This Week

First of all, I’m excited to say that I’ve had a really great week. I’ve really enjoyed being here in Berlin this week and I’m excited for all that we have planned! Coming up is a trip to Stockholm, Sweden with some friends, visiting my friend Jessica Jones who is studying abroad in Spain for my mid-semester break in February, a trip to Paris and Amsterdam with my program, and lots more! I have realized that this semester really is going to fly by.

Yesterday, we toured the Stasi (East German secret police) prison called Hohenschönhausen. When East Germany was still occupied by the Soviet Union after the War, they used it to imprison political opponents, and they used really physically cruel methods of torture to get people to sign statements of confession that sentenced them to more prison and labor camps. When the DDR, the East German government, was formed, they took over the prison and improved facilities, but shifted the cruelty and torture from physical to psychological. They used solitary confinement and the usual interrogations. I could go on for quite a while about all the things they did that I learned about, but I think what struck me the most was how when there is a change in power, the new regime kills or persecutes everyone from the previos regime. It kind of comforted me that there really hasn’t been much punishment for Stasi officials and officers, because the vicious cycle should be ended. I was talking to Michael about it and he made a really great point – that grace is sometimes better than justice. God loves justice, but he also calls us to grace and forgiveness, which is actually a higher road than justice.

This week I went to two museums for class. One was the Deutsches Historiches Museum and the other was the Bauhaus Archiv. The Deutsches Historiches Museum (DHM) is a really nice museum that takes you through German history from the middle ages to 1990. We were focusing on the exhibit on a divided Germany from 1945 to 1990. It is absolutely crazy to think about living in Germany at the time. The Bauhaus Archiv is about the Bauhaus style that originated in the 1920s. It’s a style of architecture as well as designs for furniture and other household items. It reminds you a lot of Ikea.

Other than museums and class, I’ve been enjoying hanging out with friends here. And I met two girls from the stint team (stint stands for short term international) with Campus Crusade for Christ here in Berlin for lunch one day! It was really great to meet them and talk about how our time in Berlin has been so far, what their ministry is like, the weekly meetings they have, and what fun things they recommended doing in this city! I’m acquiring quite a long list of cool places to see and hang out in.

I hope you all are doing well, and I am sad that my internet is kind of slow, so it’s hard to successfully upload things and reply to messages on facebook as well as skype. Plus the fact that the days go by so quickly! But, I love you all and am so thankful that you all are in my life, even if we’re not currently in the same country!