A bit of tourism and a piece of home

First of all, yesterday after school I experienced the Berlin TV tower (Fernsehturm). It was awesome! It is 368m (1207 ft) tall, and the place with the panoramic view is at 203m (666 ft). Yesterday, the sky was blue and the weather was nice, bordering on hot, so there were a lot of people there. It was about an hour and a half wait, but I had a book with me so all was good. There are two elevators to take people up and a staircase with over 800 steps that every sane person would avoid. The elevators take 45 seconds to travel the 666 ft. My ears were popping going up and down. Once you go up to the top, you stay as long as you want. I stayed for about an hour. There is also a restaurant at 206m. I bet it's expensive... The main thing that I learned from this visit: Berlin is big. Really big. Here are some pictures.

It was really a spectacular view of the city. And here is a short video of the traffic:

Thing number two: it seems that I am falling into some of the habits I've practiced at home on a few occasions. I've just made a few mistakes... Here's the run down from the past few mornings as well as this morning. Sunday night: I got in bed, turned off all the lights and laid there for a few minutes, and thankfully remembered that I needed to set my alarm clock. So, I set it for 8 because I have class at 10 on Mondays. Monday morning, I wake up at 8:15, thinking "what? Why didn't my alarm go off?" I looked at it with my early morning, clouded consciousness and realized I set it for 8:00pm. If only we operated on a 24 hour clock like the Germans, these things wouldn't happen.... I'm glad I just happened to wake up at the time I needed to. I made it to school early as usual.

Monday night: "Okay, I'm going to get it right this time." I set it for 8:00 AM. Tuesday morning: "Oh, yay! It's not raining today! Today will be a great day. I'm going to get up right away so I can take all the time I want getting to school." Wrong. Why? Because today is Tuesday. Class starts at 9 on Tuesday and every other day of the week. I realized this after I left the apartment. I looked at my watch, saw that it was 9 and proceeded to book it. I made it to my classroom around 9:40. That gave me another 50 minutes in my first class which isn't too bad. The teacher, Stefan, was teaching reflexive pronouns (himself, myself, ourselves, etc) which Frau Rinker taught in 202 last semester. It was easy to catch on.

Tuesday night: Toni is back from her summer trip with her friends, yay! And I think, "I've got it this time!" 7:00 am. "I can't mess this up tomorrow." But I did, somehow. I'm not exactly sure why the alarm didn't go off, but I think I must have turned it off when I grabbed the clock to see what time it was when I woke up early this morning, around 5. This resulted in my not waking up until around 10:00. I could have gotten up and gotten ready and made it to the second half of my second class, but apparently some decision of the fates wanted me to not have perfect attendance here.

This afternoon, Toni will take me to see a few places as a farewell tour. After today, there are only two more class days. My flight leaves Saturday at 11:20. I am really looking forward to being back home, although I have enjoyed my time here. I think my German has improved and that I know more about German culture, but these are the sort of remarks one makes in a closing blog... This is not the last.

Because we are nearing the end, your German must be much better. I believe it is time for a more difficult word. The TV tower, the Brandonburger Tor, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and so on are all the popular sights in Berlin. The word for these things in German is Sehenswürdigkeiten. Break it down! Sehens- würdig- keiten. Or even more! Se- hens- wür- dig- kei- ten. Good luck!