So it was Uwe's birthday on June 8th, and June 8th is when I finally went out and did something not inside my apartment or the university. I'll take you on a photo walk of what I did that day.
First me, Fiona, and Erika met up and went to Potsdamers Platz together. I had decided to include a section on my blog devoted to "important characters" within my little Berlin story, and to do that I would need photos... Usually they are fine with my taking their photo, but since I did it somewhat sneakily they were quite unhappy with the whole thing.
I told them to close their eyes, hoping to make a quick snap shot of them, however they did not trust me. Instead they turned away:
Covered themselves:
Covered my camera:
And then walked away as I waited for my coffee:
Of course, you may remember this from my last trip, but the Lego Museum is at Potsdamersplatz, and here's a photo of the giant lego giraffe.
Giraffes always remind me of Sarah Gibson's mom.
And just a block down we have some art outside. At first I thought it was sexual, but then it appeared to be more violent:
They are punching each other in the face and stomach. Apparently it was made by a famous sculptor known as "Keith Harring" from New York, and this particular piece is called "Untitled (Boxers)" from 1987.
The goal of our journey!: The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (national library):
Molly being a cat:
The centre is my professorin Andrea, and the right is the head of the UBC German Department, and my other professorin Gaby. Yes! Today was a field trip :)
The goal was to hear the history of the city library, and to look at old handwritten, and hand bound, texts on parchment.
We looked at 2 texts, but I forget their names. I will have to look it up shortly:
Here is our guide, and the hand print expert: Dr. Jutta Weber (Handschriftenabteilung)
Here is the fist text we looked at:
The second text was written quite some time ago, but was temporarily owned by the Brothers Grimm! You can see that they signed it! I was very excited by this. In case you didn't know, the Grimm Brothers were very important in Germany. Not only did they assemble children stories, but they were important law and legal figures, and had written German's first dictionary.
Such a beautiful book.
Martha: (pronounced "Marta")
Negar:
Professor Gaby Pailer again. You can see she is in her element when looking at the text:
Andrea, taking in information:
The Brothers Grimm were messy with the book! My personal theory: they spilled their morning coffee:
Mojdeh:
Siqing:
Ezther:
Shuo:
Parchment was tricky stuff, and sometimes used over again (so multiple images or writings can be found using modern methods). This particular book wasn't used multiple times (as far as I know), but there were sometimes holes within the parchment, that would be patched up and written over. Those patches can also fall out.
On an unrelated note, here is another book photo. You can see that they start off new paragraphs with red lettering:
The text contained the first drawing made of "the wheel of fortune", of which I know nothing about. When I asked other students they said it was the old belief that if you had very good fortune, eventually it would become the exact opposite. Everything evens out was the main message I think.
The person who was copying out the original text into this was one was funny. Here he drew a small picture of a dragon. Sometimes he would forget words and have to write them in the column, or underneath.
From the biblioteck we ventured off to the German History Museum (making this my second visit). It is in the far left of the photo below, but they put up new (blue and grey) tubing that wasn't there since my last visit!
Within the museum you can donate money. They have an intricate key to an intricate treasure box below:
Do you see all the levers?:
Bad photo of meeeeeeeeee under the roman entrance way (or what was left of it):
Prince Joffries cross bow (ha ha)?
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This is the image that goes with the plack above, of his vision of him receiving the stigmata of Christ:
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Indulgences (the bead chains) were provided by the Catholic church, and a person would purchase them because they were told that the indulgences would allow the purchaser to suffer in hell for a shorter amount of time. Martin Luther was against these (and the Catholic church) for many reasons. I think some of those reasons had to do with the indulgences allowing the wealthy to get away with sins and crimes that the poor could not afford, with how the Catholic church was corrupt and wealthy instead of helping everyone, and he believed that each person should have a direct relationship with God and be responsible for their own sins. Luther said, translated, that "Christians must not slacked in following Christ on account of such false assurances."
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Here are some Hussite battle axes, but basically they were engraved to represent the Eucharist (or communion), of which they were deprived. Keep in mind that this was taking place just before the reformation (so before Martin Luther translated the bible and there was the conflict between Catholic and Protestant churches). The first sign says, "The most important Hussite article of faith was abolition of church property and holy communion for lay people. The chalice became the Hussite symbol and was placed on their weapons and flags as well."
Can you see the holy chalice?
A Hussite is "a member or follower of the religious movement begun by John Huss. After Huss's execution the Hussites took up arms against the Holy Roman Empire and demanded a set of reforms that anticipated the Reformation. Most of the demands were granted 1436, and a church was established that remained independent of the Roman Catholic Church until 1620."
Here is an illustration of Luther nailing his 95 Theses, also known as "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" to the door of the Wittenberg Church. Actually, Martin Luther didn't intend to have a conflict with the Catholic Church, and had written about his 95 Theses (against Indulgences) to his Bishop (Albert of Mainz), ahead of time. On the same day as writing the letter to his bishop is when he nailed his questions, or theses onto the church (Oct. 31 1517).
"It was not until January 1518 that friends of Luther translated the 95 Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe." I'm using wikipedia to jog my memory of what was said during the tour, and what I can't read from my blurry pictures of the plaques.
A picture of Martin Luther "as an Augustinian Monk".
Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora, who I believe was a nun. Together they had 6 children (3 girls and 3 boys). Luther argued for the marriage of Priests to women, which went against the Catholic Church. I am studying this argument of his in one of my classes, since it comes up often. Basically he pointed out how people within the Catholic churches, and even the Popes (since there were many at this time in "the holy roman empire" that was within France, Germany, and Rome), were sleeping with women and producing children who they may or may not have loved. They could not marry their women because they were not supposed to, but I think Luther argued that if they did just marry them that they would produce a better family/environment than that produced by a man who sleeps with a whore or prostitute. I have to say that I agree with the man!
The globe! Missing North and South America:
Hey! It's Emperor Charles V with heraldry shields!
"Luther based his German translation of the new Testament on this edition of the New Testament, which was written in Greek and Latin and edited by Erasmus":
Friedrich der Weise (Wise): This dude, after Luther became "an enemy of the Catholic Church" provided sanctuary for Luther. Friedrich allowed Luther to come to his castle, and translate the bible there. I had been to his castle the last time I was in Germany. :)
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From this point within the museum, Protestant and Catholic art was shown. You could tell which was made by which religion before even reading the plaques.
Jesus carved from wood, rather gory:
Rock canon balls:
Degen, ie: Epee!!!!!
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Due to "Pestilence, epidemics, and wars increased the misery of the times. They created a breeding ground for superstition and witchcraft". That mini ice age didn't help!
This book was written by 3 monks and pointed out how to spot a witch. Basically if you were a woman and old, a woman who didn't go to church, and a woman who did things with herbs, you were a witch. "1/4 of people accused of witchcraft was a man." Of course, people profited when they accused others of being a witch because "the officials and accusers divided up the possessions of the victims among themselves". The trials of these people took place in "both Catholic and Protestant territories"
Ok, this is super cool! It's an old fashioned gas mask used by doctors during all of these epidemics and plagues when they went to treat patients. The nose was filled with herbs. This is the reason why doctors became known as "quacks". It does look like a duck, doesn't it?
The tour is over! So follow the green line to the fashion exhibit!
Headed for lunch, but we have to walk through the courtyard.
Lunch at Haeckeshermarkt! It was pretty good. 3,50 Euros for "the original curry wurst of Berlin" with some fries (aka "Pommes"). This currywurst tasted pretty good actually. It wasn't as sweet as the other places.
Siqing and I ordered the same thing.
Giant ball over Sara's head. I rudely predicted it's fall onto her, making her nervous. It WAS only held up with a hook and small wire, and it was windy. I'm glad it didn't fall though.
Negar drinking the green "Weisse" drink. I actually don't think I like it any more, now that I can taste the aspartame in it. I wish I could find it without the aspartame!
I ordered a glass of Sangria! There was fruit in it, and that is why I got the stick. I was going crazy though because I couldn't poke the grape at the bottom. It was too slippery.
Sara and her salmon salad:
Me and my wurst!
Ahhh after food we took the Haeckeshermarkt S-Bahn to Friedrichstraße, and then from there caught the Ubahn 6 back home to Leopoldplatz. I love Friedrichstraße because it is so central, and so easy for me to get to. It connects with major S-bahns, and is just 1 or 2 stops away from all my favourite places: Alexanderplatz, Museum Island, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamersplatz, and so on.
Here is the train for me:
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After I got home, had some food, and a nap. Then I went to the house of some of the students in my program for a little get together. We hung out there for a bit, and then went to a party near Ernst-Reuter-Platz in the middle of Berlin. It was kind of lame actually... there were 2 private parties, and then inside was where we could go. People don't go to parties until at least midnight, but there we were at 10pm, and only about 40 people around. I did enjoy how outside they had sand and beach chairs :P It was still nice to hang out with people from the program though. We decided to go back home, and where we met up with some acquaintances of Sara's. They were all 20 - 23, and I felt old, grumpy, and tired as I drank my peppermint tea. I wanted to go back home, but it was too late for me to walk back by myself so I waited for some other people to finish up. I didn't get home until 4:00 am, which is normal for Berliners on a Friday night, but not for me. At least I had the tea because I was very thirsty.
Saturday June 9th: 5 hours later I wake up to meet with my Tandem Partner. I took the "Ring Bahn" 41 (clockwise direction) to meet up with him. The ring bahn circles the inner-city of Berlin, and the 42 goes the opposite direction. It is only a 5 minute walk from my house.
And here he is! Now you know what Peter looks like!
I hadn't eaten yet, and was pretty tired from the day before, so I made him stop so I could eat some thing. Then we tried to plan our day.
It turns out that we were near a church, where a wedding was taking place. The East German "Wartenburg" car, similar to the Trabant, was all decorated and ready to go!"
So cute! I want one!
After that we walked to "Mauer Park", which is where the death-strip in between the two walls around Berlin was. On Sundays they have the largest flea market in Berlin (which I had been to a few weeks earlier).
It is next to a stadium:
The rock stairs and platform are where they do Karaoke on a certain night of the week:
The kids get the coolest things to play on:
OMA HAS A RESTAURANT AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!?! So THAT is why her cooking is so good!
I found another one of those owls!
After I had gone home, I wasn't feeling well so I decided to have a nap. I napped for about 4 hours, and then went to get ice cream with Negar. Instead of ice cream, we ended up going to an Asia Food place, where all of a sudden I started to sweat, and felt like vomiting. I walked 5 minutes to my house, and then I started to get really cold. I put on all my warmest clothes and went to bed, but I couldn't sleep because I was so cold. It was the worst.
I posted an annoying message on Facebook asking program members if they had extra blankets and a thermometer. My professor, Andrea, came to my rescue! She came to my house with a wool blanket, a thermometer, slippers, tea, a sandwich, Vicks cold and flu medicin, a super fuzzy pillow case, and kleenex.
Here's a photo of my 100.5degree F fever. Yeah, it's on the low end, but it still sucked!
Anyway, I am feeling much better on the fever front today. Now I just can't keep any food down (which is the better option). The one thing I like about being sick is that it makes me feel light. Anyway, I should be better by Tuesday (I hope).
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