two at a time

nice was cancelled because of the volcano. i was pretty bummed (really wanted to see tay) and homesick this weekend. but i tried to make the best of it; after all, i am living in an amazing city, i've met really great people. there are so many ways to enrich myself here, to educate myself. i've been reading much more (for pleasure, anyways, not for school since that reading load is negligible) than i do at berkeley. just started love in the time of cholera and am already so deeply embedded in marquez' beautiful prose.

more words will come later. for now, here are just a few moments(documented).

pergammon museum
picnic cupcakes
altes museum
post-30 km bike ride, my bruise and my success all rolled into one. oof, i admit it: i'm a terrible bike rider
and just for fun....

ash clouds and socialism

the ash cloud may actually concretely affect my life. it's so weird to read the news about crazy things happening in far away lands, only to realize that you are in fact in that far away land and, unfortunately, the eruption of a volcano in iceland may prevent you from flying to the french riviera on thursday. not that i have much of a right to complain because it could be much, much worse, but still. sucky sucky.

anyways, life has been busy like whoah. on saturday night, a group of us went to the berliner ensemble, a theater in berlin that always plays bertold brecht. we saw the play 'mutter courage und ihre kinder'--aka 'mother courage and her children'. i kind of wish i'd read the description of the play before i saw it, because a bit was certainly lost in translation. but i was proud that i did get the jist of the story as it went along.

to be perfectly honest, though, i didn't really love the play. it's quite strange to go to a play in a foreign language. i wonder if it's even possible to like a play if you constantly feel that you're missing out on little nuances? though i suppose, shakespeare plays are really difficult to follow sometimes, and i still like them (except for the history plays, sorry dad, but they are really boring). so maybe i'm just not a bertold brecht kind of girl? i'm taking a language class that is 'theater' themed, which is great because it will definitely get me to the theater more often.

and get ready for the best factoid about germany-the-socialist-nation: berlin theater is subsidized by the government. yep, that's right. student tickets to a world-class theater cost only 5 to 10 euro. i am officially in love with socialism even more than i already was. sigh...

i spent all day yesterday eating brunch with friends and sitting in the park. i mean, literally all day. we arrived at brunch at 12 and sat on the terrace for three hours. yeah, and ate a lot, of course. it was truly very lovely. pictures to come later.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mama, love you so much

der lange nacht

once a year, every theater and opera house in berlin--from tiny avant garde hipster wet dream art house to the most stately german opera--sponsor the 'lange nacht der oper und theater' (the long night of opera and theater). for a mere 10 euro, you have access to any of these establishments and can see a 30 minute or so viewing of their current act. last night, a few friends and i did just that, managing to run around the whole city (well, run to and through many different ubahn/sbahn stations) and saw three shows.

1. qi, at the friedrichstadt palast

during my stay in berlin, i've spent a fair amount of time waiting for ubahn trains in stations all over the city. when waiting on a platform, it is easy to get caught up in the many advertisements lining the walls of each station. one of the most flashy these adverts is for the 'qi' show, a spectacular circus-type event held in the friedrichstadt palast, a huge concert/movie hall. i actually coincidentally have already been to the fp with taylor when we saw two films during the berlinale. anyways, last night we headed straight there, because the qi show is relatively expensive and let's face it, not something i would normally pay to go see. it is essentially comprised of extremely cheesy (but well sung) english broadway songs, which accompany the performance of incredible athletic feats. during the show, a state-of-the-art ice skating rink suddenly appeared from backstage and four impressively fit ice skaters proceeded to give me fourteen heart attacks as they performed intense but life-endangering stunts on the stage. in short, it was memorable, and i was quite happy to have seen it.

2. versus, at the chameleon

this performance was definitely my favorite of the night. it was a fantastically choreographed modern dance delving into the complexity of relationships. though we only saw a short bit of the show, i think i will probably bite the big one, shell out a few extra bucks for the whole show and head back to see it. i wish i had taken a video, because it was incredibly beautiful but difficult to describe. if i go again, i will definitely record some of the show and share it here. if you're in the berlin area, i seriously recommend this--it plays through august.

3. hausoper berlin

we arrived at this small venue to find it packed to the gills. the hausoper is essentially a simple room and in this case, was filled with people standing; a small area set aside for a pianist and a cellist. the proprietor, a beautiful woman probably in her mid-50s sang parts two operas and did so while wandering through the crowd. it was fascinating watch a performance while standing close enough to see the sweat and wrinkles and smiles and joy on the face of the performer. she sang a small bit of euridices and it was fabulous.

all of these performances were incredibly different and impossible to compare. though i have already remarked that the versus show was my favorite of the night, i cannot express how fun it was to see all of these performances. for only 3 euro apiece! after the show, we retired to a nice little bar and then headed to the russendisko (i didn't get back til 6 am, of course). it really was a wonderful evening; full of laughter and good friends and culture and thinking and dancing and sweat. really perfect.

i told you they love easter here

this is a lawn in berlin.

this is a lawn in berlin with bunnies on it.

this is a lawn in berlin with bunnies on it. the bunnies are here because it is easter.

my question is this: what do they do with the bunnies after easter?

i hope they don't eat them...

now that we're almost there

i see you see we see: warsaw

over easter weekend, my lovely mutti visited me. we spent a day in berlin and then embarked on a mini-adventure-getaway-weekend. destination: warsaw, poland.

just like dresden, warsaw was almost completely demolished during the second world war. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed, as was most of the old city. and of course, the old city, like the old city of dresden, was completely rebuilt during the cold war. because it was easter weekend, almost everything was closed and my mom and i mostly just wandered around outside. but i found it an oddly freeing sensation, to not feel pressured to visit every single museum but instead to simply wander a city that is shaped, defined, rebuilt during and because of such terrible turmoil. poland had it hard. first the nazis bomb(arded) their way through the landscape and people of poland; then, the soviets took over immediately and embarked on similar tactics to completely undermine and crush the polish people.

poland is an extremely catholic country, even as its neighbors, the czech republic and germany, lose religious followers on pretty much a daily basis (especially considering the recent scandal rocking the boat over here on this continent). everywhere in warsaw, we found little shrines to the last pope, john paul II. mutti and i wandered into a church on saturday and watched poles standing in super long lines, waiting to get to the priest to confess. there may or may not have been a few "wow, so the eastern europeans are still waiting in lines" jokes from me...

easter sunday brought with it gorgeous weather, and we wandered the streets of the old city among throngs of polish people. unlike the germans of dresden, i noticed (and read in a little guide from the hotel) that the poles are very proud of their old city and actually do go there and not just because they work in the tourism industry. it is such a cliche tourist thing to only go to the--in this case 'pseudo--old parts of european cities. but on easter sunday, we were surrounded by native warsaw(ers) and so it felt less terribly touristy.

i really enjoyed warsaw, though its history is obviously terribly upsetting. in case you're wondering, the ghetto doesn't really exist there anymore. poland is a poor country and its history is particularly fraught; the poles themselves are certainly not guiltless victims, and many took part in fervent anti-semitism. but to end on a note of hope for the future (because i like optimism, ok?): there was something great about seeing the polish people walking around their city again, uncontrolled by curfews and foreign police. until the fall of the iron curtain twenty years ago, the poles had not had that simple freedom.

i got in trouble today, and i blame the blog

ok, i didn't really get "in trouble." publicly reprimanded over the loudspeaker in the ubahn is more accurate, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

let me start at the beginning. fyi: this is where i wax on and on about german social programs, etc. if the topic "social well being of all peoples" does not interest you, i suggest you skip to the visual at bottom.

so, i used to idealize germany and its social programs, thinking them to be far superior to US programs (uh, mostly because germany actually has social programs). having learned more about them in my german class, i can still say that german programs are still far better than any welfare-type aid you would receive in the US. the germans have also had health insurance for years, but so have all other 'first-world countries'; who's really keeping score anyways? we've caught up now finally...kind of.

in any case, germans (and some immigrants who are not yet citizens) are eligible for 'harz VI', a program which pays rent and utilities for a modest apartment and awards approximately 350 Euro a month for food/clothing per person (child dependents receive slightly less money per month, depending on their age).

nevertheless, there is still a considerable number of homeless people in berlin (for whatever reason, they find themselves in need of extra dough) and many of them sell the motz. the motz is a newspaper with a salaried editor and publisher, and people down on their luck can sell the newspaper for 1.20 euro, 80 cents of which they get to keep.

technically, it's illegal to sell the motz on the ubahn, but it happens, regardless of a pesky little thing like the law. the other day i decided i just needed to write a post on the great institution that this paper is and decided to buy one on the ubahn; basically, the homeless dude had to change my 10 euros since i only had paper moneys. this took approximately five minutes and apparently there are cameras on the ubahn, cuz the conductor publicly reprimanded me (well, over the loudspeaker) for buying the paper. uhhh, it was awkward and everyone glared at me.

but i felt pretty hard core, breaking the law and all. ahem. and here i am, with my papahh.