It's Only Up From Here

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. ...

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. ...

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.) Braunsch...