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.