First week in BERLIN!

Berlin in winter is wet and windy, but it's beautiful in a dark, melancholy way. I live about 15 minutes away walking distance from a castle called Schloss Charlottenburg, which you can see if you google its name. Across from it are two museums, one of which houses a lot of Cubist and abstract art works. I spent my morning today wandering through the paintings of Picasso and Matisse. But before I lose myself gushing about the art in Berlin, let me recap what I've done in the past week.



We have a pretty small group on the spring program here, and I'm the only girl. This makes me miss female companionship, since as much as I like hanging out with the rest of the group, I just don't see how Jensen would be interested in helping me pick out German nail polish. Of course, I didn't let that fact dampen my enthusiasm for this semester!



On Friday night my host-mom and I went to the Berliner Philharmoniker together (see picture). Simon Rattle conducted Mahler's 3rd Symphony, which is the longest symphony ever written andn lasts for about 100 minutes. I was blown away. The sheer power of the piece, which borders on violence at times, made me want to jump out of my seat. Then there are the softer movements like the last, named "What Love Tells Me," that gave me goosebumps. I think Mahler is smiling in his grave--hundreds of people listened to him, spellbound, for two hours. People alive sometimes never get the chance to be listened to, truly listened to, for that long. Unless they're in a therapist's office, perhaps.



The next day I went to a football, err, I mean, soccer game. It featured two teams in Berlin, Hertha and Union, and the fans were WILD! They were chanting throughout the game, which was pretty impressive given how organized they were at hating the other team. Union fans let loose fireworks (totally illegal) when Union scored, and the smoke ended up shrouding the entire stadium.

German soccer fans are pretty aggressive, and nobody is allowed to bring alcohol inside. People usually pregame and leave the bottles outside, as you can see below. As soon as you step off the S-Bahn you start tripping over them. The Court at Davidson doesn't seem so messy now, huh. After Union won, the hardcore Hertha fans could be heard chanting "Scheisse Union, scheisse Union, scheisste der Nation!" which translates to "shitty union, shitty union, shittiest of the nation." It was hilarious to me, though they were quite serious.