June 3 2012

Today we went into Berlin again. This time it was just us students from MSU and one of the South Carolina students, Phillip, who is very nice. We went to the flohmarkt where we were able to work on our purchasing vocabulary. Sadly, the majority of the vendors spoke English well.  It was still an interesting cultural experience and fascinating to see what they had to sell. There was everything from old tools and screws to new handmade scarves. Also, I think they’ve had the best Bratwurst yet.

After that we went to Sachsenhausen. I mainly went through their new museum because of how cold the weather was and I don’t want to get sick right before class is suppose to start in earnest (and I didn't pack right, apparently last summer it was terribly warm and now this summer it is terribly cold, I packed only for warm weather). It was interesting and a part of history, to be honest, I don’t know that much about, or at least, didn’t before this excursion.

When we arrived back in Wittenberg Frau Richter was waiting for us as she is apt to do on the stairs that look down on the door. She fed us a wonderful meal of goulash and nudeln and we had a conversation on many things; what we did today, what we are doing tomorrow, what Simonne bought at the flohmarkt, etc… I was mentioning that we are excited about the upcoming Luther Fest, so I looked up in the dictionary what “excited” is and so I said: “Ich errege…” and she seemed confused. So I showed her what I was trying to say in the dictionary and she corrected me: “Ich aufgerege.” Apparently what I said was excited like “angry” and the one she used is excited as in “happy.” She explained it using some gestures and voices that were very entertaining. We definitely have the best of the host families.