shows,food,sights...

This is the first chance I've had to use the internet. It's hard to remember all that's happened, but here are a few first comments. The public reading on the Bebelplatz went so well. Unfortunately, I was pushing the wrong button on my new video camera, so I wasn't taping most of it, but I noticed that the local TV station was. People were REALLY impressed by our little reading. The reception was great. It started raining just as we read and there were red umbrellas all around that had "Lesen gegen das Vergessen" (literally: "Reading Against Forgetting"). Then in the afternoon there was a good turnout for our meeting with the kids we will tutor. THey were really really cute kids and some connections were already made. I heard the kids telling jokes to my students, and heard plans for home visits, trips to the zoo, etc. Supposedly we are tutoring them in English, but so far everyone has spoken German.

The first show I saw was Kafka's "Der Prozess" which was one of the best shows I've ever seen in Germany--it was directed by my favorite director, so I'm not surprized. Tonight's play (one we've worked on ourselves) was okay, but somewhat "flat" and lifeless. Considering that it is supposed to be a little shocking (with a murder at the end), I was a little caught off guard that there were a couple of people laughing their heads off during the murder scene. Then again, 5 minutes after the play was over, we weren't talking about it, so it wasn't as good as most theater that I see here, which usually lingers for awhile in my thoughts.

Chris, Robert and I ate at my favorite Middle Easter restaurant and then we walked up Adalbertstrasse and I showed them where I lived my first time in Berlin (two doors down from the wall. There's a big park there now where it used to be Niemandsland (No man's land--the space between the wall in the East and in the West. It's impossible to imagine a wall there now.

Everyone is really tired and the students' feet hurt. They had a long tour in Potsdam today (which I've done before, so I know it is beautiful but strenuous.) In my experience, Day TWO is usually the worst day for Jet Lag and they've been working hard, so I suspect those two factors had a lot to do with it, too.

On Monday our last student arrives. Things seem to be going smoothly and I hope the students are getting a lot out of it. Tomorrow they are getting a tour of "Mitte" (the center of Berlin), led by RC Alumna Carol Scherer, a historian who runs a study abroad program in Berlin. In the evening we are having a tour at the Jewish Museum, which is an amazing museum.