June 5, 2007

The Yale women's basketball team's 10-day trip to Germany has reached its final days. Today the Bulldogs left Leipzig for their final destination: the German capital of Berlin. After yet another ride on the Autobahn, the team got some well-deserved free time in the city, and took advantage in Berlin's shopping district. Haywood Wright and Jacqueline Erickson have some thoughts on the day, as well as some ideas for a cultural exchange between Germany and the U.S.

Our team woke up this morning ready for another great day of traveling, just a bit tired after dancing the night away at a German techno club. Although, we must admit that we convinced the dj's to play American music so that we could sing along. So, this morning, we left Leipzig on our way to Berlin. We passed the bus ride by sleeping and watching our new guilty pleasure, Prison Break (of which almost half the team is obsessively watching for the second time now).

When we arrived in Berlin, we were excited to look around our hotel because it was in such a beautiful location, with a view of a canal right out our windows. The team decided to take power naps before we began the rest of our night, shopping in downtown Berlin. We were all amazed at the amount of H&M stores that we passed along one street (we counted at least three). However, the most impressive part of the downtown shopping has to be the six-story department store, KaDeWe. Many of us passed the most time there on the sixth floor, which consisted of: food of course. We may have bought the store out of its chocolate! Some of the most popular purchases include a chocolate covered almond paste called marzipan, which we should really popularize in the States.

The team ate at an Italian restaurant, after we failed in our desperate search for sauerbraten. The German restaurant we found had taken it off the menu a week earlier. But we will persist in our quest tomorrow--our final day in Germany. After eight days here, we are still amazed at the fact that we have to pay for water and for the use of restrooms (these are customs we do not desire back in the United States).

Tonight we are resting up for our exciting day of touring tomorrow, which does not include large amounts of traveling like today. While we're sure there will be tons of interesting stories tomorrow, unfortunately not much happened today. We are sad that it is almost over, but we are ready for another spectacular day.

Ciao-
Haywood and Jackie