So yes it is only January 30th, but I can't wait for Spring and sunshine!
OH MY GOD THIS WINTER IS SO LONG. I'll stop complaining now, but first I just want to say this winter, darkness, coldness, rainy wetness, and semester seem to have gone on fooooor foooooorever.
However five days ago, as documented by Facebook, I saw the first sunshine since November! Yay!! Then the temperatures have been going up (note: from between -12 to +5 all the way +9 to +12, yeah I'm such an ass now because I'm using Celsius. People don't understand me here unless I use it! I've been peer pressured into learning the weather in Celsius!) and although this sounds silly I can feel myself getting happier and happier as the sunshine and brightness begins to overtake the dreary dark winter.
Today I was almost giddy when I realized I could walk around without gloves and let the wind blow on me without huddling and turning against the cold. I was happily strolling down the street after my morning German class when I was struck with the lovely idea to finally go to the cemetery that is literally out my window. Seriously, I could throw a rock from my window and it would land in the cemetery. Some people might be freaked out by this, but I love walking around old cemeteries. In Europe cemeteries are almost always surrounded by big brick walls and have entrances that close at night.
The cemetery near my house is so lovely. I live right in the center of the city, extremely close to the bustling Alexanderplatz. I'm right in the middle of DDR ugly high rises and busy huge streets, but this cemetery was adorably not terribly well kept up and full of overgrown trees and bushes. There were even birds singing! Singing! The signs of Spring! I felt like the little girl in The Secret Garden because there was no one else there and it was overgrown to the point of getting lost in some parts. Also because only weird little girls from rainy places can appreciate walking around in nature when its overcast and 12 degrees outside. It was also not as old as I thought, perhaps sometime I can strike up a conversation with the caretaker, but the oldest grave I saw was from the 1740's. Okay yeah that's before the US was a country, but here in Europe I feel like people don't get excited unless its from the at least the 16th century. There was even bullet holes in some of the older and grander headboards, most likely from WWII and the battle of Berlin. It was weird to be sadder thinking that probably some Russians and Germans died in this cemetery rather than thinking how its sad anyone dies and are buried in this cemetery in general. Berlin's history is so crazy. You'll just be in some random place and then there's bullet holes in the building's facade or you realize you're walking over the old wall line or walk over some of the stumbling stones and realize someone who used to live in that house was killed in a concentration camp (full story on the wonderful memorial for Jews here) and if you just keep going and going you'd never even notice that there was once a battle here that left most of the city looking like this:
(Source is here. Click here to check out that website. If you click on the tabs: "WWII: Battle of Berlin" you can look at six pages of war photos... or don't because it's horribly depressing)
After that dreary photo, I'll just end this post by saying I love Berlin's complicated history and the sunshine, especially when I get to experience those two things at once. The sunshine is coming and I can't wait!
OH MY GOD THIS WINTER IS SO LONG. I'll stop complaining now, but first I just want to say this winter, darkness, coldness, rainy wetness, and semester seem to have gone on fooooor foooooorever.
However five days ago, as documented by Facebook, I saw the first sunshine since November! Yay!! Then the temperatures have been going up (note: from between -12 to +5 all the way +9 to +12, yeah I'm such an ass now because I'm using Celsius. People don't understand me here unless I use it! I've been peer pressured into learning the weather in Celsius!) and although this sounds silly I can feel myself getting happier and happier as the sunshine and brightness begins to overtake the dreary dark winter.
Today I was almost giddy when I realized I could walk around without gloves and let the wind blow on me without huddling and turning against the cold. I was happily strolling down the street after my morning German class when I was struck with the lovely idea to finally go to the cemetery that is literally out my window. Seriously, I could throw a rock from my window and it would land in the cemetery. Some people might be freaked out by this, but I love walking around old cemeteries. In Europe cemeteries are almost always surrounded by big brick walls and have entrances that close at night.
The cemetery near my house is so lovely. I live right in the center of the city, extremely close to the bustling Alexanderplatz. I'm right in the middle of DDR ugly high rises and busy huge streets, but this cemetery was adorably not terribly well kept up and full of overgrown trees and bushes. There were even birds singing! Singing! The signs of Spring! I felt like the little girl in The Secret Garden because there was no one else there and it was overgrown to the point of getting lost in some parts. Also because only weird little girls from rainy places can appreciate walking around in nature when its overcast and 12 degrees outside. It was also not as old as I thought, perhaps sometime I can strike up a conversation with the caretaker, but the oldest grave I saw was from the 1740's. Okay yeah that's before the US was a country, but here in Europe I feel like people don't get excited unless its from the at least the 16th century. There was even bullet holes in some of the older and grander headboards, most likely from WWII and the battle of Berlin. It was weird to be sadder thinking that probably some Russians and Germans died in this cemetery rather than thinking how its sad anyone dies and are buried in this cemetery in general. Berlin's history is so crazy. You'll just be in some random place and then there's bullet holes in the building's facade or you realize you're walking over the old wall line or walk over some of the stumbling stones and realize someone who used to live in that house was killed in a concentration camp (full story on the wonderful memorial for Jews here) and if you just keep going and going you'd never even notice that there was once a battle here that left most of the city looking like this:
(Source is here. Click here to check out that website. If you click on the tabs: "WWII: Battle of Berlin" you can look at six pages of war photos... or don't because it's horribly depressing)
After that dreary photo, I'll just end this post by saying I love Berlin's complicated history and the sunshine, especially when I get to experience those two things at once. The sunshine is coming and I can't wait!
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