Lots of catching up to do!
11.9
(DARMSTADT + ESSEN WEEK 5)
The Friday before last, Peggy, Rao and I visited our friend Mio in Darmstadt. We arrived around 10 pm and walked through the city center to her wohngemeinschaft. She also took us out to a place called Cafe Chaos which has an extensive menu of all kinds of drinks and snacks. I drank yummy mango lassi while we talked about life for a while. The next day we made an enormous breakfast feast before going out to really see the city, including a local market where I bought rhubarb preserves, a library, a nice park and church and theatre, and shopping for Halloween accessories. Käsespatzle, pea soup and a pretzel were on the menu for me at a delicious German restaurant that evening! Finally we spent a little time getting ready for the big Halloween party at the dorms. We met Mio’s friends who live in her old dorm, who were really nice and cool, but the big party was a bit too crowded and we left early. Sunday we relaxed on Mio’s beautiful terrace before meeting up with Inès for another delicious meal of polenta and plum cakes. It was great seeing both of them again and we spent most our time just talking about what we’ve been doing for the past 5 months. Plus the weather was beautiful all weekend! Peggy and I returned to Essen in the early evening, and despite being tired I decided to go out with Maeva, Cristina and Blazka to dance at KKC. Monday was a holiday and we didn’t have class. It was the first day I spent entirely inside my dorm, I’m ashamed to say, but we had a productive group meeting in my room brainstorming for our studio class. Tuesday we went in to work on our concepts and spent several hours developing them before going out for Peggy’s birthday dinner at Va Piano. Wednesday we discussed ideas in our sculpture class, and Thursday morning saw one art student’s thesis exhibition for inspiration. The rest of the day I worked on homework, until meeting my Sprachtandem partner, Teresa, in Werden. She lives in Köln and we probably won’t have the chance to meet up very many times, but she seems very sweet and willing to teach me some new German words!
(BERLIN + BAUHAUS)
I spent Friday morning panicking because the hostel that I booked a week ago for our stay in Berlin sent me an email saying they made a mistake and didn’t have beds for me or Gen. They weren’t very helpful, but luckily there was still room in Dave & Anthony’s hostel so we found a place there. I arrived in the city sometime around 4, and met up with the guys, Christa, and 5 of Christa’s Erasmus friends. We checked into the hostel (Baxpax Downtown) and went to another part of town for dinner and drinks. We spent a little too long walking around in the rain so half of us made an executive decision to pick a Mexican restaurant. Turns out it was just the American half of us, but we had a nice little reunion of OSU people and I really enjoyed my nachos and Bananenweißen. We found the other girls again just down the street, but I left early to go meet Gen at the train station and help her get settled. We found another bar closer to the hostel (Friedrichstraße) and had a pretty quiet evening. Saturday Gen and I wandered off on our own to do a lot of sightseeing. We visited the Fernsehturm, Rotes Rathaus, Alexanderplatz, the East side gallery (painted section of the Berlin wall), Oberbaum-Brücke, Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag and the Holocaust Memorial. We spent the second evening at a bar called Alibi with the guys and Christa and company. On our way home we saw a pretty talented young musician in the U-bahn station. Sunday morning Gen and I got up early to visit Tacheles, an amazing urban artist community located just behind our hostel. Then we caught a train to Dessau with Dave and Anthony to go see the Bauhaus. Our official pilgrimage! Just seeing the building was exciting, but we also scored an English guided tour of the building in addition to the regular exhibit. It seems there’s not much else to do in Dessau, so Gen and I caught a train back to Berlin for the evening. We were able to explore Potsdamerplatz where we saw the Sony Center and what seemed like the beginnings of a Christmas market. Here I had a tasty cherry-cola-beer concoction with Gen at a semi-ritzy bar. Monday morning I had to get up early to get back to Essen in time for class. Don’t worry, I made it :) For those of you who don’t know, I’m looking forward to seeing Kelsey and my parents this coming weekend, and Will for a week after that! I believe I am the luckiest, most spoiled girl alive right now.
