Ich liebe Schokolade!

Time for another weekend wrap-up before I finish packing my bags and head out to München and Innsbruck for the holiday and weekend! (June 2nd, the Feast of the Ascension, is a national holiday here. It's called Christhimmelfahrt and there are no classes or anything, so we took advantage of the time off to make the most of our trip south).

First thing first: the chocolate. A friend mentioned to me a couple months ago that there's a place in Berlin where you can make your own Ritter Sport chocolate, and last week I decided to do some Googling and I found it. So on Friday I went into Stadt-Mitte (downtown city center) with Maria, Hilary, and a new Danish friend who's also named Maria to the Ritter Sport museum/store/choco-creation central.

So much variety!

Not only did we find every single Ritter Sport flavor for sale, but we read a little bit about how Ritter Sport is made and some of its history, and then we made our own. There are over 25 options for mix-ins, some typical (fruit bits, the Rice Krispy-like stuff you find in Nestle Crunch) and some not so typical (anise, Jelly Bellys). I chose dark chocolate with cherry bits and Knuspermüsli, which is kind of like granola. It was delicious. Big surprise, right?

Schokolade ist ausgezeichnet.

In the evening Hilary, Maria and I went to a ballet, this time in the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater. The ballet was "Onegin," with music by Tchaikovsky. It was phenomenal. I'm just astounded by how much emotion was conveyed, and how well the choreography seemed to fit with the music. There were three acts with two intermissions, and the time flew by. If I wasn't so far past my prime (in ballerina terms) that show would have made me want to start ballet. Ballets are becoming my favorite "cultural" entertainment, because they are the perfect (for me) balance of music and visual performance. There was a live orchestra for this show, and they were also fantastic.

Tatjana and Onegin, the principal dancers

On Saturday Maria and I had another Long Night, this time at the universities. That's right, it was die Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft, advertised as die Klügste Nacht des Jahres (the cleverest night of the the year)! There was an unbelievable number of demonstations, exhibits and lectures going on, all over the city.

We headed to Charlottenburg to learn about artifical intelligence, computer personalities, language translation apps for injured seniors or for tourists, planes and flying cheap, eating healthy, and alcohol-free beer. It was all very interesting and informative. Our last stop was in the main building of the Technische Universität and felt like a science fair because of the abundance and variety of the exhibits. Afterwards I met up with Hilary and a few friends and we went out dancing till the birds sang.

The main exhibit room in the TU

Yesterday was a big day for Hilary, Emma, Maria and myself. We had been waiting for this day for months. Why? It was GMAT Day. So maybe Maria was the only one who actually took the test, but she studied so diligently that by the time the test came around we all felt we had something invested in the outcome. And, as we expected, she did a terrific job (the GMAT is taken on the computer so she received her unofficial results immediately after finishing). To celebrate we went to happy hour at a local Mexican restaurant for some delightful cocktails and then out to dinner at another restaurant near where we live. We decided to split up the food and drinks to hit up as many local places as possible.

The only picture I took yesterday evening is a not so flattering picture of Maria enjoying her bacon burger, so I think I'll refrain from posting that here. Normally that doesn't stop me, but I'm feeling generous today.

PS re: Title: German lesson time! Normally the Germans don't use the verb lieben ("to love") for objects, it's reserved for people (Ich liebe dich = I love you). But thanks to the influence of English, the use of "lieben" with objects is growing, and because the equivalents of I love chocolate (Ich mag Schokolade, Schokolade gefällt mir) are just a little too weak for how I feel about chocolate, I decided to go ahead with it.

Weekend in Weimar

This past weekend I took a little trip out to Weimar (most famous for Schiller, Goethe and being the city where the Germans wrote out how the new government would work after WWI) with four friends (Maria, Emma, Chris and Leah). We took advantage of a train special called the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket, which is a ticket good on Saturday or Sunday for five people on as many regional trains (the slower trains) as you want to ride. If you aren't going terribly far it's a great deal. For example, although Weimar is only about 180 south and a little west of Berlin, our travel time was about four hours.

We arrived in Weimar around 2:30 pm and found our hostel. We were a little wary because it described itself as a place for "alternative living" but it turned out to be a good hostel. It was different from a typical hostel in that it was a big house, with rooms of up to 10 beds. The decor was pretty cool. We really were there just to sleep and for that it worked out perfectly.

Our hostel was the building covered in ivy.

Our adventures in Weimar began with the public tour that we went on later than afternoon. It was neat to walk around and see Weimar on foot, but to be honest we had trouble paying attention to the tour guide. Especially after Emma found a gentleman in our group was wearing an Notre Dame baseball cap! Emma, Maria and I approached him during the tour when we were walking from one stop to another, and told him we liked his hat. Sadly he did not go to Notre Dame. His son has t-shirts and hats from all over and had given him this one. Then he said, "So you girls study in Paris?" and we had to explain that our Notre Dame isn't any where near the Notre Dame Cathedral. He was still thrilled we were so interested in him though, and asked for a picture with us three "schöne Madels" before we could ask him!

Our almost-Notre Dame friend

Then he introduced us to someone else in the group and had us explain our story. I ended up talking to this women for a few stops and she asked how my German was so good if I'm from the US. She was from Munich and was thrilled to hear I will be visiting Munich in just two weeks (one week now, can't wait!).

On the tour, walking through the cemetery where Goethe's family is buried

Last Saturday just happened to be a special day in Weimar: it was their Lange Nacht der Museen (Long Night of Museums). It was too perfect. Not only where the museums, churches and castles open till midnight, but for the low price of five euros we could get into all of them! After finding some dinner we saw the Duchess's library, Schiller's house, Goethe's house and the Bauhaus Museum (an art museum showing works created by students in the late 19teens/early 1920s). Sadly we didn't have time to get out to the Schloss Belvedere but we definitely felt like this special event allowed us to make the most out of our time in Weimar!

Ending the night with an Ehringsdorfer Bier

Then on Sunday we checked out of our hostel and went to the Gedankstätte Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp during WWII, and then it was used again immediately after the war by the Soviets as a place for people, mostly men, who had slight ties to the Nazi party. Buchenwald is only about 15 minutes by bus from Weimar.

The entrance to where the inmates were kept.
On the gate it reads "JEDEM DAS SEINE" or To each his own.

Overall it was definitely a humbling and saddening visit, but a visit that I felt like I had to make. Buchenwald was the first concentration camp I had ever seen. There's a small one just north of Berlin that I think I will try to get up to before I leave. It's hard to describe what it was like walking around the camp. Buchenwald was a work camp, not an extermination camp, and not a terribly big camp, though there were certainly many more people squeezed inside than could live comfortably in that space. For the most parts the buildings are gone now. The barracks are outlined in stone, so when you look across the main camp area you can see where the buildings where. There are many signs throughout the camp area with pictures of what the camp used to look like and a description of what used to stand where you are. Most of the buildings were kept intact after its liberation, but a section called the Kleines Lager (Little Camp) was destroyed. The Kleines Lager was the worst section of Buchenwald. Over 20,000 inmates were kept in an area with one row of bathrooms, and 2,000 of them were forced into an old stable that was built for only 50 fifty horses.

With the entrance to my back. This is looking out over where the barracks used to stand.

The whole trip was pretty mind blowing, on many levels. First you can see just how close it is to the city, which means the people knew what was going on there. Then of course there are the terrible things that went on in the camp, which just make you wonder how people can treat other people so horribly. And the icing on this tragic, thought-provoking cake is the camp's function after the war and how respectfully honor that time. The political inmates after the war were hardly treated better than the Jewish inmates, but they were also former Nazis. How do you most respectfully remember an atrocity, when the victims were the former perpetrators of another, even more terrible atrocity?

We took our time at Buchenwald, so we didn't get a chance to visit any of the churches in Weimar on Sunday. But I'm glad we didn't rush through the memorial, and walking through the camp area under the bright sun, looking out over the idyllic countryside and listening to what sounded like hundreds of birds chirping, gave me plenty of time for quiet reflection. We went straight from Buchenwald to the train station, and had time for a little bite in the station before heading home. We made it back just in time for Emma and I to drop our bags at home and go to Mass.

The weather has been a little bipolar here the past few days. It's warmish and sunny most of the time. An ND friend (who lives in Walsh) was in Berlin Sunday and Monday so I had her over for dinner on Monday. Emma's mom is visiting this week so I joined them yesterday and we visited the old Tempelhof Airport. Tempelhof is the location of the Berlin airlifts during the Soviet blockade in the late 1940s. It isn't used as an airport anymore but it's a big open park with wide, paved paths great for bike riding. Then we visited Ikea and had a delicious lunch before Emma and I had to head back for class. It's so fun to have visitors!

One last picture for today: I finally photographed myself in my Frauenlauf shirt with my number and finisher's medal. You can't really tell what my new haircut looks like here but I promise my hair looks exactly the same as always.

Woohoo! Running!

Little Things

This week was another busy one, surprise! It started off with the realization that I have crossed the halfway threshold in my time here. That was a weird moment. I knew I'd get to that point eventually, but still...

I've decided to write a short update about my week, instead of waiting till after my trip to Weimar tomorrow because I might skip over this week, and this was a good week so far. Simple but fun. This is one of those entries that I'm writing more for me, because due to a little camera trouble I don't have many pictures so I'm not expecting it will be very interesting to most of my wonderful readers. Thanks to those who do stick it out!

Monday I gathered my courage and went to get my hair cut. Nothing fancy, pretty much just a shorter version of the style I walked in with, but I spoke to the hairdresser in German and somehow she understood what I was asking for so I was pleased with the day. The simple things still make me excited.

On Tuesday I helped out with a kids' biathlon. My host family and their neighbors organize a Schülerduathon in the spring for elementary school-age kids (there's also one for middle school to high school age kids, that was last week) and so Tuesday morning I showed up at the sport field at 8am to help give over 450 kids their race numbers, finisher gifts, and rubber bracelets (to show who had completed a lap and who still had one more to run). It was a lot of fun to watch, and my host siblings both had excellent performances--Ella even won her age division! I mostly just loved the fact that I could follow directions and help. This week is about noticing the simple things again. And seeing that I could understand quickly what was being asked of me gave my self confidence a little boost. It's so rewarding to notice my language skills must be improving.

Then Wednesday, after I managed to give a [thankfully] short presentation in my literature class, I went to my host family's for dinner. What was on the menu, I'm sure you're asking? Why, Beelitzer Spargel of course! Spargel is white asparagus, and Germans love it. Beelitzer asparagus is white asparagus grown in the nearby town of Beelitz, just outside Potsdam. One popular way of eating spargel is cooking it then covering it with Hollandaise sauce, but we just ate ours with butter and had ham and potatoes on the side. I don't like green asparagus that much but this was a very good meal. And very German.

Another reason I was so happy with dinner was that Wednesday felt like an on day, with respective to language. I'm sure I didn't sound that much better to my family, because I had plenty of train-wreck sentences still, but something just felt like it clicked.

Yesterday I had more class, then Leah and I bought our train tickets for a hiking adventure we're planning with Hilary in June. Our favorite Eurail aide guy (who deals with international travelers so he speaks English) wasn't there, so we got in the regular Deutsche Bahn line and proceeded to successfully explain our slightly complicated itinerary auf Deutsch. I actually had fun doing that. I'm getting a little bit better at asking for things--it's not something I usually do in English but I'm trying to see it as an opportunity to practice speaking.

And today Maria and I visited the Pergamon Museum! It was fascinating, as per usu, and in our three hours there we only covered a third to a half of the museum. The Pergamon Museum is filled with artifacts from the Pergamon, an area in Turkey. There's actually a little controversy about whether this stuff actually belongs in Berlin, and after seeing how much used to be the private collection of one Pergamon enthusiast it's a little shocking. So much stuff, just taken. I learned a lot, though!

I do have one picture for you: a copy of my certificate of completion for my 10k! This is the online version, but they're mailing me a real copy that will be here in a few weeks. This gives my overall place, age group place, and time. Just to show you I didn't make it all up. ;)

Ich hab' es geschafft!

This past week was definitely a busy one. It felt like I had two [incredibly busy] weekends, because we left for Dresden on Wednesday morning and returned Friday evening. Not that I'm complaining about having two weekends! It just threw off my schedule a little bit.

The three day trip to Dresden was a total success. The weather was (mostly) very nice, and I learned so much about the city. We had a lot of tours (one city tour and three museum tours), which were interesting but also a little exhausting. There's plenty I could say but I think it would be most interesting if I share some of the highlights and a little of my reaction to the city before I talk about the 10k I ran on Saturday in Berlin.

On a bridge over the Elbe River with Dresden behind me

Wednesday afternoon our first activity was a walking tour of the Dresden Innenstadt, which is where are the old buildings are/were. Our guide also gave us a good overview of Dresden history. Dresden was bombed by the Allies in February of 1945. Immediately prior to that there was an influx of refugees in Dresden, because everyone considered Dresden to be a cultural city and not a target, especially at that point in the war. Sadly they were wrong, and because there were so many people in Dresden without paperwork at the time of the February bombings there is no way to get an accurate count of how many lives were lost in the bombings.

Dresden after the February 1945 bombings

Today Dresden looks much like it did before the bombings--which gave the city, to me, a fascinating but also slightly strange feeling after a few days. To walk around and see all these buildings with old architecture styles, and to realize they were built within the past fifty years or less made the city feel like a shell, or a recreation of a city that used to be. There are three main opinions about the rebuilding: one group says that rebuilding as things were is a tribute to the past and we can't forgot Dresden's history. Another group says it's kitschy. And a third opinion points out that never before have humans built backwards. That is, never before has architecture been an exact replica of the past. Sometimes it draws from elements of earlier styles, but always in an attempt to create something new. This opinion also says that we need to show that Dresden is a modern city and that its people live in the present. They are all three very interesting points to consider.

Of course I found a lookout tower.

One of my favorite museums was the Grünes Gewölbe, and it is located in a castle that is still being rebuilt. They think it will be finished around 2019 or 2023. This castle is not going to be an exact replica of its former self, but the sections will be built in different sections to reflect the architecture of the epochs since the castle was originally constructed.

A porcelain "tapestry" on the outside of the castle showing all the rulers of Saxony from 12th century to the 19th century. It is the longest tile mural in the world. 

The Grünes Gewölbe is a collection of the treasures of Sächsischen kings. The 4,000 piece collection is the biggest in Europe. The entire collection was taken by the Soviets after WWII, but they returned every single piece in 1958. Even the green diamond that is the only one of its kind, which one of the kings bought for more than he spent building his castle, was returned. Goes to show you the friendship that existed between East Germany and the Soviets in the 50s--pretty unbelieveable.

The building on the right is part of the castle, where the Grünes Gewölbe can be found today.
The building on the right is the Katholische Hofkirche.

Both the Hofkirche (the Catholic church) and the Frauenkirche (the Protestant church) were really interesting stories, and beautiful churches. The Katholische Hofkirche was built in 1739, in the baroque style, because there was a Protestant church but the king's bride-to-be was Catholic and wanted a Catholic church. This church was rebuilt surprisingly quickly after the war: by 1947 a small side section of the church was already rebuilt. It's still not completely done, because they didn't work on it nonstop after that first section. But it is a beautiful church.

The Frauenkirche (so-named because it was dedicated to Mary) is beautiful, especially on the inside, because it's so colorful. Sadly, we couldn't photograph the inside of this church. After the bombings in 1945 only two sections were still standing. For years the space sat just that way, with two sections and a lot of grass, as a memorial to those who died when the church burned and collapsed and as a warning against the cruel consequences of war. But in the 1990s there was a big movement to rebuild the Frauenkirche, and in 2006 they finished. Right now you can see the pieces of the old church that they salvaged and incorporated into the new church, because they're the darker pieces. However it's a quality of this sandstone that it darkens relatively quickly, so in about 40 years you won't be able to tell the old from the new. That just blows my mind. We went into the church on Thursday afternoon because we thought we would be catching an organ concert and introduction to the church, but Thursdays they have a prayer service in the "Unterkirche" (it's a chamber below the main church) so we checked that out instead. Pretty cool.

After the bombing, before the rebuilding

I think this shot is from about the same spot as the one above.
Dresden  has seen a lot of changes.

We also saw two different art museums, covering everything from the Renaissance to modern art. Quite a collection! Thursday night we attended  modernized Romeo and Juliet. It was entertaining but I seem to prefer original settings. I guess I'm just boring like that.

Then Saturday was the Frauenlauf! My first 10k ever. And it was a success! I had so much fun, and I even did better than I hoped. My host mom and two of her neighbors ran too, so I met up with them before the race (which started at 6pm). I ran my 10k in 48:39. In my age group I was 34th out of 882. The weather started out great--a little cloudy, cool, with a slight breeze. It didn't stay that way though. It started sprinkling, just a little bit, then stopped, then the last 2km the rain was pretty heavy. I was soaked and freezing by the time I'd collected my finisher's medal and all my free goodies and got on the train home.

The start of the 10k. See the Brandenburger Tor in the distance? (not my photo)

There were 17,000 people who participated in one of the runs (there were walking events as well as a 5k and 10k run) and 4,300 of them were in the 10k. And there were so many people there watching! The atmosphere was awesome. For a minute or so I ran behind a woman who every 20 feet or so would cheer and raise her arms to get the crowd of onlookers to cheer too, and I couldn't help but smile (until I passed her). It just made the running so easy, to have so many people there. Sprinting across the finish line, I felt like I hadn't even been running that long. I could have done without the rain, but the rain in no way spoiled the afternoon. I'm so glad I signed up!

PS re: Title: translation means "I did it!" They had plenty of signs all over the Frauenlauf saying You did it! and such, and lots of cheers from the public saying the same thing. It actually really invigorated me!

Day in Leipzig

Last Saturday, thanks again to the international student office, Maria and I joined a group of about 15-20 other students on a day trip to Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig is about 200km south and a little west of Berlin (if you like maps check out the new one at the bottom of the page!) and has ties to such famous names like Bach and Goethe, to name two. We took the ICE (InterCity Express) train and got there in just over an hour. So smooth and fast!

We started our day with a walking tour, and the sunny and warm weather was perfect. We saw the Thomaskirche, the church where Johannes Sebastian Bach worked as a Kantor and also as a teacher at the school. Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 and is now buried in the Thomaskirche.

The Thomaskirche with a statue of Bach

The Bach window inside the Thomaskirche

The Nikolaikirche is bigger than the Thomaskirche and only about a two minute walk away. Actually everything in the Innenstadt or Altstadt (the heart of the city is very close together--it's not a very big city center with respect to size, although including the surrounding area it's much bigger. With respect to population it was the 4th biggest city in Germany in the 1930s, when the population was around 700,000. The population declined a little after WWII, and now is around 500,000. But back to the church: Bach also worked at the Nikolaikirche, and one thing I especially like about the Nikolaikirche was the pillars. They are pink at the base, then they are decorated with green leaves at the top so that they look like trees.

From the front of the church, looking back to the organ

The altar. You could actually walk up to it.

After a delicious lunch at the Napoleon Brauhaus, we visited the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. The Völkerschlachtdenkmal is a memorial for those who lost their lives in mid-October, 1813, when people in Leipzig stood up to Napoleon as he returned from his failed invasion of Russia. It is dedicated not only to the people of Leipzig who died in the battles, but to the people from both sides, because there were many Germans on Napoleon's side who had been conscripted into his army. It is a massive monument--at 91m tall it is the largest memorial in Europe. It is just stunning, how huge this monument is.

You just can't escape construction.

Our tour guide went over the history of the battles the monument commemorates and its construction (unfortunately in a very monotone voice) and then took us inside. There are three levels of the monument. We saw the crypt (which isn't actually a crypt but there is a wreath in the middle of the room in honor of those who died) and the first outdoor level about 57m up where you can walk through a very narrow path around the outside of the memorial. Don't panic, the path is narrow but the wall is a comfortable four feet tall so you are never afraid of falling out. Then we climbed many, many stairs to get to the very top, and the view was amazing. We could see the Leipzig city center directly in front of the monument, and then German villages and the countryside in all directions. I think the pictures say more than I can.

Looking out to the Leipzig downtown area

57m above the ground

The surrounding Leipzig area and the beautiful countryside from the top

After we came down we had free time to explore. Maria and I went back to the city center and visited a fascinating museum that seemed to cover everything about the German lifestyle from 1945 to at least 2006. Earlier we had seen the sign for Auerbachs Keller (which is famous for appearing in the first part of Goethe's Faust), so we went back to take pictures and a peak inside.

The statue is from the scene where Mephisto bewitches the students

Then we sat outside a restaurant and enjoyed some delicious ice cream (which is coming to be a staple of any good trip) before it was time to meet the group at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). One hour in the train, speeding through the German countryside, and we were back in Berlin!

mmmmmm, endlich Eis!

 Yesterday and today have been mostly work days. Some running, some Jazzercise, lots of reading and brainstorming paper ideas. I leave Wednesday for Dresden on a BCGS trip so I have to prepared for missing a couple class days. Normally missing class is a cause for celebration, but when classes only meet once a week you don't get very many of them, and I really like my Thursday class, so I'm actually bummed about missing it (you can say it: NERD. I know). I'm also running a 10k race with 15,000 other women on Saturday so let's all cross our fingers that I've stayed in good enough shape to finish with a decent time!

Pause to Look Around

By far, the highlight of last weekend was a visit of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building. Maria, Leah, Hilary and I signed up for this excursion, which included a guided tour of the building as well as access to the famous glass dome on top of the building, during the international student orientation days.

"For the German People"

Our tour was in auf Deutsch, of course, and I loved that I could understand so much of what our tour guide said, and I even got her jokes! That alone was really exciting. We started off by talking about the architecture of the building. There are four towers, one on each corner, and they symbolize the four former kingdoms of Germany. The windows along the Reichstag, facing out, each represent a Germany city. The Plenarsaal is the room where the Parliament meets, and you are only allowed to enter the room if you are an Abgeordnete (an elected member of parliament). Hence we were not allowed in, but we could check out the room from the visitor's gallery! The visitor's gallery is not just where the media must watch the proceedings, but it's also where distinguished guests, like the president of France, would have to sit. So we were in good company!

In the above picture you can see the traditional German eagle hanging from the ceiling, but around back of the room you can see the newer eagle. He's smiling (because Germans always smile now) and is sleeker and not as menacing as the fattened, long-taloned traditional eagle. The seats in the room are all movable, so the configuration of the room changes after every election, because the half circle of representatives is divided into pie pieces with one piece for every party presence. I thought that was so cool, because you could see exactly just how much power each party has. Also interesting: the seats are not assigned. Our guide compared it to a college lecture: All you are technically entitled to as an Abgeordnete is a seat in the parliament and the chance to talk, so if you want a table with that seat you better get there earlier!

Trying to get a better view of the seats

There are also four pieces of art in the Reichstag, one from each country that used to control a section of Berlin (US, Great Britian, France and Russia). We saw the US piece and the French piece, and I thought they were both interesting. The French piece is a hallway of small post boxes, one for every Abgeordnete since about 1900 I think, with the name, party and dates of each Abgeordnete. There's even a box for Adoplf Hitler, because he was elected by the people and the artist decided to include him to show that he (the artist) considered all people equal, unlike the Nazis. There's also a box for the current Kanzlerin, Angela Merkel. She was an Abgeordnete from 1990-1994.

And, of course, going up into the glass dome on top of the Reichstag was really cool. The glass dome is very symbolic, because it's right over the Plenarsaal, and is supposed to show that this building belongs to the people, because the people can go up into the dome, and when you look at the building from the outside you can see the people in the roof. It then also reminds the Abgeordneten that they are chosen by the people, because they can look up into the dome from their seats in the Plenarsaal and see the people. As a bonus, it's a place to get an awesome view of Berlin!

What the dome looks like from the roof

Looking east

Looking out over Brandenburger Tor, Holocaust Memorial, Potsdamer Platz , and part of the Tiergarten

I loved walking up the ramp to the top of the dome and listening to my audio guide (we walked through the dome on our own time after the tour) describe buildings and landmarks (in German) that I could recognize. The audio guide kept telling me to please stop and look around for a moment, but the reminder was unnecessary because I was fascinating by the sights.

Me! And the Tiergarten

I also went to two different shows at the Deutsche Oper last week. Thursday I went with Maria, Leah and Hilary to see the ballet performance of "Schneewitchen" (Snow White), and I thought that was fantastic. The music was pre-recorded, but the dancing almost made up for it. It was my first ballet, and I just thought it was amazing that the story could be so completely conveyed without any words, and how much emotion the dancers showed. Snow White and her Prince danced great together as well, an excellent pairing.

Then on Saturday night the four of us returned for "Die Zauberflöte" (Mozart's Magic Flute). We had tried to see it the night before at a different theater, but to get the reduced student price you can only buy tickets an hour in advance and they were sold out. The performance at the Deutsche Oper the next night was a different interpretation, but still good. A little unusual at times, but the singers were very talented and the orchestra was top-notch, always a big plus in my book, so I called the night a success.

So, there you have it, it was a quiet weekend but I crossed so many things off my to-do list (I saw a ballet, I saw the Magic Flute, went up in the Reichstag) that it felt like a very productive weekend! Then there's that homework thing too, that's been sucking up a little time to but since that is, after all, the reason that I'm hear in the first place I shouldn't really complain...