Berlin, and a new class

This past weekend I was in Berlin. Let me say, that was a blast. Die Hauptstadt von Deutschland. Die Stadt, die nie schlaeft. Es war wunderbar! (for translations, please visit www.google.com/translate).

First of all, the trip there was all via bus. It took a good 6 or more hours plus stops to get there, but well worth it. We created a group and went out the first day by ourselves. We went by Checkpoint Charlie, saw some wonderful history learning things, went through alexanderplatz, explored around some awesome old churches and stuff, and went to a club.

Funny story behind the club. We were talking on the bus about really wanting to dance to 90's dance music, and then later that night we saw a poster advertising a 90's dance night at one of the clubs. So, naturally, we went, but all the music was rap music (commonly called Blackmusik here in Germany) that we had never heard before. It wasn't good music either, but we still had fun.

The next day, we all were exauhsted, but we went on a 3 hour bus tour of Berlin. The lady was easy to understand and talked slow enough for the people who weren't good at German to keep up. We saw a lot of the city. Did you know, that the cities of Frankfurt, Munich, and Cologne. and Hamburg could fit inside berlin with plenty of room to spare? Yeah, it's crazy big. Anyway, we got the tour, and then we went out and actually went sightseeing. We went to the Holocaust Mahnmal (holocaust memorial) and Brandenburger Tuer (where they were having the World championchip of Racewalking) and the political building. We had a presentation within the political building, but half our group slept through it cause the man was very boring and hard to understand. He also talked about stupid things, and it was slightly cool in there. I did get a good 45 minute nap in though!

After the political building, we went to the most expensive department store in Berlin. Of course, most of us didn't buy anything, but it was cool to go into because the store actually has a lot of history behind it. Afterwards, while looking for food, Amber and I went off and saw the Judische Museum. That was super cool, especially since I studied it in college. The exhibits weren't the best, but the symbolism behind the archetecture of the building was so cool.

Anyway, afterwards we went back to get ready for a night of out on the town. We first tried to find the Russendisko, which is actually an event at a burger bar somewhere in Berlin (it wasn't going on that night) and then went to a club called Maxim. This club was extremely huge. It was 5 stories tall (which we couldn't find the stairs) and also played nothing but different styles of american dance music. On our floor, we had 90's remix music, and then 80/90's awesome dance music. It was so so so SO much fun. We had a blast and danced so much. Definatly was one of the most fun things I've done while on this trip.

Anyway the next day, we were all tired from two nights of minimal sleep, and on our way home, the tour decided to stop and do a 2 hour tour of Postdam, which is right outside the city. It's where a lot of modern castles are built and whatnot. I was so tired and really wanting to get home that I kindof just walked through it all with the group. It was interesting, but I didn't care too much for it.

The ride home was 8-9 hours long!!! There was construction, so it took forever. We stopped at a McDonalds though. That was cool.

And this week I upgrated into a new class, which is better for me and helping me out a lot more. I'm talking more often and using my thinking skills a lot more. The school here, as I've said before, is all international students, so I am constantly learning a lot about different nations around the globe. It's really quite awesome.

And then 2 nights ago, 3 of us cooked a nice meal for everyone. We were going to make it for 4 of us, but then we invited 3 others to come, and then invited even more people to come. It was so fun. We spent the whole afternoon cooking and then we set up the dinner table for people to sit down, complete with wine/beer glasses, water glasses, plates, bowls, silverwear, and other stuff. Everything was mismatched, and we barely had enough to go by, but we did it. And everyone chipped in to clean up. We rocked out to some awesome music and cleaned everything up. The kitchen was so clean. Then we went out for Ice Cream (which was really good)

What did we eat, you ask? Well, for starters, we had pizza rolls (made by me from scratch) and then chinese dumplings, and homemade chilli... like, the good kind with plenty of vegetables.

And then, the next night, we were basically told never to return to the ice cream place again. Sad day, but all is ok. It was just a cultural misunderstanding between italians and venezuleans

More pictures to come later

BTW, I changed the settings so now everyone can comment... so please, feel free to comment on anything now