Ich fahre nach Copenhagen

I'm about to go incommunicado for a little over a week because I'm traveling with my program to Hamburg and Copenhagen. I can't wait for adventures in Denmark (land of my favorite Hamlet) and some of us are even talking of taking a ferry ride to Sweden. I'm very excited.

Expect a good post when I come back which will explain to you guys all the fun I had today doing an opera workshop with my German class. Hint: We got to dress in costumes and act out scenes from the Barber of Seville. I have pictures to help showcase our abilities as actors and actresses. So look for that soon.

Til then... Tschuess my friends!

Easter Weekend

I always feel pressure to write something profound and interesting on my blog posts. Unfortunately all I have for you is the day-to-day stuff that happens which isn't necessarily very exciting. But I guess that's what living is, just doing the normal stuff: buying groceries, going to museums, stopping in a cafe, walking around different parts of the city with no set destination, spending time with my host family, or even watching tv shows on my computer. This stuff doesn't make headlines but it's the majority of how I have been spending my time in Germany.

As I mentioned in the past few posts, I have been beset with visitors since February 27th. My last visitor, Tiffany, just left last night. She stayed with me from Thursday to Sunday and was thus able to celebrate Easter with me. It was a great time for her to visit because I had the whole weekend off with no responsibilities. We were able to create our own plans without any restrictions. I gave her my now popular tour of Berlin, including the Kufuerstendamm, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Unter den Linden, a walk down Friedrichstrasse, Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Insel, Hackescher Markt, and Alexanderplatz. These are all what I would consider the main sites of Berlin. But Tiffany and I also did some things I haven't done before, we saw the Jewish Museum and this outdoor exhibit called "Topography of Terror" which chronicled the SS in Nazi Germany. The Jewish Museum was fascinating and traced the history of Jews in Germany since the time of Emperor Constantine. The architecture of the museum was also really interesting (see picture).

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday we went to church at the American Church in Berlin. It was nice to be able to celebrate Easter in a traditional service and even sing songs in English. What's Easter without "Jesus Christ is Risen Today"? On the way back from the service we bought my host mom flowers. We spent time home eating a great little brunch with my host-family and a few of their friends. We chilled the rest of the day and at night we went over to my host mom's friend's to watch "Lola Rennt" (or "Run Lola Run" in English). After that I dropped Tiffany off at the bus station and headed home. But I think that this Easter was exactly what it should be: a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, along with food, family, and the mid-afternoon lazy/relaxing time.

This weekend and my time with Tiffany was a great time to appreciate God's blessings in my life.

The Joy of Friends

So now I finally have a break from visitors. Since February 27th I have been hosting guests and traveling and now I have my much needed break. On Feb. 27th Kate arrived in Italy and spent time with us in Florence and a day in Rome. The following Friday we picked up my friend Christine from the airport and headed straight to Prague for the weekend. In Prague we met up with my old friend Tiffany Pransky and her new friend Sarah.

We had a really fantastic time in Prague. We spent most of the time walking around the small town and going into cute cafes, which is what the city is also well-known for. The architecture in Prague is the most amazing. There are so many building which come from the Jungenstil art period, or Art Nouveau, which I studied just this semester in my 20th Century Central European art class.

Kate, Tiffany, and Sarah departed on Sunday morning and Christine and I spent most of the day doing some awesome shopping. I ended up buying two beautiful crystal candlesticks. I now feel so adult-like. Christine bought lots of beaded jewelry and we both bought postcards too. On Monday morning we headed back to Berlin, via Dresden, and arrived Monday evening in Berlin.

This week went by extremely fast, as did all the time spent with my guests. This is the first time in over two weeks that I have had alone time, which is proving to be both good and bad. I'm glad to be relaxed and unburdened by playing hostess but at the same time I am sad to no longer feels the comforts of my friends from home. When they were here it was like getting a slice of all the great things I have back at home. In some ways that really makes me miss home more.

My alone time won't last too long. Late this week Tiffany is going to arriving in Berlin to spend Easter weekend with me. This is going to be something very special because we can celebrate Easter together. My host mom is even planning an Easter meal, even though she is un-religious. Having Tiffany and a wonderful and giving host-family will make this time of celebration, family, and gratitude for Christ's death and resurrection all the more wonderful because I can truly appreciate the blessings God has given me this semester. When this time of the year could have been extra lonely because I am missing home and family, God provided my dear old friend to visit and keep me company.

And stay tuned.... in a few weeks I will be traveling with my program to Hamburg and Copenhagen.

The BVG taught me trust

Many of you might not know, but Berlin’s public transportation, run by the BVG, has been going through a massive strike. Since last Wednesday there have been no functioning U-Bahns or busses. This may not mean a lot to those who don’t understand the city of Berlin, but this strike affects everyone on a daily basis. Whereas it used to take me 15 minutes to get to class each day, it now takes me about 45 minutes. It is also no longer possible to get to certain sections of the city without an enormous amount of walking.

Fortunately throughout this strike the S-Bahn is still working and I’m so blessed to live on both the U- and S-Bahn lines. So transportation in Berlin is not completely down, it is only more inconvenient and takes longer to get to the center of the city.

All this would not be so bad if I only had to worry about getting to and from classes. But this is not the case because for the past week and now this current week, I have some American friends visiting me here in Berlin: Kate and Christine. I think I probably put undue pressure on myself because I always feel compelled as hostess to make sure that everything is absolutely perfect for my guests. So this strike hit me very hard because I felt like a bad host even though none of this was my fault. I wanted my guests to have a great impression of Berlin and to love it as I love it but I felt like that wasn’t going to be possible because of the strike made transportation so difficult.

While Christine and I were in Prague for the weekend, I learned that the Deutsche Bahn (or DB, which includes trains and S-Bahn) seemed extremely likely to strike as well. They were planning the strike for Monday, the day that we were to arrive back in Berlin. This was the tipping point for my stress level and I just couldn’t handle the thought of Christine wasting her whole trip coming to Berlin because she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere in the city at all without the U-and S-Bahn!

When the BVG strike first started while Kate was in Berlin, I prayed hard that things would work out and that she would still be able to gain a favorable impression of the city. I should have known right there that the Lord would take care of my worries because my prayers were definitely answered and Kate loved Berlin. But I really allowed myself to stress out during the weekend before the eminent Deutsche Bahn strike and Christine’s and my travel back to Berlin. I felt so out of control. I felt like a letdown to my friend. I was so upset about how everything was turning out.

On Saturday and Sunday night I prayed so earnestly that everything would work out. Late Sunday night I received an email from my program director telling us to expect the strike to start Monday morning and also that it seemed very unlikely that the strike could be avoided. Monday morning rolled along and Christine and I got on the train to go back to Berlin. We stopped in Dresden for the afternoon and were set to arrive in Berlin around 5pm. As we got off at the Suedkreuz stop in Berlin and raced up the stairs to switch lines, I noticed that all the lines were running normally: there wasn’t a strike! I couldn’t help but laugh and smile and say a huge prayer of thanks.

Looking back at my needless worry and stress I can clearly see that God was in control the whole time. I felt stressed because I felt out of control. I never gave trust over to God to take care of the situation himself. Looking back, these verses come to mind, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7).” I definitely needed to humble myself because I thought I could handle everything. I thought that I could control how this week with my visiting friends would work out and that everything would go smoothly and perfectly. I had all these plans in mind and wanted everything to go exactly as I envisioned them. I allowed myself to get anxious instead of trusting that God would work out everything perfectly according to his will. Like the verse says, God cares for us. He loves us; he wants us to be happy. He even takes delight in us (Psalm 149:4). Even though my plans weren’t exactly how I anticipated, everything has gone wonderfully. All of us have been safe after traveling and even the DB strike was avoided last minute.

This strike with the BVG has taught me once again that God is in control and I’m not, and that’s a good thing.

Non-Stop Madness

The past two weeks have been full of all kinds of craziness. I was just traveling in Italy for 10 days, I met up with my friend Kate, traveled back to Berlin with Kate, completed an art presentation today, and am meeting my friend Christine tomorrow and dashing off to Prague until Monday. It comes as no surprise that the time has gone by quickly.

I stayed 6 days in Rome and did the typical tourist things: visited the Vatican and St. Peter's (including climbing up the dome), saw the Colosseum, played in the ruins of the Roman Forum, walked down to St. Paul's Basilica where St. Paul is buried, took pictures by the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, strolled through the beautiful park near Villa Borghese (and visited the museum), and of course ate lots and lots of gelato. I mentioned before that Rome wasn't exactly what I expected and I still hold to that claim but what was nice about staying for 6 days is that we took our time. We were busy everyday but I never felt rushed to see everything.

One of my favorite things about Italy is the "fast-food" options. It was so wonderful when we would stumble upon a little pizza place where they cut the pizza to your desired size and weigh it to get a price. I would usually get a Margharita (just cheese) or spinach pizza. Our first day we went to lunch and got delicious paninis. I choose the mozzarella, tomato, and basil panini and it was so good. I really don't think you could ever go wrong with that combination. Ever.


And since we were on vacation, we ate gelato just about twice a day (which we justified by the amount of walking that we did). It was fun to try new places and flavors. My favorites include chocolate, straciatella (like chocolate-chip), nutella, panna cotta, and hazelnut. On one of our last days in Rome we looked in our guide books and found the supposed favorite gelato place of Pope John Paul II. It's hidden down a little street that was difficult to find but that was part of the charm of it. It was amazing!! The place offered about 30 different flavors and all of them were incredible. Two of my best flavors were banana (literally like eating a real banana) and cinnamon. That combo was delicious. And to top it off, they add a little fresh whipped cream.

On Wednesday night Kate flew in from Connecticut and on Thursday morning we headed to Florence. Florence was wonderful. It has the quaint feel of a Tuscan town on the river and I loved that. It was not nearly as big and urban as Rome and that suited me better. We spent a lot of time shopping, eating gelato, and visiting the important parts of the city: the Duomo (the church), the Uffizi gallery, the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and Piazze Michelangelo which sits above the city and offers a great view of the valley. We only spent 2 full days in Florence but we felt that we saw everything.

From there we traveled back to Rome and caught our flight back to Berlin the next day. I really enjoyed the warm and sunny weather of Italy and it's been difficult to adjust to Berlin's cold and wet weather. I think that I still prefer Germany to Italy because I feel like I fit in better with pace of life in Germany and also Germans' level of cleanliness. And now I'm off to explore Czech culture in Prague.

Return from Italy

Well I'm finally back from my long trip to Italy. It was so nice to be able to take time off from school and to enjoy beautiful warm weather and experience another European culture. And I'll tell you, the relaxed Italians are very different from the more structured Germans.

I'm not sure what kind of expectations I had going into my trip to Rome and Florence, but Italy turned out to be somewhat different than what I thought. I think I believed that Rome would be the romantic city that everyone talked about; that the little Italian piazzas and cobblestone streets would make everyone desire romance and passion. If that happens in Rome, then I know I missed it. In my experience Rome is a great city, but it is far from the romance of, say, Paris. I think that I was most surprised at how touristy Rome was, or rather, that the city is actually catered to tourists. This disappointed me. The sights were wonderful and it was great to get a sense of all the history in the city, but often times my magical Rome experiences were disrupted by harassing street peddlers and large crowds of people.

One thing that did not disappoint in any way was the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Holy cow! Are there even words to describe the magnificence and grandeur of that place? I have never seen a church/cathedral/basilica so ornately decorated. And it's not just that St. Peter's is ornate, it's that everything seems larger-than-life and that no expense was spared for the construction of the building. My dad, a wise man if I may say so, wrote to me that (he thinks) the construction of St. Peter's was funded by the money collected from the Catholic church's sale of indulgences (those little pieces of paper that guaranteed your spot in heaven). My dad posed the question to me whether I thought that that irreligious practice was worth it in order to create the beautiful basilica. I mused over this question while I walked within the church. My quick answer to the question would be Yes. St. Peter's Basilica is a work of art and a symbol of the history of the Catholic church. Although I could never condone the sale of indulgences, the outcome turned out to be a gift to the people even centuries later.

I'll continue my Italian impressions and experiences in a later post; there is just so much to tell!