Friday, my good old buddy from the German language course in Marburg, James, came to Berlin for the day. We spent the time walking around the city and saw some parts of Museum Island I had never seen before.
We were walking by the Brandenburg Gate when we noticed the security guard outside the U.S. Embassy was the same one I'd had a nice chat with on Thursday. So we went to say hello. He was very nice and asked if I had another appointment with the program coordinator I met on Thursday. Sadly, I did not, so we just had a nice chat. Always fun making new friends.
I also thought it was cool to see the Brandenburg Gate reflected in the front windows of the U.S. Embassy.
We went back to my place to cook dinner with Ronny, and we ended up inviting two other friends over as well. It was quite fun, even though we didn't start eating till about 10 PM.
On Saturday, I did some work at home and then, at night, Ronny and I went out at midnight for a few drinks. As is typical in Berlin, the bars were packed, but we got a nice Polish beer and chatted in the middle of the crowd. After that, we actually hit up two more bars, where we had another Polish beer (or maybe it was Czech?) and a Berliner Pils. In between, we had the best Schawarma I'd ever had as well as a baked Turkish goodie (almost like a pretzel but way better).
We made it home at 3 AM, just in time for me to watch the Giants vs. Phillies game. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it, so I fell asleep and woke up to learn that my ideal World Series matchup for 2010 was actually going to happen. Pretty exciting.
Tonight, Ronny and I are going to head downtown to check out Berlin's Festival of Lights. Tonight's the last night, so we're going to try and see the main sites. I hope my camera will be able to capture some of the pictures. If I'm successful, I'll post them on the blog tomorrow.
This week is going to be pretty intensive with my training seminar with Netzwerk Migration in Europa from Wednesday to Saturday. I also have a few meetings for my research. I've managed to make some great connections in the past week from my meetings with professors, so things are starting to work out with my project.
In one of my meetings last week, I also learned that Berlin has changed its school system this year,. Apparently, Berlin now has two tracks after elementary school, rather than the traditional, stratified three-track system. However, what will be interesting to know is whether this newer two-track system is a two-track system in name and theory only or if it actually is enforced in practice. I haven't been able to find out yet if the schools that were formerly the lower levels in the three-track system have a standard curriculum for the two-track system now that they're technically supposed to be on the same level.
So things are in transition, and I really don't have good numbers against which to compare my findings. Thankfully, since I'm doing an ethnographic project, I can still use what I learn to write a relevant research paper. I really just need to know now if I need official permission to do my interviews, which has been more difficult to find out than one can imagine. I've received conflicting information from advisors and professors in the U.S. and Germany, so now I'm trying to get in touch with scholars who have already done this process. I had tried putting out feelers for that earlier, but had little luck. Now I actually have the name of a particular individual, so I know I can find out good info.
One last thing: if you haven't already, read Rolling Stone's profile on Obama by Tim Dickinson. It's quite good. Then, go vote before the deadline.
Toodles,
Sam
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