9/16-17-18/11

To quote daddy’s and mine favorite poem: “Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.” This is Cortney’s life motto. Haha After a weekend like this I’m so glad to be in my quiet little dorm room. Sometimes you forget you can hear yourself breathe, and to me that is a really comforting sound.

The craziness started on Thursday. My oral exam didn’t go so well so I was pretty stressed. Then we learned that to catch our 6 am flight to Berlin we would have to spend the night in the airport because the public transport system stops at 12 and starts again at 5:30. So our friend Rhiem showed us how to get there and where to sleep in the airport. Everyone was really worried about their stuff getting stolen, so I volunteered to stay up and keep watch. It was a long night. Finally after running my ipod batteries into the ground and staring at the floor for a few hours the world started to wake up and we had just enough time to grab a pain au chocolat before we left. The flight was about an hour and a half, which was weird to me because that’s about the same flight time from Phoenix to Salt Lake but in the same amount of time here we jumped countries.

Flying into Berlin isn’t what I expected. Berlin wasn’t what I expected. The whole place is covered in a dense forest full of oak, birch, and walnut trees. It was incredibly pretty. But other than that, we all kinda had mini culture shock getting there. It is SO different from France. Everyone is loud and disorganized. It isn’t as clean as France and the people have insane style. So many people had neon colored hair and incredible amounts of tattoos and piercings. There were no officials anywhere. In the airport and train station we looked around to find someone in some sort of information kiosk to make sure we had the right train to our hostel, but there wasn’t one. There was no one anywhere. They just don’t exist in Germany. No one checks tickets on the train, no cops walk the street, its crazy.

The hostel we went to was really nice. I have NO idea how it was that cheap. It had everything we needed. They had a free breakfast, wifi, everything. We checked in and went to go see Berlin. We took a train to the center, and more touristy part, of Berlin. There was beautiful buildings there and a park that had so many trees you couldn’t see 10 feet inside. The parliament building was beautiful as well. We decided we wanted a German meal so we stopped at a restaurant and I got some bratwurst and mashed potatoes. The bratwurst in America is nothing like it is in Germany. Texture, taste, smell, not even close. It was good, but so heavy and weirdly sour I could barely move after. We all ate so much we all just wanted sleep, especially me cuz I hadn’t had any the night before. We got to the hostel, and I was out. I slept for 4 hours, which I kinda felt bad about because Melinda really wanted to go out and see some sights. After that, it had gotten a little late so we just went and got food and came back to the hostel and we hung out in the lounge and watched some German soccer on TV before heading to bed.

The next morning we woke up and went to Sachsenhausen the concentration camp. That was a crazy experience. We got an audio tour because we couldn’t read the signs and started to walk around. I can’t believe half the stories I learned there. To know that that could happen? Its so sad. I’ll put up more about it when I put up pictures because a lot of it you just have to see to understand. Most of it had been destroyed but what was left was terrifying. They wouldn’t let you into the crematorium, which in a way I am thankful for. I think that would have taken its toll on me. There was two remaining Jewish barracks. It was amazing to see how crammed they were and how poor the living conditions were. The stories of brutality, honestly, were incomprehensible. I just, have no idea how one person could do those things to another. They talked about the German soldiers that worked there. Sachsenhausen was one of the first extermination camps there were, and for that reason it was used as sort of a training ground for new German officers. They said 9 of the officers trained there went on to be commandants of other extermination camps. What I thought was very interesting about this camp was it was for mostly non-Jews. There were 68 barracks and only 2 were Jewish barracks. The rest were Russian prisoners of war, homosexuals, People who aided Jews, Germans that were married to Jewish girls, women prisoners, and Jehovah’s witnesses (or bible students as they were called at that time). Its weird to me that this was never made a big deal out of. All you’re ever told is the holocaust was against the Jewish people and a few others, not targeting so many different groups of people. Also, another thing I thought was interesting is the German government used the people in those camps that had certain skills to do illegal things for them. One story was of a Jewish printer who was brought to Sachsenhausen with others to create forgeries of British pound notes and other official documents of the allied countries. Also they would make the people in the camp to hard labor, which I already knew but the story here was interesting. There was a track going around the camp with different materials on the path, gravel, cobblestone, sharp rocks, etc. anyways the prisoners were fitted with backpacks that were the same weight as a soldier’s pack would be and given a pair of boots, (didn’t matter what size they were they were just expected to get them on causing quite a few deformities and injuries) and run the track from 5 in the morning until it got too dark to run anymore. It was to test the durability of different soles on shoes for German soldiers. There are a ton of other stories but I get sad thinking about it so I’m gonna stop now.

We found the Berlin wall too. I found a chunk of brick on the ground from it and I’m going to bring it home with me. I’m excited to have a cool piece of history. :]

I think that was all we really did. I think we just relaxed after that point and went to bed. The next morning though, I’m not sure how, but we woke up late and scrambled to get our stuff together to catch the train. We got to the track just after it had left, so we decided to wait for the next one and bought our tickets, and then found out, there wasn’t another train. So we panicked and called a taxi and ended up getting to the airport pretty early. I was really upset about the waste of money… sigh… Airports in Europe are weird. They don’t post your gate number until like 5 minutes until you have to board. So people are running all over the place. We sat and waited forever for our gate to be posted and booked it to the gate right on time.

I don’t know why, but I was almost glad to leave Germany. It was so different from what I was used to. France and Germany are like night and day. Not that I didn’t love Germany, I did. It was beautiful, but getting back here was so nice. Knowing what people are saying, and knowing how to navigate. Its wonderful. Today, as almost a welcome home from Lyon there was an antique expo going on just outside our dorms. I walked through it and there was SOOO much stuff mom would love. Old pots and pans and wash basins, silverware, candlesticks, and TONs of furniture. It was amazing. I wanted everything. :]

And now I’m happily settled into the quiet of my dorm. So happy to be back in my home away from home. Hearing the church bells ringing, everything smells good and is clean. I love Lyon. I will have a hard time leaving it I think. Which is funny because just a few days ago I was tired of it here. But now I’m in love with the culture and how they take 5 hours to eat and everyone is quiet and proper and clean. It took a reality check of how intense another culture was, how hard it was for me there, for me to again really appreciate what I have.

I love everyone! I’ll talk to you all soon. Hopefully I will have internet on the 20^th but don’t count on anything. Talk to you soon.