Plays not to see

Today was our visit to the Bundeskanzleramt (that is their equivalent of the White House). The tour guide had a bit of a dramatic flair, but otherwise an interesting tour. What struck me the most is the design of both this place and the Reichstag (like the Capitol). They are really modern and plain. It has the feel of a large corporate headquarters or a mega-church. I am obviously biased in what I think a government building should look like. This is a country with so much history and they make their government buildings look like they have no grounding in history (yes, yes, I understand why - and they keep shoving WWII into their own face), where we have a relatively short history as a nation, but try and make our buildings look like they have been there for centuries.
The visit to the Bundeskanzleramt was not for the tour, but rather for a meeting with an official. I don't know exactly what his position would translate to in the US, but it would be something like an undersecretary in the State Department. He gave us one hour for discussion and questions, which considering his position was quite a bit of time. He is from the conservative CDU/CSU and gave quite a nice presentation of his party's views. They are for a stronger Germany (in terms of foreign policy). What I found refreshing is that he did this without US bashing. Through these past several days of meetings about trans-Atlantic relations I have grown tired of this bashing of the US. It is easy to be a pacifist when you live under someone else's security umbrella.
So, the evening was an open air (raining and in the 40s) performance of "Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar" or "The buisness of Julius Ceaser". They handed out ponchos before the performance. There was no set, the stage was made of sand, and there were four 'actors'. The first hour was a monolouge - most of it yelled by a women in a toga and galoshes. Now, on this trip I have been averaging about 75-80% comprehension on all the readings, presentations, etc... In this "play" I was able to follow about 2%. Part of this was a language barrier and part of it was a riduculus experimental theater barrier. Finally I just checked out and started to work fluvial geomorphology problems in my head. At a point I looked out at what was going on and it looked like some Saturday Night Life satire of German experimental theater - stomping, yelling gibberish, while dressed all wierd. Wow. At least it wasn't my 20 euro.
Next up - the Wall museum and a discussion with a Turkish leader on immegrants in Germany - followed by dinner in the Turkish part of town.