Berlin, Hitler, Laundry, and Side Trips and Such

Random title, I know, but that's an easy way for me to remember the things I want to blog about.

To catch you all up, the last time I blogged on our first day in Berlin. On our second day, I slept in because I was beat, and then my friend Amanda and I caffeinated and headed to the Brandenburg gate to meet everyone for our walking tour. The tour was AMAZING. I wish every day we had a tour guide! He was incredibly knowledgeable about all the sites we saw and I could go on and on telling about all the things I learned but I will just briefly list and describe what I can remember at the moment:

1. Brandenburg gate: apparently before the bombing that occurred in Berlin during the war, there were other gates. This is the only one to have survived, and that's interesting because the other buildings in the area were destroyed during the war.
   
   
   
2. The Reichstag (not sure on spelling there): There is a monument to the Pariliament members here. Basically, this is where the parliament used to meet before the Nazis came to power. The Nazis and the Communists were both trying to gain control of Germany and there was a rivalry there of course. A Commie burnt down the Reichstag and the Nazis used this as a way to gain power. Hitler declared a state of emergency and talked the parliament into passing laws that basically ended up giving him just about absolute power in Germany. All the parliament members ended up being murdered in concentration camps and in other ways, hence a monument to them.
   
   
3. Humboldt University: This is a place where Plank was a professor (Nobel prize for Plank's constant) and Einstein was also a professor here. The university was stromed by young Nazis and books were taken and burned from the library that the Nazis thought would promote independent thought and the like. There's a cool monument here.
   
   
4. Hitler's Bunker: There's just a sign with info about his bunker where it once was. They decided not to make it open for people to walk through because they didn't want people to come and make it a place of like...pilgrimage I guess...like they don't want people who still think like him to come and pay honor to him there.
   
   
5. The Wall: Obviously in Berlin, I saw the wall. I saw several different sections and I learned a ton about it. The wall divided people who loved each other, families, friends, etc. It is crazy to think that a literal wall was erected to divide a city. Berlin's population pre-wall was almost 1 million people larger than it is today.

Okay. So I wasn't as brief as I intended but oh well.

After the tour day, we went out for Corbin's birthday. That was fun to see night life and Berlin. Then the next day we went and looked at an Egyptian exhibit in a museum and that was fun. Kinda random but fun. The next day we went to a flea market of sorts and that was fun. I did a little souvenir shopping. :-) For others as well as myself. :-)

Laundry here = interesting. We can do our laundry at the Beck's flat but they don't have a dryer. So currently, my clean, wet clothes are in various locations in our flat drying.

Side trips: We are no longer going to Rome. Travel to Rome and Paris both is astronomical. We will still go to Paris for our long weekend though. This weekend is when we would have gone to Rome so we are instead going to Dresden for one night. It's way cheaper and Amy was able to get us a free hotel in Dresden. Thank God for Amy! Dresden is very historical and beautiful apparently, so I am excited to see it.

Grocery shopped again today. I got the biggest jar of Nutella I could find. :-)

Class: We have class in Stephen Shoemaker's flat (he's our study abroad coordinator). His flat is a lot bigger than ours so that is why we meet there. Yesterday we learned about Dietrich Bonhoffer. He was a Christian who lived in Germany and was a minister (Lutheran I believe). He is considered to be one of the best theologians of our times. He was killed for being involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Today class was kinda boring, haha, so I won't elaborate on that. :-)

Ummmm...sorry for being so long winded. I think that is everything. Here are some more random photos for you guys:


Left: Pretty church...can't remember the name...I'll find out. It was in Berlin.

Above: Holocaust memorial (Technically called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe)

To the Right: A bunch of us went out last night to a place called Enchiladas (yes, you read that right, Enchiladas in Germany) and this is a group hug we had afterwards. That's me in the green sweater.