Seeing Red Berlin.....

Berlin = thousands of choices for how to spend your time with thousands of sights to see. I still have a to-do list to tackle. But on one glorious September weekend I felt like checking off an item on my list by taking one of the walking tours of Berlin.

This time it was: Red Berlin, a look at the Cold War history of Berlin.

Our tour guide revealed some stories I had not heard yet about Berlin in the Cold War era. I still have a hard time imagining what this city must have been like with a massive wall cutting off West Berlin from East Berlin. There are so few remnants of the Wall that they are now protected as historical sights and it has only been 20 years since the Wall fell.
We went to the Nordbanhof area to see a part of the wall where both the outer and the inner walls are still intact. West Berlin saw this wall:
But East Berliners saw this wall (an inner wall):
Those lights are from the Cold War and looking from the Western "outer wall" you can see the Death Strip that ran in between both walls. This area was filled with sand to better track footprints. It also had trip wires to sound off alarms should anyone be in the death strip. Guards were ordered to shoot to kill. This is apparently the only place where both walls are still up so people can actually see that the Berlin Wall was in fact two walls. I am looking through a chink in the inner wall here.
The Spree River-- I just like the view up the river towards Alexanderplatz.
And the view of the Spree the other direction.
Apparently these huge art installations or Molecule Men are to represent the major world powers playing rock, paper, scissors during the Cold War. I don't know if I believe that.... but I'll go with it for now.
Back in June I visited the East Side Gallery to see the renovations and the repainting that is underway at the Wall. This is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall and back in the 90s, artists from around the world were invited to come and paint the Wall. Time + vandalism have taken its toll on the artwork. They decided to invite the artists back to repaint the Wall. I like that this Statue of Liberty- esque image below shows the Lady Liberty holding the Brandenburg Gate up instead of a torch. Clever.
The East Side Gallery
I LOVE that I got to see some of the artists in action. So cool....
Part of his section with the picture of what this will look like once he is done:
Back in June I saw this artist at work. I had included this image in my earlier blog posting too:
Coming back in September and now it is done:
Such an intricate design and I like that the colors of the German flag pop out in the bold stripes. I saw a picture of this part of the wall taken in 2006 and it was so dilapidated that seeing it in all its vividness is a remarkable thing. I'm glad they fixed up the wall to preserve it for generations to come.
Some iconic images on the East Side Gallery by Thierry Noir.... I think I am seeing the artist in action! How cool is that?



The blank canvas:
I like that the East German Trabi has 9 November on its license plate. What a historic day!
The East German TV tower

at Alexanderplatz
Aaron (the friend who recently moved to Vienna), Rachel and me went up the TV tower so we could all check it off our "Berlin experiences" list. Photos from up there at night did not quite capture to actual impressive view... oh well.

The large buildings on the left side of the photo make up Potsdamer Platz and we can see the Brandenburg Gate in this photo too
Elevator time.
And a quick turn in the gift shop in TV tower proved to be a great photo shoot....
And Aaron symbolically demonstrates his status with Berlin.... Bye, Aaron!
And that my friends, is another touristy day in Berlin.

Love it.

Fun with Friends

September in Berlin meant enjoying the fleeting sunshine despite the hectic back to school schedule.
One lovely Berlin evening some of us hit up Savingyplatz for pasta and chit chat.
Katy and I bask in that lovely magic hour of sunset. Even as I write this at 5:45PM it is already dark outside on this cold dark October day. It was only a few weeks ago when it was still bright and sunny at this same time.
I'm sad to see the sunshine go away.
Rachel is contemplative. I tried to convince her to use this as her Facebook profile picture. She would not. So the world will see it here. I like it.
I love Katy's completely outrageous personality. She is so fun to talk to and be with. I am so glad to have found my way to Berlin at the same time as her so we could be friends. Is it just me or does it look like she had thought bubbles above her head due to the lights? I like it.
Maike (you read about her in the pudding post and in the raclette party post) and Rachel.
A different evening... different friends out on the town. Aaron and Darren. Ha! Their names rhyme. Aaron, who now lives in Vienna, took some of us to a great little ice cream place. Darren is a recent transplant from Scotland and teaches at my school.
Perhaps my picture-taking takes people by surprise?
And on a completely different night out we headed to The Bird. Ashley took me there back in June before she left. Now it was my turn to take other people there.
This is my new co-worker in the English Department: Bronwen.
I guess I like to hold ketchup in pictures?

The burgers are set down and Bronwen is in shock over the massiveness of the heaping piles of fries. True story. Ned in the background is getting fierce with the ketchup. I'm scared.
And yet the burgers are served on English muffins. Weird, huh?
Aaron attacks that Bird burger. Fierce.
I don't have anything to say about this expression.
And he likes it!!!
Sad to see Aaron leave Berlin for Vienna. But glad to be making new friends and memories in Berlin.....

Intervention

Some stories begin with Once Upon a Time...
Mine is more like A Few Weeks Ago...
I took a scarf off my snazzy scarf hanger/ organizer thingamajig...and it all collapsed! The whole scarf holder-upper just fell to the floor with apparent exhaustion from its humongous burden.
I guess I own too many scarves! Odd that it fell when I was removing one rather than when I was adding one.

So I thought I should put them all on me at once. Meanwhile Rachel was working hard to put the scarf holder-upper thingamajiggy back on the wall. I felt like Randy in A Christmas Story-- remember the line, "like a tick about to pop"? Or maybe a more positive image would be like Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Scarfcoatthingy.
It is ridiculous, isn't it?
Regardless of the ridiculousness here, it is quite clear that I have a scarf problem. I enjoy them immensely and they have proven to be THE thing I buy when I travel. Pretty + Small + Lightweight + Everywhere = a collection. I think I came to Europe with three scarves to my name. Now I have zillions.

So I saw the movie Julie & Julia the other day. I would like to compare the experience of Julie trying to blog about cooking all the way through the Julia Child cookbook in a year to trying to wear all these scarves in a set amount of time.

Can I do it?

Could I wear a different scarf for a month? Two months? How long would it take to get through them all?

Should I go for it?

Perhaps I will gain a greater insight into my life while achieving fame and fortune, a book deal, and even movie rights too. Who needs Julia Child and her French cooking when I could blog about wearing different scarves for month? Bring it! Let the scarf-wearing adventures begin!

Bon Appétit, er... something kinda like that but maybe it should be Bon Scarfatit!

Secret Decoder Ring + German Cooking Instructions

Don't laugh....
But adventures in reading German caused me to be absolutely perplexed by this box.

I bought it thinking, "Hmmmmmm..... pudding. Me likey. Me can cook that, right?"

I get it home. Look at the box. Scratch my head. Promptly put it back on the shelf where it sat-- uncooked and confusing for 10 months.
See the directions? There are a lot of words here. I am clearly intimidated.
One night my German friend Maike was over...and I thought, "Hey! German friend Maike can translate my food for me." And I brought her a few boxes to translate.... including this perplexing pudding box.
She even wrote out the directions for me:
So for 10 months I avoided "Add 150ml of boiled water. Mix for 30 seconds and leave it for 1 minute."
10 months.
Just add water?!!!
I felt so lame. Fortunately Maike didn't laugh at me... too much.
And a week later, I got to work on making the pudding:
So simple. Look at that wrist action. I was born to make pudding!
So. It may appear as gobbleygook to me.... but when you get down to it I should not let German intimidate me.
It really just says: Just add water!

Sunset Bliss

After suffering from a serious cold that left me home bound for three days.... it is good to remember that there is lots of beauty in the world.
How about sunset in Berlin??

And another sunset as captured at Potsdamer Platz




And that is what we call Magic Hour, my friends.

Isn't it lovely?

Now, I'm ready to get back out there and see some of this fabulous city and leave the tissue box behind.

Some of our finest moments come from second chances

Second chances should really be all about fixing what went wrong the first time around, am I right? Lucky for me...I was granted a second chance today to show that I. Ms. Teacher. Extraordinaire. Could. Conquer. THE. Fire. Drill.

Yes, after last year's "Fire Drill Debacle" (relive it in all its glory here), I was actually looking forward to doing the fire drill right this year.

First step to success with second chances includes a cold hard look at what went wrong the first time around. My detailed analysis is as follows:
1. Last year: I told the kids last year that there would be a fire drill when I was supposed to have kept it a secret.
This year: It was mum's the word. I told no one and I felt I did a nice job doing a covert review of fire drill procedures without making it obvious that "today's the day!"

2. Last year: I told the kids they could wear their coats when they should have just left the classroom with nothing.
This year: Wasn't even an issue. It was a gorgeous day. Whew!

3. Last year: I failed to check in with the principal when we were all outside at the meeting point.
This year: I was sooooo all over that. Not checking in was "so last year" and clearly a rookie mistake. But my heart went out to a new teacher who failed to check in this year. I sooo understand why that teacher did not check in and I was soooo glad it wasn't me this time. I proudly stood by my homeroom and knew "I done good this time."

So it is all about second chances, isn't it? Now, if we could just practice that intruder drill again because last year it was quite comical when my 10th graders tried to stuff themselves underneath the desks in a 2nd grade classroom. But I suppose that is for another day.

A story that needs to be told

Eight years. How quickly has eight years passed since the Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon was hit, and our world changed.

I thought this event was something that most people knew about. Little did I realize that my high school students here in Germany have only a vague knowledge of what happened on September 11, 2001. Of course, my 9th graders were only about 5 or 6 years old. But I had a few interesting exchanges with students. Granted, none of the kids I spoke with about 9/11 were Americans but I mistakenly assumed that this event was common knowledge.

Imagine the surprise as one student found out that there was a fourth plane that the passengers saved from presumably crashing into the Capitol building. This student was genuinely surprised to hear some of the details about United Flight 93. In that same group conversation another student asked what is the Pentagon...and he did not know that a plane had crashed into that building as well as the World Trade Center. I assumed students knew more about this event.

Another student said that since she wasn't American it didn't really affect her but she still respects what happened. I said what happened did not really just happen to America-- it happened to the world. The world changed that day. She expressed great exasperation as she said, "why does everyone always say that?" I said a sudden change that everyone felt was in airport security. A different girl said "oh yeah...don't you remember that we didn't have to take off our shoes and you could go get to the gate quickly?" The others didn't remember. They have grown up with airports being this way all the time. To them the world did not change. This is their world.

So if I had to do today over again, I would have told the story. My message would not be "oh, poor America...look what happened to us. Boo. Hoo." Instead, I would see it as a way to share the message of hope for a peaceful world that all of us need to do our part to do away with hatred and intolerance. Hopefully that would be a message that could reach everyone, regardless of their nationality... and age.

So make a note teachers and parents: it is time to start teaching September 11th as a historical event. Most of the kids in schools today don't really understand what happened. Of course, if you are like me you may still be shocked that it even ever happened at all.

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And on another note, I am absolutely impressed with President Obama's address to the nation's students on Tuesday. Here are excerpts from his speech:

I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a great writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper -- but you might not know it until you write that English paper -- that English class paper that's assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine -- but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice -- but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

and later on he said:

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don't ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

Goodness, even I wanted to go do some homework after hearing that. I was certainly inspired, and I hope the message got through to the students in America. What a rockstar speech! And to think there was so much ado about nothing-ness leading up the speech. I don't understand why some parents had their knickers in a wad over the idea of the President speaking to the school children. But I think it is a great idea and I am definitely inspired!

I miss you, America.