Die Mauer im Kopf

What a hell of a last few days. Being at the Goethe Institut is, at least at the moment, a lot like starting college; i.e., it's gangbusters meeting people and going out and making friends and studying. I've had so little time to sort of sit and digest everything in the last week, mostly because I come home to eat and sleep and little else. But it's good. I've been taking photos like a crazy person, so there's lots of visual evidence for what I've been up to.

Berlin is, of course, an incredible city, as I will probably continue to reiterate here. The cityscape itself is such a ramshackle mix of concrete, old baroque marble buildings, Stalinist architecture, European flat blocks, and a few skyscrapers - most of it all covered in graffiti and some buildings still riddled

 with bullet holes from WWII. The aesthetic is amazing, and the history is writ large on everything. I passed a house on Große hamburger Straße that was swiss cheese with Soviet and German bullets and there were chunks taken out of the stone by mortar blasts. Also, I visited the Holocaust-Mahnmal (Mahnmal is a great German word that means "monument of warning"). I have to say, it's a bit understated, but seemingly good and the museum beneath is pretty powerful. They put a lot of effort into showing the effects of the genocide on individuals, which I think helps put things into perspective. Earlier today I went to the biggest remaining chunk of the wall with some friends from the Institut. That's another really interesting (and touristy) place to see some history. 

I have to say, for my part, I have a great deal of trouble actually imagining what living in a divided city would be like. Evidence of the division is there, though. The architecture in the east is markedly different. There are streetcar lines in the east but not in the west. The eastern districts are also filled up with Plattenbauten, these big socialist concrete apartment buildings. And yet the city has come back together fairly seamlessly in a lot of places.

And wow do they stay up late here. I went out last night around 10, started drinking around eleven, ended up at some girl's birthday party in this ba

r in Friedrichshain and ended up having a protracted drunken two-language conversation with these dudes about the differences between the German and American systems with regards to universities, jobs, lifestyles etc. We stayed out until like 5:30. Apparently that is quite normal. It was good to have some real contact with Berliners. The Institut feels more like Macalester than anything else; the group I've been spending the most time with consists of a Colombian dude, a dude from Italian Switzerland, a girl from Korea, and a girl from Louisiana. We speak German all the time, but it's good to speak with Berliners in that regard too because they're not making errors all the time. Speaking only German with non-native speakers has its drawbacks.

People also smoke a lot of cigarettes here. Even though there's a ban it's still allowed in the bars. I've got that wonderful little tickle in my throat that says, "if you continue to smoke, you are going to get sick." So I'mma have to cut back. Again. Good god.

But nyeah. More school tomorrow. Not much to distinguish Berlin weather from Minnesota (except I heard the Midwest got like a foot of snow?) because it's cold as balls, apparently the coldest winter in 22 years or something. Hopefully that'll change. This week should bring more interesting stuff regardless: more homework, more photos, more German, more parties.