Berlin

Hey everybody. I went to Berlin for my last trip before the semester. It was easter weekend and everyone was headed to the big city for the holidays, so the train was packed and I sat in the aisle for a good bit of the 10 hour ride. Berlin is definitely a city under construction (it has been for sixty years) but still it is very impressive and very cool. It is absolutely enormous and chock-full of 'important' buildings and sites. In the picture you can see the former Nazi Luftwaffe headquarters, now the ministry of finance, on the other side of a section of the Berlin wall. This is a stone's throw away from the former checkpoint charlie. There are tons of little trinket shops lining the streets selling american, soviet, and east german paraphernalia. Most of my time was spent walking around, going into museums and eating Doener after Doener. A Doener is a turkish kebab, with lamb from the vertical rotissere, veggies and sauce stuffed in some freshly toasted bread. Went up into the huge glass dome that sits on top of the German Parliament and saw the city at night. I spent a good amount of time in former East Berlin - you can tell which part of the city you are in by looking at the buildings: If they look old, bland and communist, you are probably in the east. I had some great thai and iranian food and saw 'reefer madness' at a cheap sneak preview. The German kids loved it. Overall, I wish I had more time in Berlin. Five days was not enough. Ill be back.

The semester has started and I am sticking around here in Konstanz for a good bit. We are painting the walls in my building. Light yellow. It should be fun. Last night I went to a jazz club. The groups were really good but the highlight was Funkloch - 'funkhole', or a place with no radio reception. It was nice to see a Swiss guy do his best James Brown/Barry White/Prince impersonation.