STASI

it's been a few days since i've updated and not too too much has gone down.

sunday i went out to lunch with merce, jakob and jakobs norwegisch friend, Kristoff (i'm definitely not sure about this one).  We went to an italian place. Kinda funny, a kid from norway, denmark, the US and spain, studying in germany, eating in an italian restaurant.  the italian waiter wouldn't stop hitting on merce in spanish, which is also funny because the rest of the time he only spoke italian.

good food though.

afterwards we walked around for heck of long and took an extended stroll through the Mauer Park.  There was a Flea Market there which i didn't check out too much because i was freezing and looking at things posed the possibility of removing my arms from their frozen position.

so i passed.

i still craned my neck to look though. and towards the end of the park there was some sort of mini rave.  but there were only small children and homeless people dancing, so definitely a mixed crowd.

afterwards i went home and made a few calls. 

yesterday i went on an excursion with the Vokurs (my language course) peeps to the Stasi Museen.  It was...interesting.  REALLY scary, i can't imagine having to be put in that position or living with a government that is looking for things to arrest you for.  so paranoid.

but the problem is, i really don't know any words pertaining to the subject matter. my prison, communist german vocabulary is really quite small.  i understood the words in beween all the important ones, those, i had no idea what our tour guide was talking about. so pretty much i was lost. and when it's a two hour long tour you really need to know what they;re talking about or things get boring very fast...which they did. 

so word from the wise, on tours, unless you're educated in the subject matter, get it in your mother language.

but this tour did show how horrifying it must have been being a prisoner.  they had water torture and some of the things they did were unbelieveable. also the rooms they put them in were enough to drive someone crazy.  additionally, they had rooms that were outright meant to drive people mad.  like one that's completely black and had these crazy ridged walls.  gives me the shivers just thinking about being put in that position. there was just no good option, you're doomed if you do, doomed if you don't.

exhausted from this excursion that lay far in the east i just went home and collapsed for the night.

today i woke up very early, 6:00 am and went for a jog.  i thought i would try out a path near my dorm.  turns out it's really dark, spooky and leads to no where. so i turned around and went to the tiergarten, as usual.  it was SO cold.  i heated up a bit towards the end, but really, i think i'm going to have to buy earmuffs and some cold weather exercise clothes because it's not even winter!

i did however go shopping today in alexanderplatz.  bought some gloves, a hat and a few sweaters.  these things should be good for layering and will hopefully keep me warm.

tonight i'm going to meet up with kids from class and go to a bar in Kreuzberg.  I'm only staying out for an hour or so though. Girl needs her sleep!

pictures to come...eventually :)