Highlights of Last Week!

Last week I met with Adam Goldman, a family friend, whose family lives on the Upper West Side.  I have only met him once or twice before, but it was really nice to meet him again! He is in his 20s I beleive and has been living in Berlin for the for Neuköln, on the border of Kreuzberg.  Neuköln is an interesting neighborhood- it has a combination of both hipsters and Turkish people.  Adam told me that the Turkish people who live their are very confused by these people who wear suspenders, pig glasses, and other hipster-like clothing! The hipsters live their because it's really cheap. We went to this really great Belgium beer bar- what I found out was that Belgium beer has a very high percentage of alcohol! We had a really nice time and talked of New York, being a Jewish in Germany, and many other things.

With the program, we went to the GDR History Museum which was very interesting; however I really lost steam after 1945 and unfortunately walked right through every thing! It was really helpful because I feel that I really only know Germany history during the time of WWII, it was good to get an overview of pre-WWII. I do wish that I had spent more time going through post-1945.

Me in the U-Bahn (train) at Alexanderplatz

I've gone out a bunch on the weekends and had really fun experiences! Fashion Week in Germany was here last week so me an a couple of friends went to a Fashion Week party at a clothing store in Mitte.  Then we went to Kreuzberg (the  hip neighborhood) and went to this basement bar.  It was really nice and relaxing atmosphere- my friend wanted to go because she is concentrating in college in High Life, West African music- and they had a DJ who was playing a lot of High Life.  I had a really great time just dancing.  This weekend I went to the Yelle concert, a french band/singer.  I didn't realize, but apparently she is pretty famous! Here is a link to her most famous song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU0YFzGkli8. I couldn't take any pictures because the Germany body guards came up to me and rudely said I could't take pictures because my camera was too big. BUT had I had a small camera that would have been fine. Does that makes ANY sense? NO.  But I did get some pictures of the band before Yelle!

 

Oh, and I am studying lets not forget! My classes seem to be going well. I am taking a German class that seems to be too easy but the one above it, the one I should be in, is two levels combined, and it way to hard for me. I am taking an art history class, which I was really excited about, but I can barely stand the teachers accent/rhythm of his voice! My architecture class seems to be really fun. The professor is actually originally from the Upper West Side and went to Harvard architecture school. I like him a lot he has a very dry sense of humor. He gave us a  tour of all the Shinkel (the main German architect in Berlin during the 19th century) architecture in Berlin and then we went to a Russian tea house- it was a lot of fun! I am also taking a class on European Identity which is really interesting. My last class is the most fun one! It's about pop culture in Berlin. We watched this really interesting movie on the Berlin techno scene called "Berlin Calling." The professor is also taking us to a soccer game and a DJ is coming to teach us how to DJ!