Day of German One-ness, Poland, and a German lesson from a 3-year-old

I.E., my week. :) It's been a rather exciting week, so there's much to update on...

Monday was my last day with my host family. Oddly enough, they weren't home for dinner, so I got to go out with some friends to celebrate the Day of German Unity ("Tag der deutschen Einheit"--"Einheit" actually means one-ness) in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The actual holiday was Tuesday, but Germans know how to party, so they made it a four-day weekend event. :) It was actually WAY cool. Especially to be celebrating that in Berlin. In front of the Brandenburg Gate there were all these tents set up for beer, sweets, souvenirs, etc., and there was also a big stage for a band and even a ferris wheel! We had a lot of fun an dI bught a cool t-shirt with the Berlin "Ampelmann" (stoplight-man) on it. That's the little green guy above my picture on the right. The "walk" and "don't walk" lights in East Berlin were different from those in West Berlin, and it just so happens that the East German ones were super cute. Instead of a lame little stick-figure, he's a plump little guy who looks rather jolly, wearing his little hat and crossing the street. His red counterpart is also cute - the shirt has the green guy on the front and the red on the back. Anyways, sorry for the tangent, but today the East-Berlin Ampelmann is just a symbol for Berlin as a whole - there are even some East-Berlin stoplights now in west Berlin! - and a rather trendy one at that. I think it's cute. :) I should also mention there was a whole tent devoted to Haribo candies. They had everything! Oh yeah, and you know those German roasted nuts you can buy sometimes at the mall? They actually are German! They had them at the celebration and they were soooooo good.

Tuesday we didn't have class because of the holiday, so most of us used the day to move into our new apartments. That went really well. My roommate, Jeannie, is so nice!!! Her parents live only 5 minutes away, so her mom was actually there too to write up the rent contract and stuff. She was super nice too. She treated us to lunch at the little Italian/pizza place just down the street from us. They know all the people that work there practically like family and they were all super nice and interested in where I came from and all that. It was really fun.

My apartment is also pretty cool. Right now I am actually not living in my room. The guy who has been living there found out he had to stay an extra month right after Jeannie said I could have the room, so for October I pay only half rent and I'm living in the spare third room, which is too tiny to live in for a year but no big deal for a month. During the year we'll use it for eating meals and for extra closet space, but right now it's my room. My bed comes out of the wall. It's so cool. It's kind of annoying that I have to put my bed away before I can access the clothes in my closet (photos coming soon!), but it's also a good thing for me because it means that once I get up and get dressed, I can't lay back down in my bed and fall asleep again! (Mom, you should've thought of that years ago!!) Jeannie also brought me an extra TV they had at their house, so I have my own TV for the first time ever. Only problem is, TV is way more tempting here because I can convince myself it's "homework". :) Other than moving in I didn't really do much. I thought we might go back to Brandenburg Gate but everyone else was also busy moving in and getting settled. Late that night I heard people setting off fireworks. I think that's so cool.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Then on Friday, we of course had an "excursion," this time to Poland! We went to Stettin, which is the German spelling for Sczcecin, pronounced something like "shchehcheen". Yes, that's correct... a "sh" and a "ch" put together. The weather was terrible but we still had a good time. The city is really pretty and has a cool history - it's really close to the German border and located on the Ostsee (the Baltic Sea?). In olden days it was part of the German state of Pommerania, then of course later it was conquered by Hitler and then ruled by Communism under the control of the USSR. History has made it's mark on Stettin - we saw super-old churches and a palace (one church was built in the 12th century!) but also tons of buildings that serve as evidence of WWII and Communism... buidings that were used for Communist headquarters, buildings that just barely survived WWII and haven't been renovated... pretty amazing. After a tour of the city and a boat ride around the harbor (which were unfortunately cold and rainy), we ate at an awesome Russian restaurant. Then we had about an hour and a half of free time, so we went to the mall because stuff in Poland is cheap. :) Fortunately one of the girls in BCGS is Polish, so she was our translator for the day and got us around where we needed to go. We were all very thankful for her! Don't worry, photos from the trip are on the way.

Today I went over to the church to practice the music for tomorrow morning, and that was fun. I've gotten to learn a bunch of cool German worship songs. :) Afterward Manu invited me over for lunch, and I actually ended up spending the whole afternoon there. Lunch was nice, and I also got to play with their little ones, particularly Robert, their 3-year-old. We put together puzzles, which was cool because this one puzzle was of Noah's ark with all the animals, and Robert got to teach me the names of all the animals I didn't know. So I had a German lesson from a 3-year-old. :) Manu and I also had some great conversations, which was really nice. Then Tobi dropped by and offered to take me with him to Ikea, since both of us had stuff we needed to buy there. That was a fun trip. Ikea is nuts.

And now, here I am, back at my apartment. Doing laundry... yippee. :) Special shout-out to Alan, it's his birthday today!!! Much love to everyone... I've got some postcards I want to send, hopefully one of these days I'll quit being lazy and actually send them. :)