Here...finally.

Well, it was definitely a hit the ground running week in Berlin. We tore through so much so fast, I'm not really sure we missed anything. Of course it's such an expansive city, I know we only touched the tip of the iceberg. The last couple of days have been nice. We slowed our roll to a light crawl and finished up our orientation week going through museums and parks. The Pergamon Museum is really an incredible place. It is so named because of the Pergamon alter that was rebuilt inside the main entry to the museum. It is a gigantic structure that is really hard to describe in words. I didn't get any pictures, but I'm hoping when I go back in August I'll be able to take a few. The museum has an exhibit set up right now on Babylon. The entire building is full of Babylonian artifacts, including the reconstructed Gates of Ishtar, which btw are gigantic and beautiful. I was really amazed at how much this civiliztation had accomplished, but had lost to history and Biblical predjudice. There was so much information, I only walked through half of the museum. I'm saving the other half for August.
Thursday evenings, all of the museums on Museuminsel are free, so we took advantage of the money savings and waited to see the some of the other exhibitiions that night. Unfortunately the majority of the artifacts are labeled and described in German, so it was a fairly quick visit. I did get to see the Bust of Nefertiri. That was pretty cool.
Friday we went to Potsdam, an area of town that is home to Friedrich the Great's palace of Sans Souci (without concern). It really is a beautiful building, but the icing on the cake is the garten that surrounds it. It is incredible. Fountains and sculptures, terraces and flowers, even a botanical garden. We broke the group up and I wandered around by myself for a few hours just taking everything in and enjoying the beauty.
Yesterday we checked out of the hostel and made the journey to Quedlinburg. We took the train from Berlin to Magdeburg and from there to Quedlinburg. It was about 3 hours on the train total, but a 4.5 hour trip. When we arrived, the three of us who are staying with host parents went to the Tech Center while the rest checked into their pensione. I'm staying with the Allner/Lietz family. Karsten Lietz is my host father and Sonja Allner is my host mother. They have three sons who, Marco, Max, and Tim. Marco does not live in the house, he's moved out and is a member of the Germany Navy.
They have a beautiful home. I'll get some pictures later and post them in my next entry. Well, now that play time is over I have to get back to rehearsal. Love ya'll.