Week Two From Herr Guy

After my regular updates of the first week in Berlin, my silence in the second week has more to do with just being busy in school than anything else.  Today marks the end of the first full week living with host families in Bargteheide and attending classes at the Kopernikus Gymnasium. It came as no giant surprise to me that I saw a lot of bewildered faces a little overwhelmed by trying to process the German that was coming at that so quickly, but by the end of the week I was really hearing and seeing some progress with the kids´ ability to use the language to communicate.  We had one and only one field trip the whole week -- our tour of the Steinway & Sons factory in Hamburg where we saw the process of building a grand piano from start to finish, from the wood storage/drying shed all the way to small rooms with advanced technicians fine-tuning the instruments for shipping.  Following the tour, we went back to Downtown Hamburg, had an outdoor lunch while watching World Cup news, then headed for the Hamburg Rathaus, a mammoth building in the heart of the city, not far from Lake Alster and the canals. Then we set them free and agreed to meet back at the train station.

 

In the upcoming week we have a lot more trips planned, so there will be more to report and more pictures to share.  We just got the school to unblock access to our blog, so hopefully we can put a little time into uploading some content for you to read and see. 

BHS at Checkpoint Charlies by night, Berlin, Germany

BHS at Sanssouci Palace, Potsdam, Germany

The whole BHS group at the entrance to Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany

Mike & Frank in front of the 12 Commandments, Luther House, Wittenberg, Germany

Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany -- where Luther attached his 95 Theses to the door and launched the Reformation

BHS kids on the stairs of the Pergamon Altar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Jack, John and Kyle at some gate of Bagdad in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

Happy kiddies after pizza in Berlin.

Pictures at Last!

Nighttime at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

DAY THREE: Wittenberg & Disco

DAY THREE: Some of us were supposed to go to a plenary session of the Bundestag, the German Parliament, a treat arranged for us by Luk Klütz who'd interned with his local parliamentarian, but when push came to shove Wednesday morning, there seemed to be no one who really demonstrated determination to go. So we voted and it turned out everyone preferred our alternate, a trip to Martin Luther's city of Wittenberg and the home of the Protestant Reformation. So off we trundled to Hauptbahnhof, stood in line and negotiated the particulars of buying last minute tickets, which weren't as bad as we thought. We took a slow little regional train that still got us to Wittenberg in about 1 hr. 10 mins., then started walking from the stain on the outskirts of town to the historic district. Lucky for us, our ultimate goal, Luther's home and museum, was on our end of Collegienstrasse, so we were able to start our tour with the serious stuff. The museum has a remarkably well-done exhibit explaining the different stations of Luther's life and the rise of Protestantism, and superb examples of his publishing, art works by Cranach, church art and artifacts. We took our time and learned a lot from the experience. By the time we were done, we were really hungry and it was really late, but we found a totally charming courtyard restaurant with outdoor dining and good German food--people had very filling lunches or spectacular salad plates without spending a fortune. After that, we headed for the most history site, Castle Church where Luther's pounding of the 95 Theses on the church door really set the Reformation movement into action. We walked through the church, heard a choir from Minnesota, then climbed the 260 steps to the top of the church tower heralding in German "A mighty fortress is our God," the title of Luther's most famous hymn (--he was musical, too!) After looking over souvenirs and getting ice cream, we headed for our last visit in Wittenberg, St. Mary's Church, which is where Luther actually practiced as a minister and delivered sermons once he was freed and allowed to return to Wittenberg. By 6:30 we were on a train back to the city, and after cleaning up, to the D-Light disco off Warschauer Platz, a disco that is exclusively for high school kids on Tuesday and Thursday nights 8:00p.m.-midnight. We didn't really know what to anticipate--we were not prepared for three floors of music, totally packed full with teens and disco, disco, disco in a very safe environment. To get in, you have to be accompanied by your teacher, and you get wristbanded; once you're in, nobody gets out unless given specific permission by the teacher. So they danced the night away until midnight, we caught a late subway back to Oranienburger Tor, realized we hadn't eaten since the afternoon, stopped for a 1 a.m. snack, and then returned home tired but happy. Friday is dedicated to exploration of Potsdam and a visit to Sansscouci Palace.

DAY TWO: Wednesday continued our streak of stellar sunny summer weather and clear blue skies as we moved a little further outside our immediate environs in Berlin Mitte. Our morning tour of the Nazi exhibit of the German Historical Musuem got a little frustrated when our tour guide called in sick, but the end result of that was that everyone got a free audio guide and it we got in free. With a little help and taking time to focus on some key artifacts, I think we still got plenty out of it, and several students took in other parts of the museum on their own. Then we lost Frau Johnson. It was really weird, but while she went to the book store to pick up a couple of books she wanted, everyone -- and I mean everyone -- else went to the john, and when they came out, they ended up clustering in the hall outside the wash rooms instead of returning to the entrance area of the museum. Frau Johnson thought we'd gone without her, so she headed out on the street, to the university, to Alexanderplatz to find us. Meanwhile, after realized how weird it was to be talking at length outside the johns, we went back to the museum entrance: no Frau. We waited 30 mins--no Frau. Then in frustration we just decided to go and hoped she would find us later. We walked next door to Neue Wache, a memorial to the victims of the Third Reich, and then further to the impressive entrance gates of Humboldt University, when kids had time to pick up t-shirts and the like. Back outside, we headed for Alexanderplatz in the heart of Socialist East Berlin, grabbed a quick lunch and then took the tram out to Hohenschönhausen for a guided tour of the prison for political prisoners, where Frau Johnson found us! Our English guide was perhaps harder to understand than if it had been in German, but still he was hugely knowledgeable and gave the kids great insight into the machinations of a state apparatus dedicated to the complete and total control of thought and expression of personal opinion and the elimination of any contrarians. Lots and lots and lots of walking....and then back to the hostel and enough time to change and wash up before heading out to dinner with Kristi Decke, an old friend of Herr Guy and Frau Johnson. We opted for outdoor dining at Hackischer Markt, where there were projected TV screens everywhere for the World Cup soccer match, street performers, music, beer bicycles and an endless stream of visitors drawn to the action of the plaza, the beautiful summer weather and late night light -- it's still dusk at 11:00 here. And that was that. After returning to the hostel, kids were quite content to linger over a beverage in the reception/dining area and just talk with each other or e-mail, and slowly head off for bed. It's already Thursday, and today we'll slip up the group with part going to the Bundestag, the German Parliament, for a plenary session, and the rest heading out to Wittenberg to visit Martin Luther's home there and the key sites of the Protestant Reformation. There is so much to see, so much to do! More to come later! -- Herr Guy

Day One

Greetings from Herr Guy in late night Berlin, Wednesday 1:00 a.m.ish after our first very full day in Deutschland. Our flight arrived in Frankfurt/Main around 6:00 a.m., then we transferred to the Berlin flight and got to Berlin-Tegel around 9:00 a.m. After buying day tickets for the transportation net, then taking a bus to the train station, we found the train that got us within a block of our hostel, the Heart of Gold Hostel in Berlin/Mitte. Even though we were there by 10:00 a.m., they told us we couldn't check in in until about 2;00. So that made it a good time for culture: off to the Pergamon Museum to the see Pergamon Altar and the Gates of Isthtar, and after that to the Neues Museum for a look at the famous bust of Nefretete and othe Egyptian art works. By 2:30 everybody was ready to collapse, we went back to the hostel, officially checked in, got room keys and took a nap! At 7 p.m. Herr Guy's friend Andreas & Katharina met us at the hostel and suggested we go out for dinner and a little easy sightseeing. We walked over to the Friedrichstrasse station, then took the train to Savignyplatz for great pizza, conversation and a nice walk to Kurfürstendamm, the main drag of West Berlin. And then a nice bus ride back to East Berlin's Mitte. Before heading home, we took time for a spooky noctural visit to the Holocaust Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, then walked to Brandenburg Gate, hopped on the subway and finally got home in time for everyone to say how exhausted they were...and they watch them stay up for another hour checking e-mail and the like. It's been a tiring but satisfying first day! More to come. -----

day 1~ 6.16.10 (?)

I'm just going to do bullet points, more information will be edited in later. And pics will come later.

arrival at ~5:30 am in berlin!

-went to two museums in the morning

gate of ishtar

-naptime

dinner with herr guy's friends at the 12 apostles ( ? )

 Andreas and Katarina  ( ?) 

Jewish Holocaust Memorial

Brandenburg gate

Ahrensburg Castle

Yep, you willl be visiting here! Lucky kids.

It will all be worth the racing around to get all your finals done when you finally get there.