Twenty years ago the Berlin wall fell and the only reason I remember is because you had been an exchange student from West Berlin living with us around that time. Whenever I think about the Berlin wall falling, I remember Germans experiencing America for the first time. Especially Halloween. Teenage boys cross-dressing, complete with balloons. I wonder how you remember it. How strange was it to be thousands of miles from your island-city and watch the GDR start to crumble?
Do you remember my sister and me at all? Those little girls in awe of your exotic foreignness? We finally went to Berlin, nearly ten years ago, ten years after the fall of the wall. We went with West Germans, their first time to Berlin too, but we stayed in East Berlin. It was cheaper, you know. We saw where the wall was. Checkpoint Charlie too. My brother and his friend, Chad, were there the day Checkpoint Charlie closed. Chad is gone too now.
Do you still live in Berlin? My husband and I lived there in Moabit for a short time three years ago. We still long to go back. How much has changed? How did your Spandau change to accommodate a new Germany?
To remember the night, we ate currywurst and listened to Beethoven's 9th (another memory of the fall of the wall is watching the concert of that piece). Where ever you are, I hope you think of us sometime. I think about you and hope you are well. And thank you for helping me see at a very young age just how personal the political is.
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4 comments:
I join you in your salute. I remember Kai watching on our TV open mouthed in amazement. I never thought I would live to travel in East Germany or Czech or Hungary, but I have. An emotional wonderful night now just as it was 20 years ago.
I wanted sit around the pieces of the Berlin Wall that we have and fill a stein with root beer and celebrate this day. Alas we had no root beer! Cheers to Kai. Imagine Angela is from the East. What a difference 20 years has made. Mutti
Beautiful post. We had an exchange student from Berlin just a few years after the wall fell. I learned a lot from her, and from visiting her in Berlin a few years after that. I hope she is also well.
Even I remember that time thanks to Kai -- and I was only five. According to my psychology book I shouldn't have been aware of other people's points of view, but I remember being fascinated by Kai. I remember being fascinated by his fascination with us, our desert, our culture. And I even remember coming to an understanding of how much the fall of the wall meant -- because of Kai.
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