7/1/2012

Hello from cool weather Berlin,

Well the forecast for today's weather provided us welcome relief from the sun and humidity of the past several days. We awoke with a clear blue sky, however clouds headed in and some wind, providing a nice reprieve for the day. We started the morning, after our typical German breakfast of bread with different types of jam, yogurt, assorted fruit, and coffee (the hotel as a machine that makes either espressos, cappuccinos, or mochas...our students are loving these), with a talk about the start of the Cold War from Dr. Arthur Kian, Abbey Road´s director who stayed with the program for the past 24 hours. He spoke about the effects of the Yalta Conference and the development of the two superpowers after WWII. He also gave insight into life in the USSR as he grew up in Soviet Russia and told students about his schooling and daily life hardships under a totalitarian regime. Afterwards, we walked about 12 minutes up the street to Bernauer Strasse, where the official Berlin Wall Memorial is found. Our group met Angelika, a local guide, and we toured the memorial complex, replete with a reconstruction of the two walls, the so-called death strip, a memorial church, and a tower overlooking the structure. We then ended by watching a short documentary about the wall, its construction and how it was torn down.

Next, we headed down the famous Unter den Linden Boulevard and had lunch right next to the Berlin Dom at a Thai restaurant and students had free time to explore the area. Many went to the local Sunday market right behind Museum Island and several went back to the German History Museum to see a free exhibit about the DDR. We then met Dr. Kian again and visited the sensory over-loaded DDR Museum, where students could see, touch, and experience life in East Berlin during the Cold War. From crawling in a trabant, sitting in a replica 1970s kitchen, to looking at typical food and all sorts of various artifacts from the time períod, students learned that life in the DDR came with serious sacrifices. Students had the task of being photojournalists, finding and taking a picture of 3 artifacts from the museum that they felt were really shocking or stood out to them as something that fully encapsulated communist East Germany.

Departing from the Cold War, we moved onto the trendy Hackersche Hof area where students had dinner on their own and then met up either to watch the final Euro Cup Soccer Match or see the whimsical and quirky Moonrise Kingdom.

Tomorrow, students can sleep in and we will spend our last day in Berlin seeing some of the big highlights: the Pergamon Museum (with the famous Ishtar Gate), Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. Students will have free time in the afternoon do so some last minute shopping, pack, and rest up for their departure for Prague the next day. We have an early morning flight and will need to stop over in Paris before heading to Prague. Stay tuned for more information on the last day of Berlin!