Happenings

Allllllllrighty then!

So, I have a bunch of stuff I want to talk about. Firstly; I have just returned from a huge Rotary excursion to the great city of Berlin. There were about 30 kids there and two counsellors. We spent 5 days in Berlin.

Day 1:

Rotary kids packed into their trains, each headed to their respective starting destinations. Either Mannheim or Frankfurt. The train ride took about 5 1/2 hours, but it was very cool. We (the guys and myself) had our own cabin and we watched DVD's on Nick's laptop. We had also gotten some new exchangers for our district (1860 was the only one on this tour), and when I say new, I mean new to us. There was one girl named Kirsty from South Africa who had been in Germany for 8 months, and a girl from Brisbane named Becky who had been in Germany for 7 months already. And there was one guy from Argentina, named Jose that was on the train going from Frankfurt. Very cool people. We all piled out of the ICE into the BRAND NEW Berlin Haupbahnhof (Main Station). This place is gorgeous, I've got some night pictures of it on my new Flickr Account, but more on that later. We took the elevated train from there into East Berlin where our Youth Hostel was. Everybody still defines the areas according to 20 years ago. We got off at Eastcross and headed to our hostel. This was a very seedy looking part of town, garbage, many Turkish people (they are like the Mexicans of America, they do all the service jobs, but people are terrified of them and they oppress them), and just dreary. Oh well.

The youth hostel was called the A&O and was jam packed with people. There were a bunch of school groups from the UK and from Germany staying there. For food on the first night we all went out to the pizza place across the street for "real" Italian Pizza, happily prepared by a jolly Turkish guy. Of course, compped by Rotary. Our Rotary counsellor, the one in charge at least, his name was Lutz. He was previously an exchange student to NYC, and had been in ROTEX for about 16 years. Afterwards we all went out, and then came back around 2-ish.

Day 2:

This day was the "See the City Day!". We took a train from Eastcross into the heart of the city, right near the big TV tower with the ball on top. Still in East Berlin. We hopped into our tour bus that was waiting for us and took off with our guide. He knew the city extremely well. Some of the more exciting things about the bus tour were the striking differences between East and West Berlin. When we crossed the Mauerline (which we did frequently, we went in concentric circles) leaving East Berlin, the sun seemed to shine just a little bit brighter on the West side, and there was less garbage and happier people. We also saw the remaining 1.2km of the standing wall covered with artfull graffiti, which was very cool. Also we saw all the embassies that Berlin has, and many museums and churches and concert halls.

After the tour we were set loose to explore the city on our own. Lutz was very helpfull in this sense, since he had been living in Berlin since he was a little kid. He told us all the cool places to go, and where specifically NOT to go. It's a beautiful city.

On the big shopping street in Berlin, where all the groovy stores are and such, I was walking with Kati, Kirsty, Becky, and Augustina (Argentina) heading towards the Starbucks. Suddenly this little (like Tyler size) guy comes up to us and starts talking to us in German. Kirsty, who has already assimilated, told him to speak English so we could figure out what he was saying. As we kept talking to this guy we were wondering if Elija Wood has escaped from the looney bin, because we were all pretty sure it was Frodo.

We figure out that this guy works for MTV Europe and wants us to come up to the shooting of that day's TRL. And we went to the studio with him! We were on EUROPEAN TRL!!! Ohhh it was sooo cool. Shiny, sparkley people. Being told when to cheer and when to sit down. Haha. It was memorable, but reaffirmed to me why the people on TRL look so anxious all the time. Poppy and hippidy-hoppidy music to the max.

We grabbed some food and took a bus to the relay point for the night. I think it was at Alexanderplatz, right infront of the Brandenburg Gate. It was right at sunset, theres a really good picture of it on the photo page. We all gathered round and Lutz told us our last activity for the night. We got passage into the Bundestag and the Reichstag for a private tour that night. We walked from Brandenburg to the Bundestag.

Inside we were seated in the huge auditorium, much like the House of Congress Floor in DC. Except instead of the Red, White & Blue being flown, it was a great steel Deutsch Eagle. We listened to a speaker and were toured round the inside of the building. Funny note: during the day Nick Gann had bought a big American flag and Peter and Nick Falor had bought a bunch of Soviet Communist stuff for laughs. When we tried to get in, they took the AMERICAN flag away from Gann, but let the other guys in with their stuff. The coolest part of the tour was when we got to go to the new cupola. It is the modern addition to the old school style of the rest of the building. It was breathtaking. Again, you must see the pics. Also, we had a great view of Berlin at night.

Afterwards we went to a club.

Ok, that was ONE day.


Day 3:

As you might imagine, we were pretty burned out today. We went to Checkpoint Charlie in the morning and saw the museum there. It was very well put together and had alot of cool obscure history stuff going on. We had some doners and then moved on to our next destination.

What we walked up to was very unrecognizable. It was a huge field of gray-ish rectangular stones called "steelie". They were all about waist high. What was cool about it though, is that instead of the stones becoming taller, the ground started sloping away and down into the middle. As we walked farther in, the stones became closer together at the top and gave the impression that the "steelie" were getting bigger, but in actuality they are all the exact same size. When we came out the other size we were met by a tour guide who explained to us what this beautifully modern public place stood for and meant. What we were standing in was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, right in the very heart of what once was the Nazi Ministry of Terror. She explained the process in which it was chosen, and the placement. They had the room for this big creation because it was placed in what used to be the Dead Zone. Walking through the steelie represents the fear and the challenges the Jews faced during the Holocaust. Underneath the memorial, like underground, is a big exhibit talking about the families that were affected, but not about the Holocaust. Very cool design and ideas.

Afterwards we took a subway to Potsdamerplatz where there was a huge construction of brand new buildings. We went into the Sony Center which has some very cool architechture. Inside we saw a 3D IMAX movie which was very cool.

Day 4:

This day was really a recovery day where we went to Potsdam, about an hour outside of downtown Berlin by train. There, we saw an old French Style mansion that was set on a big vineyard. It had a museum inside, but wasn't really that interesting. It was really gaudy French gold gilded everything. You know.

Most of us all went back to the hostel and slept.

Day 5:

We all said our goodbyes, bid eachother a great exchange, and took the ICE back home.

Second thing I want to talk about!

I got a Flickr Pro account so now the pictures I'll be posting are higher quality and there are no limits on my uploading.

Go artistic freedom!

http://flickr.com/photos/11618/