Finally Denver...

Well I'm finally in Denver and staying with my gracious cousins Steve and Claire Parker. I am in the process of acclimating my self to the time and the altitude. Today I went for a run and the result was not very impressive. Now I must wait for Monday to come and start this journey (the real journey).

15 minutes = 30+ minutes

Anybody who knows me knows that I tend to underestimate things; the time it takes to get home, the time it takes to finish a project, the actual costs of college, and the latest underestimate, how far Denver is when you're driving.

If you thought other wise Denver is far, especially when by yourself. So I've made it a third of the way to Dayton, Ohio and it obviously took longer than I estimated. I'll be off early in the morning (really early, like 10am) so I better go to sleep.

I'll keep everyone posted on the progress and thanks for reading, I know how entertaining I am...

Coming down to the wire

Well the 2 months since I received my acceptance packet have come and gone and now I will be leaving for Denver, CO in less than a week (6 days, 17 hours, 53 minutes, and 12 seconds give or take a few seconds). I have booked my stays in Dayton, OH and Kansas City, MO and will be staying with my gracious cousins in Denver until Monday February, 11 2013, the beginning of a life changing experience. For those of you who are new to GALAXY N3WS RADIO, Welcome!

Revival of GALAXY N3WS RADIO

I am reviving my blog that has been used for various reasons and shenanigans. 

 The reason for the revival is:

I have been accepted to serve in Americorps NCCC FEMA Corps.

I will be serving the South West Region, based out of Denver, Colorado, and serving from February '13 to December '13.

Here is an explanation of what FEMA Corps is from a fellow FEMA Corps blogger:

• 
• The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) joined forces to establish a FEMA-devoted division of 1,600 service corps members within AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) solely dedicated to disaster readiness, response, and recovery. 
• FEMA Corps members serve a 10-month term, with an option to apply for a second 10-month term of service. NCCC- FEMA Corps is a full-time, team-based, residential service program for men and women between the age of 18 to 24, operated in the same campus structure as AmeriCorps NCCC. FEMA Corps members are assigned to one of five NCCC campuses, located in Denver, Colorado; Sacramento, California; Perry Point, Maryland; Vicksburg, Mississippi; and Vinton, Iowa. FEMA Corps members receive a living allowance of approximately $4,000 for the 10 months of service (about $200 every two weeks before taxes), housing, meals, limited medical benefits, up to $400 a month for childcare, if necessary, member uniforms, and a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award upon successful completion of the program. 
• FEMA Corps members are national service participants and will provide support in areas ranging from working directly with disaster survivors to supporting disaster recovery centers to sharing valuable disaster readiness and mitigation information with the public.
• Thanks to Nick Humphries at http://nickinfemacorps.com/

I will be stationed at Colorado Heights University an amazing school in Denver, here is a picture of the campus courtesy of the school.

More to come.

Thanks for reading...

Video Narrative

The homebrew video idea came around at about the same time of the class. A friend is really into video, photo, and editing and he wanted to make a video. I found out I had to do a video for the class. So we started filming, the camera ran out of batteries, we stopped filming. So we needed to film another day. This actually created a really good situation for the video. It allowed us to film the brewing of a beer and the bottling of the same beer which happened 3 weeks later. So we were able to film the whole process. I have never really done any video editing so this was a new experience. I used iMovie but I now think I should have used Final Cut. iMovie gave me a lot of crap but I eventually got it finished. I then had tons of trouble with uploading to youtube. Eventually just uploaded it to vimeo and called it a day. The End

Hamster Hell

Hamster Hell from Ben S on Vimeo.

Appropriation

Ben Selin

Comm313

01/03/2012

Appropriation

1.     The Pictures Generation

a.     The Pictures Generation included artists like Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, David Salle, Richard Prince, Jack Goldstein and Sherrie Levine. Although not mentioned in the article in my opinion Andy Warhol was a kind of precursor and inspirer to the Pictures Generation.

b.     The Pictures Generation grew up in an age of political turmoil and media avalanches.

c.     Their work exuded a rebel attitude that was exemplified in their work. Most of the Pictures Generation’s art was little more than appropriated images cut out or collaged with others. They often created funny scenarios or powerful ideas that any one image couldn’t have shown.

d.     Not all of the Pictures Generation art was appropriated. Some art was original photography staged for the occasion. Often, artists recreated original art work in their own light. Toys were also often used as subjects of their photos.

2.     Fair Use

a.     In the article Richard Prince’s Canal Zone series of photos was accused of copyright infringement. Richard Prince used the defense of fair use. In this case I think fair use is a bit questionable. One of the big fair use rules uses parody to justify it, but only by parodying the actual art being used. In the case of Prince’s works they are more parodying society which did not hold over with Jim Koons us of Art Rodger’s photo “Puppies”. In this case I tend to agree. Prince’s modified photos are interesting and do add something to them, but is it fair use? I’m hesitant to say yes.

b.     An example of fair use on the internet is the creation of thumbnails for use in search engines. I totally agree with this use. It makes sense that search engines should be able to create these thumbnails to make searching much easier. At first it seems an obvious example of fair use, but if you really think about it the search engines are creating exact of copies of original copy written works. The ruling is that they are small enough and are not meant to be viewed at the size of the original work.

3.     Appropriation

a.     I think the internet has completely muddled the fair use laws and they should be retooled. People tend to use pictures they find on the internet without ever thinking about and I think it should be ok to do so. People who don’t want their work used should be more careful by including watermarks and keeping resolutions low.

b.     With that in mind I am a profound user of other people’s work. I tend to forget that other people should receive money for me using it or modifying it. It is just so easy to count something that you doctored and modified to be your own original work. I tend to very casual with intellectual property, being a kid money and property in that sense has so much less meaning it is easy to forget that it’s technically stealing. Also me being so young I think I would be flattered to have someone use my work. Although I would probably want some sort of compensation.

c.     On the other hand I work for a professional photographer and he is very particular about people using his property and using other people’s property. In his line of work it is very important to uphold these copyright laws. He wouldn’t have a job if people could steal is photos off of his website or by other means.

Search Story Video: Skiing vs Snowboarding

Made today for Interactive Media class.

Epic Ski Time

Made today of Interactive media class

Mad River Glen

Here are some pictures from the first day at Mad River Glen:

Fair Use

Fair use of multiple copyrighted images: in parody.

This is the original Associated Press image, taken by Mannie Garcia, used by Shepard Fairey to create his famous Hope poster.

It has been doctored in parody to include the poster.

Reintroducing: GALAXAY N3WS RADIO

Its been almost a year since I posted a blog entry on here.

What a year it has been.

I returned from Germany trip with a new look on the country and hope to live there for sometime, someday.

I have been at my current internship EnerG and Jay Greene Photo since the beginning of February 2011.

I completed 2 semesters with increasing GPAs since my return.

Onto a new winter semester with new challenges and experiences.

Poor Excuses for Blog posts

All of these were written starting at 12am on Monday, Jan 31

If you notice a lack of Quality this is why

Days start to blur together

                Bayreuth Wednesday through Friday Jan 12-14, 2011

For the first time I am not going to write a journal for a specific day because they aren’t much different. We start to get into a routine that sticks. Wednesday was more hard class and then we went to Jennah and Ying Lao’s house, where we could use the internet and cook our food. We had American food!!!, good old BLT’s. We pretty much just veged out the day listening to ridiculous music and playing on the internet. After that we returned home to house where we had a great dinner, we did some work and planned on going to sleep. More guests showed up to the house so we had to meet them and drink with them. Then we finally went to sleep.

Thursday was really similar to Wednesday and we didn’t do much. We had frozen pizza instead of BLTs, it still tasted good. German was starting to turn my brain inside out, but it was ok. Pete and I headed to MediaMarkt to buy an Internet surf stick. We bought the cheapest one, big mistake. O₂ is really annoying and has terrible software. We ate at Ethan’s house and we recorded some beat boxing and it was lots of fun.

Friday again started very similarly to Thursday. We had class that we thoroughly wanted to drop at this point. “It will be ok, it’s only 15 classes” is what we had to keep telling our selves. We returned to our host family during the day for once. Everything looked so different as this really was the first time we had seen it in the daytime. After taking pictures of the house we went to sleep to try and recover some energy. After waking up we had dinner with our family, it was good as always. After awhile Kevin went out to get our first taste of the local night life Borracho. They were having this thing called party safari it was pretty cool, we got some drinks, and had fun dancing.

1.  FC Nürnberg

                Nürnberg Saturday Jan 15, 2011

                We woke up, rushed out the door and headed for the train station. We arrived in Nürnberg and we again had to rush to the Markt Platz. Our city tour started there and we learned about Saint Sebald, his church, and how it survived the war. Nürnberg was heavily destroyed during WW2 because it was Hitler’s Party Headquarters. A lot of historical buildings were completely destroyed and only those that weren’t complete destroyed were rebuilt in the original way. However many historical artifacts were saved by putting them in the cellars below the Nürnberg castle.

                We walked up to the castle and got to see the nice view from atop its walls, even though it still wasn’t good weather. After we assaulted the castle we went to the 1. FC Nürnberg fan shop. There we acquired tickets and fanatical items. We got Nürnberger Würstchen from a small street stand, they were amazing. Then we headed to the train station to catch the train to the stadium.  Once at the stadium we were very excited to watch the game and we got beer to celebrate. The game started, the crowd went crazy, and we all joined in. This was my first major league/professional league game of any kind so it was really cool how many people were there and how excited everyone got. I think this experience was an important one and I think a game should be included into future trips. I never really knew how into soccer Germans are. Even though 1. FC Nürnberg didn’t win, the game was still lots of fun and is one of my most memorable events from the trip.

                We left the game, (at top speed to catch the train), got crammed onto the train and returned to the main station. When I say we got crammed onto a train that’s an understatement, we were SMUSHED. So then we got on a train back to Bayreuth. We got back, had an amazing dinner from a Pizzeria in town, and then headed to the Glashaus. The Glashaus was fun with of a combination of House Music and psychedelic lighting. It was a bit much after awhile but I ended up staying until 4am anyway.

Wagner and the Wall

Wagner:

                Bayreuth Sunday and Monday Jan 16&17, 2011

                Sunday started late because of my late return from the Glashaus. I woke up with not much time to eat, shower and get to the Festspielhaus. We got there and it was really cool. Inside the Festspielhaus was a serious version of an opera house. Wagner was no joke and neither were his plays or how he wanted them watched. All of the seats have a great view of the stage, the lights were dimmed except on the stage, and the doors were locked so there were no interruptions. They still have the original seats because if they replace them they will lose a lot of seats. We then got to check out the orchestra pit, which was hidden from the audience by a wall that allowed the music to escape at the right times. After the orchestra pit we headed back stage which was HUGE! It had all kinds of cool sets too. After the Festspielhaus we walked down into town and then headed back to the house on a bus. The rest of the day pretty much included working on journals and our paper.

The Wall:

                Monday we handed in our papers and had more fun grammar things to learn. Then we headed to the mensa to chill for a bit. We all got food then headed over to Geo I, where our After the Wall lecture was. I enjoyed the book After the Wall at first but eventually it just got really repetitive and contradictory. I was very happy with our discussion and how it turned out. Just having to read this book without having been able to talk to people about would have been pointless.

Return to Nürnberg

                Bayreuth&Nürnberg Tuesday Jan 18, 2011

                Tuesday started the same as all of our weekdays have pretty much started. Early wake up for an early class that is really long and never ending. After class, we immediately headed to the train station to catch our train to Nürnberg. We had McDonalds and it was amazing. Ten of us headed to Nürnberg to do the Dokumentation Zentrum tour. The Doku Zentrum was very interesting, but a bit too much info for one trip. We moved through a bit too fast and I was the last one through. I learned a lot but it didn’t have enough interaction for liking. After we were there we headed back to the Fan shop, why I’m not really sure. Simon and I got to do some cool pictures with our cameras and tripods and we met the group at the Wurstchen Haus. There we got a ton of little sausages that tasted suspiciously like Jimmy Dean. After that we headed to the train station where we acquired some beer that we decided we had to drink on the train because it was legal. We got on the train and we got our own little room at the end of the train. There was one other person in the car with us, who we later found out was Peter Schmunk. We met this guy, he spoke fluent English, was studying at the Uni, and seemed really cool.

More German Friends

                Bayreuth Wednesday Jan 19, 2011

New Wednesday started with same old same old. We had class, it was hard and then we went to the Mensa. After that we returned to the host family to get some work done and get a bit of sleeping in. We had dinner with Olga and Herbert, it was amazing as always. Herbert decided we needed to meet his cousin Heinrich and his daughter Eva. So we headed down to their house in Herbert’s VW, they live only 5 mins away. We met Heinrich, Hiltrude (Heinrichs Frau), Eva, and Ana. They are really nice and we would all become good friends. We had Alkopop which is just beer and soda mixture. Who knew it would be good. We spoke some in German but everyone here speaks some English, it makes us feel so uncultured. Eva speaks fluent German, Spainish, and English.

Sick day for the Win

                Bayreuth Thursday and Friday Jan 20&21, 2011

Thursday started out fine we had class, which included reviewing for the Mid-term the next day. After class we headed to the mensa, I got a curry wurst mit Pommes, still routine. We then had a lecture and discussion about underage drinking, the legal system, and drug problems in Germany. It was with a detective from Bayreuth, Herr Stegner. This discussion was really interesting and I think we all learned about how the German legal system works. After the discussion we took a bus back to our home and on the way back my stomach started feeling a little funny. We had planned on going out that night so we wanted to get a nap. I tried to go to sleep, but I was thwarted by my pesky stomach, which didn’t want me to sleep. For the rest of the evening into the night and the next morning, I got almost no sleep and it just felt terrible. I finally felt slightly better by noon on Friday way after my mid-term, so I didn’t go to class and I didn’t do anything the entire day. For dinner Herbert and Olga’s two sons, Danilo and Eric, came over dinner. Eric’s daughter and wife were also there. They had schnitzel but that would have not worked for me so I had some noodles with butter, it was plenty. I decided I couldn’t miss another day of going out so I went out with Kevin, Mike, Peter (from Germany), and some of the girls. We went to Boracho first and then Oskar. It was a great idea to go out and I even caught the bus back.

Schönes Würzburg

                Bayreuth Saturday Jan 22, 2011

                For the free weekend I had planned to go to Stuttgart but that got nixed by the sickness, so I went to Würzburg with Leanne, Dennis, Nicole, and Becca, it was a good choice. We took a train that wasn’t too early and I didn’t have to pay because I got to use my Eurail pass. When we got to Würzburg it was already beautiful weather. It was a little cold but the SUN WAS SHINING! We were already hungry when we got there so we needed lunch. We couldn’t find anything that wasn’t closed, crowded, or expensive, so we went to a Pizza Hut restaurant. It was actually really nice and good food. We then wandered around the city a bunch. We saw all the sites like the bridge and the dome. We then headed to the castle. We talked the long way up the castle side. It was very beautiful with all of these wine grapes and nice views. The city was beautiful from this vantage point and the pictures were so easy to take with the great lighting. We finally made it into the castle area and it was really cool. We headed down the other side on the way down it only took 15 mins whereas on the way up it took almost an hour. We decided to do some more exploring and made our way over to the Residence. It closed right when we got there so headed to the train station to catch the train home. We got into Bayreuth around 9pm, I rushed back to the house, got a shower and rushed back out to Boracho. I met Eva and all of her friends there. After being at Boracho for a bit we headed over to the Rosenau, a club off of the main Platz. It was really cool except there were a ton of old people and it was mostly bad music because it was some Rosenau roots party. It was still a lot of fun and it turned to be another really late night.

Culture and Stereotypes

                Bayreuth Monday Jan 24, 2011

Our discussion on culture was interesting. It was totally not what expected when I heard what it was going to be about. I was expecting an intro to German culture and why people do what they do. It ended up really being about culture in general and what we thought about Germans. It was kind of boring but it still informative. I liked how were able to identify with a lot of the German traits and see how American customs differ from that of German ones. I was disappointed in the fact that we didn’t really learn why German people do what they do but I still enjoyed it none the less.

School systems and Parties

                Bayreuth Tuesday and Wednesday 25&26, 2011

On Tuesday we had our discussion about the Bavarian school system. I thought this was pretty interesting and important. We had a slight idea of how their schools worked, but this really clarified things for us. I am happy German Peter was there, I think he really added to the discussion, but I apologize for us bringing him. He was a bit rude. (Cultural experience) After the lecture about schools we went back to the house to do some work and eat dinner. We didn’t really have much planned but Monday night was super boring so I ended up going out with German Peter. I went to his place for a bit and then we went to Oskar’s. It was fun and I got to talk to some other Germans as well.

                Wednesday was another typical day; Class and then mensa. We didn’t do much during the day just some more work and sleep. Later we had dinner with Olga and Herbert. After that we all went out to an Irish pub called the Dubliner we accidentally ordered too many drinks but it worked out ok. It was a lot of fun because there was live music and billiards.

Dialects, Classical Music, and Beir

                Bayreuth & Munich Thursday and Friday Jan 27&28, 2011

Our Thursday class was a lot of fun. We got to try and read the phonetic spelling of all of these different dialects from around Germany. We all had difficulties and we laughed with and at each other. We also sang the Franconian and Bavarian anthems. Both were totally opposite and I like the Franconian one a lot better. After class we headed to Subway to try the amazing German Subway. I have to admit it was definitely better than the American Subway at home. Then we hurried on over to the train station to wait on the floor in the main lobby. We all ate our sandwiches and then we boarded the train to Munich. The train from Nürnberg was the same as always, but then we got to take the ICE from Nürnberg to Munich in first class. That was really cool and I am happy that Frau Riehl made that one mistake the whole trip.

Once in Munich we headed to our hotel which was right next to the Haupt Bahnhof. We freshened up and headed out towards the Marienplatz. We had a concert to get to, so we boogied. We go to the concert and it was totally not what expected. I expected some full orchestra. It was still really cool and it was in this little chapel that was beautiful. We had dinner in a huge Beer Hall called Augustiner Brewery. We headed back to the hotel and passed out.

On Friday morning we headed out on a city bus tour with Frau Mountain our new tour guide. We drove around the city a bunch seeing all kinds of buildings and then we headed to Schloss Nymphenburg. It was so beautiful inside and out and the architecture was really cool. The rest of Friday was kind of a letdown. We returned to the hotel for a bit and decided to just “find” a place to eat. It was Brian, Ling Yao, Jennah, and I just wandering through the city not finding anything. We eventually found a place but it was already really late. We pretty much went back to the hotel and chilled for a while. Everyone else came back from their adventure and we decided to go to the Hof Brau Haus. That was not a great idea because it was Friday night at 8pm with a 16 person group.  Not all of us found seats right away and Brian and Simon left. We all eventually ate and our 1L beers. After that we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Dachau

                Munich Saturday Jan 29, 2011

This visit to Dachau was my second time around. It was a totally different experience the second time. The first time I didn’t have a tour guide and this gave me so much more worthwhile info. It was also a little warmer with no snow on the ground. This change in weather changed the affect everything outside had on me. The biggest thing that affected me was the crematorium, which I hadn’t seen the first time. They were so creepy and daunting. I think the second trip was a better trip for me and I am glad I got to again, well as much as you can be glad about going to a concentration camp.

Pictures are now all on Flickr

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blogger is so fail for uploading pictures.

Eberswalde

IMG_4093 (1024x768)
Originally uploaded by galaxynewsradi0

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Flickr

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German class begins, Hilarity does not ensue

Bayreuth Tuesday Jan 11, 2011

We had to wake up at 6:30 and it was still pitch black. Having to wake up that early is never going to be easy. We ate breakfast, prepared for us by the ever gracious Olga. We had to hurry up to catch our 7:30 bus, Olga came with us to make sure we knew where we were going. We arrived at the Central bus stop at around 8am and took a bus from there to the Uni. That’s right same routine every day, I may never get used to this. We arrived at the Uni at 8:10 and had to wait until our 8:30 class. We have class with Brian, Leanne, Simon, and Ling Yao. All of us find our class room ready to learn more German. The class is long as hell, the teacher is awesome, and the material is boring. This does not make for a very good course to be taking. We will have to deal with this class for only 15 class periods; I think we can handle it. We got a ton of homework and it didn’t get any easier after our quick break and then more German. I thought maybe my brain would just stop functioning with so many harsh German words invading my quite little English thoughts. It was starting to feel so much like my least favorite year in high school, 10^th grade, up before the sun to catch a bus, boring and long classes, tons of homework or rather busy work, and no way to change it all. After saying all of this, I know I am in Germany and there is only a little bit of actual work. I couldn’t ask for more than to be living in Germany for a month no matter what I am doing.

After our killer class we had the tour of the city and of course I forgot my camera. The city is nice and our tour guide Torsten made it interesting, but it was really cold and a little long. We ended the tour asking Torsten where a good café was and he took us to Café Rossi, a nice little place on the main square. We had this amazing coffee with Amaretto and other alcohols. We chilled for a while and then we returned to the house for dinner. Everything was great, and I couldn’t help but feeling this was the way life was supposed to be “German”. We decided to give our gifts to parents and they were happy. My gift was a bottle of Maple syrup from my Uncle Tim’s sugar shack. It was little funny because right before giving the presents to our parents another border came we talked for a while, but it was all good. At that point it was late and we needed sleep. 

Over the river and through the woods to Bayreuth we go

Bayreuth Monday Jan 10, 2011

We wake up, pack, and get everything ready to go as we are leaving soon for the long awaited Bayreuth. Breakfast is the same as always and at this point it doesn’t matter we have assimilated into the German breakfast culture. We got on the bus which was soo much bigger than the one we took the Berlin city tour on. Pretty much all of us got our own seat if we wanted it and the trip was fairly comfortable. We stopped at a rest stop close to Leipzig, and again it proved that German transportation systems were amazing. It was basically a high class restaurant and it had everything else you needed too. We bought some stuff including what we thought was a children’s book and we couldn’t understand any of it because it was all slang. We continued on to Bayreuth and passed about a million wind turbines, more props for Germany, pun intended. We finally reached our destination and then we waited because we were earlier than expected. Pete and I decided we should bet Jim we would be the last ones to leave with our family, we didn’t buuuut we should have. We were the last ones, it wasn’t our family’s fault they took another group home first and it wasn’t bad because we got to meet all the other parents first. We met Herbert and Olga and they whisked us away to their house. Their house is located on the upper east side of Bayreuth, in an area called St. Johannis. The area is out of the city and REAALLLY nice. The house looks really nice on the outside and even nicer on the inside. Olga is from Honduras and they have all of this furniture and things from there that they shipped here from Honduras in container. The house is really beautiful and everyone at home would be jealous. The area is really nice but everyone is so far away so it’s kind of a pain.

                We got sort of settled in it was kind of awkward, it wouldn’t be a meeting if it wasn’t awkward, and then we had to keep on rolling. We headed to the Begrüssungsabend, or Greetings Dinner, at a traditional Bayreuth restaurant. I got the Schnitzel with fries and it was super good. We all got Bayreuth beer and it also was very good. All of the host families came to the dinner so it was fun to meet everyone else’s parents. We went home and ended up drinking more with Herbert. I hope this doesn’t become a pattern because I’ll be an alcoholic by the time we come back.  After more beer sleep came easy, the bed was comfy and I was beat.

Olympic Stadium, Eagles Fail, and Vegetables Game Hilarity Ensues

Berlin Sunday Jan 9, 2011

I’m not going to lie these journals are getting increasingly more difficult to keep track of. I should probably catch up (yeah right). Sunday started off like all the other days, still not really used to getting up early but you get up on time or fear the wrath of Frau Riehl. We headed to Charlottenburg Schloß which is just a Palace of some sort, really artsy and pretty boring. It had really similar inside deco to Neuschwanstein but the place was basically boring and small. We got the short tour so it only took a little while and then we were set free on the world. We were already kind of close to the Olympic stadium so Brian, Ethan, and I jumped on the U-Bahn going the opposite way as everyone else and headed to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium. The weather was crap but the stadium was really epic. It is one of the few remaining testaments to the Party’s architectural accomplishments. The outside of the stadium is pretty much all original but the inside is state of the art and modern. I’m glad we got to into the stadium to how huge it really was.

After the stadium we headed back to the hostel to chill for a bit, before having to go out again to the Filmhaus. Brian and I rushed there after having a quick lunch and of course we were the first ones there and everyone else was late or almost late including Frau Riehl. Everyone eventually got there and we went into the Film Museum. It had some fun stuff about how Germans were pretty much front stage on starting films and the technology involved. I will have to see Metropolis, a huge German hit that cost way more than they had budgeted and was too futuristic for its time. But yet again even if a museum is interesting you can really make sound interesting on paper. So after the Film museum some of the group stayed in the Sony Center to watch the Red Carpet Premier of Morning Glory with Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams. They ended up seeing them and getting pictures and autographs. The rest of us headed back to the hostel to get ready to go to dinner. We picked a Greek restaurant again by recommendation from Frau Riehl and Jim. It was another big success we got this giant platter of meat and just dug in. We ate too much but we decided we still needed to drink, so we went to this corner convenience store and picked up some really cheap beers and headed to the hostel bar lounge thingy. We set up the Eagles game on live streaming and by the middle it was a disappointment so we started playing this game called the vegetable game and hilarity ensued. It’s hard to explain and even harder to play but I assure it was the most I have laughed in a very looong time. We all crashed after that and had our last night in Berlin.

A day to Remember

Berlin Saturday Jan 8, 2011

After only 2.5 hours of sleep, my brain felt like oatmeal. We had to wake up at a normal time but we went to sleep at 5am. The game was a disappointment and that made it worse.  We ate breakfast and got on a bus to the Jüdische Museem. The Jewish Museum was very impressive. The Architecture was superb and really unique. None of the floors on the ground level were level and nor were the walls. This was designed to create an uncomfortable situation and disorient you. The holocaust tower was chilling and amazing. We moved on to the rest of the building and got progressively more boring but our guide was fun to listen to.

After we were finished in the Jewish Museum we headed over to the Check Point Charlie Museum. This museum was all about the wall and how people tried to escape East Germany. It was really interesting but it was repetitive and there was too much information. The Museum had some cool examples of how people tried to escape like digging tunnels, rigging cars, flying, and diving underwater. After Check Point Charlie we had to figure out what to do. We decided to go the Berlin TV Tower. We headed over there and found out that the wait would have been over an hour. We met up with Bri and her knight in shining armor Lucas. We all headed to KaDeWeh the biggest and most expensive department store in Europe. On the way Lucas remembered that there was a hotel where you could go up in an elevator that was surrounded by a gigantic aquarium. We found the hotel only to be disappointed by the fact that you had to pay the admission of Sea World to go in it now. We got to take pictures anyway, it was so freaking cool. After that we headed to KaDeWeh. We got there and it was ridiculous. Everything was so expensive and huge and diamond encrusted. We went to the sixth floor to check out the food floor. You could buy everything from caviar to a 12” cigar. At the cigar shop we found lighters that were over $10K and a room with climate control and humidifiers for the Cuban cigars. KaDeWeh was too ridiculous to stay so we decided to finally head back to the hostel for long needed rest. I had been standing since from 9:30am until 7pm. At the hostel we just chilled for a while trying to figure out what to do.

We knew we needed food so went to a place that was close and, according to Frau Riehl and Jim was very good. It was an Ethiopian Restaurant and we had no idea what do there. At this restaurant we got Ethiopian beer, and very different Ethiopian food. You eat everything with this thin pancake like bread (not sweet) and there are no forks or knives. The food was really good according to about half the group including me; the other half weren’t so pleased. They are obviously lame. After the Ethiopian place, a few of us headed off to another restaurant/bar where you can get 1L of beer. It was over priced and not the best beer but the fact that it came in a Liter was awesome. We had a fun time and one kid got really funny. We all returned home and passed out.