"FAACKKK. No no no no no no no."

I'm pretty sure I not only thought it, but also actually said that out loud when I rolled over and glanced at my phone this morning.There was no light in the room and I was sure that it was still 4 or 5 in the morning, so imagine my shock/surprise/horror when I saw that it was actually 9am: the time we were supposed to be at the ICD House so that we could be to the Reichstag on time.Of course, today would also be the one day that Mark emphasized we needed to arrive at the institute on time...

I scrambled to find my German handy while throwing my hair up into a bun—there was certainly no time for a shower—and saw that I had two missed calls from Ashley.I called her back, told her I'd overslept and that I could be ready in 5 minutes, and then sprinted to the bathroom, tripping over my suitcase that takes up about half of the room, to brush my teeth and put in my contacts.I sighed with relief when I remembered that I had hung my clothes for this morning up last night, otherwise I probably would have needed the whole 5 minutes to find my "smart casual" clothes in my suitcase.

I was in the hotel lobby by 9:06, regretting that I hadn't managed to find my flats and would be stuck in heels for the day, but overall impressed by how quickly I managed to get ready. Ashley, Sam, and Hayden were waiting for me outside, and Hayden had even grabbed be a croissant to eat on the run. Thank goodness our hotel is ridiculously close to the institute. We actually weren't even the last ones to arrive to the institute, so that made me feel better =]

The line to get into the Reichstag was pretty intense, so I was really pleased to find out that we were meeting our guide and guest speaker, Ulrich Finkenbusch, at the side entrance to the Parliament building. He gave us a brief tour and history lesson of the building. The Reichstag was nearly burnt down in 1933. Hitler blamed the incident on the communists, and this event allowed him to dissolve the parliament completely. In all likelihood, the Nazis probably started the fire themselves.

After the tour, Ulrich took us to the FDP's part of the building for a lecture and Q and A session. Ulrich is a member of the FDP Party's Foreign Policy Planning Staff, so a lot of the lecture felt like FDP talking points, especially once the discussion reached the financial crisis in Greece/EU in general. To compare the FDP to American politics, the party is "fiscally Republican, socially progressive." Ulrich was quick to distance the party from "socially conservative" Republicans, pointing out that the head of the party was once an openly gay man. Still, I don't understand how they think that the EU can allow Greece to default, but still expand on the European Union project... I also didn't agree with him that the migration/multicultural problems were decreasing over time. Keep in mind that we met with him just days after the tragedy in Norway, yet he made no reference to it or another other extremist viewpoints. That seemed rather odd to me...

After our discussion, we headed up to the terrace of the Reichstag. I was so bummed when I say that the cupola was closed for cleaning =/ The cupola is one of the aspects of the Reichstag that I find most interesting. As a practical purpose, the glass ceiling lets natural light in and somehow works so that hot air at the parliamentary floor below rises, acting as a natural AC. Symbolically, visitors at the top of the cupola are able to view lawmakers in action below, demonstrating the transparency of present day German government. I had read in my Rick Steeve's book that it closes three times a year for cleaning, and just our luck, we happened to be here on one of those weeks. Luckily my parents and I are coming back here in a couple weeks!

After walking around the terrace a bit, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed back to the Indian Embassy, where we were given a presentation on Indian cultural diplomacy. From there, we walked a block to the Italian Cultural Institute, a branch of the Italian Embassy, and talked to Annamaria Di Giorgio, who told us about how the Institute seeks to support Italian artists in Berlin and share Italian culture with Germans.
After the Italian Cultural Institute, we headed back to the ICD House for a screening of Imran Ahmed's film "Shahbaz." Imran is a Pakistani film director who does campaigns on social awareness issues. He wanted to air "Shahbaz," a story of a poor Pakistani boy who must work to help support his family instead of attending school, on the private TV channel that he works for, however his boss said no. It was a really powerful short film, and I am hoping that I could maybe show it in conjunction with a Madison or Amnesty International event.

Dinner tonight was fantastic! We went to this Greek restaurant called "Ach Niko Ach." The food was amazing, but the atmosphere is what made it really neat. Rosie, who also works at the Institute, started off by bringing one of the waiters over with shots of Ouzo (some type of Greek liquor that tastes a bit like black licorice) for everyone at the table. A few minutes later, she brought the entire bottle back and put it in front of Ashley and I, at which point Sam grabbed everyone's shot glass and poured another round. A little while later, the waiters came out with drums and a lady who looked like she could be Greek got up from her table and started dancing. Everyone was clapping to the beat and having a great time. I was so tempted to go out with Ashley and Sam, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn't have a chance to work on my research tonight or go for a run in the morning. I am really kicking myself for not getting this stuff done before I left...