Museum Island and Schloss Charlottenberg

My friend Jared in front of the reconstructed Pergamon Altar

Yesterday, we briefly walked around Museum Island, a museum complex literally located on an island in East Berlin.  Museum Island is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site and contains 5 internationally significant museums.  Today, we bought a Museum Island pass and decided to spend time exploring what these museums had to offer.  My favorite museum here was the Pergamon Museum, which holds an enormous reconstructed ancient Greek temple (The Pergamon Altar) in the main room.  After spending time at Museum Island, we tried currywursts from a market (basically a hot dog with curry powder - quite popular in Berlin for some reason) and then headed to Schloss Charlottenberg, a Prussian royal palace on the West side of Berlin.  It was quite an impressive building, but we did not have much time to take it in.  We did manage to have another great German dinner - the best roast pork I have ever eaten smothered in - you guessed it - beer gravy.  

Walking Tour of the City

Checkpoint Charlie - one sight on a memorable walking tour!

Today we went on a walking tour of the city with Original Walking Tours.  I would definitely recommend doing one if you are visiting Berlin!  There is so much recent history here (Cold War and the Berlin Wall) in which some narration goes along way towards understanding what Berlin is all about.  Our Walking tour was truly a memorable experience - we learned about destruction to the city during WWII, the events leading up to the construction of the Berlin Wall, escape stories from East Berlin to West Berlin, and a lot more fascinating things all while walking from one interesting sight to another.

 For dinner, we had a very good German meal -  veal meatloaf, with mashed potatoes and beer gravy to go with beer on tap!  I am generally health conscious when it comes to eating, but I do admit that it feels good to eat manly food like this once in a while!  

Hallo, Berlin!

Today, my friend and I arrived in Berlin bright and early after a sleepless night.  It took us a little while to find our hotel, and when we did, we took a power nap and then set out to sightseeing.  We stuck around West Berlin near our hotel today and managed to see the Victory Column and we also were able to orient ourselves a little bit in our area (in relation to the nearby attractions Europa Center, Zoo Station, Berlin Zoo, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, etc.)  Ready to see a lot more tomorrow!

Sigh of Relief

In a previous entry, I mentioned how all the classes I take this year will be factored in towards my GPA and that I may fail one course because I did not get a course approval from the appropriate department back at Emory.  This was something that really scared me and I was prepared to accept the fact that I may fail a class that I did really well in due to my misunderstanding of my school's study abroad program.  However, I was saved by the Emory Economics Department, who granted credit as an exception for the class in question, AC100.  This was great news right before my Euro-trip.  My word of advice - while you are abroad, you feel like you are a whole different world with new rules - but make sure you know the rules of your home university well - especially about the courses you take while abroad!  I was very lucky - but the outcome would have been very different if the Emory Economics Department had not acted exceptionally.  

The LSE Problem Part One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovmHfMKHuY8

Above is a screenshot of a video on YouTube that is making its rounds among LSE students.  The video pokes fun at ambitious students who come to LSE to get on the fast track to a job in the financial world. Obviously, the video is an exaggeration (for comedic effect) of what goes on at LSE - I have met many people at LSE who have a lot more on their mind than getting an internship and are genuinely interested in studying and learning "the causes of the things" (the LSE motto).  Also, many of the people I have met are active members in the LSE community and know how to have a good time.  Yet, there is also some truth to the video.  For instance, many students at LSE tend to go on the path described below :

 Acceptance into LSE -> Spring Week ->  Summer Internship -> Job Offer -> Graduation -> Job in Finance  

 Also, the depiction of the teaching style here and the difficulty of the classes is largely true.  Definitely worth a watch if you are considering a year at LSE...