Changing the sheets...

What I just went through deserves a post of its own...  and only partially because I need to take a breather before attempting anything else.

Every two weeks I get new sheets.  The two weeks was up on Sunday, but I didn't really have a chance to get to changing the sheets until tonight.  I have loved my bed here since the first time I laid down on it.  I believe it is memory foam, because there are no springs in it and it molds wonderfully to me!  Spoiled, I know.  One of the first things I noticed was that the bed includes a fitted sheet for the mattress, a duvet, and a thin blanket on top.  I thought I would be cold, but the feather duvet is surprisingly warm!  Spoiled, I know.  Now, I didn't realize how exactly I would change the sheet until about half an hour ago when I examined the pile of sheets and realized that the duvet has a slip cover/sheet thing that serves as a top sheet.  I set to work stripping the pillow and bed and recovered the pillow.  The mattress was a bit tougher cause I had to lift it up to get the sheet around it.  Being memory foam, it wanted to hold it previous position and was rather heavy.  That was nothing, however, to the ordeal facing me in recovering the duvet.  I've never really done that before, so I had no idea how to set about doing so.  Slipping it on like a pillow didn't work.  Rolling it up to unroll it inside didn't work.  Flopping it over my body and working it in that way didn't work.  And, just stuffing it would never get it as even as it had been before.  When I had no other ideas I noticed that the cover itself was inside out and after sighing about one more obstacle, it hit me!  Lo and behold, I could lay the duvet out on the cover then turn the whole thing inside-out, keeping it in place the whole time.  Thank you Mom for the many straps and sewing projects I flipped inside-out.  Wah-lah!  My planned worked and I finished making my first German bed.  So, next time you have to recover a duvet, flip the cover inside-out, lay the duvet on top of it and then flip it all together!  I hope I'm not the only one who didn't know this already...

I think my arms have recovered now, so off to sleep in that bed in preparation for our trip to Dessau tomorrow.  More Germany to come!

"10" Things I "love" about Germany

My dearest friend Jodi recently asked me what my favorite part is about being here, which led me into a couple tangents and ultimately into what I will say is my favorite.  It occurred to me that my favorite part about being here, or abroad in general, or for that matter in each new chapter, is discovering the little differences and inconsistencies that populate my life and that naturally come along with big life events.  So, I have prepared for you a list of the little (and big) differences that I have noticed here.

• Toilette paper squares aren't square.  They are longer than they are wide.  Therefore, they are toilette paper rectangles.
• Subway train doors do not open automatically.  You have to push a button or pull a lever if you wish to enter or exit.  Quite energy efficient, these Berliners!
• Escalators are not always running.  They are connected to motion detectors and only run when you walk up to them. 
• The light switches are opposite.  Up for off and down for on.
• Often, one faucet handle controls temperature while the other controls flow.
• Instead of rewarding you for bringing your own bag to the grocery store you are expected to, and charged if you use one of theirs.  Yes, very green.
• As mentioned before, all the deli meat is small, round, and hard to identify.  I have discovered salami...
• Reseal-able Capri-Suns
• While everything seems to come in smaller containers, yogurt is usually much bigger.
• Bread is baked in the grocery store.
• You have to pay a deposit for every glass or plastic bottle or jar you buy.  And no measly five cents, either!
• The Subway runs on the honors system.
• People will wait for the walk signal even when no cars are coming.
• Gravel is put on snow which is not cleaned up, rather than salt.
• Doors open counterintuitively.  When in doubt, push.

I'm sure as I explore more I will discover more, so be ready for part 2! :)

And now, a Berlin sunset for the road:

Ich bin mude. or Jeden Tag.

Well, the second week is quickly coming to an end and I'm really getting into the swing of things.  One of my favorite things in the world is grocery shopping, and I have done plenty of that this week!  While I feel at home in any grocery store, it is especially difficult to shop in a foreign language.  When it comes to meats and cheeses, I am just about completely lost!  None of it looks like stuff I am used to, nor does it have pictures, names, or shapes that allude to what it is! All the deli meat is somehow made into slices the shape and size of softballs.  That doesn't make one feel too good about what they are buying... Hopefully one day I'll graduate to buying real meat.  Gonna need Mein Mutti's help with that one.  Mein Mutti is how I refer to my German Mom.  I've been getting to know her better this week and she is really sweet!  Tonight I discovered, after revealing to her my desire to design shoes one day, that she used to design costumes for theatre, opera, and musicals!  Sadly, I can't really talk to my little German brother.  He probably speaks better English than I do German, but we are both rather shy about it.

For the picture portion of this post I will be showing you the various places and buildings we visited this week.

Reichstag

Art inside

Leftover Russian Graffiti

Collects sunlight and stores it to light, heat and power the building!

Memorial in the Mitte

Fashion Week!

SCHAUSPIELHAUS!  

(Thank you Marges for teaching me my first German word!)

Church by Schinkel who also built the rest of these buildings

Didn't think that could be made out of brick!

Altes museum

Wall Art

Some of the many colossal columns we saw in museums on Museum Island.

Trying on some ancient jewelry :)

Now on to the dreaded studio work.  We're abroad... why so much homework?

Potsdam and Beyond!

After an exhausting week, we took an equally, yet beautiful, day trip to Potsdam.  Potsdam is about a 30 minute train ride from where I live and is accessible by public transportation.  It's a good thing the little phone I bought here vibrates really loudly because I would have slept right through the tour if my friend had not called when she did.  We got a bit lost on our way to the right train station, but made it just about on time in Potsdam.  The ride was beautiful and followed the highway through the forest.  We were a little perplexed by the shacks covered in solar panels built between the train tracks and the road, but later found out Berliners build garden houses there.

We started the tour at the old palace then moved into the Dutch Quarter.  I loved the feeling and style of the city center and really felt like I was in Europe.

The statues all have the best facial expressions!  Clearly this guy was not happy about all the weight on his head! haha

We moved on to the Schloss (Palace) and walked throughout the endless grounds.  Each building was as grand as the one before and even more unique.

Gotta throw some food in!

I hope to be able to go back and explore the town more in the future.

After the seven hours of walking, we headed back to Berlin.  The idea was to take a nap, but of course that never happens...  That night we had our first taste of Berlin's nightlife and it was magnificent!  Needless to say, I slept till noon the next day then hit the proverbial books.  Thank you studio for already being ridiculous.  Sunday was also my first German family dinner, after we threw the Christmas tree off the balcony.  It was nice to spend some time with them and figure out more of what daily life is like.  I am feeling much more at home and comfortable here with them!

Wie geht es dir?

At long last, here is my summary of the first week:
It almost feels as though I have been here forever!  We started classes on Monday and have been going nonstop since then!  We are already chin deep in studio work and floundering about in German class.  They have kept us fully booked and running around like crazy American headless chickens.  Cultural immersion, I guess?
Quick summary of the days thus far:

Monday:  Studio intro and first "Intensive German" class.  We also made a pilgrimage to Potsdamer Platz to get phones so we can contact each other. I was rather glad about this, as I live across town from everyone else.  We visited a mall there, had Currywurst, browsed through some great European shoes (yes I basically loved them all!  and no, sadly I did not partake...), and heard some American music... sigh.  This was also where I saw my first piece of The Wall, as well as the path through Potsdamer Platz where The Wall used to be.  When I got home, my host grandparents invited me to sit and eat ice cream with them and chat!

Tuesday:  Program overview and more German.  Most of the days are consumed by traveling- From "home base" to German and back and to various other places.  Berlin really is pretty large.  After German I walked with a friend across the Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate.  The walk was long and I'm sure beautiful during the daylight, but we get very little of that here.  The Gate was worth it, though.  So majestic!

That's me!

Wednesday:  A real life palace!  We visited Scholss Charlottenburg in the middle of Berlin.  One wouldn't have thought such a huge palace could be in the middle of a city, but every day I realize how big Berlin really is.  My favorite part was most definitely the plethora of chandeliers!  Each room had a different design and each was magnificent and elaborate.  

Thursday:  Thursday seems like a lifetime ago and I am having a hard time remembering what I did that day.  I'm sure, though, it involved good food (been eating a lot of doner kebabs- fabulous Turkish food) rushing around (lots of class intros and "Intensive German") and new and exciting places and things!

Friday:  We visited the site for our studio project for the semester which is right next to Checkpoint Charlie.  I was super excited to find my first smashed penny, I mean 2cent, machine.  They are much more expensive here but definitely worth it.  

Intact stretch of wall by the Typography of Terror museum.

Madness

It's an interesting experience being in a place so full of recent and polarized history.  Throughout the semester we'll be facing the question of how to react to that history, yet design for the future as we work on a design for a hotel with a ground floor to be filled with whatever we think would add to the value of the neighborhood and give back to the community.  What would you want in your building if you lived here?