Spree River Boat Tour, Soviet Memorial, And Lunch In A Little Italian Restaurant :)

So if living in the history that is Berlin wasn't enough, let me tell you the story of the apartment I'm living in with my host family. It was built in the late 1800's and was originally a square building about five stories high with a garden in the middle of the square. Well now the apartment building is a 'U' shape because the fourth side of the former square was bombed during WWII. How cool is that history? And if you go down the street left OR right there are parks with fountains where families go and play with their kids and people lay out in the sun. It's awesome. Can I just live here forever??

Today I went with my friend Michelle to go find this little Italian place for lunch. It was so delicious. I got a marguerite pizza. The prices were very reasonable and the staff was great. We got tee und kaffee on the house after our meal. I will definitely be frequently that place. Then after we went and got Eis (gelato) and sat in one of the parks in the sun for a while! Eis just makes everything wonderful :) . 

Yesterday the program took us on a boat tour on the Spree river. It was fun, but some of the bridges were so low you welt like you were going to get decapitated going under them. 

This is an alternative community that we saw along the river. I guess they are having a lot of problems and debates are happening with the government because they want to take away this land to use for development. 

This was near the alternative community, I think is translates as 'No profit madness, the Spree (river) is for all!'

Part of the Berlin wall still standing near the banks of the river.

On this part of the wall they printed images of divided borders all over the world, from the wall between the U.S. and Mexico to the border between North and South Korea. 

Swans on the river.

We also visited the Memorial to the Soviet soldiers who died during WWII. Near the main part of the memorial is a huge statue of a Soviet soldier holding a child and stomping on the swastika. There is a myth that a Soviet soldier rescued this child from the bombing of Berlin and then declared the Battle of Berlin to be over. This statue stands on a mound and in front of this mound are five plots of grass. The plots and the mound itself are mass graves, where the remains of about 1,000 soldiers are buried per each plot.  

Tomorrow they are taking us on a walking tour of Berlin, mainly the Mitte area, or the heart of the city. Then Monday starts classes! I'm looking forward to German classes starting. 

Okay that's all! Gute Nacht!