Falling Face First into Fall

We went to school this week?
This week has been a blur. After getting home from Poland I had quite a few assignments due, so I've basically been working anytime I'm not in class or sleeping. We are enjoying the first days of rain here in Berlin, and every time I've been caught ill-equipped. I had to buy a child's umbrella at a 1 Euro store to keep from drowning in the rain yesterday. But! No more! I am now ready for Fall and the cold and the rain and whatever it may bring!

Other notable moments from the school week:
- A few friends and I made teriyaki tofu bowls in a real kitchen!
- I watched Brokeback Mountain, Annihilation, and American Psycho, all very good and very disorienting.
- I wrote my first essay in German about my family and am presenting in German about my hometown next week.
- I attended another Stammtisch, which is a weekly event organized by the program where students basically just meet at a bar and hang out on a Thursday.

Friday Oktoberfest
We decided to check out Berlin Oktoberfest Friday afternoon, after the rain cleared up for the day. It was an eerily empty fairground with rides, games, and food--but no people. As we walked around the grounds, we realized where all the people were: in the beer tent. 15 Euro later, we were inside the large beer tent with beers the size of my head. The tent was about half full of very drunk older Germans, dressed in their lederhosen and dirndls, singing loudly and standing on their table benches. We stayed for a beer and pretzel each, and then went off for evening activities (which consisted of drinks and karaoke).

Tevye the Milkman
Our local cinema, Babylon Berlin, hosts free movie festivals--this week was the Jiddische Glikn. I still do not speak German (nor do I speak Yiddish) but assuming it was Jewish films, a friend and I decided to check it out. We saw a German version of Tevye the Milkman from 1929, which was funny and emotional and very Yiddish. I'm really happy to have this theater here, because they only show free movies that you wouldn't normally watch at home! I'm stepping outside of my comfort zone (a little--I did already know the story of Tevye and Shalom Aleichem and this specific shtetl BUT STILL).

Future Plans
We have a short week because of Unity Day, but our research paper preparation is starting for each class. I'll be writing two 15 pagers--one on the Jewish Film League during the Third Reich, and one on memorialization of mass graves in WWII Soviet zones. I also have a German test, and midterms are next week! So, most likely there will not be much fun this weekend. On Tuesday however, I'm going to see La Traviata.

Our deadline for extension is coming up, so staying for the whole year is on everyone's minds. I know staying for the year would help my German so much, but I'm not actually getting subject education like I do in Santa Cruz.

I also cemented my week break plans--I'm spending 8 days in Paris, France! I'll be staying a short train ride away from the city center, so I can do all the tourist stuff. I'm also going to try to take a patisserie class, and I bought a ticket to see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on Monday night.

Quick Rundown of Gdansk

I Am Overwhelmed!
Readjusting to Berlin is more than I expected. I caught something coming home (or the overnight in the train station just made me sick) but I was feeling pretty gross yesterday. Feeling better today, but suddenly there's piles of work to be done! I had an essay due yesterday that I ended up writing at 6AM because I was so tired on Sunday. I got enough sleep last night, so that's most likely why today is a better day. Anyways, here's a little overview of the rest of the Poland trip, which really deserves a whole lot more than it's getting from me.

Absinthe...?
After our city tour of Gdansk and some afternoon touristy shopping, we attempted to enjoy an absinthe bar. However (unfortunately or fortunately depending on who's reading this) it wasn't real absinthe, and overall a waste of 15 Zloty. Zloty are Poland's currency, and 1 is equal to like 25 cents. Poland is very cheap (so I bought way too much stuff).

The next day we went to the WWII Museum which was amazing and overwhelming. Poland is right between Germany and Russia, so they were double occupied during the war. This gave the museum a good balance of histories, focusing on not just Nazi war happenings (like in Germany) but on many perspectives. They had so much to talk about I might make another post about it another day. That night we had Thai food for dinner, and went to an old Nazi bunker for drinks.

The morning of our last day in Gdansk we spent very tired, walking around the castle of the Teutonic Knights. It was huge, and majorly reconstructed like most things in Poland. I was very tired and could not tell you anything about the castle except that they used cabbage to wipe after using the bathroom. After the castle, I went back to Warsaw on the train for my Treblinka trip.

Back to Real Life
While the Poland trip was fun and I made great friends, I'm happy to be home in Berlin. This city is comfortable to me now, and since I finally have an apartment I can settle in like everyone else. More fun to come this weekend, when Oktoberfest comes to Berlin. (I refuse to go to Oktoberfest because EW beer and vomit and camping for three days? 0/10) I also have plans in the works for Prague, Paris, and Madrid trips soon, but first, midterms.

I Almost Forgot!!
Yesterday I went to the old Berlin Jewish cemetery with my class and I saw Moses Mendelssohn's gravestone. Completely unexpected and exciting. This is a city where things HAPPEN. We also visited an old building where a blind German saved a bunch of blind Jews by giving them work throughout the early years of the war. Most of them died after being given up or taken to camps, but it is the last known hiding space of Jews during WWII in all of Germany. An honor to have been inside.

Treblinka (too srs for a fun title)

Today I took a solo trip to Treblinka, the German death camp located an hour and a half away from Warsaw. My driver and guide, Jacek, arrived at 9AM to start the journey with historical facts as we left the city. He pointed out museums and old Soviet buildings, and told me how the current administration changed some parts of the WWII Museum to fit their agenda. It was a good way to begin the day. He told me about how his grandfather died in WWII, and how he loved his & his family’s city. Every year, he explained, on the first day of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, all traffic stops and every citizen sings the songs of Polish resistance. And how during the entire 63-day anniversary of the event, there are celebrations throughout the city of their dead heroes. When we arrived to Treblinka, celebration of heroes continued.

The small museum at the entrance to the camp features two rooms: one with artifacts found in the remains of the camp upon liberation and after, and one with maps and reconstructions of daily life. The latter prominently showcased the work of those who saved and hid documents from the camp, the doctor/orphan-saver of Warsaw (whose name I am blanking on), and Jewish artists who recreated the camp through their art and words. There was a heavy focus on these heroes, however none of them survived. That was what made Treblinka different—almost no Jew who arrived ever left. 

(TW: Jewish genocide, murder of children/elderly, religious symbols, murder devices, Maya’s retelling of history which may or may not be 100% accurate so take it with a grain of salt)

Treblinka was built in two parts: the death camp and forced-labor camp (known as Treblinka I). Poles were sent to Treblinka I, where up to 20,000died due to starvation and sickness, and Jews were sent straight to the gas chambers upon arriving. An estimated 900,000 Jews were killed at Treblinka—its first arrivals in July of 1942 and last in November 1943. It was one of the first three camps to be built after the Wannsee Conference, where a group of Nazi officials met and decided the answer to the “Jewish Question.” Treblinka was built on the eastern border of the General-Government (German-occupied Poland). To the east was Soviet-occupied Poland. 300,000 Poles and Polish Jews were sent to Treblinka from Warsaw, where they were sorted by men, women, and children & elders. The men and women received haircuts and were led to believe they were being “washed and disinfected” before transferring to a work camp, while the children and elderly were sent to Lazaret. Lazaret was a small building marked by a white flag bearing a red cross, behind it lay two massive pits. The children, elderly, and infirm prisoners were forced to stand at the edge of the pits before being shot in the back of the head. Their bodies were buried on top of each other, and eventually dug up and burned to make space for more. Those who died in the gas chambers were placed on “barbeque style” grills, where their bodies were burned in the open air. 

Today, in place of the (for lack of a more sensitive word) grills, lay two large rectangles made of volcanic rock. They shone in the light rain, and the white stones marked with Jewish symbols of love and loss stood brightly against them. Past these two black rectangles was the main memorial, a large stone statue with faces carved into the top third. On the front two hands reaching upwards are the focal point, while on the back there is only a menorah. Surrounding the memorial however, is the truly breathtaking memorialization of the space. 17,000 stones of varying sizes and colors are planted in the earth, jagged and greyed, 216 of them listing cities from which victims were taken. One stone alone is named after an individual: the doctor who saved orphans in the Warsaw ghetto for much of the war, but died in Treblinka. There are stones of Jewish remembrance scattered everywhere. The area outside of the memorial is completely forested, the train tracks and borders long gone. The Nazis left nothing in their wake. 

After seeing the grounds of the camp, Jacek andI enjoyed pierogîs and I was dropped off at the train station where I’m writing this from. If anyone is interested in visiting Poland, I highly recommend it. In the States we aren’t told anything about Polish history, just that they were victims in the war. In reality, they had the 5th largest fighting force against Hitler, were the original decoders of Engima (no disrespect to Alan), and ENDED COMMUNISM in the nation without a violent rebellion. They are an empathetic and hopeful people, who do not forget the past but carry it as a light guiding them toward a better future. 

I’M ALMOST BACK I PROMISE

She’s BaaAAaAaCk

When I left for Poland it didn’t occur to me to let all of my thousands of readers know that I wouldn’t be able to update ya’ll for a week, and for that I apologize. It has been an amazing trip and I’m going to retell it with fewer words than it deserves.

Po-land of Pierogîs and Plum Beer

We began in Warsaw, the capital of the country. Our train car held six, so I got to meet new people who I ended up spending the entire trip with. We played a camp game called “Contact,” which kept us laughing and yelling throughout the week (which was very necessary). The city of Warsaw has a difficult history, and we spent a lot of time dealing with the weight of where we were. Most of the city was bombed to nothingness by the Germans during the war, so as we walked along the main streets on our first day the tour guide kept repeating “This reconstruction...”

Chopin was born in Warsaw and is their PRIDE AND JOY. We joked that it was a Chopin tour and not a historical one, but still learned about Warsaw’s most recent history, as well as their post-democratic system.

We had pierogî for dinner the first night, which are small potato dumplings with cheese or meat fillings. They were surprisingly terrific. We ended up coming back to the same pub for dinner two nights in a row. 

The second evening was spent exploring Warsaw’s nightlife instead of attending a Chopin concert (oops). After many hours of dancing/complaining about old Polish people/being cold, we headed home. The next morning however, was a 9AM tour of a castle—of which I can tell you almost nothing because I was so tired from “clubbing.” Everyone else was on the same boat. We found a small cafe for lunch, then I headed off on my own to the Warsaw Zoo. Famous for hiding escaped Jews during WWII, it was ridiculously spacious and filled with families watching animals (I was looking for historical clues). I befriended a pygmy marmoset, saw some sad looking elephants, and walked amongst singing birds for the afternoon. 

“This is the part of our story that gets a little bit sad”

Our last day in Warsaw began with a walking tour of Jewish history in the city. We didn’t have to walk very far before it was clear what this tour was going to be like—upsetting. We walked parts of the ghetto wall, saw the oldest surviving synagogue in Poland, visited the memorial for those lost in the Ghetto Uprising, and stopped at the train station from which 300,000 Jews were sent to the Treblinka death camp from. Lunch afterward was weighed down by the morning’s activities, so I again decided to go off on my own for the afternoon. I took public transportation (which doesNOT run at the same level as Berlin) and eventually found the Neon Museum, which was a small collection of signs from the past almost-century.We had delicious pizza that night, and stayed in to watch “Skin,” a Spanish film with a plot you wouldn’t believe if I tried to explain it. I recommend everyone reading to check it out. 

GENQUI

Finally, on Tuesday, we arrived in Gdansk! Gdansk immediately lifted everyone’s spirits. We had Japanese food for dinner (bad. 0/10.) and then watched Borat in honor of the Polish phrase “genqui” which we had been saying all week. The next morning was another walking tour. It was extra chilly since we were along the water, but also really pretty. Gdansk has a definite Eastern European feel, which in comparison to Warsaw is more colorful and romantic. We stopped in an enormous cathedral with rainbow-stained glass and beautiful altars; I had tears in my eyes just being inside the building. Our tour guide told us a story about the assassination of their mayor which I’ll be repeating (to the best of my memory) here:

Every year, Gdansk has a day of charity. There are concerts and parades and everyone donates to a worthy cause. This year at a festival celebrating the giving day of Gdansk, the mayor, Pawel Adamowicz, went up on a stage to speak to his citizens. His last words to them were of love and gratitude for his city, before he was stabbed to death on stage. Our tour guide said she had seen him around before his passing, since they frequent the same areas, and went to pay her respectsto him with other tour guides. They got in line at 8PM to “see him one last time” and waited until 2:30AM. She said now she is more conscious of mental health as an issue, and that she pays more attention to her friends and family in this aspect. It is very visible how much this city values empathy—from Solidarity to the death of Mayor Adamowicz—you can’t miss it. 
TTFN
Author’s Note: I wrote this on a glitchy unofficial Blogspot app, sorry for the weird spaces/lack thereof. I’ll fix it when I’m home <3



I have to get up early for my solo Treblinka tour tomorrow, so I’ll be finishing Poland stories either Saturday evening or Sunday. Happy to be writing again, talk to you all soon. 

Maya's No Good Terrible Horrible Awful Bad Day

To Quote Garfield the Cat:

I hate Mondays. I have class from 9-19:00. I leave home usually at 7:30 for the train, but yesterday I had to pack my stuff from Hotel #2 and move it back to the old apartment, so I left a half hour early. This meant I got less sleep than usual the night following TWO DAYS OF LOLLAPALOOZA. I get on the train, drop my stuff off, and get back on the train to go to school. Oh yeah, and it's raining. 

My German class goes smoothly, but I'm so damn sleepy I can barely follow what's going on. We're working on the food vocab, and for some reason only learning how to say foods I don't like (die Banane, die Tomate, die Zwiebel--that one means onion). I get through class with a Club Mate, and then frantically try to figure out how to print the two papers I have due without my computer password, which is in my apartment that I've barely been in for 3 weeks. Luckily a friend let me log in with their info, and I get my stuff printed just in time to be LATE for my 13:30 field trip!

It is still raining, but I walk to the bus, get on the S-Bahn, and trudge to the Holocaust Memorial. My calves are insanely sore from Lolla, but hey, there's enough to complain about already. I arrive at the memorial and my class is nowhere to be found. Like, it's raining, there are approximately 10 people in the whole plaza, and none of them are under the age of 40. A student from my class notices me, and she's sort of in contact with a student who is with the group. Except the group is a mile away. And there's no word as to whether the professor is even with them. So we wait at the Holocaust memorial. Then we walk through Tiergarten to the Gypsy memorial. Then back to the Holocaust memorial. And it is still raining. We find another student, who is also lost. We stand in the rain a bit longer. I'm cold and have to pee and my socks are getting wet. I decide I'm going back to campus without turning in my paper, or finding my class. The other girls decide to take the train to find them. At this point, I'm so annoyed I don't even care about the guilty "you're a bad student" vibes I'm getting from one of them. 

I get back to the bus stop after the S-Bahn, buy a pack of Oreos, get on the train, and try not to cry. It was an overwhelming day, and it wasn't even close to being over. I get back to school and sit down for some studying and ASMR to calm myself down before class number 3. But this class is a lot. It's a German cinema class, the professor is an egotistical film snob, and he shuts down all discussion to say what he wants us to think. We're discussing Dr. Caligari, a film I've seen, written, and read about very recently, but I can't bring myself to voice my opinions knowing he'll make a snide comment no matter what. It's a long three hours. I get invited for sushi after class, but my energy is running so low I know I have a limited time to move into my new apartment before I crash. 

I get home after the 45 minute commute half asleep, but I am completely reenergized when I walk into the new room. It's clean, has a fan, linens, a working shower and shower door, a Wifi router, a pot and a pan, AND there's no bedbugs. I move everything over in two trips, unpack with some RuPaul in the background, and finally go to sleep.

-- 

Today is a new and good day. The rain stopped but it's still chilly, and this afternoon I'm going on a mission to find a good bagel with some friends. I'm going to an English-taught Jazz choreo class tonight; this weekend made me really excited to dance again.

Lollapalooooooooza

WOW
First of all, Lollapalooza Berlin was located in the OLYMPIC STADIUM built in the 1930's. It was huge, and all I could think about was Leni Riefenstahl (and I felt slightly guilty because of that). The festival brought funny undersea animal balloons to decorate the stadium with, there was a lit-up ferris wheel, and there were 5 or 6 stages. Our first show was Gramatik, who was dope and exactly the kind of music I wanted to hear--but he was playing full songs start to finish. It didn't have the right energy. Plus, the sun was still up, so people weren't dance dancing. I was having fun, but after a few songs we had to run to the next stage! Our next show was supposed to be Billie Eilish, but my friends and I ended up at the wrong stage--after watching 15 minutes of a middle-aged man rapping in German. We literally ran, but the crowd was so huge we landed in a crappy spot. The sound quality was trash, but I sang and danced anyways.

Then we waited for Twenty One Pilots, and had some pasta in the meantime. TOP was awesome, they played older songs I knew, and the crowd was much more excited than at Billie. After a few songs we decided to run over to Princess Nokia, but she was highkey bad so we were kinda bummed we had left TOP. It was also raining at this point. I had to buy a sweatshirt in between sets because my Californian brain was like No, you'll be fine in your skimpy festival gear. A hoe never gets cold, right? So wrong. I got a cute Billie sweater though so I'm not too mad about it.

After that we had to run over to Swedish House Mafia, but AGAIN we went to the wrong stage and ended up at the back of the crowd after running in circles to get there. They were great though, they had lights that really made the rain look cool and fireworks in time with drops. The people around me kept grabbing me cause I was dancing (it's a festival, that's what you do), so I was like, "We have to move." And thank God we did, because we found a spot where everyone was dancing, there were 3 mosh pits, and no one tried to grab my head. We ended up leaving before the set was over since it had been a long day, and stopped for McDonalds on the train home. I had a McFlurry with Schokolade something and Sauce Schokolade. And it didn't come in a regular McFlurry cup with the trademark spoon. It was underwhelming. My thoughts are with you Berliners, who will never have the greatness that is chemical-based half-frozen fake Mc-Ice-Ceam with Oreos in it.

It's Not All Festivals and Sunshine
It has officially cooled down in Berlin. We're in the 60s every day, and the cold is dry and crisp. The rain at Lolla was really light, just like heavy mist, but it went for long enough that my hair frizzed up. I'm staying in a new hotel until tomorrow evening (I have a feeling they'll push it to Tuesday cause they're like that), and then I'll have access to all my cute sweaters and warm jackets. Very exciting.

I went for a croissant and coffee this morning, and when I tried to order in Deutsch the guy behind the counter was so nice it made me feel really proud just for trying. He spoke English luckily, and on my way out said, "Thanks for the English practice!" So we're all just out here trying to learn how to communicate with each other. I love it.

I'm going back to the festival in an hour or so, where I've decided I have to just stay at the EDM stage in order to really get my moneys worth. I need at least one head-bang to make this worth it. If anyone from Santa Cruz is reading, I miss dancing with ya'll.

One More Thing!
We had a lovely evening in Kreuzberg on Friday, I can't not mention it on here. We found a phö spot, and I had tofu curry and rice that I had been CRAVING since I got here. Then it was off to do some bar hopping, where I encountered a menu with a Mint Julep, but a waitress who had never heard of it. I received straight whiskey and crushed mint leaves. Bleh. We had gelato as we walked along the river, and mine was walnut and fig flavored. Insanely good. We walked all around the area in the chilly weather, eventually settling into a cute candle lit cafe-bar with cushy chairs and a big window to people-watch through. It was a lovely evening!

Maya the Wandering American

AGH
Lollapalooza is this weekend! Two whole days of dancing and fun! I bought new outfits! I'm so excited! Billie Eilish and Swedish House Mafia and Martin Garrix and Hozier and Rex Orange County and Princess Nokia! But also, I am STILL homeless. Today, Friday, I've reserved for doing a weekend's worth of homework, but the fact that I have to move into a new hotel is distracting as ever. Gotta wash a bunch of clothes (for 5 Euros a load), figure out what to bring, pack, and pray that this time I'll have Wifi. Plus, two papers due on Monday, a film to watch, and 100 pages of reading oh my! The program claims I'll have a NEW apartment room to move into on Monday evening, but that is a long ways away.

In Other News
"IT Chapter 2" was really good. Like, surprisingly good for a 3 hour movie about an evil clown. Go see it if you enjoyed the first one, but be warned: it should have about 3 trigger warnings in the first 15 minutes alone (especially for LGBTQ+ people) and is considerably more scary than the first one. I screamed (more than once).
 --
I gave a presentation in class last week on the Dachau concentration camp and memorials, which went really well. I hadn't given a presentation in years, and was super nervous because I didn't have notecards written out. I ended up using notes on my laptop, but received praise for not reading off my Powerpoint. I talked for at least 12 minutes, and was even excited to answer questions at the end of presentation.

After my presentation, a friend was doing hers on the Children's Holocaust Memorial in Vad Yashem and asked for thoughts on the memorial itself. I raised my hand (because no one else was) and played Devil's Advocate. "It feels very American to me, the way they almost manipulate your emotions and force this sad catharsis that is disconnected from empathy or history for the people behind the memorial." Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say. I got the discussion going for sure, but people who had been to the memorial (which is in Israel by the way) did not agree with my statement. My professor actually said I had made a good point, and talked about it briefly at the end of class, but now everyone except him thinks I hate dead Jewish children.
--
Speaking of dead Jewish children, I just finished the memoir of Shalom Auslander (thanks Momma G). He's witty and embittered, telling the stories of his childhood in an Orthodox Jewish community on the East coast. He has this personal relationship with his God, which he navigates differently throughout his life. Adding/subtracting sins, tit-for-tat, complete devotion or complete apathy. Even though I don't believe in his God, it reminded me of child Maya; she believed if she didn't think "Dad is not going to have a kidney stone today," he would have a kidney stone. She was making deals with some sort of God before she knew what God was. Anyways, a good read for anyone who likes laughing, regardless of their religious identity.

Author's Note: As I'm typing this in a Starbucks-type cafe, there is a man rolling a joint at the table next to me. Berlin is a strange place.

THUNDERBOLT INS KINO

Babylon Berlin Is Not Just a TV Show
Last night I ventured out to Babylon Berlin with a friend to watch "Thunderbolt," a 1929 American film starring Fay Wray. I was expecting it to be silent, but it was a "talkie" with quite a few jokes. The theater was super small, with maybe 20 people. When the ticket-taker introduced the film, he said "This movie is in English, and is not silent. With French subtitles." And the Germans were not impressed; someone in the back went, "We know," and someone else loudly sighed and said "Not German?" (in English, which was weird). The film was fantastic; a romantic mobster relationship goes wrong and two men vying for the same women end up on death row together. Even if you're not a fan of old films, I highly recommend this one.

Technik Museum
Today my German class took a field trip to the Technik Museum, or Museum of Technology. Because I had to be out of my hotel room by 12, and my friend (who kindly let me leave my stuff in his room) was leaving for school at 7:30, I found myself at the museum 2 hours early. I got a coffee and a poppyseed croissant, but there was still an hour and a half to kill. So, I walked to the Berlin Wall. I was aiming for Checkpoint Charlie, which I haven't been to yet, when I got distracted by the wall itself and then a huge shopping center with more pieces of it scattered about. I took photos, walked in circles, and then finally made it to the museum at 9:30.

The museum itself was pretty cool, and I had fun exploring with other people (I've been doing most museums on my own). We learned some German, saw some schiffe and flugzeugen, and then ventured towards a vegetarian cafe. When I was having my pre-field trip adventure, I spotted a vegan donut place--which I *casually* mentioned after lunch was over. Luckily, everyone was down for donuts and we split a "Hibiscus Sprinkle" and a Tiramisu donut. They were insane.

Where's A Girl Got to Live?
I was told a few days back that my room wouldn't be ready until Thursday (today), when it was supposed to be done Tuesday. I arrived home today and it was 1,000,000 degrees inside, with the insides completely torn apart. Like, no light switches, lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, wall paneling removed, etc. But I thought to myself, It's fine because at least I get to sleep here finally! And then I saw it. A little bedbug on the floor. Alive and crawling. So basically, I'm done sleeping here and am going to throw a hissy fit at my program directors tomorrow morning. (Tonight I'm going to see It Part 2!)

Weird Times

Friday Blues
Everyone came to the conclusion this weekend that we were sad. Not really sad, but the kind of sad where it's probably because you've been eating only carbs for two weeks now and you miss your mom's cooking and you've been going out to drink too much and not sleeping enough. It didn't hit me as hard as some of my friends, since I haven't been--as the kids would call it--raging. But Monday morning I was more tired than I have been in a while. Anyways, weekend stuff first.

BORING
Saturday was a full day of fun. I woke up early, went to the German Historical Museum, and took some photos for a report I'm doing in my Art and Dictatorship class. We've been assigned a question on Nazi art being represented in German museums, but I got so distracted in the Bismarck era I only had a few minutes to look at post-Weimar. Basically, I have to go back. It was also air conditioned, which was fantastic since Saturday reached a record high temperature since I've been in Berlin. After that, I had a little date with a guy from New York in Alexanderplatz. We found a huge (air conditioned) mall, and an English bookstore! Then, the grand finale of the night, the Rocky Horror Picture Show! A few friends and I made our way to an outdoor theater in a park close to the apartments, where we found a crowded audience (who would later throw rice, flour, confetti, and water at us). The German audience only knew one call-back line, which isn't one we use in California: BORING. During Mr. No-Neck's scenes, they completely silenced him by screaming "BOOOORING" over and over. It was very strange. They also sang and danced more than American audiences I've been a part of, so things evened out. Overall, a great time.

1, 2, 3
Three weird things that occurred on Monday:
1. I had my first encounter with formal racism! On the U-Bahn in the morning a younger girl wearing a headscarf was verbally accosted by a large German woman. I wasn't sure what she was saying, just that it was loud and rude and caused another man standing nearby to get in between the two women.

2. I had my first "What do you think about Trump?" moment. Ordering a döner after class, my friend and I were called out on our bad German accents.
--"Where are you from? Not German?"
--"America. California"
--"America? What do you think of Trump guy?"
--"He's bad." "Very bad guy."
--"Ah."

3. I saw a furry in a passenger seat of a car parked outside of Lidl. I thought it was a real dog so I was staring, until I realized it was not. And then I jumped about a mile into the air, and fast-walked home.

A Roaming Traveller
I was supposed to have my apartment back today, but unfortunately I was notified it won't be ready until Thursday afternoon. And I won't be allowed inside until then. Meaning I have no fridge to keep food in, no clothes besides the ones I've been wearing, and no kitchen. I am more than excited to have my crappy apartment back Thursday afternoon. Until then, I will continue to be Wifi-less, and these posts will continue to be sparse.