Great day

‘ello lads and lasses.

What a day today! All around a very solid day—

We begin with class. First before that, I’ve found a permanent place for breakfast. There’s a stand at my last UBahn stop, Wilhelmsdorfer Strasse. I’d always been a little skeptical about these stands in UBahn stations, but I’d seen other people using them, and I thought I’d give it a try. This stand has delicious Schoko-Croissants. A Schoko-Croissant is a normal croissant with chocolate injected into the middle. It’s like a cream-cram or a jelly donut, but instead of a donut and cream/jelly, it is a croissant with chocolate. Delicious. That plus a cup of coffee is a wonderful way to start any day.

Now class. Our teacher brought us chocolate! We’re doing some good things in class, but it gets even better when you get to learn AND eat chocolate! It wasn’t just regular old chocolate either. It was some special Swiss chocolate—regular milk chocolate and chocolate with some kind of strawberry filling.

Immediately after class, two things happened. Most immediately, I went to eat lunch with some classmates. My lunch = incredible. I wasn’t so sure what exactly I was ordering, but I went out on a limb and ordered the Regensburger Wurst with potato salad. I had an idea what I was going to get (meat and potatoes), but no one can ever be sure. How can one know these things? Well, it came, and it was primo good. The sausages were these fat little things, and the potato salad wasn’t runny or too mayonnaise-y. What made it all was this special mustard that came on the side. It was sweet and spicy at the same time. I don’t have any idea what it was aside from magic. I topped it off with a milchkaffee and was ready to seize the afternoon.

Next to most immediately after class, I came back to my room to get a few things prepared and decide where I’d head for the evening. I also ordered tickets to yet another sporting event. I’ll be headed to the Track and Field World Championships next Thursday. Among the events I’ll see is the Men’s 200M Final, i.e., Usain Bolt v. Tyson Gay. Awesome.

I did two really interesting things this afternoon (with a small shopping intercession in between). I visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Some of you may be familiar with this. It is a memorial that takes up about an entire city block and is composed of different sized concrete slabs. There are 2,500+, and they vary in height. It creates a maze-like affect in the middle that can be a little disorienting and create a little bit of anxiety. It was a really moving memorial. It’s interesting, and it also sends an important message. Additionally, there is a complimentary exhibit under the memorial that adds that much more to the experience.

I was a little taken aback by the atmosphere there. The memorial is clearly titled, “The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.” Nothing about that title or the mood created by the memorial itself suggests that visitors should climb or jump from one concrete slab to another or play hide-and-go-seek in between. For me, I expected an atmosphere of remembrance, and instead I found something that was nearly a playground.

What I think was most surprising: I also discovered that there were five Ralls that were murdered during the Holocaust, all from Romania: Moses (54), Crelli (51), Iacob (20), Rene (16), and Menzin (not known). Moving.

Following my visit, I wanted to visit Freie Universität Berlin. A former German professor of mine, Dr. Wilson, sent me images of the philosophy library and it looked like a wonderful place to visit. The architecture fascinating, and it would give me an opportunity to see that the university itself looked like. Recently, I discovered that the university was just three stops away from my house.Perfect. I didn’t find the library (it was getting a little late by the time I got there), but I did find probably the most peaceful place I’ve yet to find in Berlin.

This campus(?) was wonderful. It was like a little town, and while I don’t know a whole lot about how European universities are set up, I got the impression it was different that Alabama. Green space to be found everywhere, trees, wonderfully old-looking houses, and ducks! Yes, ducks! I can see myself packing up a book and heading back there ASAP.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is all I have for today. It was a bit of a rundown, and I’m sure I’ll pick some of these themes up sometime soon. The main points of the day: it was good, I visited a fascinating memorial, Freie Universität Berlin is lovely. I know I blazed over some of this stuff, but like I said, I'll come back to some of these. Especially some of my thoughts about the memorial. Just need a little more time to process. Bear with me, blog world.

I also bought a jacket. It is red. It has a black Nike check on the left chest and a German flag on the right. It rules.

Deutsches Wort des Tages:

affenstark -- (literally, as strong as an ape) really, really good