Strolling in the Rain

So I spent this rainy day just walking East. At first, I wanted to go to a park I saw on a map. I walked until I found a park (the one I had been aiming for or not, I do not know) and started to explore. In the center of the park was a hill with some kind of monument. I climbed up and from there saw a tower that I started to head toward. And so it went: I’d see something, walk to it, see something else, walk that direction…I actually feel like I had a pretty productive day. I stopped to watch a soccer game for a bit. The colorful graffiti plastered all over a children’s playground also inspired me to pause and wonder. I’m in East Berlin, in Schöneberg, so there are many slab concrete buildings and buildings that are in disrepair still. What is interesting about being here now is that there are renovated and reconstructed buildings around too, as well as brand new modern buildings that wrap around older structures. I would love to see pictures of some of these blocks 20 years ago, and I wonder what they’ll look like 20 years from now. On a tour we took yesterday, we were told that 1) much of Berlin is swamp-land so the breweries will always be on hills and construction projects always take longer because digging is difficult AND 2) Berlin has traditionally been one of the cheaper and poorer cities in Germany so most construction projects are funded by whatever government is in power. He also mentioned that the governments put a lot of work into keeping Berlin alive. Men have been given draft exemption in exchange for agreeing to move to Berlin, and students have been given stipends for coming here. Many people have mentioned to us that the neighborhoods have changed based on rent fluctuations, and I’m actually hoping to learn more about the specifics of how groups of people have moved around the city in the last few years.

Classes start tomorrow and I could not be more excited. My classes all sound awesome! I already met one of my professors, and he gave me a list of his favorite things to do in the city. He also suggested getting a bike. Everyone seems to be saying this, and it would be nice to not have to buy 3 more transit passes…I just don’t know if I’m cut out to be a city-biker. I hardly ever rode my bike back home! At this point I have my transit pass for a month still. When it expires, maybe I’ll bike for a month and see how it goes. Keep you updated!