Dresden, Friends, Theater

Since I last posted I have been to three plays, the philharmonic, a friend's voice recital, the a club rated "best in the world", celebrated Jina's birthday with BBQ and Karaoke, met with my old boss from the State Department, went to a conference on international development, spent time at the Krumme Lanke beach, went to synagogue, and found summer housing!! Whew! 

Let's start first with my trip to Dresden, which was really fascinating.  Dresden was completely destroyed during the war, and then completely rebuilt to look exactly the way it used to look (kind of a strange phenomenon if you think about it). They took such care to rebuild the city as exactly accurate as possible, it was amazing! My friends and I walked around the city, led by my Rick Steve's book, and students gave presentations about different sites throughout the city. The presentations for the trip were supposed to be the midterm for the advanced German class (I'm not in advanced German, I was just tagging along because the alumnus who funded the trip offered to pay for all advanced speakers regardless of whether you are in the class... Yay Stanford!) but the professor was sick and couldn't come so the presentations were given mostly in English. This is a picture of the group of us inside the famous Semper Opera House in Dresden, and the next picture is of the Catholic Church in Dresden and some of the town.

Now for the plays! I saw two more plays (Bieberpelz and Nora oder ein Puppenhaus) at the Berliner Festspiele and Woyzech at the Deutsches Theater. Bieberpelz was unusual to say the least. The photo below shows the actors speaking the stage directions in unison. Interesting idea. I thought it kind of worked in a quirky sort of way, but the Germans hated it! Several stormed out right in the middle of the production! 

Two days later I saw the play Nora oder ein Puppenhaus, known in English as A Doll's House. This play was done by the same director as Bieberpelz and was equally strange. The director was attempting to criticize modern gender rolls and their relation to sexuality, by turning all of the male characters into really old men representing a patriarchal society and having them treat the women as passive sex objects. Interesting idea, but in my opinion it totally failed. I was shocked and intrigued for about the first ten minutes, but then the point had been made and there was nothing left of the play. In my opinion, the concept itself was even flawed. By portraying the men as extremely old it was as if to say, gender rolls were once a problem with that old generation, but they are not anymore. Thus undermining his own argument.

The third play I saw was Woyzeck at the Deutsches Theater. It was brilliant to say the least, and may be my favorite play I've seen in Berlin. The use of props, the set, the costumes, the casting decisions, and the use of music was creative, cohesive, and coherent -- a combination rarely achieved in the other two plays. The picture below is of Woyzeck sitting next to his wife after he kills her. The stage is covered in water and confetti and is physically slanted up all around the couple. It is a beautifully tragic yet simple scene. 

Last Friday, after attending a magnificent concert at the Philharmonic, I went to Berghain, which is a nightclub rated the number one club in the world. What I thought was most interesting was the bouncer. I googled him, his name is Sven, and people call him the scariest bouncer in the world. He's like a legend. 

I have a friend who tried to get into Berghain four times and never got in. Anyways, this big scary bouncer stands at the door and decides whether or not you have the right vibe to enter. The people in front of us where turned away, but we walked right in. I was there with my friends Katharina (who will be my roommate this summer!!!) and Patricia, so don't worry mom and dad, they kept me safe. :-)

Yesterday I finally went to synagogue in Berlin! I went to this beautiful synagogue in Prenzlauerberg that was destroyed during WWII and beautifully renovated. The service was very hard to follow as it was entirely in Hebrew with a few German phrases thrown in. But I did sit next to this girl who is also interning at the Bundestag this summer! So I went out for drinks after the service with her and her friends (she had a glass of read wine, I had a raspberry milkshake... I'm super classy, I know)  and she told me all about the Bundestag. Yay new friends!  Here is a picture of inside the synagogue: 

The German word of the day today is das Nickerchen, which means nap. I have been using this word a lot recently.