Guten Morgen, Berlin

Berlin was...tiring.

But awesome.

It was a very busy city filled with so many different kinds of people. There was more English written on billboards and other things that I wasn't expecting. It felt amazing to be there.

Despite the three very tiring days of touring Berlin, there was a night when I had some very much needed downtime at a rock concert. Me and two others decideded to skip out on the Sleeping Beauty ballet and instead went to a concert for a band named Kilians with the opening act, Miyagi. The three of us traveled on our own to the concert with me being the guide after barely learning the subway system earlier that day. After successfully finding the place, we were caught a bit off guard when we saw that our final destination was an abandoned warehouse turned club. Actually, I didn't know what to expect.

The inside was very big and dark but lit with dim colorful lights. There were two rooms and the back room had the stage. The three of us waited for quite some time for the opening band to come out and play their set. However, it was worth the wait. Miyagi was a mixture of ska, alternative, and a bit hard rock. They sang in both German and English and the lead singer had a thing for awkward dancing and jumping in to the crowd. I was very thankful to be sandwiched inbetween girls who actually danced. The crowd didn't really seem to be feeling it and I was hoping it wasn't just going to be this big boring standing fest the whole night.

So, Miyagi finishes, they clear their stuff, and the Kilians start to set up. While this was happening, I met a Berlin native who spoke very good English and had quite some knowledge about American bands. He was a fan of Dave Matthews Band which was something I couldn't really relate to. I was a bit skeptical about how the Kilians would be (I had paid 9 Euros after all) and hoped it would be a little exciting to get the crowd going. He told me, "If you like the Strokes, you'll like Kilians." I like the Strokes, I thought, and hoped the show would make me glad I skipped out on the ballet.

Oh dear lord, the Germans know how to mosh. I was very surprised and didn't have much time to comprehend what was going on as I was being thrown around in front of a stage by gigantic German men and fearless women. Since I have been in many moshes in my lifetime, my initial reaction was to fight back. I very quickly got in to it and I can't even tell you what the Kilians sounded like because I was too busy fighting the strong drunks. I do remember a lot of singing in English. However, the time came to leave soon after I had been punched right in the chest by a burly man who's mission was clearly to hurt. Clutching my chest in pain, I gathered my other two concert people, downed a beer, and set off back to the subway station to get home.

Let's just say we got back to the youth hostel safe two hours later. We got horribly lost.

One thing I was very excited about seeing was the Berlin wall. That was something I had learned about a long time ago and just recently went over again in my European History class. We got to see fragments of it and even one large chunk that was still standing by the ruins of a place Hitler once resided. I was very appalled to see that someone had written, "I heart Edward Cullen" on the wall. Seriously.

Before we left, a small group of us visited the Jüdisches Museum in which we were able to learn about the Jewish culture apart from what happened with the holocaust. This was a very modern building that I could have spent hours in. There was so much tourist interaction within the building with eye catching photos and interesting learning stations. I would definitely go back to this museum.

We returned home to Jena on Thursday night and had class the next morning. We were so dead that morning from the trip we had just had and Sarah and I had to pump ourselves up more because we had a trip to Dresden planned with her host parents that afternoon. We left for Dresden around 4 and traveled about 160 km in about an hour and a half. He drove ridiculously fast. Sarah and I had our own room with a charming balcony that we couldn't get open. We soon met up with her host mom's sister and her husband and set off to find a place to have dinner. We settled in to a placed called Il Camino that was a very fancy italian restaurant. We had a room to ourselves that was the equivalent of a small wine cellar. This night was amazing. Sarah and I didn't have to pay for a thing even though the bill came out to be over 300 Euros. We had a complete meal with dessert, three bottles of wine, and some weird grappa stuff that they ordered. Many inside jokes came from this night.

Dresden was quite the typical German city for me. It was a lot different than Jena. I was able to see the Elbe River which was recently on a map test I had in fall semester. It rained the entire day we were there but it didn't stop us from checking out the Neues Grünes Museum filled with rare jeweled artifacts.

Upon returning home to Jena, I was greeted by my host family's family who were gathered together in celebration of my host brother's 9th birthday. Their relatives were extremely nice and I was able to test my German out on new people. I liked being corrected when I make any mistakes so I was hoping that would happened. Turns out two of them spoke very good English. Good for them, bad for me. I wish English wasn't becoming so universal sometimes. I really like other languages and I can imagine wanting to keep my native tongue.

This is my last week in Jena before service. Our language test is on Wednesday and then our host family party is on Friday. Today Joe told me my service assignment in which I will be working at a Rehabilitation and Therapeutic treatment center. There is a program called Kinderclub which will enable me to work with the children who have parents in the clinic. When I'm not working with children, I will be cooking or out in the garden. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm the closest one to Jena and I will be working alone. Here is the website: http://sophien-klinik.de/gastgeberei_hotel_pension/index.php

I leave Monday. I'm almost done with my first half of SST. Crazy stuff.