On Sunday, James and his sister came over to my place after their trip from Leipzig. We then all met up with Elena and some of the students in her group to go visit the Pergamon Museum. It was my third time there, but I love it every time. Plus, I got to flash my European student ID card this time. Totally legit.
Naturally, the largest exhibit is the Pergamon Altar. We spent a few minutes just sitting on the steps too. Always fun to people watch.
There also happened to be a special exhibit on the Caucasus region, and it was called the Silver Horse.
The Silver Horse was actually this silver plate. Pretty neat.
From there, we went to check out some of the main pieces in the museum. The Gate of Miletus is one of my three favorite parts of the Pergamon.
And, on the other side, the Gate of Ishtar is another of my three favorite pieces. Simply fabulous.
I explored some of the side parts for the first time ever as well. Normally, I just see the main stuff. There was this model of an old temple. Pretty neat.
We headed to a pizza place down the street, where sadly Elena had to leave us to head back to Marburg. Bummer, since she just missed the pizza. I had one with salmon and a type of sour cream on it. So good!
We decided to walk around after that since James's sister hadn't really seen much of Berlin before. We walked near my university, and I actually saw the facade of one of the main buildings for the first time ever. In the four years I've been to Berlin, it's always been covered by scaffolding.
From there, we walked toward the Brandenburg Gate. On our way, we stopped by surrounding sites. The sun was setting over the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, so I snapped a photo while I still could. It gets dark by 4 PM or so these days.
There was also actually still a bit of snow on the ground as you can see from the Topography of Terrors exhibit. That exhibit is much different now from what it used to be.
We ended our night at the East Side Gallery and then the Ostbahnhof, where I actually bought new shoes and boots. I just need new gloves to complete my winter wardrobe. I hear H&M has 3€ gloves.
Today, James's sister left early, and then James and I met up with Brandon for lunch at a Japanese restaurant by the university. Nice to have a little Marburg reunion. James caught his train after that, and Brandon asked if I wanted to join him in his class today since his lab partner was absent.
Although I said sure, I never took any lab science classes in college, and my last biology class was AP Bio during my junior year in high school. Still, watching fish swim around and keeping data was more fun than my bio classes.
There were three pairs, including me and Brandon, in the room. Each set of lab partners had a group of four fish (roaches, I think they're called) to work with. They were being tested to identify their personality traits (yes, apparently, fish have personality traits).
I don't really feel like explaining the whole thing, but basically we watched each fish swim around for ten minutes and kept track of which block of the tank they were in every ten seconds. Check it out. I even did some math today.
Well, after the class, we decided spontaneously to cook dinner at Brandon's. Actually, he cooked since I helped with his class. Haha. I also did some work since I have to prep for some school visits this week. He made Thai Sweet Chili Chicken with rice and veggies though. We all seem to be getting on this recipe a lot (thanks, Rachel!).
I finally made it home around 10 PM, and tomorrow I have to wake up at 6:30 AM to go to a school. I will be helping out with two English classes (one 7th grade class; the other is an 8th grade class). Apparently, the students are studying American holidays, so they will be describing them to me in German, and I will be answering and providing feedback in English. Should be fun.
On Wednesday, I visit another school and am scheduled to give a brief talk on conservatism in the US. Pointers anyone? Should be interesting. I will return to the same school on Thursday and have a chance to sit down with a group of students. Looking forward to it. At the end of the week, I'll be hitting the road again as I'm spending the weekend in southern Germany. More on that later.
Time for bed. Toodles.
Sam
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