My former home

Talk about a crazy sense of déjà vu. Today we toured around Berlin and it caused such an eerie feeling and memories of two summers ago to flood back (along these lines I did not take that many picutes seeing as I have already once before. If you are very interested in Berlin pictures I suggest you look at my older Webshots album from two summers ago.). Looking back at that time there are definite parallels that I am currently experiencing with DIS, but there also also – and perhaps more profoundly – definite distinct differences. It overall just makes for interesting thoughts – none of which have much coherence or logical flow.

To further add to my feelings of déjà vu we also toured the Jewish Museum, with this being my third visit. It was still incredibly interesting, and it was even more fascinating to hear the museum explained by a different tour guide with a new perspective. Still, not much has changed since I was last there.

Afterwards I explored an interesting special exhibit about the work by Charlotte Salomon entitled “Life? Or Theater?". The background is that this 21 year old German Jew was fleeing from the Nazis and staying with her grandparents in the south of France. She also had experienced a tumultuous childhood, and her main method of coping was painting. In the end, she painted over 1,300 different watercolor panels, and added text and music to accompany them, which all together has turned into this play. It was quiet interesting and provided a different perspective on things.

We then walked around various parts of the city without much aim, just trying to experience Berlin. I then had a unique experience as we visited KaDeWe – Kaufhas des Westens (Department store of the West) – with a focus on their 6^th floor gourmet items. It was ridiculous the amount and vaired kinds of food they had for sale. You could also go and eat there if that suited you as well.

We were on our own for dinner tonight and a group of us decided to try a restaurant in the bottom of a mall called “Bavarium,” which is a German restaurant focusing on dishes from Bavaria. It was good. Lots of meat and potatoes. It definitely brought back memories of my family vacation to southern Germany. We met a group of middle age+ American businessmen that were also eating at the restaurant. Impressively, they knew exactly where Carleton is – and how good of a school it is.

The rest of the evening was spent with friends, walking, talking, and hanging out. On a surprising note bars/restaurants/clubs are not open that late here, at least in comparison to Copenhagen. Tomorrow is our last day in Berlin and I still have two things I need to accomplish: one, eating a doener; two, having a Berliner Weisse Rot. Hopefully both of those happen tomorrow.