A Short Walking Tour of Potsdam

I thought I would show you all a bit of where I am living. Potsdam is a 20 minute train ride from Berlin, but there are actually quite a few things to see in Potsdam.

First we'll start right by where I live on Heiliger See.



This is the Marmorpalais. Frederick William II had it built. And I did manage to walk out on the lake to take this picture. Yay frozen lake!



If you keep walking around Heiliger See you get to the Gothic Library. Apparently at one point it held over 1,000 books.



If you keep walking a bit out of the city, you get to the small Russian Colony in Potsdam. This is the Russian Tea house. Mmmmm...lecker.



Then, if you walk back towards the city center you get to the Nauener Tor, which is the gateway to...



the Dutch Colony!



If you keep walking past the Dutch Colony, you get to Brandenbugerstraߟe. It's a pedestrian's only street with lots of shops and things. At one end is die Kirche St. Peter und Paul (which I'm sure will look much nicer once the renovation is done.)



And at the other end is Potsdam's own Bradenburger Tor. It's a lot smaller than the one in Berlin, but still pretty nifty.



Then next to the Brandenburger Tor, there was this Rhinosaurus. One of the kids told me it had something to do with some TV show and it was really cool that I saw it. I don't really understand though.

So that's all for the tour today. There's still lots of other things around Potsdam I haven't gotten to see yet. Oh, and all you people who think Europeans don't eat peanut better are wrong. I can even buy Barney's Brand USA quality peanut butter if I want or there's also a German one. Right now though, I'm enjoying lots of cheese. Although caramel flavored cheese is not so good.

My First Visitor and a Trip to Berlin

Yesterday, was exciting for two reasons. I had my first trip to Berlin and my first visitor. Our old friend Arun flew up from Madrid to meet me in Berlin. So after my class on Friday I went to the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof and hopped the S-Bahn to Friederichsraße to meet Arun. First we headed off to the East Side Gallery. It's the part of the Berlin wall that is still standing and is now covered political artwork. Some of it was really impressive and detailed, and it kind of shows the part of Berlin that doesn't want to live up to the cold steal image that I think Berlin has.

Then we headed down to the Reichstag to be tourists and take pictures. Although it is free to go up into the Reichstag's glass dome, the que was toooo long. So perhaps I will have to save that for another time. Then we walked over to the Brandenburger Tor and the Holocaust Memorial. Although the Holocaust Memorial has kind of gotten mixed reviews, it definitely gives off a very somber feeling even though you might not realize what it is when you first see it. After that it was over to the shiny new Potsdamer Platz, with all the huge glass buildings and over-priced restraunts.

After being tourists for awhile we headed back down towards Friederichstraße around where Arun used to live and hang out during the month he lived in Berlin. We hung out in the pub where he used to drink. It was very strange sitting around a bar talking with him, because it made me forget how far away from home I am. Then the bartender would come by and say something in German and ruin it. On the bright side I am starting to understand more German, although the Brandenburg accent makes it more difficult in Potsdam.

With two litres of beer gone, it was time to go meet Arun's other friends living in Berlin. I got to meet three cool British women with fun accents. We tried to go to a cool restraunt that used to be a ballroom in the 1920s and hasn't been redecorated since. Unfortunately, something called 'Schwoof' was going on, so it was too crowded. Instead we went to a kind of swanky looking italian place and ate giant pizzas and drank red wine. Some how then it was 1am and it was time to head back to Potsdam. I had to make my sad goodbye to Arun at the train station. Just like in a movie or something. What I didn't know was that the S-Bahn route changes at night, so my train only went to Wannsee, instead of all the way to Potsdam. Luckily I met a very nice German (I think he said his name was Constantine, but I'm not sure) studying at the Potsdam University, who told me that since it was the weekend there was another train coming in just a minute to continue on to Potsdam. Otherwise it would have taken three hours to get home or something. Then it was a quick bike ride in the rain to get back to my warm bed.

Sorry no pictures this time. Both my camera and lap top batteries are dead. But as soon as I get plug adapters there will be pictures!

I'm alive

I've almost made it through my second day in Germany. I'm getting the winter we missed in NC. It snowed alot today and the lake is still frozen, although maybe not good to walk on. Also, the z and the y are switched on keyboards here.

Laura, the current Au Pair has been very nice about breaking me in. Luckily her German is very good, because all you people that told me most Germans speak English are wrong. Because Potsdam isn't as much of a tourist city, so outside of the tourist attractions, the people in the shops and things don't all speak English. Yesterday was Women's Day here, so when I was getting a tour of town and man said some things I didn't understand and then handed me a rose. I managed to say 'Danke', the only German word I have gotten much use out of so far. Mostly when people ask me things in German I just shake my head no.

Tonight Laura is taking me out to meet some of her friends, but they mostly speak german to each other. On the 21st I'll be starting an intensive language class for four hours every morning for about a month. So I suppose that will use most of my free time for awhile.

Tschus!

The Send Off

I've never had a going away party before. I've also never had a theme party before. I decided to combine both of these ideas into an 80s themed party. Usually theme parties are Justin's department, but some one had to fill the void since he left. Since I haven't made it to Cat's Cradle for the 80s dance in about a year, I set off to throw the best damn 80s party I could . I painstakingly put together a playlist on my ipod, and made many, many cupcakes, complete with neon icing and plastic dinosaurs on top.

The guys at 720A where kind enough to host my party. So on the special day everyone came over bearing alcohol, and some people even humored me and dressed up.


Meg and Amy were also cool enough to bring over twister. After most of the party people left we decided to embarrass ourselves and play a few games. Twister is pretty much how the night ended...


I thank everyone who came out for the party, and I hope there are more theme parties in our future.