Back in Berlin, New Blog

Hello friends,

Just wanted to post a link to my new blog for this year as I am back in Berlin: www.stinaberlin2.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!
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Photos and last additions

Hello everyone,

First: more pictures! Here are my pictures from my last few days in Berlin:


by stinaberlin

Second: I have a new blog. I decided to make a new one now that I'm back from Berlin. I won't delete this one though, just in case you're dying to go back and read my salami story a few months from now. :)

The new blog address is: www.stinalo.blogspot.com. I'll also put a link to it on the right side of the page.

KIBA pictures!

My church in Berlin is having their first ever vacation Bible school this week, called KIBA, which stands for Kinder Bibelaktion (kids' Bible action/event?). It's kind of a play on words because Kiba is also the abbreviation for Kirsch-Bananensaft - cherry-banana juice. I wish I could be there!

http://constance.at.myvbs.com/photo-albums/

Berlin-sick

Sorry again for the long delay in posting. Of course my last weeks in Berlin were stressful and busy and I still don't think I've collected all my thoughts since then. A lot has happened.

The biggest thing, of course: My year in Berlin is over. I returned home to Tennessee on Thursday after a simply incredible year. It was extremely hard to say goodbye. I miss it so much. I miss everyone so much.

I didn't really understand what "reverse culture shock" is all about until I was over the Atlantic and really realizing that I just left behind everything I had lived and breathed for a whole year - and most importantly, such incredible relationships. I had a family there in Berlin, and I had to leave them, and I don't know exactly when I'll see them again. Having been home twice during my year abroad, I didn't really get the whole reverse culture shock thing because it didn't seem that weird to me when I came home for Christmas or my brother's graduation. But it's totally different when you come home and know that you're not going back (at least not for awhile). Home feels comfortable but it somehow doesn't feel *right*. At least for me.

And I'm somewhat confident that the reason for that is that I don't really belong in Brentwood. I really am a "stranger and a guest" in this place - God definitely wants me somewhere else. And I don't imagine Philadelphia being too much different.

Living in Berlin for a whole year was so incredible because I really knew that it was where God wanted me to be. I think it's the first place I've ever fallen in love with - usually I only fall in love with the people. And most of my love for Berlin is for the people I know there, but it was such a neat feeling to live in a place where I didn't think all the time, "I love these people, but I know I can't stay here." I miss feeling that way. It makes it very hard to come back, going from a place that felt right, where I felt like my life was moving forward, and returning to what feels like the "old life".

I also just miss those people like crazy - my church... it was just so amazing. To be part of a family... I miss everyone, I miss people's quirks, I miss the kids running around, I miss... everthing about them. And I'm simply humbled by the way that they loved me. These are things I will treasure in my heart forever.

Last Sunday was really beautiful. Timo, Manu, Ingrid and Gabi prayed for me, and they gave me a few gifts - a book they made, where each family has a page with pictures and notes, and a Berlin purse with Ampelmann gummies in it! - and Timo said the kindest words. And there was a special lunch afterward - we "grilled" sausages and had potato salad and other German specialties. Thursday morning the Heimlichs, Tobi, Gerard, Micha, and Austin came to the airport to see me off. I knew that a few of them were planning to come, but not all of them, and certainly not Timo and the kids! They had even said goodbye to me the night before as if it was the last goodbye, but there they were when I walked in! It was incredible. I miss them all so much.

Don't get me wrong, home is nice too. But I just absolutely loved my year in Berlin, and it's hard to come to grips with the fact that it's over, and I have to wait before I can return. I guess we'll see what God has in store next. I really do hope it'll be in Germany... preferably Berlin...

I'm incredibly thankful for it all.

long time no blog

Hello! Yeah, haven't blogged in awhile... things have been kinda crazy, both "technically" and emotionally. But life is good! Here are a few updates:

1. First things first: I never did post my pictures from Vienna, so...


by stinaberlin

2. Amani was here! She came and visited me in Berlin for about a week, then hopped around Germany and England visiting other friends and stopping back at my place periodically. It was super awesome having her here and reminded me how much I miss her! Let's all pray she gets a job in the Philly area... or the Nashville area too!

3. Let's see, what else is new... this past weekend was really cool. A lady from my church named Ulrike invited us all over to her summer/weekend home in a teeny tiny town way out near the Polish border for an all-church retreat. It was super fun. The weather finally shaped up and got nice (it had been in the 50's and 60's for weeks! it was soooo weird!), and we spent our time enjoying the beautiful weather in Ulrike's beautiful garden, cooking out, playing with the kids, and chatting around a bonfire while making "stick-bread" - a sweet, almost biscuit-y dough you put on a stick and roast over the fire. (Marshmallows would've been easier, but I enjoyed stick-bread too. =) On Sunday we had an improvised worship service in the town's little tiny church, which was beautiful! I'll put up pictures as soon as I get them edited - my camera was being weird and made a lot of my pictures kinda pink, so I'm gonna do a little photo-shop editing first. It was very relaxing and tons of fun to spend the weekend with my favorite people in Berlin. =)

4. Yes, unfortunately it's term-paper season again, which has been a primary reason why I've been busy lately. I only have two this semester and I'm not so worried about writing them like I was last semester, I just hafta get on it! If you don't hear much from me for the next two weeks, you'll know why...

5. Big thing on my mind right now: I'm leaving Berlin in just two weeks! It seems so strange to think about. I'm excited to go home and spend time with my family and friends and eat Hershey's Kisses because I just recently realized that I hadn't had those in a year, but it's really weird to think about returning to my "old life" and leaving this wonderful city that I've really come to love, not to mention the amazing people that I've met. It's not going to be easy to say goodbye! Let's just pray I get to come back soon. I'm planning to apply for a Fulbright teaching assistanship in Germany for the year after I graduate, and I'm hoping they'll let me come teach in Berlin... if not I will have to get a part-time job to pay for all those train tickets to Berlin!

That's my update for now. =) Love to all!

random updates

Well, I'm going in reverse on the updating, but first things first - Amani is here! She got here on Tuesday morning and we've been having a great time together. She's in Germany (traveling a good bit) for 30 days, so she's not in a hurry to see every touristic thing right away, so we've been able to just chill and hang out together, and it's been awesome. I forgot how good it feels to chat with Amani (in person!). It's quite a treat.

Secondly, I visited another random city - Leipzig, which was the second largest city in East Germany (after East Berlin). It was a brief excursion for one of my classes, my "comparative history of East and West Germany" class, to see a new exhibit at the Center for Contemporary History on East and West German perspectives on each other. It was interesting. Afterward was lunch with the prof and class, then half the group went home and the other half stayed to visited the recently opened Panometer, a 150m circumference, 40m tall panorama of Rome ca. 300 A.D. Some other kids had heard about it and wanted to see it while we were already in Leipzig, so that's why we went. I went with that group and it was pretty interesting, though slightly awkward because I really felt like an outsider within the group (even with the prof, whose actually not a prof yet, just has his MA and is less than 10 years older than me). I think part of it is because those kids have a lot of classes together because they're the same major, but even still... I don't know, I guess I'm just "different" in some way. But it was okay. Mostly just interesting to observe the situation.

So that adds one more city to my list of European cities visited. Those are the main events that've happened in my life lately. Pastor's birthday was last Monday, so he had a big party on Saturday afternoon/evening after church, which was a blast. And little baby Heidi (almost 11mos!) can stand up now!!! It's so crazy!!! She's just a cute as ever though. =)

That's really all the "news" news.

Vienna!

Hello everyone! I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Vienna with my friend (not boyfriend, just friend!) Tobi. We had a blast. As soon as my pictures are uploaded, I'll edit this post and put in a link to the album, but for now, here's the play-by-play of what we did:

We had a very early morning flight on Thursday - took off at 6:15, but because of that it was cheap! - and landed about an hour later, it was a very short flight. We went right to our hostel (Wombat's, for those who've been to Vienna or Munich before), which was very easy to find, and checked in, but we couldnt get into our room yet because it was too early, so we just locked up our stuff in the luggage storage room, then headed out to find some breakfast. We walked along a big street that would be a shoppers paradise! Then, we ate breakfast at... McDonalds. I'm not kidding. My first meal in Vienna was at McDonalds. It was Tobi's idea. We were walking, and really hungry, and then there was a McDonalds there, and he was like "actually I could eat here" because you can get a hot breakfast for cheap. I laughed at first but then was like "okay whatever!" so we ate there and I have to say one thing - McDonalds in Vienna actually has GOOD coffee! It was like totally weird to be eating an Egg McMuffin with a nice tasting cappucino! Haha so anyways, then we kept on walking, and eventually wound up in the Museum Quarter, where I saw an amazing thing... a drinking fountain!!! They don't have those in Berlin anywhere!!! So I was excited. Then, we came out through this little tunnel/archway thing, and then all of sudden, there was the "old city" of Vienna, in all its splendor. It was quite a sight. We crossed the street and walked through Maria Theresia Platz, with its beautiful garden and big pretty buildings on both sides, then through the old city gate into the Hofburg. We just wandered through there more or less aimlessly for a couple hours probably. It was way cool. Then all of sudden we realized we were hungry again and it was 12:30, so we decided to cut through the Stadtpark (which is also gorgeous!) and then grab something to eat. We just had a light lunch at little cafe, then headed to the Schönbrunn Palace. We did the tour there, which was pretty cool and not too long, which was good cuz our feet were tired, then walked out into the INCREDIBLE gardens there, which are also, by the way, ginormous. We walked, got some ice cream, walked some more, stopped to admire the view, walked some more, bought a coke, sat on a bench, walked some more... you get the picture. It was like a landscaper's paradise. We slowly meandered our way out of the gardens through the back way sorta, because there was a greenhouse back there that we thought we might visit. When we got there, it was closed, so we decided it was time for dinner and then sleep. For dinner we headed back to the Hofburg area and ate at an Italianish place. Then we wandered some more, thinking we might stop for a coffee somewhere, then realized we were too tired for coffee and decided just to go back to the hostel. Oh yeah, in the course of our wanderings we saw some cool churches, like St. Stephans (the big ginormous famous one) and St. Michaels (I think?) and actually, Thursday was a big Catholic holiday (Corpus Christi? I have no idea what that is) and since Austria is super duper Catholic, there were all these processions in the street during the morning. There was a big outdoor procession and sort of worship service in front of St Stephans church that was huge. It was interesting to see. I think there were some pretty important clergymen there, they were all decked out in the fancy traditional robes and everything. There were two things about the procession that made us laugh though - one was that there were some men carrying these little canopy-things over some of the important priests, but the guys carrying the poles weren't dressed fancy like the priests. One guy was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said "I <3 Jesus". The other funny thing was that when they sang, there was a guy singing the music over a loudspeaker, but he was a horrible singer! It made us giggle. That was an interesting experience.

On Friday we slept in late, then headed for the Belvedere, which was pretty awesome. It's a really beautiful palace which now functions basically as a big art museum, and they had some good stuff. Afterward we stopped for coffee, wandered a bit, then to decided to go ahead and have dinner. We found a great Italian place and had pizza, then went to the Haus der Musik ("House of Music"), which is this random, kinda funky museum having to do with sound and music. The first thing you go through is called the Sonosphere, which is slightly Space-Age in decor, and you learn all kinds of stuff about how sound is made and what makes different sounds sound different. They had some cool computers with headphones where you could observe all these different aspects of sound and do cool stuff. For example, for some of my readers: You know how in "Come Sweet Death" you hear all those notes that people aren't really singing? There was a cool demo on that. Another one that was really spiffy was the one that explained tone color (what makes a clarinet sound like a clarinet and a piano like a piano). You could gradually spin a "tone color wheel" and it would change the overtones gradually from one instrument to another. After that part, there were some exhibits about the main, big famous (German/Austrian) composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mahler... I think those were all the ones they did. They had things like original copies of scores and concert programs, replicas of the instruments they used (mostly pianos, but also some violins and an occasional flute or oboe), and general factual information. In this section, they also had a thing where you could virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. I didn't do it because we were pressed for time going through the museum and there was another lady there doing it (quite badly by the way, it was really funny!), but Tobi did. There's a conductor's wand that you use that shoots like lasers or something, something like that. And if you're really bad, the orchestra members like boo you or just get up an walk out (you see them on a TV screen). I thought the concept was quite amusing! The last part of it was kinda weird, it was called the Brain Opera and you could make all kinds of weird sounds and music and such by doing really simple things, like moving your arms. You could also "compose" a soundtrack of natural sound samples. All in all, the museum was kinda funky, but definitely entertaining. Very hands-on and unique. After that we were thirsty, so we found a restaurant and sat and chatted awhile, then headed back to the hostel.

This morning we woke up a bit earlier, checked out, stored our luggage again, then headed off to the Sisi Museum in the Hofburg. This was a cool museum because it's kinda three museums in one: first you see the imperial silver collection, then you see a museum on the life of the last Austrian empress, Elisabeth ("Sisi"), then you visit the imperial rooms (where the emperor and empress actually lived). It was a good mix, and no single part was too long, so you didn't get bored from seeing too much of the same thing. After that we were very hungry, so we started walking, and what's right in front of us, but a Starbucks. And Tobi was like, "Actually, I could go for just something at Starbucks" (it was one that has sandwiches and stuff too) and I was like sure, taking note that it was the German among us who suggested it, not the American! Anyways, you would not believe how expensive everything at that Starbucks was!!! The cheap drinks, like a tall cappucino, were 4 Euros at least!!! It was quite ridiculous. We decided to just deal with it because we were hungry and thirsty, but then we had sort of a stroke of luck. Both of us were out of cash, and their credit card machine was broken, so we had to go to an ATM and get cash, and for the inconvenience, they didn't charge us for our drinks, only for our sandwiches. So we basically got a half-off deal, which meant it cost what it would normally cost at an American Starbucks. :) Afterward we hit up the Albertina, an art museum currently featuring an exhibt on the artists of the "Brücke" (literally means "bridge"), a group of German artists who sort of joined forces around 1906 to start experimenting with new, modern techniques that "broke the rules". It was a neat exhibt. The museum also has a few smaller works by really famous older artists like Dürer and Rubens, and downstairs is a really nifty photography exhibit. It was cool, but after that we were totally museum-ed out. And in need of coffee. After some more coffee (NOT from Starbucks!), we made our way slowly back to the hostel to pick up our stuff, stopping briefly to see St Stephans one more time on the way. We went ahead and went to the airport from there, figuring we'd just get there early and find some dinner there, which is exactly what we did. And then we flew back to Berlin, and now I'm back here at my apartment! And that was my super cool Vienna adventure.

So, like I said... photos coming soon. We had a blast. :)