Short Hiatus...

Dear my avid and loyal readers,

So this week I have midterms…. Eek! Because all my content classes are on Thursday, I have all my midterms on Thursday—German, philosophy and art history. This is great because I don’t feel bad about procrastinating but it is also slightly stressful. Have no fear, I will prevail!
Once I am done with midterms, spring break begins! I leave bright and early on Friday morning (6:00am flight, meaning getting to the airport by 4:00am, meaning I need to get in a taxi by 3:30am) for Bilbao, Spain! I will be visiting Joshua for 4 days in northern Spain. I will get to explore Bilbao and take a day trip to neighboring San Sebastian. Even better, the weather might even get up to mid-50s… I might go into shock from seeing the sun!
On Tuesday, I’ll be flying to Paris for the remainder of break! I will spend the first couple of days with my friend from the program Emilie and then meeting up with my dear, dear friend Addysen who is studying abroad there! I can’t believe its already been 5 years since I went to France with Mary Star High School (and my brother). It was be great to see all the sights with my “mature” self. I then return to beloved Berlin on the 28th.
I promise to take plenty of pictures, explore much and collect as many memories as possible… and then return to share them with you!
Until then, Auf Wiedersehen! I miss you all!
Xoxox,
Jillian Mary

Valentinstag in Deutschland!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! February’s holiday of love is definitely not as widespread here in Germany as it is in the States. There are no sappy Hallmark commercials or aisles of red in the supermarkets, however, that was not going to keep me from celebrating!
I hosted a Valentine’s Day brunch in my apartment for my girlfriends. I managed to find heart designed garland to string along my ceiling, then Deborah and I cut out hearts to pin on our shirts (straight out of the movie “Julie and Julia”). I also taped hearts of all shapes around my room.
Carolyn and I made (amazing) French toast although finding syrup was a challenge, Deborah made incredible house potatoes, Christina brought delicious bacon, Cadence and Sadie brought fresh fruit and Maddie brought chocolate croissants. Emilie provided orange juice to make mimosas! Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves silly and finished with some chocolate… it wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without it!
It was a relaxing way to start our week of midterms... The rest of the day was filled with attempting to study while juicing the fact that it was Valentine’s Day and eating a year’s worth of candy.

Visiting the Holocaust Memorial

This past Friday I visited the Holocaust Denkmal (Holocaust Memorial). The memorial is a labyrinth of 2,700 concrete slabs that lack any plaque or marking saying what they commemorate. Rather, you are free to walk in and out of the slabs which vary in height from just a foot high to up to 15 feet. The memorial was designed by Peter Eisenman and was controversy due to its lack of symbolism and religious significance. The designer rather wanted the memorial to be something part of daily life. I read a quote by the designer that I found interesting “I like to think that people will use it for short cuts, as an everyday experience, not as a holy place.”
The snow had created a perfect layer of snow over and tucked in between each slab, creating a beautiful view and calming walk through. It would be a great place to get lost in, there were plenty of people shouting each other’s names trying to find each other.
Underneath the memorial there is a great (and free) museum about the Holocaust victims. I recommend it to anyone coming to Berlin.

Day Two pictures continued...

Trip to Dresden- Day Two

Our second day in Dresden started with a nice breakfast at a café near our hostel. I got a delicious waffle with strawberry sauce with some orange juice. We walked from Neustadt to Aldstadt to go to a flea market by the Elbe River. It was practically a huge yard sale—different stands with everything under the sun. I wanted to buy some earrings but the lady refused to reduce the price and I wasn’t going to splurge on earrings that cost more than the round trip bus ride!
After the flea market we headed to Dresden’s “Hygiene Museum.” This museum has been open since the early 1900s. I was expecting a museum about washing your hands and bacteria but it actually a science museum focused the human body and all the different mechanisms and functions. After an hour or so there we were all hungry for lunch so we went to the local mall and ate A LOT of food in the food court. Eating here in Germany has become an activity in its self—my friends and I all love to eat and by eat I mean eat a lot. Each meal must be paired with dessert….
After lunch our sole male companion Sam led us to the location of “Slaughterhouse 5” from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel. It was just east of Altstadt by bus. The structure of the slaughterhouse (former animal slaughterhouse where prisoners of war were held) was still standing but in ruins. Being there took me back to junior year English class…. So it goes
Afterwards we went to the “Mountain of Fragments.” This is a mountain that has grown over a heap of rubble collected after Dresden was bombed We climbed to the top which provided a great view of the city.
After a short nap in the hostel, we head out to a great meal at “Bei Muttern.” It was a small restaurant serving traditional German meal. There was one woman in the restaurant who took our order then immediately went into the kitchen to cook. We heard and smelled our food cooking and it was SO DELICIOUS. Probably one of my best meals yet  As I said, we love to eat so we continued our meal at a chocolate bar! Had an amazing hot chocolate with caramel.
We left Sunday morning to go back to Berlin and as we were waiting for the bus, it started to snow!! It felt great to get back home, my new home, Berlin!

Day One pictures continued...

Trip to Dresden- Day One

This past weekend a group of us (Me, Carolyn, Maddie, Christina, Deborah, Sadie and Sam, to be exact) took a trip to Dresden. Our bus left Berlin at 9:45 and we arrived in Dresden just after noon. We started by checking in at our hostel, Lollis Homestay, in Neustadt Dresden which luckily was only about a 15 walk from where the bus dropped off. Six of us shared a six bed room, while Maddie unfortunately had to stay in another room. Overall, the hostel was great. Good sized room, clean bathrooms with a hot shower, great location and our room even had a balcony. The only downside was a very distinct, indescribable smell—mixture of cleaning chemicals, sourness and tobacco smoke. That aside, it was a great place to stay.
We started our Dresden adventure by touring the Altstadt (Old Town) district south of the Elbe River. Dresden has an interesting history filled with Saxon royalty but also a devastating history as 90% of the city was destroyed during WWII by repeated aerial bombings. Because of this the architecture is a mixture of new and old. We toured a couple of the churches- Frauenkirche, Kreuzkirche, Katholische Kirche. The Frauenkirche has a beautiful exterior as it is built partially from the stone of the ruined church from the bombings with newer white stones—creating a stunning texture of stones. Then we strolled along the Fürstenzug, which is a long porcelain painting of the Saxon kings.
After a lunch break, we walked the stairs to the tower of the Kreuzkirche which provided a beautiful panorama of the city. We visited the “Zwinger Palace” which now houses 6 museums… This structure was incredible. We walked into its courtyard just at dusk when then lights of the building started twinkling against the blue fading sky. It was such a breathtaking scene I’ll never forget.
We then walked over the Augustus Bridge into Neustadt where we found a great restaurant in the “Kunsthofpassage.” After the Wall fell, most of East Germany wanted to separate themselves from the East so they painted their houses bright colors and in artistic manners. This passageway is the best example… We accidently stumbled upon it after we were drawn to a glow of red lights and a ballet class happening on the top floor. We decided on a Spanish restaurant in this passageway which was a fantastic—I got lamb and an amazing glass of red wine.
We strolled on back to the hostel for a relaxing night of conversation before bedtime.

Cheers!

Just wanted to say a quick hello to all those loyal followers out there... I'm trying my best to update this blog weekly. Internet in my apartment doesn't allow me to upload pictures easily so usually on Wednesday's after German class I upload them at school. I hope you are all enjoying partaking in my adventures... please comment when you can! I miss you all!

P.S. The picture is at a coffee shop called "Coffee Culture" with my hot chocolate and muffin!

Pergamon Museum... land of stolen wonders.

Like the past Tuesdays, Deborah and I have enjoyed our “Tuesday Museum Date” together. Meeting at Starbucks near Friederichstrasse to fuel up with warm drinks and sweets, Deborah and I got ready for our trip to the Pergamon Museum. This museum is most famous for its reconstructed buildings of the Pergamon Altar, Ishtar Gate and the Market Gate of Miletus.
Being in the museum shot me straight back to high school Latin class learning about Greek and Roman mythology. There was a special exhibits specifically on the Greek gods and goddesses which I could have spent all day in remembering all the stories to.
The museum had a fantastic collection of Greek and Roman original sculpture. Deborah and I spent over two hours in the museum before we realized that we had only covered one wing of the museum. We are planning on covering the other half on a later week….

P.S. with our student passes, we got free audio guides. Deborah and I both got a kick out of the "Hugh Grant" sounding man teaching us art history…

A visit to the Jewish Museum

I started off this week with a visit to the Jewish Museum. It might be safe to say that this will be one of my favorite museums in Berlin. The museum covers thousands of years of Jewish history throughout two buildings—one a former courthouse and the other and modern building designed by Daniel Libeskind. Like the DDR museum, the museum was interactive. Rather than simply reading wall postings you could open up drawers, sit and watch videos, write wishes on pomegranate shaped paper (a symbol of luck/ prosperity) and hang it on a tree, play in the kids area… I enjoyed this museum a lot and will be making a return trip soon….

P.S. I couldn’t help but think of one of my best friends Nina while I was here… sending my Jewish love a hug!

Berlin Philharmonic.... perfection.

The FU- Best Program (the program I came to Berlin through) lets you choose three events in the city you want to attend and that they can provide you tickets with. This past Saturday night I attended the Berlin Philharmonic near Potsdamer Platz with some friends. To sum up the evening-- AMAZING. The venue was beautiful inside and outside, our seats were perfect (one level up from the ground level looking just over the composer's left shoulder), and the music was unbelievable. The pianist who performed the first half played for over 30 minutes without sheet music.... wow. It was such a memorable experience being in Berlin and being able to do something I wouldn't usually have the option to do. Plus, I got to dress up and wear some heels! Luckily, my fantastic friends lent me an arm to prevent any slippage in the ice... We ended the night with french fries and ice cream at the McDonald's by our apartment!

Karaoke night at Oscar Wilde's

To prove that my time in Berlin hasn't been just museums and depressing tour of prisons... here are some pictures from our Friday night Karaoke-ing. My friend Maddie and I sang Bowie's "changes," but luckily no one got a picture of that. Cadence and Carolyn rocked the house with Shaggy's "Wasn't Me," Sam sang Oasis' "Wonderwall" and Jeff and Jack did some Backstreet boys.... Oh what a night!

Field Trip...

This past Friday our program had a field trip to Berlin-Hohenschonhausen, a former Stasi prison in Berlin. Here the Stasi, the Ministry for State Security in East Berlin, imprisoned, tortured and killed those who they felt were in opposition to the GDR. The tour of the former prison was interesting but eerie to say the least. Our tour guide led us throughout multiple buildings on the site that were used as prison cells, torture rooms and interrogation rooms. This prison and the methods used within its walls were a well oiled machine. The prisoners were taken into the prison in commonly marked trucks labeled "Obst und Gemuse" (fruits and vegetables) so that outsiders didn't know a prison was there, they never saw another prisoner, they were forced to sleep on their backs with their arms crossed over their chests, they were deprived of sleep and communication with their families, and ultimately suffered from Stockholm syndrome as guards and interrogators played "good" and "bad" cop to gain their trust.
This tour was an interesting way to start the weekend but I learned a lot. Its ultimately made think of the movie "The Lives of Others" which I highly recommend.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I can officially say it-- I have lived in snow! I'm a month into living in Berlin (scary to admit) but have accomplished living in a winter wonderland. Although I miss wearing my flats, I've come to terms with wearing "real" shoes and socks but the payoff has been worth it. I had to post these pictures of my friends Emilie and Deborah with their full layer of snow! on our way to the train one night, we ended up walking through the most picturesque snow. Christmas music instantly came to mind...

Life in the East

Every Thursday, my German class takes a "cultural" field trip somewhere in the city together. This past week we visited the DDR Museum which concentrates on everyday life in the GDR (east Berlin). Our class had a handout to fill out which gave us reason to thoroughly explore the museum. Luckily, the museum was really enjoyable anyways mostly because it was extremely interactive. You could sit in a Travi (East Berliner's car that most had to wait up to 16 years for), try on East Berliner's clothing, rock out to East Berlin's music and even sit down and watch some good old GDR television in a fully decorated living room.
It was a fun day getting out of the classroom and learning about a specific time and place of Berlin's history.