Berlin Seminar

We had our end of year seminar in Berlin the past few days. We all arrived around 2 on Wednesday, and it was great to see everyone again. I missed them a lot. We stayed at the Teikyo University hotel thingy, which unfortunately was about an hour outside of Berlin, so it was hard to get to. We had to switch street trains a lot, and walked for awhile in a forested area past some camping grounds. I felt like I was in girls’ camp again. That day we just had a seminar to tell us basically what we would be doing in the next few days.

On Thursday, we got going around 8 or 9 and went to the Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Conference took place. We got a tour and learned some interesting stuff, like that Stalin was terrified of airplanes and Truman gave the OK for Hiroshima from there. Afterwards we had free time to go around Potsdam and/or Berlin, but to go to the bus/tram station we had to go through the park. Which happened to be an FKK park. Which means Freikörperkultur park. Or, nude park. Or, its-okay-to-walk-around-wearing-nothing-while-innocent-children-run-around park. That was definitely an experience that my exchange has lacked, but I really would have been okay without it. We decided to go to a castle in Potsdam that some people say is a smaller version of Versailles (it’s not, really…), called Castle Sanssouci. It was really pretty with lots of landscaping and statues, but I’ve seen better ones. We didn’t go inside, but headed toward Berlin. In the Hauptbahnhof, we decided to eat, which was a bad idea, because there are lots of scammers and thieves. I ended up buying lunch for one such scammer, before I realized that was a bad idea. But whatever. Someone just got a free lunch. I wanted to go directly and see all the typical sights in Berlin, but others in my group had already been there, and wanted to check out a store they had heard about. It was called the Kaufhaus des Westens, or some such (Shopping Center of the West, roughly). It was in the posh section of Berlin, and had a lot of high-end brands, like Rolex and whatever else. At the top was a grocery section that had American food, which is why we wanted to go. But it was really anticlimactic for several reasons. 1, they didn’t have a good selection; 2, it was way overpriced; and 3, we are going to be back in America soon anyways. I probably would have been thrilled to find that 5 months ago, but… No. By that time we had to start heading back to the hotel to get there in time for another seminar. A lot of us were late, and Gerd (our main teacher) wasn’t happy, but we seriously left on time. It’s just the public transportation out to that area isn’t good.  We just planned for the next day.

Thursday we had to wake up at a ridiculously early hour to eat breakfast at 5:30, and leave by 6 to go to the Reichstag with all 300+ CBYXers. We had to pass through security, and I got patted down/scanned with a metal detector baton thingy for the first time (new life experience, check). Once we all got in, we took our seats to watch a meeting of the Bundestag. First at 8 we were told about the history of the building, and at 9 it began. We were lucky in the fact that we got to see them really going at it with a heated topic, gay rights/marriage. The way they debate and discuss is rather different from how it’s done in America (as far as I’m aware). As a speaker from each party would give his/her speech about it (speaking rather freely, which I found cool), the other representatives would cheer, clap, boo, or yell at them. It was rather amusing actually, and I was so distracted by all that going on that I don’t even know what was said or decided. Then the topic changed to something boring and a bunch of the representatives just left. We left soon after as well to go to a conference room and speak with other party officials. We were able to ask them political questions and get answers (sort of), as well as let them know how awesome we find the program. My group did that in rap-form. Most of us just snapped the whole time, but it turned out really cool, I thought. Another group read a poem aloud. Around 11, the American ambassador and the president of the Bundestag came and spoke to us. The stereotypical differences between Germans and Americans were really apparent between those two men. President Lammert was so formal and correct, while Ambassador Murphy was really open, friendly, smiley, and amiable. They spoke to us about the importance of our program to the relations between Germany and the US. Murphy quoted someone at one point (and I wish I could remember who) saying “Exchanges turn ‘nations’ into ‘people’,” which is so true. Before coming here, the thought of Germany was an abstract idea of all the stereotypes and history of Germany that I knew; just some country across the ocean. But now I feel personally connected to them; I feel like I know them because I have lived here for the past 10 months and have come to understand how they tick and who they are and what it’s like to live here and how they are and aren’t different. Germany (and all the other countries, for that matter) isn’t just some country across the ocean; there are people there, just like us, and we should do what we can to help each other and improve relations. We can all benefit so much from working together and understanding each other. Anyways, after all that we ate lunch. I got to meet some other people and talk to them about their programs. I’ve already been looking into doing some sort of internship or scholarship to study more abroad, but for a shorter time. Around 1:45 we headed to the US Embassy, which is right next to the Brandenburger Tor. My group was the first to go in, which meant we got first dibs on all the American sodas and donut holes!!! You have no idea how excited we were to be (technically) on American soil and have American foods. I swear the grass smelled like America. Seriously. I went around telling everyone to smell it. It’s different. And I’m not crazy, because a number of people agreed with me. There was a dance party in the courtyard, but my feet hurt from wearing heels, so I chilled with some friends and enjoyed watching. After awhile, Murphy came back and said a bit to us, and the embassy workers also spoke and told us about what they do and about possibilities to work with them. We were given free time in Berlin from 6-10, and my group did some touristy stuff. Lots of pictures, Brandenburger Tor, Checkpoint Charlie, Rathaus, Berlin Wall pieces, and the Fernseherturm. We also went to the Ritter Sport Chocolate store and souvenir shopping. We were able to get a short impression of Berlin, which is quite a big, modern city. I wish we had more time there, because something I have learned is that just being a tourist in cities doesn’t cut it. You miss so much if you can’t really get to know the area and what it’s like there and the people. But I really enjoyed it, and am really glad I got to go to Berlin. Now I have less than a week left in my exchange and I’m FREAKING OUT. It’s like I suddenly don’t know what to do with my life anymore, even though I already have plans to get a job and go to college. Everything I have come to know and have experienced in the last 10 months is about to end. While I’m excited to get on with my education and be back in the land of Oreos (which I have missed so much), I’m going to miss here a lot. I have been able to see and learn and change/grow and do so much, and I would like to continue doing so for a little longer. Just a bit more time would be great. But I can’t do that, and so I’m just going to have to make the best of my remaining time here.