Botschaft Berlin

On Thursday we went to the US Embassy in Berlin and met the ambassador John Emerson (father of actress in Hunger Games, we found out) and a lot of the staff there.

View from the Embassy entrance:

~Side note: the horses on the gate symbolize when Germany was united from 4 kingdoms.  When the gate was on the Eastern side, the Soviets turned the butts of the horses to the West.

This embassy is the only Embassy of the US that is on a public street.  As a result of Embassy bombings of the 90s, all US embassies had to be renovated or built new for defense (hence the London Embassy actually has a moat around it).  The Berlin Embassy, however, was fought for and allowed to bend some of the rules given the history of US German relations, the history of Berlin, and the location of the Embassy.

On American Soil again:

The event for the day was geared for the 250 high school members of the CBYX program.  The agenda had a lot of "how excited are you?!?!" moments and reasons for the youth to scream and be joyous. Us old "Young Professionals" flocked towards the doughnut table and made a protective ring against the high-schoolers.  Not really, but kind of.

We eventually mingled:

And I met the 2 other Abq residents on the program! One goes to the CEC near AHS, and the other to Cibola.  We talked about food as long as we could.  Then we met all the people placed in Saarland:

And then they released the sheep-dogs:

And then the speakers came and PUMPED THE CROWD UP!!! Ambassador Emerson is a personable and funny guy.  The most serious moment was when he reminded them that they were on american soil and couldn't drink beer anymore.

After a short talk the entertainment was brought on- an A Capella group out of Harvard.  They were good- one girl was fantastic.  She sang "Mac the Knife" while old men cried and young students learned the feeling of love.  This isn't the song or the particular singer with the pipes, but it gives you an idea:



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Later that evening (or another... the timeline is hazy now) we went to a performance piece with the Young Professional group (normal group).  It was definitely at night. And it was definitely not American-High-Schooler-Appropriate in the typical definition of that.

 

 The show was so awesome.  They choreographed interesting dance and acrobatic to edgy-electronic music and a very cool light show.  The lights would 'trace' the dancers and performers, adding to the craziness of their acts of talent.  I don't have the mastery of words to begin to describe the things we saw there.  Here is a video that is the 'tip of the dance iceberg' we experienced:

Example of light thing. This guy rolling around and Tron happening live around him.