BerlinBerlin

So.I am officially in Berlin and so far everything is going well. My room is huge and gorgeous and my host lady person is very friendly, though I rarely see her. She goes out salsa dancing almost every night and is usually still out when I go to bed and is still asleep when I leave. But she has a black cat which is exciting. Especially since I dont have to take care of it. Classes are going well. The homework is generally pretty hard but class itself is easy and I feel at least competent in my level. I havent been doing a ton of sighseeeing since I will be here for so long and because I know people are coming who will want me to show them around and I dont want to see all the really touristy stuff a million times. But our Macalester group went on a tour of the Reichstag and ate at a (really expensive) German restaurant on Macalesters tab. That was cool. We also saw the Brandenburg Gate and yesterday we climbed the Siegesaule which means victory tower and from there had a really nice view of the Tiergarten which is the big central park here. Carlye (the Mac girl I live with) and I went on a walk through our neighborhood and saw the Charlottenburg Palace which is right near our house and has really beautiful gardens. Our neighborhood is pretty cute in general. Then today we saw the Gendarmmarkt which is just a big square with a lot of pretty old churches and Bebelplatz where books were burned during the Nazi Era. I havent gone to see the wall yet since I have already been there and figure Dave will want to go when he gets here.
Yesterday night I went to a movie called Belin am Meer which had just come out and which was fabulous. Im really upset by it today though because it kind of made me realize that I wont every really get to know this city because I have so few opportunities to meet real Germans and because Im just never going to be that cool. But the movie was really good. You guys should see it if it comes out in America. Anywway. Off to explore somemore. Tonight we are going to a Russian Disco which should be exciting. Lovelove.