6:00 to 22:19

My first full day in Berlin! Exceeded all expectations! Wow!
After my sunrise awakening at 6AM, I joined two other students for breakfast at a cafe close by. I stumbled through "Can I have a salmon toast?" in German, which most likely sounded like "Ich muck ter salmon brot bitte???" It was delicious nonetheless. We three ventured off toward a park, ended up in some kind of a gardening community (from what we could translate), and then headed into the chaos of the supermarket.

This time we chose a Kaufland, which was a nice two-story Target equivalent. I bought all three kinds of soap I needed, plus everything else on my list! It was a much more pleasantly exciting experience than yesterday's trip.

The U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and Bus X83
To get to today's only school-related destination, a group of about 5 of us had to traverse the public transport system. Luckily, one person had already taken the trains to a bar the previous night, so he bravely led us to the Freie Universitat campus. There we went through a relatively boring orientation. Not much to say! However, the path home was not as simple as the one there. The school did not give us directions to return from campus, so figuring out which train went in which direction was an added element of surprise. We joined up with another group of students, and shared falafel sandwiches for lunch (which happened to be at 4PM).

On one of our many train rides, we decided to translate posters on the walls without using any technology to help. It was surprisingly easy, given context and the similarities between English and German. I'm feeling incredibly confident in my German; while it's only about 20 words at this point, I keep discovering new ways to use what I've learned from Duolingo and UCSC German history classes to translate regularly. It's an exciting puzzle, and having other people challenging themselves to do the same is motivating me to do my best. By starting conversations with shopkeepers and food staff in German, even just to say hello and do you speak English I get more confident in using the accent and trying new phrases.

Beirgarten and WOW
We found a rooftop beer garden above a mall, which was absolutely adorable; filled with strange art and hundreds of plants, we spent a while planning a trip to Lollapalooza Berlin and enjoying the view. On our way home, someone had the idea to stop at the Brandenburger Tor, which changed my perspective on this trip in an instant.

As we walked up the steps from the U-Bahn, the top of the statue slowly came into view and my heart literally dropped. It was breathtaking. I was IN Berlin, staring at this symbol of strength of the German people. "Dem Deutschen Volke" was then written a few hundred feet from my eyes, carved into the front of the Reichstag building. I was again, stunned. This building still stands after so much destruction, manipulation, and oppression. We sat there, and watched the sun set. I wanted to see the Jewish Memorial, but as it got dark I realized today wouldn't be the day. Meandering around the area, I noticed the memorial for Sinti and Roma lost under National Socialism. I pulled the group inside, where white stones encircled a calmly flowing fountain. Some stones had names of camps and other locations in Eastern Europe where gypsies had been murdered, and I walked and read each one. When the group began to leave, someone asked what the stones were: "Were they peoples names or?" And as I was noticeably crying, I told her. She said it gave her chills, and I was glad she had asked. I didn't plan on visiting this memorial, because it isn't on any tourism bucket list. It was nearly invisible. It deserved all of my attention, and much more.