The building where the Philharmonic performs is absolutely stunning. Inside it has many different levels and tiers and there are staircases everywhere. It's like some sort of beautiful chaos. For the performance we had tickets in the fourth row. Every seat is really a great seat though, because the performers are right in the center of the room with seats on all sides. I'll post a link to some pictures at the bottom. I only brought my little camera though, so the pictures aren't all that great. The performers were great and some of my favorites (and the most talented) were those who had such an obvious passion for the music. The first chair violin guy was super into his playing. He kept nearly jumping out of his seat. I couldn't help but notice though that he looked like the scary evil doctor guy from American Horror Story and that freaked me out a bit. Also, I'm fairly positive that Bill Murray was there playing a cello. I swear it looked just like him! During the intermission I had champagne with raspberries in it. Now I don't normally care all that much for champagne, but that stuff was delicious! Afterward, AM's father (who was a perfect gentleman and helped me with my coat and opened doors for me) took me on a walk to show me a couple of other famous sites in the vicinity. We saw the Berlin equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the world's first streetlight. It was dark and very cold that night, so I plan to go back during the day sometime and take some pictures.
I'm going to skip through the rest of the week a bit because not much happened and I'm in a bit of a hurry. Saturday I went out and met some new friends. We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, which was fun and new for me. I then got to experience the infamous Belushi's. It's this bar here in Berlin that everyone hangs out at. I didn't exactly care for it though. It is too American and I didn't come to German to hang out in an American bar. Also, the drinks were cheap, but were not very good. Because of some problems Saturday night I didn't get home until 6am. I actually rode the train most of the way home with a new friend of mine. Unfortunately, I have almost no idea what he said the whole time because his accent was so thick. He's English, but lived very near Scotland. Then Sunday I went back into town and we hung out in a cafe with the world's worst waitress all day. We also met this new guy who just came over and invited himself to sit with us. It sounds really forward, but he was an awesome guy and he had a lot to say. And that's why I love Berlin. The people here are amazing! Plus I've met more people from other countries in my month here than I probably have in my whole life. Oh, and Sunday night we went to an Italian place for dinner. I had the most delicious spaghetti... Oh my god. It was so good. The one thing that frustrates me about eating out here though is that you can't just get free water like you can in America. I mean, you can order tap water, but they will look at you like you're disgusting. And bottled water costs just as much as buying a soda. Plus, there are no free refills. So the food here is relatively cheap, but the drinks more than make up for the price.
I feel like I've been really busy this week, but I really have very little to report on. I worked a lot, both for my family and at the Kita. I made my first dinner for my family that was actually my idea. I went with pulled pork, thinking it would be easy and also that barbecue is very American. I had trouble figuring out the meat to get though, and the roast I bought didn't fall apart like I'm used to. So I just cut it up and mixed it all back together with the barbecue sauce. I thought it came out pretty good, so hopefully they enjoyed it too. I also went to German class, which is slowly getting better. Unfortunately, we now have a break for three weeks. Which is ridiculous. I mean, class just started two weeks ago. I guess that gives me a lot of free time though. And it means I don't have to get up early the Monday after the Super Bowl, so I'm staying up to watch it! Yeah! My host dad is super excited because the Giants are in the Super Bowl. And speaking of American past times, I went to an American store on Tuesday. It was pretty ridiculous. They didn't have a whole lot of selection, but what they did have made me laugh. Pop Tarts, Cheerios, Rice A Roni... and Campbell's Soup!! I bought a can of soup to show my host mom what I'm talking about when I say cream of mushroom soup. But it is crazy expensive! It was something like $5 US dollars for one can of soup. Absolutely ridiculous.
In an hour or so I am taking M to the Grüne Woche. It is "The world's biggest fair for food, agriculture and horticulture." Should be an adventure, especially with a three year old :) Tonight my friend is staying here with me so that we can leave bright and early for Dresden. I'm super super stoked about our trip!! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and post them for you when I'm back. Tschüss!!
Click here for this week's pictures (only a couple, and they aren't on Facebook yet either). There's also a picture in there to answer Logan's question :)
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