Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Week Seven (i) - Swan Lake and Technikmuseum!

Mon 18.2.13:
I woke up to finish my German journals (naturally), then after class I looked up some additional German companies that I may apply to so that I could talk to Wolf (the Krupp internship coordinator) and hope that, since I had some places in mind, he wouldn't be annoyed at me starting the process so late. In fact, Wolf was fairly receptive to me starting the Krupp process late, but emphasized that I would have a lot of catch-up work to do. So, here's to me potentially working in Germany this summer! After Econ and E40, Shane and I once again grabbed burritos at Dolores and then headed home, where I researched more German companies prior to sleeping rather than do actual work.

Graffiti near my house - a Boo from the Mario games!

Tue 19.2.13:
After our German test (primarily on the book we've been reading, "Oh, wie schön ist Panama," or 'Oh, how beautiful is Panama,' about a bear and a tiger who leave their comfortable house looking for Panama, the land of their dreams, only to return to their house, thinking it is Panama - a very beautiful story!) we had someone come in to discuss Swan Lake, since the program got us all tickets to see it on Wednesday. We chuckled when we noticed the presenter's text slides were word-for-word from Wikipedia, but I was glad for the information. In particular, she informed us of the intricacies of the plot, different interpretations and endings, and the geometric and swan-like movements of the dancers. Afterwards, I (and a significant proportion of the Econ class) worked on our essay at the center; I struggled to choose which prompt to write about and made slow progress at the center so I eventually headed home and made marginal progress there as well - I'll have to be diligent tomorrow!

Wed 20.2.13:
We started reading Hänsel and Gretel for German today, and it was fun to predict words based on our prior knowledge of the story. We also had our Berlin vor Ort field trip today, so after making myself an egg-cheese-pepper-salmon omelette, I met up at Zoologischer Garten/Tiergarten for the tour. We saw a few animals as we walked along the river, but most were hiding from the onslaught of snow pouring down. If I do land an internship here over summer, I'll definitely come back, as the Berlin Zoo has one of the, if not the most, comprehensive arrays of animals in the world! We proceeded to Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, which marks the site of her murder and stands as a memorial to her extensive involvement with the socialist movement in Germany.

Rosa Luxemburg memorial, by the bridge where she was killed
We continued through the Tiergarten, passing the Cafe am Neuen See (the one I've been to twice now) and the Karl Liebknecht memorial (Liebknecht and Luxemburg were the two champions of the socialist movement, and posthumously aided the Marxist cause), and learning that the public flocks to the park in summer for barbecues, even though the Berlin mayor/governor has tried to stop the tradition haha :)
I returned home after the tour and made some progress on my essay before dressing up, grabbing some delicious falafel with Zixiang, and heading to the Deutsche Oper for 'Schwanensee' - hooray! It was my first ballet (I don't count the Nutcracker), and I really enjoyed the costuming, stagecraft, and venue. Now I definitely appreciate the info session from yesterday, as I was on the lookout for the dancers' swan-like motions and definitely noticed similarities. I also really liked the four-swan dance as well as the individual dances and duets by Siegfried and Odette, which I thought were quite exceptional, not to mention the beautiful music by Tchaikovsky. Many of us were shocked, however, to note that several audience members took pictures (sometimes with flash!) during the performance, which seemed blatantly disrespectful. In addition, people applauded much more frequently - after nearly every dance, even the smaller ones, rather than just after each act, or even after each main dance - I guess different locations and productions lend themselves to different expectations.
Our view - close enough to feel included in the performance
Left to right: Rothbart, the conductor, Odette, Siegfried, the Queen, and Benno 
The Deutsche Oper subway station is demarcated with homages
to 20+ composers and musicians such as this one
Following the concert (and exploring the upper floor, which hosts a mini-memorial to Martha Mödl, who had an extensive career playing Shakespearian and Wagnerian roles), I returned home and worked on my essay until bed.

Thu 21.2.13:
Woke up early to continue writing and arrived at school with one page left to write - pretty much everyone was in a similar position haha :) I was able to finish mine shortly after German, leaving me enough time to join another Insanity workout (followed by a sluggish and pitiful attempt at football) before Econ. We did watch lots of videos about bionic robots (dogs, penguins, and jellyfish!), which were cool, and then finished E40 lab relatively quickly - done by 8:45! I headed home, chatted with Diego a while about his Patagonia trip, picked up some falafel for dinner, and slept.

The awkwardness just cracks me up; also, 'Badideen' means
'bathroom ideas,' but I just read it as 'bad ideas' and I agree
Fri 22.2.13:

I arrived at the center 20 minutes before I usually do, and was excited to hang out and chat before class, but as I walked in, Susan asked, "aren't you supposed to be in class?" Shoot! I completely forgot we start an hour earlier on Fridays! I meekly walked into class, apologizing, only to find out Jochen (our professor) had forgotten as well and arrived only five minutes before me.
We played some three-on-three football - a great way to relax after the week ends - and then headed to the Deutsches Technikmuseum, where we saw all manner of transportation, starting with boats on the ground floor and working our way upwards to the airplanes - clever layout! A few highlights:
 - tons of boats in glass bubbles; one was built out of Legos, what a throwback!
 - a gear-oriented light-up contraption
 - a section full of sailboats replete with the history of sailboat racing as well as old medals
 - an area featuring Nemo's Nautilus, with images of krakens and other feared sea creatures

Sarah and Susan by one of the model ships
Paper dragon!
How to get to China: lift off, wait for the world
to rotate enough, and then land - perfect!
Ready for take-off!
 - a wide variety of planes, from wrecked dive bombers to remaining Luftwaffe forces

Standard issue German WWII plane

Massive anti-air flak gun!
 - a prominent plethora of titanic trains
 - an exhibit on jewelry featuring production tools and methods

Kaiser Wilhelm's personal train!

Intricate gold etchings from the workshop
 - learning the inner workings of a beer brewery and seeing the equipment

Instruments in the brewery

Recycled bottles
 - details about the chemical/pharmaceutical industry (cows' and pigs' hormones are used)
Sun peeking through!
Is this camera large enough?
Afterwards, I quickly dropped my backpack at home and then rejoined the others at the Ritter Sport Factory (haha). I couldn't resist temptation - stuff was on sale! - and I departed with a full bag with 3kg of chocolates :D We caught the bus across town to get to Trattoria del Corso, an Italian restaurant recommended to us by Jochen and where we were to celebrate Peter's birthday. Even though more people showed up than our reservation called for, the restaurant patiently accommodated us (we also squeezed multiple people per chair, haha); fortunately, other large groups were there, so we didn't feel too obnoxious as a group of 16 loud Americans.
After all the museum-going, we were pretty hungry, so Peter and I split a Messicana and a Pizza del Corso (labeled "for two people") and finished them, to general astonishment :) Jochen's recommendation proved sound, as the pizzas were extremely delicious and reasonably-priced. We surprised Peter with a tiramisu and some sambuca (a licorice-flavored liquor) and then were pleasantly surprised when the waiter brought all 16 of us complementary shots of sambuca! We thought for sure they were fed up with us!
Keziah had wanted to attend a masquerade dance in some club in Kreuzberg, put on by a group that hosts events like this but only releases the location the afternoon of (it's hipster, not sketchy), so Keziah, Molly, Susan, Peter, and I relocated to my house in the meantime. At the last minute, though, we thought it would be easier to meet up with other groups at a well-known location, so we went back to Club Soda instead. We spent a fun two hours inside (even spending some of our free drink tickets - ladies get three each - on water and apple juice… don't judge) and then left. 
Back at Kotbusser, Molly, Susan, and I saw Iqbal standing with Lulu, who seemed in a bad spot. We ascertained that she and another member of the group had gotten into a heated debate/argument that left her feeling pretty bad, and Iqbal and she eventually left the argument and had relocated here. Ultimately, we brought Lulu with us back to my place and had a massive cuddle and cheering-up session, listening to Lulu recount the night's events and entertaining parts of her life before we all fell asleep. 


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