Memorials and Tank tops

Today we had breakfast at 8:30 instead of 7:30, and even though I still got up at 8, that extra half an hour was glorious. At 10:15 Rouja and I had a group check-in on our projects with Manka and Julie to make sure that we are still on track for our project and to see if there is anything they can do to help. I think so far I have done well with staying on track of doing my research, so my portion of the check-in was pretty quick. After the check in, I went back to the hostel to do some work before Mira came back from her meeting and we headed out to meet Natalie at Humboldt. From Humboldt we went to the Jewish memorial near the Brandenburg Gate. The pillars start out short and unimposing, but as you walk farther into the memorial, the pillars increase in height until they are twice as tall as a normal person. The pillars loom over you and block out the light and create a real sense of being closed in. I think the memorial was well designed and I would have liked to have gone in the museum too to learn more about the significance of its design, but we didn’t realize that it was open to the public and thought that since there was a crowd of people outside the doors that it must have some sort of admittance fee.

After going to the memorial we went to a higher end neighborhood in Berlin because Hannah and Natalie both had appointments at the apple store in the area. The neighborhood was definitely more posh than the area we are staying in and it reminded me a bit of Seattle. Even though Seattle is one city, there are several unique neighborhoods that have stereotypically different types of wealth. People had told me before that Berlin was like that, but I hadn’t really seen it for myself yet until I got to wander around the area when it wasn’t being taken over by the Christopher Day Parade. After doing some shopping around and buying a few cheap tank tops from H&M, we went back to the hostel for a bit. I went to the café and tried to do some work, but there was loud music inside the shop and street performers right outside the shop and it was very disorienting trying to write and tune out two conflicting sounds. I ended up coming back to the hostel and then being convinced to go out for a bit. We each bought a drink and walked to the Spree and talked as our feet dangled over the edge of the edge of the Cliffside. A few of us then went to a bar to continue our conversations and ended the night with some French fries for a midnight snack.

It was quite a long day, and the uncomfortable heat has made it even more difficult to get a good nights sleep. Hopefully it will start cooling off again soon!