Weekend Exploration

New Palace, estate of Frederick the Great. Also known as the last great Prussian baroque Palace. On the top is 3 people holding up a crown.

This Saturday, Nick, a student also on my program came up to visit me. Although unsure with timing and such, we eventually realized we would be able to spend the say together. At first we were like: we are meeting at 10am, we'll probably walk around for a little and the day will fly by; however we ended up gunning it and the time was moving slowly or us walking too swiftly ahah as we managed to walk all of Potsdam and Babelsberg by 6:00 plus eat two doners (and my local guy remembered me SCORE) each and walk around Kaufland because what junk food does "bio company sell?"

The Flatowturm, only the start-shaped moat and building have survived the years. The Neo-Gothic Belvedere  attached to the tower was added after the towers completion.

The Brandenburg Gate, and the Christmas tree and market behind it.

The view of Potsdam from Park Babelsberg (Flatowturm)

The two of us made it through the day and used no transportation except to get back home after nightfall!!

25th Anniversary

This past weekend (November 7-(9)) was cause for celebration in Berlin. In remembrance of the fall of the Berlin wall just 25 years ago on top of politician and guest speakers; there were performances and little concerts in the city (the largest by the Brandenburg Gate where my group was unfortunately denied access because the park was TOO FULL.) anyways we were able to get a great spot by the Reichstag and watch the releasing of the balloons (most of them.. we did see countless pedestrians walk around the city and take balloons and walk off with them that went around the perimeter of the city where the wall once stood. Being next to the Berlin Wall gives a feeling that is honestly unexplainable (not bad nor good... just a mix of all at once and just a tad overwhelming).

Walking around the Museum Island and subsequently its markets that I personally never knew existed with just about any type of good you could want from cooking-ware to pens and souvenirs.

As a major city Berlin is full of things to see and do, but even on a foggy day it was beautiful and I am so grateful to have been there to experience the day (courtesy of  Deutsche Bahn ending the strike!)

The city Christmas tree has just started to be put up by the Brandenburg Gate! 

As for the weather: gloomy and cool days with drizzle have become a norm, and it gets dark at around 4pm sooo after school there is about one hour of light left.

And I've found out why I have been unable to upload photos from my phone which is all but dead and hanging on by the thread, so I will backup my pictures and try to upload them with something like picasa and hopefully that will fix the problem. (thumbs crossed)

Oktober Break

Yes, It's a miracle, I'm still alive *insert applause*. Originally aka this whole break I was saying I would update on the whole break at once which I will do now with an overview however I am regretting this now! Somewhere between the lack of sleep and the anticipation of school plus no haircut in about two months (tried to end the streak yesterday but the shop shut down literally as soon as I got there) has me re-thinking so come next break I WILL MOST DEFINITELY STILL POST ONCE A WEEK.

So.. I attempted to get the pictures up today, however they aren't working because of the file conversion, I guess my computer is having a bad day.

1.) Attending a fellow FLAG CBYX'rs birthday party, spending the night and getting a tour by boat of "New Venice" which is an area of Berlin connected by a fairly large canal system; courtesy of his neighbor.

2.) Volkswagen factory, not many photos because cameras and all that aren't allowed in most areas.

3.) Braunschweig, a old city known for their love for lions evidence in the kings nickname, a few roads, and of course the coat of arms.

4.) Trip to Brandenburg (Havel) which was sacked after WW2, however it has two beautiful churches that have their own identity when you go inside and are of course very large. Other than that, the town is mostly modern and the city center consists of a large shopping mall along the road (got a pretty nice hoodie for 19 Euro)

4.) Trip to the Baltic Sea (the water is just a tad cooler than lukewarm water.. or maybe that's because the air here is getting pretty chilly and the water happened to be warmer) Also, the western Baltic Sea is salty, the middle is mixed fresh and salt and the east is basically fresh water. The water body is also loosing lots of biodiversity due to rare (now 10 year occurances) of salt water from the north sea flowing into the Baltic which has led to less oxygen (and no oxygen in some areas), and of course the sea is subject to over-fishing (from which populations haven't recovered much since previous centuries.)  The sea is also known for its plentiful fossilized remains, amber and fire rock.

5.) Trip to Stralsund, an old Hanseatic city on the Baltic with 3 large churches in what was previously a walled city that absorbed a nearby town and combined. On top of the Hanseatic homes, the city also has a Russian WW2 memorial and tiny graveyard and still standing memorial including the communist Hammer and Sickle symbol.

6.)Yesterday, I made pumpkin pie and seeds for my host family. It turned out pretty well (the homemade pie crust was a little unevenly cooked) but for the most part it was good.

My first solo Carved Pumpkin, NOT BAD!!

Working on my pumpkin pie, Thanks Grandma!!

Pumpkin seeds before the oven

Tomorrow break is over, that means school again! Which I am pumped for and look forward too (Spanish, Biology, Chemistry, and Geography)

Hopefully I can get more pictures up soon!