Berlin, Day 2

Berlin is something else. I've communicated (or attempted to communicate) in 4 languages today while trying to find my way around the city and asking for directions - in Spanish, Arabic, Italian, and German. Luckily, a lot of people do speak English, but I was delighted to be able to use my Arabic and Spanish. On the metro (called the U-Bahn for underground and the S-Bahn for aboveground), I talked with a group of Argentinean musicians, an Italian couple on vacation, and a Cuban girl.

There are lots of Arabs in Berlin - yay! I went into a bodega and bought a few bananas and chatted with the cashier in Arabic; he was from Lebanon.

Today I woke up at noon! I guess my body needed the sleep after not having slept too much the night before and getting up early for my flight. 

I visited the Jewish Museum for a bit in the afternoon; I might go back because I wished I'd had more time there. I saw an interesting exhibition of drawings by an artist that was at a concentration camp during WWII and who had to make Nazi propaganda material, but in secret, he and other artists drew pictures of life in the camp and hid these pictures in the walls. Some of the drawings were eventually discovered by the Nazis, but the ones that survived show the viewer images of the prisoners' lives that we might not otherwise have access to.

After that, I took a guided tour of the Bundestag, the German parliament building. It's only been there since 1999. The guide explained to us not only the physical changes the building has undergone through the years, but the symbolic meaning of the architecture. For example, with the renovation of the building, the architect used a lot of glass to symbolize transparency in the Democratic government.

I returned back to my first host's home to collect my things, then headed to my second host's home, where I am now - and wow, I feel so welcome! My second host is a university student who studies architecture. She met me at the metro station, and when we arrived at her house, I was greeted by a group of her friends, who were very lively and welcoming. One of them was from Israel, and another from Poland, and one of them was a real Berliner. Most of the people I've met so far have been from other countries. 

It was interesting talking to the friend from Berlin. He explained a bit of the city's history to me, and how in terms of gentrification, it is actually East Berlin that has been more developed. After the wall came down in 1989, investors wanted to build up East Berlin because everything was much "newer" as opposed to West Berlin, which had been developed in the 1960s and 70s.

I didn't know the wall was built in 1961; I thought it had been built immediately after the war. He explained that the Soviet government wanted to build it because people kept fleeing to Western Europe, and East Germany was having financial problems due to a lack of available workers. So, from the Soviet government's perspective, the wall was built to keep East Germany financially stable, but from an ordinary citizen's perspective, it was built to keep people in a restricted area.

Whew! Long day. I'll write more tomorrow, in sha Allah.