This one's for @TheAbbey on West Main Belleville (more specifically my mom on W. Main Belleville): talk about fancy gelato presentation. Take note, Renee. The Europeans do it big (I actually didn't even get any of this gelato, YET!!!! lol! It's right around the corner from Humboldt - it'll happen soon enough)
It's not even midnight yet and I'm in full bed-time-garb I LOVE IT. Going to bed early is so underrated (by myself - I'm sure others openly rave about it, but I never seem to give it much of a chance). Of course, Sue and Marie (my host moms) and Marie's mom (my host grandma) are still hustling and bustling about the flat. I think they're making an 11:45pm dinner. They're the best - so lively and fun.
Sunday was an awesome day. Didn't get out of bed until like noon, made some eggs for Hannah and me, and went to the park for a flea market! Apparently every Sunday there's this flea market in Mauer park in Berlin that you can't miss if you're here for any period of time. I totally see why now. It was SO awesome. It was like the flea market I described in Paris, but possibly better. Actually I don't know. The Mauer one was really great and you could tell it was really rich in culture and had so much to offer, but the prices weren't quite as great as the Paris ones. I mean don't get me wrong, I still totally scored and got some sweet stuff for super cheap, but I also turned down some other sweet stuff due to prices. I think Mauer had a few higher qual things. Paris was more like a giant trendy garage sale whereas Mauer was like that plus a bunch of vendors selling things they made and stuff. There was really good people-watching though. So many cool outfits and haircuts and piercings. Also, every Sunday at 3, Mauer park holds karaoke. I wish I would have gotten picture of all of the people sitting on these cement steps in the hill surrounding a platform where people sang Alanis Morissette, Pink Floyd, whomever it is that sings "Stand by Me," and oh so many more. So fun. I worked up the courage to pass out one survey but that was it - I only did one because 1. I ran out of time because I was so nervous that it took me forever to muster up the confidence to even approach them, so by the time they were done, Hannah and I were ready to leave the park, and 2. I accidentally only brought one pen out with me, so I couldn't pass more out to other people until I got my pen back. Oops. The lucky contestants were two 20 year-old German girls and they took forevvvver filling it out as I awkwardly waited on a little cement bench thing, occasionally glancing over to see if they were still writing, also occasionally making eye contact with one of them regretfully making it seem like I was rushing them (perhaps I was rushing them?). I'm actually glad they took so long though because they gave me some really insightful, well-thought-out answers to the questions. Go them! Then Hannah and I went home, made some rice/tomatoes/carrots/lemon juice and ate it for dinner. Not bad. Then Joy and her friend from school, who is studying abroad somewhere else this semester but came to visit for the weekend, came over and chilled out. They were locked out of their house so they didn't know what to do (turns out Joy had been turning the key the wrong way the whole time. Stupid key right?). I chatted with my mom for a bit - G bless the poor soul and her aching back. Get well soon, Nee Nee.
Monday (yesterday) we had class at 10 for the last time at Meringhoff. I really like that place and even more so I really like the Turkish food place right next to it as well as the ice cream place right around the corner. Needless to say I'm going to miss it. Class entailed all of the students teaching the book we had to read, called Racism in Europe by Neil Macmaster, to each other. We had split the book up into part one and part two - one half of the class read and taught part one and the other half did part two. Really interesting stuff about the history of race as a social construction in Europe.
After class most of us took advantage of our last chance to eat at the Turkish place as well as the ice cream place. So delicious. Then I walked down the street with a few of the girls to a music store. Valentina wants to maybe get a ukulele which would be so fun. I want her to learn Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. Then Hannah and I came home, watched a few episodes of As Told By Ginger, Even Stevens, and That's So Raven as we drank tea and Hannah put a thread hair wrap in my hair and then I fell asleep for a mini nap. Pretty nice afternoon. Then some of the girls came to our flat before we all headed down the street to walk along the Berlin Wall. Really beautiful murals as well as some rather unimpressive spray paint graffiti and sharpie tags.
Sunday was an awesome day. Didn't get out of bed until like noon, made some eggs for Hannah and me, and went to the park for a flea market! Apparently every Sunday there's this flea market in Mauer park in Berlin that you can't miss if you're here for any period of time. I totally see why now. It was SO awesome. It was like the flea market I described in Paris, but possibly better. Actually I don't know. The Mauer one was really great and you could tell it was really rich in culture and had so much to offer, but the prices weren't quite as great as the Paris ones. I mean don't get me wrong, I still totally scored and got some sweet stuff for super cheap, but I also turned down some other sweet stuff due to prices. I think Mauer had a few higher qual things. Paris was more like a giant trendy garage sale whereas Mauer was like that plus a bunch of vendors selling things they made and stuff. There was really good people-watching though. So many cool outfits and haircuts and piercings. Also, every Sunday at 3, Mauer park holds karaoke. I wish I would have gotten picture of all of the people sitting on these cement steps in the hill surrounding a platform where people sang Alanis Morissette, Pink Floyd, whomever it is that sings "Stand by Me," and oh so many more. So fun. I worked up the courage to pass out one survey but that was it - I only did one because 1. I ran out of time because I was so nervous that it took me forever to muster up the confidence to even approach them, so by the time they were done, Hannah and I were ready to leave the park, and 2. I accidentally only brought one pen out with me, so I couldn't pass more out to other people until I got my pen back. Oops. The lucky contestants were two 20 year-old German girls and they took forevvvver filling it out as I awkwardly waited on a little cement bench thing, occasionally glancing over to see if they were still writing, also occasionally making eye contact with one of them regretfully making it seem like I was rushing them (perhaps I was rushing them?). I'm actually glad they took so long though because they gave me some really insightful, well-thought-out answers to the questions. Go them! Then Hannah and I went home, made some rice/tomatoes/carrots/lemon juice and ate it for dinner. Not bad. Then Joy and her friend from school, who is studying abroad somewhere else this semester but came to visit for the weekend, came over and chilled out. They were locked out of their house so they didn't know what to do (turns out Joy had been turning the key the wrong way the whole time. Stupid key right?). I chatted with my mom for a bit - G bless the poor soul and her aching back. Get well soon, Nee Nee.
Monday (yesterday) we had class at 10 for the last time at Meringhoff. I really like that place and even more so I really like the Turkish food place right next to it as well as the ice cream place right around the corner. Needless to say I'm going to miss it. Class entailed all of the students teaching the book we had to read, called Racism in Europe by Neil Macmaster, to each other. We had split the book up into part one and part two - one half of the class read and taught part one and the other half did part two. Really interesting stuff about the history of race as a social construction in Europe.
After class most of us took advantage of our last chance to eat at the Turkish place as well as the ice cream place. So delicious. Then I walked down the street with a few of the girls to a music store. Valentina wants to maybe get a ukulele which would be so fun. I want her to learn Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. Then Hannah and I came home, watched a few episodes of As Told By Ginger, Even Stevens, and That's So Raven as we drank tea and Hannah put a thread hair wrap in my hair and then I fell asleep for a mini nap. Pretty nice afternoon. Then some of the girls came to our flat before we all headed down the street to walk along the Berlin Wall. Really beautiful murals as well as some rather unimpressive spray paint graffiti and sharpie tags.
We all decided it would be awesome to have a guided tour along the wall. I'm sure there are a lot of cool interesting political explanations to a lot of the pictures, but we couldn't figure them out on our own, and I assume it would be rather difficult to google a picture.
After the wall, Hannah, Ezra, Adrianne, and I went to a cool hookah lounge right under the u-bahn station. Got some delicious blueberry shisha, some pina coladas, and had a mega hard core super extreme post wall chill sesh. We actually stayed there for a really long time just passing the hookah hose and chatting the night away until they kicked us out. Then Ezra came and slept over at our flat because they didn't really have a means to get home (apparently the u-bahn doesn't run all night on Mondays? Who knew).
Today we didn't have class until 2! I planned on waking up and running before class but of course it rained all day from the moment we woke up until STILL RAINING. Sorry not bitter love you Berlin xoxo. I just wanna run. So I made eggs instead. I ate my eggs as I communicated via facebook message with Sharon, one of the girls on the program, who wants to go to Oktoberfest with me! We're still figuring out the logistics, but I think we're gonna make it happen! If so, I get the once-in-a-lifetime chance of snuggling with RIley Keltner in Munch, Germany, in a tent, at Oktoberfest. So #blessed. Riley's studying in a town near London this semester so she's been planning on going to Oktoberfest with some of her friends for a while and Sharon and I thought we'd stop by! Should be lots and lots of fun. LOTS and lots.
Today we had class at Humboldt University. Very cool mod architecture at the school. Class started out with a lecture about the Gender studies department at HU and then proceeded with a screening of the movie Audre Lorde: the Berlin Years, followed by a talk/question session with the filmmakers, Dagmar Schultz and Ika Hugel. That was VERY cool. Dagmar and Ika first of all are precious and I would love to listen to the talk/watch them interact all day. The film was a documentary about African-American, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, etc. Audre Lorde. It followed her around as she spent years of her life in Berlin, reading her poetry and inspiring many black women and people to write about their experiences. Such a cool woman and a really great film - I highly recommend it to you all.
After class, a few of us grabbed dinner at a sandwich place down the street from HU (delicious) and then I went with people as they set up tattoo appointments. Apparently Berlin is like tattoo capital of the world so that's cool. After that, I came home, got ready for bed, planned on going straight to bed, and got sucked into the internet void - where my fingers have a mind of their own and uncontrollably scroll through reddit post after reddit post or facebook picture after facebook picture. Actually I did some productive things too, like write this blog post and send some emails asking for interviews. I think I've been doing alright with balancing my work/leisure time. Maybe. Could always be better. My balance could allllllways be better. Goodnight, meine Freunden
xx
After the wall, Hannah, Ezra, Adrianne, and I went to a cool hookah lounge right under the u-bahn station. Got some delicious blueberry shisha, some pina coladas, and had a mega hard core super extreme post wall chill sesh. We actually stayed there for a really long time just passing the hookah hose and chatting the night away until they kicked us out. Then Ezra came and slept over at our flat because they didn't really have a means to get home (apparently the u-bahn doesn't run all night on Mondays? Who knew).
Today we didn't have class until 2! I planned on waking up and running before class but of course it rained all day from the moment we woke up until STILL RAINING. Sorry not bitter love you Berlin xoxo. I just wanna run. So I made eggs instead. I ate my eggs as I communicated via facebook message with Sharon, one of the girls on the program, who wants to go to Oktoberfest with me! We're still figuring out the logistics, but I think we're gonna make it happen! If so, I get the once-in-a-lifetime chance of snuggling with RIley Keltner in Munch, Germany, in a tent, at Oktoberfest. So #blessed. Riley's studying in a town near London this semester so she's been planning on going to Oktoberfest with some of her friends for a while and Sharon and I thought we'd stop by! Should be lots and lots of fun. LOTS and lots.
Today we had class at Humboldt University. Very cool mod architecture at the school. Class started out with a lecture about the Gender studies department at HU and then proceeded with a screening of the movie Audre Lorde: the Berlin Years, followed by a talk/question session with the filmmakers, Dagmar Schultz and Ika Hugel. That was VERY cool. Dagmar and Ika first of all are precious and I would love to listen to the talk/watch them interact all day. The film was a documentary about African-American, lesbian, feminist, mother, poet, etc. Audre Lorde. It followed her around as she spent years of her life in Berlin, reading her poetry and inspiring many black women and people to write about their experiences. Such a cool woman and a really great film - I highly recommend it to you all.
After class, a few of us grabbed dinner at a sandwich place down the street from HU (delicious) and then I went with people as they set up tattoo appointments. Apparently Berlin is like tattoo capital of the world so that's cool. After that, I came home, got ready for bed, planned on going straight to bed, and got sucked into the internet void - where my fingers have a mind of their own and uncontrollably scroll through reddit post after reddit post or facebook picture after facebook picture. Actually I did some productive things too, like write this blog post and send some emails asking for interviews. I think I've been doing alright with balancing my work/leisure time. Maybe. Could always be better. My balance could allllllways be better. Goodnight, meine Freunden
xx
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