Wilkommen!

We finally have a Heidelblog for the Memorial University students attending Internationaler Ferienkurs 2009! (I have been very anxious to get this thing going). 

I suppose beginning at the very beginning would be a good start. 

We arrived in Berlin on Monday (July 20th). I travelled separately from the rest of the group (thank you, Aeroplan!), and my flight was supposed to fly out of St. John's to Montreal at 6 am on Sunday. I was somewhat looking forward to the thought of a 12 hour layover in Montreal. The rest of the group was supposed to fly later in the afternoon, and we would fly to Frankfurt and then to Berlin together from there.

Sunday morning came, and St. John's was covered in fog. Despite this, neither my parents nor I considered that my flight might not make it out. At the airport, we learned that all flights until at least mid afternoon to Montreal (and probably everywhere else) were either delayed substantially or cancelled. My flight was rebooked to Toronto, and then from Toronto to Frankfurt and Berlin. I was torn between being disappointed at not being able to meet up with the others (most of whom I had at least met briefly) in Montreal, and being very, very pleased that my cancelled flight afforded me six extra hours rest. 

At noon (after about forty five minutes of stressing out), I phoned Dr. Warkentin to tell him that I would no longer be meeting with them, and that I would see them in Berlin.

Cut to:

Hotel BaxPax, Berlin, July 20th.

I arrived safely in Berlin (although that flight from Frankfurt did have me worried for a little bit), and managed to get a taxi from Tegel to BaxPax. I did procrastinate this for about half an hour due to the fact that by the time I actually got through customs and got my bag, it began to pour heavily outside. By the time we got to BaxPax, it was clear skies and beautiful sun once again. At the desk, the girl told me that the group had not come in yet. I silently started to freak out, thinking that perhaps their flight had also got delayed or cancelled and I would be stuck in Berlin by myself. Then she told me that they should be back soon and I began to relax.

We met downstairs in the evening for official welcome drinks and I met two of the people who I had not met yet (Dylan and Megan). I ate in the bar downstairs (it's a pretty swanky place in the evening), and watched some of the Wolfsburg/ Bremen game. A guy from California came over and we chatted for a bit - the generic "Hey, where are you from? Where have you been? What are you doing in Berlin?" type small talk. Then I settled in to our room. (Some of the group went out later that night to explore some of the more interesting sides of Berlin's nightlife, apparently which included hanging out on the roof of a building which should have been condemned, and drinking, and meeting some colourful characters.)

July 21st, 2009.

The first full day, we spent walking around Berlin. We ate breakfast at 8, and then made our way to Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp, in Oranienburg. I was pretty tired. It was kind of a rough night, and sleep threatened to overtake me on the train. I'd been to Dachau a few years ago, so when we got to Sachsenhausen, I didn't suffer the same overwhelming emotional experience as I did before. I knew what to expect, relatively. There were a few things that I didn't recall seeing at Dachau: the first being a pile of stones laid upon the markers for each of the barracks that no longer stand. There are stone markers (almost like headstones) that stand in front of where the barracks would have been. On these markers are stones. Dr. Warkentin explained that many Jewish people often lay stones if they knew someone who lived in a particular barracks. Secondly, the records of all the prisoners are kept in what used to be the kitchen, and are available to read in, I think, three different languages or so. Outside of Sachsenhausen, just outside the bookshop/ entrance, there is a large miniature model of the entire camp. All the barracks look exactly like Monopoly pieces. 

From Saschenhausen, we meant to go to the Berlin Zoo. However, we went one too many stops from our destination, and discovered that certain trains were cut off, so we improvised and found a new route. By the time we got to the Zoo, it was two hours from closing and it was decided that it wasn't worth our time or money to go if we couldn't spend sufficient time there. By that time it was about four o'clock, and my body was threatening to shut down if I refused to feed it. I really only wanted to see Knut, the polar bear at the zoo, and I hear he's a bit of a jerk now anyways (as jerky-ness of the polar bear variety goes, I guess).

Instead, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and ate instead. I ordered a Hurricane sized Sex on the Beach (purely for the souvenir glass), and Linda did the same with two beer. There seems something especially fitting about buying a beer glasses in Berlin. We made our way back to the hostel (Megan, Adam, Karen, Curtis, Dylan and I), navigating our way through the Berlin underground system (it's pretty easy). On the way, we saw the Berlin Skillz Showteam doing tricks on skateboards. One had four skateboards, and piled three on top of one another and laid the fourth on top of that, on its side and then did a hand stand holding onto the skateboard on its side. He went around in a circle, and it was really cool, and looked super complicated. Adam took a video:

Also, on the bus home, there were two buskers (I guess that is the best term for them) on our train, performing Adam Green's song "Novotel". Their English was really quite good, and we decided that we preferred their version to the original. 

Our first full day in Berlin was definitely memorable, but I find with the larger cities, it's pretty tiring after walking around all day. It's a little bit draining, and I definitely wanted to relax and chill out after a pretty long day. We had seen ice cream on a stand somewhere and Megan, Adam, Karen, Curtis and I went on a mad hunt for a place that sold ice cream. It was about 9:30 or so at night, so most places were in the process of closing up. We got back to Friedrichstraße, and saw a sign that proclaimed EIS (which is ice cream in German). It was right next to our hostel. However, we discovered that at this place (Bombay, on the corner of Friendrichstraße and Ziegelstraße) Eis actually meant iced coffee, not ice cream. We got some soft drinks though (and Curtis, a shot of Absolut) and some garlic naan bread and spent an hour and a half there, undisturbed. No one (read: the wait staff) paid much attention to us, and around 11:30, we got a bit antsy and decided to leave. 

That's really only the first day in Berlin, but it's 12:30 in the morning now, and later today we all have to write our placement test. We had the oral portion today and I think most people feel that they are in the place they should be. A few of us accidentally signed up for the intermediate level, which is quite different from the MUN Intermediate level, apparently. I did so, and when I went for my interview, I was so confused before we even started that I told the woman doing the interview, in English, that I was definitely not in the right place. She seemed really understanding about it, actually. I supposed that probably happens with a lot of people. 

There's still quite a bit of catch-up to do, but that will have to wait until another time.

Tschüss!

(photos courtesy of Adam Stevenson and Karen Tucker, videos by Adam Stevenson. :) )