Week 2: Berlin
Update on leg conditions: Still assuredly very dead. Asked professor about knee replacement surgery in Germany- apparently it’s free because the healthcare here would cover things like that (amazing thing, universal healthcare).
It’s week 2 in study abroad, and we have continued to walk to just about every destination. Among our destinations is Schloss Charlottenburg, the largest palace in Berlin. The grounds are extensive, and walking it took up several hours of our day. It has some incredible gardens, and of course, uses the design elements of allees freely to create view vistas. There was a beautiful
mausoleum there for a favorite princess. The path leading up to the mausoleum had a circular hedge that contained a rose garden of sorts. She was, according to our professor, loved by just about everyone, and so was given a beautiful resting place despite not being a princess who personally held much power (don’t take my word on this, I’m writing this post some 5 weeks later and memory is faulty, but she was a favorite princess who died young).
We also met up with the students at Technical University Berlin (TUB) fir the first time and went to the park with some of them. One of the students had the cutest, more energetic little dogs I’ve ever met. Her name (the dog) is QT (as far as I understood, that’s how it’s pronounced), and she will play fight your hand until the end of time if you’ll let her. She also lives to rip up and eat grass.
In other, not-strictly-educational news, I tried the onigiri (rice ball) that my friend who lives in
Germany recommended, after tracking it down. It’s from a chain called RICE UP, and distributes to several stores, among which is Bio Company (I believe the name was). The flavors were unusual, and certainly not the sort of flavors I would’ve expected from a traditional rice ball. But, following my friend’s recommendation, I tried it anyways. I can only cry internally at the excessive levels of salt that the rice ball had. The rice itself was also not seasoned right. Overall, an underwhelming experience. I did not, however, learn my lesson, and tried it on 2 other occasions, totaling 3 trials, all of which concluded with “too much salt” and “why did I buy this”. From this, I learned that not all recommendations can be trusted. I only hope my friend knows this is not what onigiri is supposed to taste like.
There was also this yellow car that stood out while we were waiting to cross the street.
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