Blog 2

 Blog 2

2/18/23

Having had time to get acquainted with Berlin I have began to notice and enjoy some of its more subtle quirks, particularly within our area Kottbusser Tor.  While our area is certainly not one of the nicest I have grown to appreciate it. It has large Turkish and Vietnamese populations which can be felt throughout the area. The streets are lined with pho and doner restaurants. While I am yet to make it to one of the many pho restaurants, I have grown to love the doner kebabs. Although it is not what I anticipated eating or even enjoying, I can confidently say a good doner is delicious. Another interesting characteristic of our neighborhood, but also Berlin in general is the graffiti.  The streets and buildings are lined with graffiti, ranging from simple tags to artful masterpieces like the giant spaceman I frequently pass. (I would attach a picture but for some reason and unable to- google Berlin spaceman graffiti if you are curious). While the graffiti is not necessarily unique to Kottbusser Tor, it is more prevalent than it is in many other areas. In my Urban Landscape class, which is essentially a drawing/book binding class that uses Berlin and art within Berlin as subject material, our first assignment was to make a book containing eight drawings about our neighborhood.  It was suggested we find a general theme to unify the book.  My theme was ecology-how the nature and greenery interacted with the city. It helped me familiarize myself with the area but also notice many spaces and objects I had not yet discovered.  I also realized how prevalent greenery and nature were within our neighborhood. My favorite green space is directly outside our apartments and holds much historical value. After the Berlin Wall was torn down, there were massive spaces dividing East and West Berlin and designers and architects flocked to Berlin to take advantage of these spaces. In most cases impressive architectures were put in, but outside our apartment they made a greenway. A small walkway and running path now stand with lots of vegetation where Berliners were previously not allowed and shot for passing. I think it is a somewhat poetic and smart way to use the land.  It almost acts as a buffer to the busy and sometimes overwhelming city. (Again, I would attach photos to the document but for some reason am unable to).

Recently I traveled back to my city of birth: Amsterdam. I had the opportunity to meet up with two of my friends from HWS who are studying in Bath England and Maastricht in the Netherlands. It was an unbelievably great trip and it was awesome to be back there. It was interesting noticing the differences between Dutch and German. One small difference I noticed was when saying thank you.  In Germany many people will say "danke schön", translating to thanks a lot.  However in Dutch they will say "dankjewel" which is basically pronounced as 'dank e vell' and essentially serves the same purpose.   Although the two languages are very similar they are both incredibly different and have numerous dialects within their own language. However this small similarity and difference I found unique.  I would also hear many native Dutch speakers talk when I was there and would catch snippets of dialogue or just a word or two. I even took a stab at embarrassing myself with my German skills and was able to have an extremely rudimentary conversation with someone that quickly turned back to English.