Day 74-75.5

Things are crazy in Berlin! I guess there is a terror warning in Berlin for the time being due to new information stating that terrorists are planing on attacking the Bundestag (heart of the German government) in Berlin. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,729635,00.html
Su and I were at the Bundestag on Thursday (day 74) for a tour of the building. http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/index.html
We had a tough time getting through security because we were registered under Maria's name not our own but it wasn't that big of a problem. The Bundestag was such a cool building!! The top had this huge dom that has so many uses. One, you get to walk up it and hear all about its history and wou get a great view. Two, it allows light into the room where the representatives meet and has rotating plates that move with the sun to avoid glares. Three, it collects rain water, and filters it and serves as a way to circulate air throughout the building. And finally, four it looks cool! haha. Su and I climbed all the way up and around the dom before our tour. Our tour was like a group lecture in the central room of the Bundestag. We learned about the buildings history and the conspiricies behind the burning of the building in the 1930s. It was really interesting and goes with the DC tourist theme. I was actually really glad I went, on paper it seemed boring but when you tie it to our class it really adds to the experience. It makes the government feel like a living breathing enity in Germany.

After this we had class again for a few hours and then were once again on our way to see some museums. Theres a whole chunk in Berlin called the Museum Island, where you can hop from one museum to the next. We saw a museum filed with statues, one with German artists, and one dedicated to Egyptians. There I saw the bust of Neffertitti, the so called prettiest woman in Berlin! haha. Afterwards Su and I grabbed some Dunners and headed back to go to bed we were so tired from all of the walking.

Friday we had the day to ourselves besides class later in the evening. I spent most of the day studying but took some time off to head to the Jewish museum. http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/homepage-EN.php

I was so impressed. The museum is designed as a network of crosses so that there are spaces where nothing exists to represent the loss of Jews in the German civilization. It showed how the persecution escaladed, the camps, examples of what was taken from people and even a vast history of the Jewish people, their culture and lives along with how Jews and Germans got along before the war. What really interested me was the buildings structure and the current exhibt talking about forced labor (what my thesis is about!!). I learned a lot in the museum and there is so much to tell I'll try to write a summary of all of the Holocaust related sites I saw and go into more detail after I get home.

This museum was really interesting to me and my topic but I want to suggest that if you go to Germany don't just check out Holocaust related sites, see all of German history. Germany was a huge center for European history and there is so much to experience. Yes visiting a camp is a must, but there is more to learn about Germany than just the Holocaust.

Afterwards we had class and took our mid-term, discussed our presentations and got more information on our final. Then Su and I decided we needed to treat ourselves to a night out in Berlin.. after all this is Berlin!!!
We made dinner, had a little wine and headed out on the town...
We tried to go to some clubs but we were told people didn't show up until 2 or 3 in the morning and we didn't want to wait that long to have some real fun. We almost went home till we meet a group of guys who took us to play pool at a a bar. It was a pretty good night, nothing wild and crazy like we kind've hoped but still fun and probably better that way. :)

It'll take another post to describe what happened next..

Tschüß!!