Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been writing; it's been a pretty stressful week, between finishing our independent projects, having a million goodbye potlucks, dealing with the usual moving-out stuff like cleaning and address changes, and don't forget the Christmas shopping! But we're feeling very organized now (we even returned our library books) and we fly home tomorrow! We can't wait to see everyone! Here is one last Berlin picture before we leave ... the Jewish Memorial, which is not yet finished. It opens in May, but our professor had a contact so we got to go in and run around the construction site! You may have read in the news that they just laid the last stele ... it consists of 2700 concrete "steles" (big blocks) set in a one-block area. It's interesting and very controversial ... it's actually taken over a decade for them to decide whether to build one and what it should look like. So we'll report to you in May about how it turns out. For now, we're on our way to see you ... bis dann!

Hello! We've had a busy couple of days. Today we visited the Stasi archives in Berlin! "Stasi" stands for "Staatssicherheit" - State Security of East Germany. They had an amazing archive of files on East German citizens which is now accessible to the public (with an application, of course - this is Germany!) and is kept up by a team of archivists.

There are millions of files. Along with over 100,000 Stasi officials, they had over 2 million "unofficial coworkers" - everyday people spying on their neighbors. That's a lot of paperwork.

Here's our guide showing us a bag of destroyed files. When the Stasi realized the government really was going under, and their organization along with it, they started shredding documents as fast as they could. They burned out several industrial shredders and eventually ended up tearing things by hand until the end....

When they opened this room after the revolution in 1989, they found 17,000 of these bags. They do have archivists working to piece them together, but it's a mammoth task.

One of the most interesting things at the Stasi archives was actually this paternoster elevator! They don't make them anymore because I guess they are dangerous - but this one is still in use and we got to ride it. Those little boxes are continually moving, like an escalator, and you just step on!

It was a unique experience getting on and off that thing ...

Yesterday we got another interesting tour - of the inside of the German parliament building, the Reichstag. One of the most unique things about it is that they have left many walls exposed where Russian soldiers grafittied it in 1945! You can see some here next to the elevators.

We of course got to see the parliamentary chambers - that's the main point, right? They weren't in session - to see that you have to get on a loooong waiting list.

You've already seen pictures of the cupola in the Reichstag, so I won't bore you with more - but here's Chance climbing to the top!

After lunch our classmate Wenzel took us on a walk through "Volkspark (People's Park) Friedrichshain." This is the "Fairy Tale Fountain" that stands at the entrance. It's winter so it was a looking a bit dry ...

What would a park be without Eichhoernchen? The German word for squirrels is as cute as the real thing.

This is a WWII flack bunker that remains partially visible on a hill in the park. Supposedly a gang of criminals had their headquarters here shortly after the war!

Our classmate Dana took us to this Russian graveyard for her walk. This is the chapel.

The trees in Berlin are so beautiful this time of year ... they make such interesting silhuouettes against a grey and darkening sky... Phew! That's all for tonight.

Hello! Today we gave our fabled walking tour! Chance's subject was the U-Bahn (the subway system), and mine was architecture in the city center after 1989. Chance started off in front of this humongous U-Bahn map!

And yes, on Chance's U-Bahn tour, we did a lot of U-Bahn riding.

Here is Chance's favorite station - Gleisdreieck. It means "Track Triangle," although it isn't a triangle anymore. It was originally built as a cool triangular interchange, but the traffic problems got to be too much, so they changed it to a perpendicular crossing...

Here is an U-Bahn train going on its way ... this is the oldest line in the system. And why, you ask, is it called the "underground-Bahn"? Because it used to be called the Elevated Bahn, and at some point they must've just figured the letter U was easier.

Chance took us to the "Durchgebrochenes Haus" - a very German name which means "through-broken house." When they needed a new U-Bahn line but didn't have any more space, they just built right through the apartment buildings!

Here's the back side - that roofline running straight across the righthand side of the picture is the actual U-Bahn tunnel. Apparently when these were built, the rents in these apartments skyrocketed, because it was such a novelty. I doubt that's the case now though ...

"And so, if you'll refer once again to your pamphlets ..." I gave them the run-down on the reconstruction of Berlin's center. Here we are at a non-shopping-mall! (Berlin's city planners hate shopping malls, so they call this one a "passage," even though it's pretty much like Bellevue Square.)

It's good to be a tour leader: you get to point at things. And people even look!

Yesterday we went on one of our beloved "Ulf" walking tours - they are always about 6 hours long, but he (the man in the hat) is literally a Walking Encyclopedia. This walk was, in keeping with our weekly theme, about Turkish Berlin.

Not Turkish, but interesting - this is the Vatican embassy. I had forgotton that Pope has his own state!

This isn't part of Turkish Berlin either, but we happened to be walking by it - it's one of the "Raisin Bombers" used in the Berlin Airlift! (Dad and Kyall, I couldn't disappoint you by leaving this out.)
An interesting point that Ulf mentioned was that it's a bit of a myth that West Berliners were actually completely without food during that time. There was no border between East and West Berlin and West Berliners were free to go buy food in East Berlin stores. However, the government kept up the airlift in order to prolong negotiations. An interesting take, and strange that we never thought of it before - the Berlin Wall and the border were not erected until 1961!

I think this was my favorite stop on any walking tour we've done so far. As many of you know, I took Islamic Art over the summer, and have a mild obsession with Turkish tile. This is a mosque here in Berlin, built in the Ottoman style, and we even got to go inside! I was so excited! It was absolutely magnificent.

The building was designed by a very famous Turkish architect, and all the materials and artisans were imported from Turkey. It was begun in 1998, and it's still not finished - it's very expensive, with marble and very intricate glazed tile. It was absolutely gorgeous! It took all my self-control not to take over the tour and start blabbing to people about the history of Muqarnas and stained glass in Ottoman mosques ... :) (Perhaps I'm in the wrong field and should be specializing in Islamic architecture!)

These nice young men told us about the mosque and about some aspects of Islam. Actually our tour guide ended up having sort of an awkward argument with one of them over the Saudis and Mecca ... for us Americans it was a little tense, but these three handled it quite calmly. They were very nice.

This is the wood carving on one of the front doors. The whole design here only measures a little over a foot in diameter - so you can see how intricate it is. Absolutely gorgeous!

This is a building in Kreuzberg, the part of former West Berlin where many Turks still live today. They moved in during the 60's and 70's because it was the cheapest part of town, being right on the border with the East. The architecture is outdated (this building is one of the most famously hated in Berlin), but look at all those satellite dishes! Yep, all those people are busy watching Turkish TV.

And last but not least ... more wall! See that little concrete space in the ground? That's where one of the supports for the Berlin Walll used to be. This UPS truck was parked directly on top of it! Yes, capitalism and globalism have arrived ...