My parents had already started laughing at my unintentional mixture of English and German. I'd become quite fluent in German and all the English speakers there spoke German as well, so we had a natural mish-mash of the two languages when speaking mostly English. The quizzical looks on my parents' faces were the first inkling I had of my need to re-train my brain to English. That fluency in German is what made the events of the evening so strange and surreal.
After dinner at the Mission home, I went to a hotel with my parents and we turned on the TV. There was a German-language news show on. I was completely confused. All my life, the cold war had raged. Stories of the splitting of Germany and specifically Berlin were ingrained in my world view. What I saw on the TV, however, was a huge party near the iconic Brandenburg Gate. There were people on the Berlin Wall. I was immediately worried that there had been a mass uprising and hundreds would be reported injured or killed by the East German police. What I heard, however, was celebration and the announcement that The Wall was no more. All of the people on the TV were celebrating--not fighting or running from the law. I was astounded. It was breathtaking.
3 comments:
Wow that must have been a really amazing experience to have had.
Listening to NPR talk about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down brought back memories. Of course we couldn't understand a thing that was being said on the TV, but watching your reaction when you realized what was going on was priceless. I will always remember that day.
What an amazing memory. What a crazy coincidence that you'd be there in Europe on that very occasion. You could have easily missed it by two days. My cousin Dave was there at the wall that very day, too.
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