Gardens and Galleries

This morning I got up at 7am, voluntarily, to work on my presentation because I still hadn't really organized my thoughts or figured out what i was going to say about all that i have learned about during my time in Berlin. After breakfast Mira and Natalie invited me to go along with them to the Charlottenburg Palace, and even though i wasn't done with creating my presentation yet, I decided that it was more valuable for me to see more of Berlin while i am still here than to spend all day trying to perfect a seven minute presentation. When we got to the Palace I was at first a little confused because there were several parts that were undergoing construction and the areas in front of the Charlottenburg Palace was all brown. There wasn't lush green grass with beautiful flowers as i had expected to find in the front of a palace. Fortunately, we decided to walk around the back of the building and were pleased to find the Gardens there. Even after we found the gardens of the palace, i still wasn't really impressed with the landscaping, however I'm sure in the spring when everything is blooming that the place is absolutely gorgeous. We walked around the gardens for a bit and enjoyed the trees and a beautiful view of the Spree before we found a place to eat lunch and head back to the hostel.

When we got back I had 40 minutes to do some more work before we met as a group to go to an artist's studio and hear her talk about her life. Catherine was a very interesting person, and her point of view on the subject of art and identity shined a light on a new perspective for me. Catherine has lived in four different countries in her life so far, and she doesn't feel like she belongs to any one particular nationality. She identifies as a citizen of Europe, and that wasn't really a concept i understood until Catherine talked about her life and why she feels the way. As an artist she has done some unique works that comment on social issues. One of her reminders to us, especially those of us looking at art, was to remember who is doing the art and why. People of the majority class may be well intentioned in using their status as a respected member of society to bring attention to the injustices of the treatment of minority groups, but that doesn't mean the representation is accurate to how the minority group perceives themselves. These people trying to do good may actually be furthering the discourse by bringing to light how little people understand the minorities' circumstances. Her perspective was very interesting and i was really grateful for her sharing her life story with us.

After Catherines talk in the art studio, we went to another art exhibit and saw art made by the community. Most of the art was very abstract and although i thought it was neat to look at, I was getting a little bit anxious over the fact that i hadn't finished my presentation and we are presenting tomorrow. When we got back to the hostel we had a group meeting briefly before Rouja had to go to the Maxim Gorki theater for her project. Mira, Hannah, Natalie, and I went to Sheer's Schnitzel for dinner, which was as always delicious. There needs to be more Schnitzel places in Seattle. Anyways, after dinner we went back to the hostel and I just worked on my presentation for the rest of the night.