I LOVE BERLIN!!!!!!!!!!

Guten morgen, Berlin! I stepped outside my building, threw my arms up in the air, took a deep breath, and did a little happy dance!
I was all excited to start massacre the German language! I went into a little store around the corner and asked for orange juice! I went down the street to a bakery and order two croissants! All in German! OK, so I only needed to know about ten words to do it, but let me live in my excited little world! And then I navigated the two U-Bahn trains to Mehringdamm perfectly! I was so proud of myself! I am so amazing!
We had an orientation meeting with our site coordinator, Ipek, who is a really famous German-Turkish lesbian DJ in Berlin. She was named one of the top 100 women in Germany, and after being with her for a couple of hours, I can see why--she is amazing!
We spent most of the day on an amazing tour with a Canadian expat, Carolyn, who will also do an anti-racism workshop with us later this week. If we only have one good tour besides Krakow on this trip, I am glad that it was Berlin--the guide in Prague really had no idea what she was doing, and we had a good tour guide at Auschwitz I, until we got to Auschwitz-Birkenau and she met us in tears because her daughter-in-law died while we were en route to Auschwitz II. Anyway.
We started off at Friedrichstrasse, and before we left the U-Bahn station, Carolyn told us how the U-Bahn ran when Berlin was divided. The line we took, U-6, started in West Berlin, went through East Berlin, and ended in the West. The trains still ran through East Berlin, but no one could get on or off, as they were technically going through a different country and "enemy territory." The stations in East Berlin were called ghost stations. Armed guards with machine guns would patrol the platform to make sure that no one got on or off. We got on the U-6 at Mehringdamm in the former West, and got off at Friedrichstrasse in the former East.
Friedrichstrasse was home to Berlin's cabaret scene during the 1920s, when the German economy was in shambles and money was spent as soon as it was earned because of constant currency devaluation. Another site the Carolyn pointed out to us was what was known as "The Palace of Tears" during the communist period. If someone wanted to leave East Berlin, they would have to go through a long, awful process of applying to leave, be harassed by the police for wanting to leave (including their family), and be turned down, repeatedly. If they were finally granted clearance to leave, they would have only 24 hours to pack their belongings, say goodbye to their friends and family, and get to the train at Friedrichstrasse, knowing they would never see their family again. As Carolyn told us this story, I actually cried.
We went to Alexanderplatz, which was the center of East Berlin, is one of the centers for Berlin today, and has a world clock (that is not on daylight savings time). The Fernsehturm (t.v. tower) towers over Alexanderplatz and Berlin. It was built as a show of the East's industrial and political superiority, but in the course of building it, they realized that they did not have the technical knowledge about how to build it and had to import it from outside the Soviet Union. In addition, it was supposed to answer back to the crosses on top of the churches in West Berlin, but when the sun shines on the ball, it shines in the shape of a cross. The joke was totally on them!
We went to Rosa-Luxembourg-Platz, which has a memorial (sculpted by a woman) dedicated to the 2000 women who protested their Jewish husbands being deported by the Nazis. After protesting outside the prison where their husbands held, the Nazi commissioner relented, never deporting the majority of the Jewish prisoners, and bringing back the 25 that had already been sent to concentration camps. It is the only known instance of civil disobedience against the Nazis working during the regime. Woman Power!
We walked through Museumsinsel (Museum Island), and Carolyn told us so many anecdotes about each of the places. About how the communists tore down the imperial palace, and put up a palace to communism on one part of the site and a parking lot on the other. Now the communist palace is being torn down, because it was built with asbestos. Go figure! But the princesses' palace is now home to the largest cake bar in the world, so I am going to have to take part in the German tradition of "cake time" an afternoon or two this week. I like "cake time" much better than "tea time"--I don't like tea but I love cake.
Then walked along Unter den Linden, which is like the Champs-Elysees of Berlin. Unter den Linden is another one of those places that we had learned about in German class, so to actually be walking down Unter den Linden was another dream come true! I was dancing with excitement! On Unter den Linden there is a memorial in front of the law school at Humboldt University dedicated to the book burnings that took place there. In the middle of the square there is a white glass square in the ground, where you can look down into a room that has empty bookshelves that can hold twenty thousand books, the number of books that were burned. When you stand on top of the glass, you can only see your feet, which the architect meant to ask "what would you have done if you had witnessed the book burnings?" A bit further away from the glass is a plaque with the famous Heinrich Heine quotation "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings."
We took a bus down Unter den Linden (which is under massive construction right now, especially down by the Brandenburger Tor), on which I got my first glimpse of the Brandenburger Tor! I was so excited! I had stopped taking pictures because I didn't want my camera batteries to die before I could get a picture of myself in front of the Brandenburg Gate! Before we went to the Gate, we visited the Reichstag, which is the seat of the German Parliament. At this point, I had so many inappropriate lines from "The Producers" going through my head! We stopped in front of a line of jagged stones, which Carolyn said were a memorial to the government officials who spoke out against Hitler and had been killed. When I went over to look, the first one I put my hand on was a stone for an official named Ernst Grube. I completely froze, and I don't remember what Carolyn said after that. I know, there is no possible way that there is any strong familial connection after hundreds and hundreds of years, but I read "Grubb" when I looked at the name. (Grubb is my mom's last name.) Grube/Grubb. The resemblance, particularly when you (try) pronounce it correctly, is too frightening, He was killed in 1945 at Bergen-Belsen. I was not expecting it, and it obviously really shook me up. I definitely cried at this point, but I didn't want to try to explain it to anyone.
Oh, then the Brandenburger Tor! Actually, I thought it would be bigger than what it was. But nevertheless, I was at the Brandenburger Tor, I couldn't believe it! I was in Becki Roams travel heaven! As we were trying to get a group picture (the first one of the entire trip) we found ourselves surrounded by a completely random dog parade! Hundreds of dogs walking their humans, and some of the dogs and humans were dressed in matching sequined costumes. A dog parade at the Brandenburger Tor--amazing!
The rest of the day was just as amazing, and I felt like I sampled so much of Berlin in one day, but yet I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface! Leah, Leah's ex-boyfriend, Ashley, Martha and I got some Italian food on Mehringdamm for dinner. When we entered the restaurant, the owner asked us how many of us there were--in Italian! Without missing a beat, I automatically answered "cinque"--I knew I couldn't put that Italian away! Then that evening Teddy, Joanna, Mahina, Kristen and I went out a party on Oranienstrasse--I live in the neighborhood where everyone goes to party! Amazing! Amazing, amazing, amazing!!! I LOVE BERLIN!!!