A brief update of my yesterday:
Yesterday we went on a tour of a World War II air-raid shelter, complete with a really enthusiastic tour guide and interesting memorabilia. Since most of the shelters were destroyed after the war, this is one of the only ones that remain. Since is right next to a train station, Gesundbrunnen, there was no way for Germans to clean up their past without demolishing the present. Our tour guide also mentioned the well known Nazi fear of an impure population, a fear which has definitely become a pleasant reality. Since I've gotten here I've met a bunch of Japanese, English, Spanish, Turkish, Italian... very diverse population to say the least.
Did you know that during World War II even German pigeons were protected from harmful gases?
A picture of a “gas loft” for pigeons I found on the Internet
We also saw pictures of models sporting gas masks while carrying their babies in a gas protecting carrying bag, as an exampled of what people should have been doing at the time.
Tonight we went to the most wonderful hole-in-the wall Italian restaurant. There was one counter with four chairs as far as seating, but the menu was large and had a variety of delicious things to offer. While we were looking at the menu, the man who ran and probably owned the restaurant tried to help us by making animal noises (he really got into character with the pig [schwein] and cow [kuh]) as well as translating a bunch of vegetable names. Other than that, he didn’t speak much English. Situations like these bring me back to my early years of education when storybooks used to ask me “which animal says moooooo?” but this time around was way more interactive and fun, probably something to do with the animated, middle-aged, German/Italian man component. My adventurous side came out when I ordered a mozzarella pizza, which he made right in front of us in what looked like a home kitchen right behind the counter. The ambiance was complete with brick look-a-like wallpaper, some Italianesque paintings, and one seemingly out of place picture of a unicorn by a waterfall. While we were eating, the attempts at communication continued. We (kind of) talked about the well being of the euro and how America “has many problems,” which with his hand motions looked like he was implying that America had fireworks coming out of its ear, but I’m sure he was trying to relay something much more profound. It was really nice that he made such a great effort to talk to us, never got frustrated, and made delicious food with fresh ingredients. I wish I had taken my camera with me so I could have photographed him in his magnificent rooster sweater. I will definitely be back. Saying that reminds me of Yelp reviews, which had mysteriously (and somewhat embarrassingly) grown to be kind of a large influence on my life before I left the US.
Other than dinner, today has been a pretty slow and rainy day. I mostly stayed inside my apartment and read, something I’ve been developing a renewed fondness for since I’ve gotten to Germany. I also tried out some new yogurt I got from the supermarket, which was pretty good. I still haven’t gotten used to sitting down at a table by myself for meals, so when I eat something in my apartment I usually walk around mindlessly and end up feeding my shirt a little as well. Win-win for everyone.
A modern-day Berlin pigeon
Part of the Freie Universitat campus
Did you take that picture of the second pigeon? Its beautifullll
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