, hell, demons and such delightful things. The distorted, almost disembodied demon was a personal favorite because it clearly wasn't enough for the sculptor to have him chained and skeletal, he had to continue to threaten on-lookers by sticking out his tongue. Elise and I followed suit.

 Berlin: Week 1 or How to Be Punched by a Native on Day One :)

Guten Morgen/Tag! Hello, everybody!

Since there’s so much I’d like to communicate and I know I have a tendency to ramble my way into excessive, boring detail I shall start off with a bullety-type listy thing of the journey up until this point. Oh, for clarification, Elise is my roommate here in Germany, and she’s pretty awesome.

·         Friday, April 27^th, the night before take-off

o   Plan= go to bed early

o   Execution= Failure. In bed at midnight, asleep at 1 am (must work on those time-managing skills I rather lack) totally worth it though, all things considered 'cause my mom and I were having way too much fun laughing at pictures and things

·         Saturday, April 28^th, last day on American continent (..till July)

o   4 am= Woke up

o   “5” am (maybe twenty minutes late :) =get to SLC airport, check bags, stuff excess into Elise’s because she’s practical and I’m the “experienced” traveler (cough always overpack cough), and then wait around 'cause SLC is so small and we get through security in no time

o   7am=TAKE-OFF!!! And finally understand that Elise wasn't kidding about her “phobia” of flying, dude, I thought she was going to rip the armrests off her seat!

o   3 hours later, land in Chicago, endure a surprisingly Internet-less 4-hour lay-over (woot for food and the Return of the King), then get on plane to London!

·         8 hours later, so Sunday April 39th nearing 1 am Utah time

o   land in London, where it is freezing and threatening to flood. Really, England, really? It’s been nearly nine years since I saw you last and this soggy day/night/morning in Londontown is how you greet me? Honestly, I was laughing. But this may have been a side-effect of fatigue kicking in, since I don’t sleep in planes, or really in airports and I’m nearly dragging Elise behind me, because she’s so exhausted from everything (hurrah for turbulence over the Atlantic) and she’s either about to cry from the cold rain that turns our next four-over lay-over into a five hour one and she’s from the dessert and hates this weather or she’s about to punch me in the face because I’m being positive.

o   Oh, ok, so then we finally get on the last plane, to BERLIN!!! And Elise thankfully passes out for the next two and halfish hours while I talk to this Englishman next to me about WWII, what to see in Berlin, the awesomeness of Tolkien, whose from his hometown, and mostly just history and authors and delightful things until the plane lands. It was really interesting! And really fun to watch his face as I told him that I was 19, and he realized he was old enough to be my father. He was only ever polite the whole time though guys, don’t worry! He was honestly just surprised that this random American in love with history and books wasn’t even half at least half his age. I laughed and gave him gum to distract him from the landing, because he was nearly as afraid as Elise. Anyway..see? tangents!

o   WE LAND IN BERLIN, where it’s like one in the afternoon or something by the time we find our professor who hands us bus passes and sends us on our merry way after giving us directions different from the one’s our host family did. Hehe, Elise isn’t good with directions but fortunately I wasn’t tired at this point, just numb so even though it took us twice as long as it would we eventually found our apartment! And oh how lovely it is!

o   Next mission: adjust to new time zone

§  this means that we can’t go to sleep until the natives would. So we’ve got to keep ourselves awake for the next six hours or so at the very least. We do ok, until about 7pm German time (...so 11am Utah time?), at which point I know the only thing keeping Elise from punching me in the face is the amount of energy it would require. So I’m cruelly forcing us to play another round of Kings, or Speed, or to go for a walk, or to eat another piece of chocolate, or something. She honestly is one of the sweetest people I know, but even I wanted to slap me at that point. I feel like it would have been really entertaining to hear our conversations; goodness knows they weren’t coherent.
9pm pass out while watching an episode of Chuck on Elise's flashdrive. She actually lasted loner watching than I did, but, hey, I was going off of 3 hours of sleep for the past...(ugh, doing math in my head...) for the past 33 hours or so?·       

  Monday, April 30^th

o   Woke up after 13 hours of sleep. Heck yes.

o   Breakfast=gorgeous muffins from a nearby backery (Bäckerei)

o   Mission= find Goethe Institut to take placement test

§  (this seemed really evil since we were still technically jetlagged)

o   Execution= ultimate success, got lost (hehe, its essentially just down the street so this is really pathetic) could hardly say anything auf Deutsch correctly, but oh well

o   Little side story here: so we’re walking out all prepared to go the school, got our bookbags on and everything now and we cross the street (legally, we waited till the little green walking policeman light blinked on) and as I start reading this German shop sign, it is as though the world slows down for a moment like in the movies and I see this guy ride his bike right in front of me, really close to me, and I’m still not completely done crossing from the street so my back is to it, and suddenly everything starts speeding up and I hear his bike bell ringing like mad and realize I must have somehow stepped right in front of him, so I stumble back a step and am promptly greeted by a swoosh of air passing my back as another bike rider passes right behind me, yelling something, but the moment isn’t over till it’s rudely shattered by a firm punch square in my back. What the crap!? I’m absolutely stunned, but in my utter confusion I think I kinda scared Elise, who saw the whole thing from a few steps back, and at whom I kinda cried out ”What the heck?! Why didn’t you say anything?” I was just so confused and it felt as though the darn little bells must have been ringing long before my slow-mo moment allowed me to hear properly. But there was nothing either of us could have done differently. I wasn’t hurt, I had the bookbag to protect me, but we then noticed that the outermost two feet-or-so of sidewalk in Berlin is a slightly different color brick. There’s a bike lane on the sidewalk! Counter-intuitive to an American, but logical, I must admit. I had apparently crossed this lane, when the first biker decided to go around me, and then stepped onto the edge of it when the other slugged me. We were told that Germans aren’t afraid to correct strangers, it’s not rude to them to do so, but this seemed to be taking it the extreme. Day one, and I just got punched by a native. Oh-ho-ho, this is going to be a good trip.

o   Next Mission= find church for Family Home Evening that night

o   Execution=success, but you better know we got way lost, because it’s halfway across the city, but we made and there was a free homemade dinner.

·         Fun Facts we learned/re-learned:

§  The U-Bahn goes UNDERground, and the S-Bahn is SCHNELL (fast in german) so it goes above ground

§  Really only the US has a blessed thing called free Wifi in airports

§  Suitcases don’t like cobblestone roads

§  German apartments don’t have closets, (and you better know half of the wardrobe space is taken up by shelves, happy thought indeed)

§  only German kitchens get a trashcan,

§  Germans love to ride bikes. Everywhere.

§  Sidewalks aren’t as simple as one would think (cough bikes get their own section cough)

§  two girls shouldn’t want more than three hangers between them

§  Plane food is only satisfying when you are desperate to take your medicine at the right time, strapped in place, tired of trail mix, next to a creepy Indian man who never says a word just glares at you inexplicably for 8 hours, and its too dark to read, and you’ve watched everything twice already

§  Movie timetables on planes always lie, always.

§  German keyboards switch the z and y keys, and you have to shift to use an apostrophe

§  French accents sound so cool on top of German, as do British, Greek, and Arabic ones!!! (This school is full of international students)

§  Traveling, like Honk’s Dollar store in Provo, is always and adventure, ALWAYS

§  BERLIN IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

§  But don’t mess with Germans, they’re so not afraid to tell you when you’re wrong…or perhaps punch you to clarify :)

·         Tuesday the 1^st , was the first day of class!

o   Wandered around a lot, ate some pretty delicious pastries and sandwiches

o   Saw part of the Berlin Wall (oh, dude, I’m living in what was East Berlin!!!)

So uh, how freakin' beautiful is this?! This is my new self-reorientation-marker (instead of the Wasatch). It's kinda hard to miss, and it lights up at night, the Fernsehenturm is right by the nearest S-Bahn station. Perfekt. No more getting lost, right?

·         Wednesday, the 2nd

o   Went to the Salvador Dali museum! 

DALI!!! Not my favorite, but I respect the guy. It's not every modern artist who can actually make me want to think about his work. His series for Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland and Tristan and Isolde were particularly interesting. Rachael, I missed you!

o   Ate my first Döner!!!

Katharina, Hailey, and I with our first Doeners! Man, you have to try them. Just do. I can't even explain.

·         Thursday, the 3rd

o   Went to the Neues Museum, with a ton of Egyptian stuff, including the bust of Nefirtiti!!! (Chloe I’ll tell you more later) and some Greek and Roman

o   Went to church for Institute and got more homemade food!

Ah, isn't he just gorgeous? Apollo, suitingly situated under a skylight, soaking up the sun (oh aren't I clever?) in the Neues Museum. He's at the end of the long corridor opposite, Nefirtiti, but you can't photograph her.

These uber-long beauties are from the Book of Dead!!! My mind was blown, and a desire to watch the Mummy suddenly surfaced...

·         Friday, the 4^th

o   Almost went to the Opera, took a raincheck, and instead did some grocery shopping and “made” dinner. (Frozen pizza…yeah…guilty, I know)

·         Saturday, the 5th

o   Went to the Zoo and aquarium! Elise saw her very first elephant and was so excited! Amanda P. I saw a panda!!
o   Ate my first Berliner. They’re a pastry, guys, don’t worry. But, uh, the wunderbar jelly/jam filling is always concentrated on one side, so make sure you attack it strategically when consuming...otherwise it attacks you in the end, like a proper German creation :)

Amanda P., this is for you! I realize this really couldn't look more racist, but...just...don't make me explain....SPECTRONIZER! (Had to, sorry ;)

Look, Mom! Social Grooming! (You know the quote?)

Pretty tulips! And then you look closer at the background....

There was bench with these little cut outs...inside each of which was a different tarantula!!! Best bench I have definitely ever sat down on

Inappropriate? Ok, yeah, but still funny. This is a statue in the Zoo! Just there, suddenly.

o   Saw Die Tribute von Panem (hehe, the Hunger Games in German!)
·        
Tuesday, the 8^th

o   Ate my first Currywurst (Doeners are better)

o   Went to the Pergamon Museum, where the Pergamon altar, Ishtar gate, and Miletus Gate are housed!!! (Amanda B., Chloe, and Rachael, I’ll definitely tell you guys more about these)

Elise and I in front of the Miletus Gate

Elise and I by the Pergamon Altar, which is so huge it's hard to capture!

Sorry, but please, just look at how awesome her boots are!

The Ishtar Gate, blue= lapis lazuli. That's it Nebuchannezar, flaunt your excess wealth cross the time and space, like a proper Mesopotamian king :) Oh, and those animals are aurchs and dragons, which meant power. Someone's a little proud...

Collapsing from happiness on the Pergamon steps, just sacrifice me now

Alrighty, I lied and I still rambled, sorry. (Es tut mir leid). I’m honestly having the time of my life here, and I’m taking the good, the bad, the ridiculous, and the wonderful into that opinion! I hope you find at least some of these stories as funny as Elise and I do. I think I could have died from happiness when I walked into the room with the Pergamon altar. It is gorgeous. By that point Hailey (our other good friend) and Elise had discovered that I’m a total history nut, and can barely conceal my euphoria when in these museums, so they were prepared and rushed ahead of me, to watch my face change as I walked into the room and took it all in for the first time. They weren’t disappointed, apparently. I was kinda doing this ridiculous little twirling dance thing when I thought they weren’t looking, but they definitely were, and were sorry not to have recorded me. Health-wise I’m doing pretty great, so no worries please! And the jetlag went away quickly thanks to our cruel/brilliant plan that first night, although it was undoubtedly the most exhausted I’ve ever felt. Most nights we go out as a group (the kids from BYU) and find something to do, but never too, too crazy or late. And Germans are uber-polite if they know you are trying to learn German. They will bend over backwards to help you then. And both and Elise and I have been asked if we knew any English! Bam! For a moment we were mistaken for natives….granted it was a short moment. Bis spaeter!

A rough (but more rude...and fun) translation of this Latin motto outside the Neues Museum is, "only a stupid person hates art". Danke, Berlin, danke.