ich bin ein berliner

a weekend and some jetlag later......

nat, michael, and rob have kept my weekend packed with activities! :) let's see if my brain can recall everything:

friday:
we went to eat dinner at the apostles twelve and walked around a nicer area of town. dinner was wonderful! nat, michael, and rob shared a gigantic pizza. we decided it was about 1 meter in diameter. needless to say, they did not finish it. :)

saturday:
nat and i slept in, and then we headed to the office to meet up with michael and rob. our day's goal: the beer mile. yes, i did say the beer mile. it's a beer festival they have in berlin with a long stretch of beers from all over the world. i believe there were over 1,700 kinds of beer at the festival. the festival not only had beer, but tons of food--pretzels (what michael called the "best pretzel ever"), wursts (we saw a 1 meter wurst), crepes, pizza, baked goods, etc.

for each stand, you had a choice of 1/3 liter, 1/5 liter, or 1 liter of beer, and each stand usually had a variety of types of beer. it was hard to choose, especially when the brands weren't familiar. but, there was a good variety--pilsners, wheat beers, dark beers, light beers, etc. in the end each of the guys each had about 3 drinks, about 1/3 liter per drink, but i think that lots of people had more than 1 L of beer! i think this would have been heaven for the frat guys!

sunday:
this was the first time i had worshipped in a cathedral-like church. it was very different b/c all the music and voice seemed to echo in the church. i got a chance to meet some people that michael and nat got to know over the summer. i met my first ramona too! :) it was very neat to see how many different cultures and ethnicities were represented at the church! :)

after church, i had my first doner. :) it's one of nat and michael's favorite food in germany. it's shaved lamb meat, some veggies, and sauce (optional) wrapped up in some bread. it was alright. :P

afterwards, we headed over to potsdamer platz. i must say, berlin is one of the cleanest cities in europe that i have visited. it has one of the most modern and interesting architecture that i've seen too. i guess if your city is bombed and demolished by war, it's easier to rebuild the skyline.

anyways, i digress. we went over to the national museum, close to the potsdamer platz, to see the berlin-tokyo exhibit. it was really interesting! i really liked some of the interactive exhibits. there was some abstract art that i didn't appreciate as much, but all and all it was very neat! after the museum, we headed over to checkpoint charlie and went into the museum. i didn't realize that germany had gone through so many tough times so close together--aftermath of WWII and the cold war.

it was a very full and tiring day, but God surprised us at the end. on our bus ride home, nat, michael, and i were talking about God. a guy came and sat with us and said "i heard you were talking about God when i was reading my Bible. are you christians?" that was so neat! it turns out, this young man was trying to start a Christian radio station in germany. i think that the meeting was so encouraging to see God working in germany! :)

well, that's about it. i'm still a little bit jetlagged, but i must press on and work! :)