The Berlin field trip was an amazing time of music, Starbucks, sight-seeing, and laughter.
We had a group of 2 girls, 2 guys, and 2 chaperones. Though we had an early morning flight, everyone was happy to be there. From the airport, we took the S-Bahn (city train) into downtown Berlin and saw the Brandenburg Gate.
The orchestra in front of the Brandenburg Gate
Next, we went to a Christian school in Berlin and performed a concert for them. One of the teachers had a cello she let us use so we didn’t have to fly with a cello!
We performed at the Freie Evangelische Schule Berlin
As I announced the pieces we played, the students got excited when I said the names of composers they recognized. I said, “Unsere nächste Stück ist Sonata von Mozart,” there were audible excited whispers – “Mozart! Mozart!”
After playing at the school, we went to the hostel and crashed for a little bit. One student took a nap while the rest of us played Apples to Apples. Then we decided to buy food from the local grocery store and make dinner ourselves. Leave it to a group of teenage musicians to make dinner the most interesting part of the day!
As we were getting ready to cook our frozen pizzas, they pulled some wine glasses out of the kitchen. Soon the air was filled with the piercing sound of humming glass.
Making music with wine glasses in the hostel
Though the pizza, celery and grapes made a nice dinner, the best part was the pineapple. It was an adventure cutting it up, and even more fun to eat!
A.C. reads instructions for cutting the pineapple
We were sitting on the train later on talking about something else, when suddenly H.J. said, “I’m going to go to Hieber’s when we get back and get myself a pineapple.” He did! He bought it at lunch on Monday and showed it to us in orchestra class!
That night we went back into Berlin to try to find an open Starbucks, but unfortunately, most people do not drink coffee when they are about to go to bed. We saw the Brandenburg Gate again and walked through the Holocaust Memorial, which is a little more spooky at night than in the daytime.
On Saturday, we slept in, ate the breakfast provided by the hostel, and took the train into the city again. We were at a stop when the kids saw a market out the window. One of them had been hoping to go to a market, so he asked if we could. As soon as I said, “Yes, let’s go!” they all ran out the doors so we would get out before the train left the station! The people left on the train seemed to get a good kick out of our hasty exit. At the market, S.S. got a bracelet and B.K. got some vinyl records, a specialty of Berlin.
We finally made it to downtown Berlin. After seeing the 3rd place where Mendelssohn lived, we sat down in a Starbucks (“yay! Starbucks!”). We put the time to good use, though. As we sipped our tasty caffeinated beverages, I had them do some readings on Mendelssohn’s life and fill out a worksheet.
Drinking starbucks while learning about Mendelssohn's life
If the kids had their way, we would have spent the whole trip inside coffee shops. However, we had much more to do!
Saturday we ran into a few disappointments. Two of the places we wanted to visit were closed because May 1 is a big holiday. We found out just before we left that May 1 is a common day for rioters to get together and riot. We did see some police cars lined up downtown on Saturday, and when we were on the train we saw a fight almost break out. We also heard some mob noises one time when we were on the S-Bahn, but we couldn’t see whether it was coming from the platform or from another car on our train. All in all, we were not affected by the riots at all.
On Saturday evening, we saw an orchestra concert at the Philharmonie, home of the Berlin Philharmonic (the actual Berlin Phil was traveling that weekend – I wish we could have seen them play…).
We performed an air symphony outside the Berlin Phil's home
Sunday morning (after sleeping very little due to some good conversations late into the night), we ate breakfast, checked out of the hostel, and went to FeG Tempelhof (Freie evangelische Gemeinde near the Tempelhof airport). We provided music for the prelude, after the sermon, and at the end. Several people came up afterward thanking us for the music. They were very touched and appreciated it greatly. The church was so grateful, they even gave us money for playing!
After church, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut, then visited the Musical Instrument Museum (which was closed the day before). The kids were fascinated by the oddly shaped instruments, including some walking-stick violins and flutes. There were some with extra strings as sympathetic resonators, some with heads carved into the scrolls, and others made from turtle shells. Some favorites included the miniature violins and the colorful organ.
Don't worry, there was glass between them and the instruments.
We stopped at Haagen-Dazs for ice cream (and another Starbucks stop for the kids), bought Subway for dinner and headed off to the train to get to the airport. We had an interesting incident once we got to the airport. One of the kids had been sleeping on the train, and when we arrived at the airport station, he got up and left without his instrument or luggage! Fortunately the girls noticed his stuff and grabbed it before the train left. We all made sure he got safely to the airport. We were standing in line to check in our baggage, when he suddenly looked up and said, “Guys, I don’t remember anything that has happened in the last half hour. How did I get here?” Apparently he was sleepwalking! Note to self for future field trips: Encourage sleeping at normal times (at night – not on trains), and discourage sugar + caffeine on an empty stomach.
We made it through security, but then we discovered that our flight was delayed 2 hours, which meant we wouldn’t make it home till 11:30pm. The kids were not discouraged; they saw it as an opportunity to browse the duty free shops and have an excuse to miss part of school the next day. The sleep-walker wanted to play his violin instead of shopping, so we both got our violins out and serenaded the airport hallways. We didn’t really have our cases out, but one guy walking by came up, found an open case, and threw 1 Euro in it.
While waiting to board the plane, I showed the kids how to make a bassoon reed out of a plastic straw, so they had fun obnoxiously honking while the other passengers stared, glared, and chuckled.
On the plane, everyone slept or studied. The slap-happy, exhausted bunch could not be silenced for long, even by sleep! In the van ride back to Kandern, they recounted all their inside jokes, laughing at every hilarious thing that happened on the trip. They wanted to come to my house to try my bassoon (after playing the straws, they wanted the real thing); they thought it would be good to stay out past midnight so they wouldn’t have to go to school the next day. I figured their parents would rather have them home, so I sent them home, and we had an orchestra dinner Tuesday instead, complete with pineapple and bassoon playing!
We all came away from this trip with happy memories!
