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...