Monday, June 14

Unfortunately, I haven't written in my blog in a while and much has happened over the weekend and the last two days. The weekend started out with a simple excursion to Northern Germany to be outdoors in the woods. We went to Rugen island to a national park on the northern tip of the island with Lindsay, Trey, Melissa, Lea, and Kyle. We had an eventful weekend as we hopped several different trains around the island, saw a children's concert, and almost slid down a cliff. We ended up tired and bruised on the train ride back to Berlin. The next day was our first official day of class. Dr. Etheridge, the history teacher, started us off at the beginning of Berlin history, at the Nikolai Quarter, the old Medieval town of Berlin. Although, old is a relative term since the site was bombed in WWII and rebuilt later, none of the buildings are the original construction. Much of what visitors see today is a replica of what used to be there except for the Nikolaikirsche (church). Although the place is a "Disneyland" of a Medieval town, the place feels believable to the untrained eye.