Learning Journey on the Cold War, World War Two and about Beautiful Berlin
On the last week of April, my sister came for a visit and we went to Berlin.
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and the largest city in Germany and has a population of 4.5 million within its metropolitan area and 3.4 million.
How is it different from Munich? I find that Munich is more of an artistic kind of city while Berlin has more historical associations as the German capital, internationalism and tolerance, lively nightlife, its many cafes, clubs, and bars, street art, and numerous museums, palaces, and other sites of historic interest.
Berlin is a very interesting place to be in, mainly because you get to learn much more about cold war and ww2 by visiting the various museums.
Berlin city streets look a lot like Singapore’s. Actually this city isn’t very much different from SG. They rely on human capital to drive the economy. One of the most important “products” produced in Berlin by both academic and company-sponsored institutes is research. That research is exported around the world. German labor is highly efficient but comes at high cost.
We went to visit the Berlin Zoo as it was near our hotel.
Some children in Bangladeshi workers attire:
I didn’t really take much photos of the animals but there was this very old school berlin aquarium and the sea life there fascinated me:
One of the interesting gates but I think they mixed up indian and chinese culture
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Opened in the spring of 2005, this gigantic abstract artwork covering an entire block near the Brandenburg Gate, including an underground museum with extensive details on the Holocaust and the people who died during it.
The blocks start out at ground level on the outer edges of the memorial, and then grow taller towards the middle, where the ground also slopes downwards.
We were actually worried that they might be graves! According to the designer, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.
The walk back to the station:
Our Hotel:
In this entry, you will find a lot of portraits about my sister. I wanted to get started in this aspect of photography and what better way than to practice on my dear family member? =)
More photos of the streets of Berlin:
Me and my new shades from H&M:
I love the buskers around Europe. They really create a very European atmosphere with their wonderful music. I always donate!
Berlin Central Station
I liked this station a lot and to me, it was nicer than that in Rome and Gare De Lyon in Paris. I found it to be very futuristic, and fascinating. I have a thing for glass and wooden kind of architecture
The train station was former known as Lehrter Bahnhof. This former train station is very rich in history. It was built in the 1871 but suffered heavy damage during World War Two. After which, it provided limited services to the main station , but was then suspended in 1951. In 1957, with the railways to West Berlin, under control of East Germany, Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished. =(
In 1987, it was extensively renovated to commemorate Berlin’s 750th anniversary. After Germany was united, t was decided to improve Berlin’s railway network by constructing a new north-south main line, and hence, the birth of this new rail way station!
Berliner Dom
On our way…
This is Berliner dom!
The biggest and most impressive church in Berlin, built at the turn of the century (19th/20th) as an expression of imperial power.
My sister lying on the grass
Inside the Berliner Dom
Checkpoint Charlie
Formerly, this place was the only border crossing between East and West Berlin that permitted foreigners passage. Residents of East and West Berlin were not allowed to use it.
This contributed to Checkpoint Charlie’s mythological status as a meeting place for spies and other shady individuals. =)
Now it has become a tourist destination and you can take place with “American soldiers”. Wonder why you can’t take any with soviet ones hahahah
At the intersection of Zimmerstraße and Friedrichstraße (U-Bahn Kochstraße U6) is the famous “You Are Leaving the American Sector” sign. (right side of the photo)
I bought tons of such post cards to distribute to my friends
Tons of Soviet and East Germany Merchandise
Again, I bought a lot of stuff here as souveniers
Topography of Terror
This open-air museum documents the terror applied by the Nazi regime. It consists of excavated prison cells located directly under a remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.
We didn’t stay too long because it was too sunny that day
Heading to Sachsenhausen
The next day, we went to Sachsenhausen. This place is in outer Oranienburg, a quiet suburb housing the remains of one of the Nazi concentration camps on German soil.
I’ve been to a camp before in Da Cahu but my sister has never so I decided to bring her there.
Here are some photos of her while waiting for our train
ME:
The camp information center:
On the way to the camp:
My sister felt very sad after reading about the tortures:
Me outside the concentration camp.
Sadistic words “Work sets you free” on the gate
A picture of the border of the camp from inside. If you stand here, or step on it, you get shot
Felt like I shouldn’t smile much in photos cos we are in a sad place
Outside one of the rooms:
The place where the prisoners took a bath
My sister at the place where the prisoners eat breakfast
The toilet:
The wires
Some heavy stuff the prisoners had to push as part of forced labour
Our last day was shopping day!
Ending off with some pictures to do the talking.
Surprise meeting from my gd friend Shannon! X)
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South Asian women (Japanse, Chinese and Koreans) are known for looking extremely young even in an old age.
The secret to this is good skin care which a lot of us highly emphasize on.
Just look at my sister’s flawless porcelain skin:
This is my mum. She is already approaching her 50s but looks as though she is 30
There are many ways to prevent ageing.
My first tip will be to take less fast food. Gorging on fast food loaded with preservatives and fats can actually speed up the loss of elasticity. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. So, replace your fast food with healthy snacks like nutritious meals, nuts, vegetables and fruits.
Remember to also choose your beverages wisely too! Tea is a part and parcel of the Asian daily meals. How does it help? Tea, especially Green Tea, is rich in antioxidants that can fight the chronic effects of harmful free radicals.
While sun tanning may be the “in” thing in the westernAmerican part of the globe, the opposite is true for most Asian countries. Sun exposure is safe for only about 20 minutes. If you expose your skin to UV rays for more than 20 minutes, you could be in danger of premature skin aging. Remember to use a sun block when you go out!
I’ve had to privilege of talking and living with some of the Scandinavia women here doing their Erasmus in Lugano. Due to little sun exposure, almost all of them look like snow white! =D
One of the main cause of ageing is actually the loss of collagen. Collagen production starts to drop in most people from the age of 25 years onwards, there is a reduction of up to 30% of collagen levels by the age of 45. Collagen production starts to drop in most people from the age of 25 years onwards, there is a reduction of up to 30% of collagen levels by the age of 45.
What is collagen? The main structural component of the lower layer of the skin (Dermis) is a protein called collagen. Bundles of collagen molecules pack together throughout the dermis, accounting for 3/4 of the dry weight of skin. They are naturally produced by cells called fibroblasts, which are found scattered throughout the dermis.
Collagen is a connective tissue and is the cement that holds everything together. Collagen, along with elastin, is a key structural component of bones, cartilage, tendons, the skin, lung tissue and blood vessels. Collagen provides structure and firmness to body tissues, while elastin provides flexibility to those same tissues.
As aging occurs, cellular proteins hook together or change shape. These changes keep the proteins from doing their jobs properly resulting in a loss of collagen and less firmness to body tissues. This process eventually leads to wrinkles. Thus, one important target of wrinkle prevention and elimination regimen is to reduce collagen breakdown and increase its supply.
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One year ago, around June, I was sitting for an interview. I was interviewed by 5 judges and they were all big shots in the media industry. I knew exactly what I had to answer, to sell and promote myself for this competitive opportunity. The questions asked were fairly simple – Tell us about yourself, tell me your strengths and weaknesses… all of which, I had expected and prepared very good answers to.
Then there was this one question that stumped me. The judge, an editor of a renowned magazine, asked me curiously about what I did for leisure and fun. This question never came across my mind because well, it was not relevant to what I was applying for.
Of course, I could not answer this question. This was because the only thing I did for fun was blogging, design and photography and these were part of my work. I didn’t change my workaholic lifestyle for the next few months till I came for exchange.
Now I have a whole list of things that make me very happy and I enjoy doing as recreation. I also ask people what they do for fun around here and are their hobbies so I can try out new stuff and gain some inspiration. =)
My interests:
- Learning (social sciences, biology, business, hard sciences, economics etc), Personal Development, Current affairs
- Health and nutrition, Cooking, , walking
- Writing, photography, design, drawing
- Listening to people’s life experience and thoughts, observing and analyzing social situations or people and coming up with hypothesis and testing them
- Shopping, beauty, cosmetics, fashion/style
- Hanging out with interesting and positive people, partying on Fridays
I guess investing time especially my weekends to develop myself as a person is a good thing. All these years I have been developing myself as an employee and now, I would just like to develop myself as a person, a youth. I mean when else will I ever get to have such a relaxed life?
I also find that people who are too caught up in work tend to think that work is the most important thing in their lives or definitive about their self worth so all they talk is about yourself, their college, and achievements at least twice as much as you ask others questions. This is because they have been trained to toot your own horn as a way to impress people (like employers), but in a romantic setting or social setting, this behavior immediately turns people off.
When I come back to Singapore, I really want to do some stuff like maybe improve on my manga and build up my sketch book again and pick up Japanese or something.
Wow and you know what my friend introduced me an exciting activity which is kite flying and I am definitely going to go to Marina Barrage to fly a kite because it sounds so exciting and I have never ever flown a kite before (ok maybe once but it didn’t fly very high) and the thought of doing something like this really makes me so excited.
I really look forward to spending quality time like shopping, watching movies, cycling, eating nice food around Singapore (Just like Aiyan and her bf) and many more.
Ah I really like the idea of kites. They promise so much freedom, fun, excitement, carelessness… going wherever the wind takes me, soaring in the clouds etc. =)
Ending off with a Marlyn Monroe quote which speaks a lot about work life balance that we can all learn from:
A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.
Hi everyone!
This will be a very quick post. Just want to update you about the beta launch of my photography portfolio. Recently I noticed that many of my peers and seniors have been setting up their own photojournalism site so I decided to do the same. It will be easier for me to track my progress and showcase my good work that way. =)
Hope you guys like it and let me know what you think k? =) click on the picture below to access my site
Yours Sincerely,
Jeraldine
My favourite television series is The Big Bang Theory. This show was introduced to me at the start of exchange by Pinja and Thomas and it has really brought me a lot of laughter and happiness in my days in Lugano, together with the amazing parties and people who live with me. =)
The Big Bang Theory follows Leonard and Sheldon, who are geeks, roommates, friends and highly intelligent physics professors at CalTech, but their social skills leave much to be desired. While they spend plenty of time with their nerd buddies, the arrival of beautiful and sociable new neighbor Penny across the hall throws their lives into chaos, and opens them up to new possibilities.
I like the jokes in this show because they are intelligent jokes. I guess I am the kind of person who is really into comedies and mixing with funny people. As Marilyn Monroe said “If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.” Of course, that is an exaggeration but yea, you get the idea.
Besides getting the kicks out of laughing, i also get to develop the more quantitative side of me with new knowledge on the mathematics and hard sciences (chemistry and physics) which I am weak in. I also can understand the humanities and biological jokes used. Besides which, there are also other kinds of funny jokes like – obvious humor, ridiculous jokes, subtle jokes and sexual ones.
My favourite character is of course, the main character- Sheldon Cooper, which is played very well by Jim Parsons. The theoretical physicist seems to lack human emotions and a basic understanding of how people behave, but his insistence on logic and reason provides for plenty of amusing predicaments. Never one to hold back from expressing any thought he has, Sheldon is often inadvertently insulting, which can create problems for him but is frequently hilarious.
“I’m quite aware of the way humans usually reproduce, which is messy, unsanitary, and based on living next to you for three years, involves loud and unnecessary appeals to a deity.” – Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper
Now back to topic on progression:
Today I was watching Big Bang Theory Episode – The Stag Convergence. The guys organize a bachelor’s party for Howard, which leads to the unraveling of Howard’s sexual past. Bernadette, his fiance, accidentally hears about them, threatening their impending nuptial.
It was pretty funny as usual but there was something very nice which Howard said and I shall blog about it because it made me think of many stuff. =)
Tell her I’m really sorry. And if she doesn’t want to marry me, I get it.
But what I really want her to know is the guy that she is really disgusted by is the guy that I’m disgusted by, too. But, that guy doesn’t exist anymore;
he’s gone.
And the reason is because of her. So, if this relationship is over, let her know that she made me a better man, and tell her thank you.
I think that ever so often, we dwell on our own mistakes, criticize our younger selves or judge others by the people they once were. But, one thing we’ve got to know is not everyone starts on the same footing in this life. Different people have very different life circumstances that shape them as children to hold certain mindsets and attitudes or make mistakes. But as long as they change, shouldn’t we give them a second chance in life? They were not perfect people, but neither are we. Most people in their older years, were better people than they once were.
One might claim that “Oh i went through something like this too, but i didn’t turn out the same way girl B did.” but how similar would it actually be? Every situation is unique and different.
The good thing about this is every day is a brand new one and in life, we have many chances and can choose each day to be the better person than we were before.
I believe the point of our existence is to ensure the progression of mankind so we should always look ahead and at the present. No matter what it is, whether it is about judging people, moving on from unhappy things etc. Our main focus should always be on the future and present because that is what we are going to live through. We only live through the past by playing it in our heads but the present and future are the situations that we will actually experience.
I don’t think I was a nice or extremely good person before. However, for the past two years, I have been really doing my best to be a brand new person. It wasn’t easy as I was continually judged by someone close as the person I used to be instead of the new person I was trying to be. It was very hurtful and so, eventually, I had to let go of this contact because i knew I couldn’t progress in my character like this and would always see myself as the worst of myself instead of seeing myself as the best person I could really be in the future and in the present.
I wanted to be a new Jeraldine and recently, I have been getting closer to existing friends and with them, it felt like i could be the best and most attractive Jeraldine possible and it really made me feel good about myself.
On this blog, I can also be the best Jeraldine that i want to be without any restrictions and I really want to thank those who read but don’t judge. I know i can be a bit elitist at times but I am working on it. I know that sometimes I can be insensitive too but I am trying to change. Thank you for reading and instructing me gently when I say something wrong.
To my friends who know me deeply and my secrets, I know I messed up at some point but I am really doing my best to be better. So thank you for being here. Thank you to the person who found out more about me in Florence and in our last four hours in Paris, and who told me that it didn’t matter. No words can express how much all that touched me as well as all the appreciation and gratitude I feel.
A little something dedicated to someone:
Jeraldine
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© 2012 Jeraldine Phneah: Perception is a gift
