Friends!

There have been quite a few changes in life since last week. One of the biggest started last Tuesday when my neighbor Christian (who lives upstairs and is very very good with English) knocked on my door and said “May I present you with Pablo! He’s from L.A.” At this point Beth came speeding from the other room and we both stood with our mouths wide open. Up until this point Beth and I were convinced that we were 2 out of MAYBE 5 Americans living in Halle, so to find out that an American was going to be staying directly above me for several months was extremely surprising. It turns out that Pablo is 28, a poet, grew up in an artist commune just outside of LA, and even has dual citizenship between Germany and America because his father is German. He’s a pretty interesting addition to our English speaking posse. That evening they invited us out for Italian food and Christian’s official tour of the city, which was really nice since no one had really told us much about Halle’s history and it’s individual buildings. The next day Pablo went to die Burg with us to see the castle and helped us make a big stir-fry for dinner that evening.
Saturday Beth and I had to take the train up to Berlin to pick up my friends Mark and Robby (good friends from TN) from the airport, and since Pablo and Christian wanted to go too, they shared train tickets with us and we all spent the day together until Mark and Robby’s plan landed. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and we had a lot of fun helping Christian show Pablo the highlights of the city. We also got to see some new places that we missed on our first visit to Berlin, like the Reichstag and the Jewish Holocaust memorial. The Reichstag is one of the main government buildings in Berlin, and it was fun to see, but my favorite sight of the day was definitely the Holocaust memorial. It consists of rows and rows of large stone rectangles, but the ground is somewhat wavy, and the rectangles very in size, so while some are only a foot or two tall, other parts soar far above your head. It was a really amazing experience to literally “get lost” and sucked into the monument, just like getting lost in the huge numbers of lost victims. The stones were cold, and plane and they reminded me how the Jewish people were stripped of their own personal identity and given the same cruel fate. Quite a powerful experience.
That afternoon we ate at an AMAZING Indian restaurant, and then parted with Christian and Pablo to go meet Robby and Mark. Needless to say I was quite excited to see my friends. They had been traveling for several weeks throughout England and France and are staying with me for about 12 days before heading home. Our train was a bit late getting to the airport, but we met up just fine and spent the rest of the evening giving them a taste of Berlin before we caught the late train back to Halle. One of the highlights of the evening was stumbling upon an outdoor public opera being held in the large square across from Humboldt University. They had even closed off one of the most main streets in Berlin to allow more room for the opera and there were tons of people in the audience. It was the perfect temperature, the perfect setting, and the perfect sounds. I really enjoyed staying to listen for a bit, and was quite impressed that the city had gone to so much trouble to have a free public opera. It says a lot about the importance of the arts in Germany’s culture.
Sunday was spent giving Mark and Robby a walking tour of Halle and relaxing in a café downtown sipping gourmet hot chocolate. Then we went home, made an amazing dinner, and sat on my roof listening to Mark and Robby’s wonderful travel stories.
This week Beth and I plan to finish up our ceramic projects and hopefully this weekend the four of us can all take a trip together…perhaps to Milan if our travel plans work out right. Beth and I have been asked to give artist talks on Wednesday night to the ceramic department, which should be quite the adventure too. I have never had to give an official artist talk before, so though it will be a great experience, it is a little daunting since my audience members don’t all know English. I also plan to sneak out late tonight and put my houses out in the park so I can start documenting their decay tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go well and I will get good results. Wish me luck!

The Opera

Some modern German architecture