um days 11 12 13 and 14 maybs

Thursday, June 11th
Had coffee across from Greg’s favorite spot- still haven’t been up to the top of the Dom because it wasn’t open. Met with Heidrun Suhr, went around in a circle and introduced our projects and got some tips from her. The tips were really helpful, so I definitely appreciated the meeting with her but I think it should have been one at a time, since we’ve each heard the others proposals three times now and I think most of us would have rather been at the school, researching, or enjoying the city. We’re going to present what we have in pairs the last two weeks- Hannah and I are partners, I’m going the first week while Sabine is in, she’s going the second.
Spent the afternoon in the city with the others- sushi, irish pub, c&a and a mall, Mexican, and a nice relaxed bar (except Adam got the nastiest drink).

Friday, June 12th
In one of the classes a woman came in to talk to the kids about dental hygiene. It was pretty low-key, and pretty similar to American kiddie-health lectures. Each of the kids got a toothbrush, and they all brushed their teeth as a class, which was cute. Less cute was the fact they all spit out the toothpaste and rinses the brushes in the terrifyingly unkept bathrooms. Sarah had told me not to use the girls bathroom cuz it was gross, but I thought she was overreacting and I went in their the other day out ofconveinence- it stank of bathroom things, the only toilet paper was on the floor, and wet, and shredded, and there wasn’t hot water (as if that mattered by that point). Jeez.
Clowns, other basic school things in 4th and 5th classes.
Then, lecture about German School System: (Quick sidenote- a former house squatter teaches at our school. I think this is actually pretty cool.) Fed Govt no authority in school matters, Europa School heisst bilingual school-gibts in neun Sprachen, of 3.4 mi people in berlin 14 percent have non german background, 850 schools with 335000 students 25 percent of which have non german background, kindergarten is optional but 82 percent go and school becomes compulsory at five and a half, “usually in german families one parent works and the woman tries to work as well”, “wear the veil or whatever its called”, Turkish men don’t want to marry Germanized Turkish girls so they return home to pick up (young) Turkish wives and their children start at zero again as far as German culture goes, woman shot by 3 brothers for wanting to get abitur, ethics class introduced to address qualms about lack of family values in schools, ethics teaches tolerance, bullying no nos, democratic values, respect, positive attitude/love, ave marriage age of 34 sinking again.
After the lecture I went to services at the Oranienburger Str Synagogue. It wasn’t hard to get in after all- just walked up and said I was there for services and they pointed me in the right direction. I’m glad the security guards are striking such a good balance between keeping people safe and remaining respectful of those who wish to use the building. I was excited to recognize a few songs from services at school, and I enjoyed the German transliteration of the Hebrew (Adonai was written ‘Adonaj’ because the j makes a y sound in German). I briefly introduced myself to Rabbi Gesa but we didn’t have much time to talk- hopefully she’ll respond to my email. Next week I want to get there earlier and talk to the rest of the people more- and I especially need to remember to wish them a happy Shabbat…it’s not a reflex for me and I feel rude/like a dunce when I forget to.
After that, went to Hannah’s, and a bar, and Berghain. Would have probably been cooler if Berghain and Panorama Bar were open and if Greg was there. People weren’t too cute, Hannah and Adam made out, etc, etc. Stayed at Sean’s cuz we left at 6 am (jeez).

Saturday, June 13th
Woke up early ish and laid around for a while before heading home around noon. Stopped at Zoologischer Garter and walked around a little, bought some five dollar awesome shoes and tried on awesome jeans that were not available in my size- bummer. Got back home around 2, and waited until Sarah at Peter got home to let me in. Spent most of the afternoon sleeping, reading, and finally talked to Greg a little before I went back to sleep.

Sunday, June 14th
Went to Postdam! Went on a boat tour of the river first, and saw a bunch of castles. Then we walked over to the main streets, grabbed some Doner/Pommes for lunch, and headed to the pretty yellow palace. From there we walked down a long alley to the pink palace, passing by the Chinese Tea House on the way. I took some photos of the sculptures of the women for my next next tattoo- of “justice is a woman with a sword”. I liked the quote, considering women always have bow & arrows, dagger, poison rings, and other ladylike weapons. Anyways, we took a tour of the pink castle and it was incredible. The first room was called ‘the grotto’ and the entire walls were made or seashells- there were dragons, and roses, and borders, and seaweed- all made from a mosaic of shells. The marble floor had a seaweedy pattern too. The next room I really liked had hot pink fabric patterned walls, and gold rocco? style detail on the ceiling and walls. Rocco style incorporates these C shapes, often has natural themes (this room had a spider in a web in one of the ceiling corners, and herons catching dragonflies in another), and is not necessarily symmetric. I’m going to take another look at The Long Rain section of my scifi tattoo tonight and see if I want to work in any of these types of shapes. Some of the other interesting rooms had silver detail instead of gold, because the kind actually preferred silver, and I found that really interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that effect in silver before, and it completely changed the feel of the room- much cooler/crisper/more steely. Often, the detail was carried down and worked into the doors, mirrors, and even grandfather clocks. The other great thing was the beds- they were usually recessed back into the walls, with two or three headboards, and oftentimes their own canopy and curtain.
After we finished we took the bus and the trains back, and Sean and I stopped at Zoog. Garten for some cheap subway lo mein, saw the Gedachtnis Kirche, walked around, and had a coffee. He’s pretty solid one on one, like I was realizing Saturday, but he does play magic. ;) Anyways, he's cool, quite chivalrous which I am a sucker for, and he verbally asked for consent which was maybe the hottest thing ever.
Now- reading (The Souls of Black Folk…great analysis of the fact that Blacks after Emancipation saw the value of book learning and started to, but they were studying a essentially white discipline, beginning centuries after its inception, and there was therefore a cultural disjunction of sorts. This seems comparable to Wendy Brown’s argument that our democratic capitalist state is inherently masculinist, in that it was conceived of and founded by men.) and going to clean my room, maybe make a bingo for the kids, and talk to my sweetheart. Also- waiting for the soup to be finished and going to try making soup when I get home.