Day 2 and 3!

     I don't think I have jet lag per say, however I woke up at 5 am ready to face the day, and for those who know me that isn't really a thing I do.
     Yesterday was a really busy but fun day! I enjoyed the chocolate store, it gave me some ideas for new decorating I hadn't considered before. We also went and walked around the Franzoiche Strase and learned

about some of the history there, and then saw the Sony center. It was kind of an odd building where they tried to follow a Japanese folk lore story about a mountain to give off positive energy, however it just ended up looking like a circus tent...

     After that we saw what was left of the Berlin Wall. That was a really neat experience, but a little hard to wrap my head around in terms of the distance covered.

After this we went and did the Story of Berlin. It was a ton of information, and in a way I'm glad that we had a question sheet to guide us, but I also think it would of been more fun to read along on our own without searching for answers. Personally I get more out of experiences that way. German history is something I have heard over the years, but this was really nice because it tied everything together and it helped make a lot of pieces click.

     Today I felt like a huge coming of age moment where so much of the history I have heard about just all clicked and made sense. I was glad we did the Story of Berlin before Stefano (the tour guide) gave us the talk on  the Berlin Wall.  It tied everything together really nicely.
     I'm also learning I really really love the U-bahn. Riding on that has been a really cool experience for me because I get to work on my directional abilities (which aren't always the best) and my language skills. I never realize how much I know until I'm listening to other people talk, reading something, or asking a question to get somewhere and it comes more naturally.
     The Reichstag was really interesting, passive aggressive tour guide and all, I enjoyed the fact that they called the giant eagle that looked over the meeting room a "Fat Hen" and the way their voting system works literally translate to "Jumping Sheep". The building was absolutely gorgeous, and it was a really neat touch to have parts of the old building in with the new one.
    My favorite part of the day though was when we got free time and Elizabeth and  I went and looked around at all memorials.We went and looked at the Brandenburg Gate, and the Soviet Army Memorial in the Tiergarten, then walked through the Jewish memorial in front of the US Embassy. However, my favorite memorial we saw was the Sinta and Roma Memorial. It was for all of the Gypsies who had been persecuted during World War II, and had a time line on the wall around the memorial describing how things steadily got worse and the things they endured. Inside the wall it was a Garden with all of these stones surrounding a pond. It was one of the simplest, yet most stunning memorials I have seen to date. The information handout had said how the creator wanted something that was in the city, but blocked out all of the other noise for a more peaceful and serine memorial spot. The symbolism and intricate pieces all came together very beautifully yet simply. The way the garden was done blocked out all of the noise and it was instantly very quiet. It was a very overwhelming experience. Neither English or German words seem to do it justice.
however I don't really want to talk about that just yet. Elizabeth and I went and walked around some of the memorials today after our tour was over. We had our first German pretzel which was bigger than our face, and so so good!
    When we went to the Brandenburg there was a man in a bear suit you can take photos with. He spoke some English when he learned we were American. (I was told I have an American accent...I don't quite know what that  means.)
    When we were walking around the Tiergarten we also got our first pretzel! It was as big as our face and delicious. Actually all of the food has been delicious. In the mornings we eat breakfast with out host family and he goes to his favorite bakery and gets a bunch of different breads, and then he got lebenwurst (which is a cold bratwurst with liver). I now understand why people like liver. The first night here for dinner here we had turkey strips that had been marinated in a sauce with onions, baked seasoned potato wedges, and an amazing salad with a balsamic vinaigrette  he mixed together. Then he pulled out some really amazing ice cream for desert. The next day for lunch we ate at the Schoner Doner which was a falafel grill. For dinner that night we got Sudanese and it was so very very good. We had a mixed plate and it was a chunk of meat, two falafels, fried cheese strips (but not like our mozzarella sticks). Then yesterday we had a late breakfast so my pretzel was lunch, and then for dinner we made a white tuna fish sauce over pasta for dinner. It was a surprisingly easy college kid meal to make. It was Pasta, onion, canned tuna, and Cremefresh.
    We went to a German super market yesterday! It was like a mall pretty much. Comparing it to Walmart makes it  make more sense. They have all the same options, but the store is spread out to flow better. There are different brands sold there, but there is no store front, they just all flow together. Clothes, food, pet supplies, a bar, books.
    It's been really awesome getting to spend time with our host dad, his kids are their mom's for a few days, but the day they get back we are making dinner. Elizabeth and I figure that they will probably approve of our cooking sense college kid and elementary school diets are about the same. Heinrik had done a lot of traveling and is just full of so many unique stories. One night he pulled out a card game (like Munchkin) and we went through those for an hour and I picked up on some new vocabulary words, and see what I could understand. He speaks 4 different languages, and is helpful as I try to form sentences.
This trip has been so amazing thus far, it feels like we have been here a lot longer than we have, but I'm loving every minute of it.