New Clothes, New Friends, and New Shoes

Berlin!

Some of the artwork on the remainders of the wall.

We reached this amazing city in the afternoon, bunked down in our bunks, and sent the parents out to enjoy themselves.

They bought Icebreakers for us— Ileana took mine (very happily), and I took her pink one temporarily. We exchanged it the next day for a beautiful dark blue shirt that makes me look like a completely different person. How do people handle changing shirts every day? I just can't figure it out.

We went to sleep late, woke up early, and moved to the next stopping point. Dad and Mihaela have been talking back and forth for a few years, and she invited us to stay in her small apartment while she, her sister, her boyfriend, and her sister's boyfriend go off to Romania for 10 days.

It's a small apartment, but it's a fantastic one. We spent a few hours talking and showing them the video we made for camp (which everyone seems to love).

From left to right... Ioan, Ileana, me, Dad, Marcelo, Mihaela, Alina, and Mathieu

We had one half day of relaxation.

Then we went shopping.

I have proper shoes. And a nice shirt. YAY.

And then the next day, we met Ina. Ina is Dad's 14-year penpal (by which I mean, they've been emailing back and forth for 14 years. Ina herself is about my parents' age).

Today, they met for the first time ever.

German white beer, so bitter it must be flavored with sweet colored syrup.

Ina bought us all drinks, and then we headed to see Berlin. We stopped at the German history museum to look around, but didn't see anything fascinating until we spotted three-way portrait. From one angle, it's one person. Looking at it head-on, it's another person. And from another angle, it's a third person. The technique uses folded paper, from what I can tell.

What I can't tell is the mathematics of sticking something on paper like that. How does the artist calculate at what angle and which section of an eye he has to draw so that from a certain angle, the superimposed picture that also contains a certain bit of eye doesn't look BAD, but like a continuation of the picture underneath? I just don't understand it. People who can do this have my undying amazement.

The next day, we went to Potsdam. There is a place there called Sans Souci (French for 'without cares), which was built by Frederick II, also called Frederick the Great. 

In my world, this is what it says about all of Potsdam:

Frederick II is the king who separated from his wife. The most interesting thing we learned about him was outside the museum. He introduced potatoes into Germany.

And built Sans Souci.

sans souci...

But beyond that, the museum presented him, to me, at least, as a misanthrope who surrounded himself with animals and insulted people for the fun of it.

Not particularly a role model.

Four of us were heartily sick and bored of the museum.

Dad? Still revving to go.