Was?

Today I thought I would go to Potsdamer Platz because I had heard that there would be free music and lots of tulips in the Sony Center this weekend. My plan was to do some homework in the morning and then take the subway up. Since the sun has finally been out, I also wanted to walk home. Well…

When I got off the subway and up onto the street, there were no tulips to be seen. There was plenty of music and green though: I had stumbled into the middle of an anti-nuclear-energy demonstration. The street was filled with people marching, on their way to the chancellery with their signs and banners and drums. And of course they were taking the same route that I had been planning to take home. I followed for a bit, sometimes in the crowd and sometimes on the edge. The diversity of the protestors struck me immediately…well…after the noise and the vibrant colors did. I followed them until they turned toward the chancellery and off Potsdamer Str.

I continued on my stroll home, stopping in at a few shops to look for incense, Easter cards, and a sundress. The sun felt so nice though that I passed my home to go wander first in a Turkish market and then through a near-by cemetery. Now I’m home drinking tea and listening to some jazz I stole from my dad over winter break. I’m a little awestruck by the sound landscape of this day. To think that over the course of four hours I went from chants and techno of the protest to the calls of the market vendors to the whispers of the cemetery. I guess I’ll look for the tulips another time.

Welcome to my home!

If I caught you up completely on the last two weeks, your head would be spinning as fast as mine. Essentially, friends flew in from the United States. Two of them were New York friends who knew each other and the other was one of my best friends from high school. Hillary and Alex arrived and we went to the Maybacher Str. Turkish market on the 11th. That put us in Kreuzberg, so we also saw the Museum of Things, which is a small museum with this statement of purpose:

“What do we collect today? We are a museum like an experimental lab for a contemporary form of social memory…concerned with clarifying the meaning and commitment and history for the present…Objects should ease people’s lives as silent servants rather than dominate them as seductive and independent consumer fetishes.”

Interesting, right? So what exactly is a museum then? Hm….

Since the girls were tired, we just made a simple dinner, went to a gallery opening, and then called it a night.

The 12^th was the beginning of my realizing that I’m very grateful to have the chance to live in this city. My poor friends who could only visit for a short time were running around trying to see everything and they just got to be too tired to notice things sometimes. We spent the day at the Winterfeld Market, the Pergamum museum, the Neues museum, the Bodes museum, and Hackeshire Market. We took part in a bread exchange, explored Alexanderplatz, and ended the night with a hipster bar and some wonderful Turkish food. Emily arrived the next day, so the New York girls went to the flea market while I went to the airport to fetch her. They then bounced around the cute cafes in Prenzlauerberg while Emily and I walked to the wall memorial, Brandenburg Gate, the chancellery, the Reichstag, and all that other interesting important stuff around Freidrichsein. We all met up again for a really good dinner at an (expensive) hipster place in Mitte (welcome to Williamsberg, Berlin!). The 14^th I had class, but we also managed to get currywurst with friends at Konnopke and walk to a watertower that was used as a prison/torture chamber during the Nazi times. Then the New Yorkers explored some galleries and Em and I walked around the Topographie of Terror discussing the nature of totalitarianism and genocide. The 15^th, one of my classes had a field trip to the Altes museum. Hillary and Alex had gone to Vienna for a few days so Emily and I spent the morning at the East Side Gallery and the Maybacher market. Then we went on my class trip, took the bus home, did some shopping at a Turkish grocery (I love my neighborhood!) and had a quiet dinner at home. That following day, I had class from 11-7.30 and was presenting two midterms. Emily went to Museum Island while I had class, and then we had a potluck with some of my Berlin friends that included rose-water oranges and a henna party. We talked long into the night, which we haven’t done in ages and is something I hadn’t realized how much I had missed.

The 17^th (Thursday if you’re following) I had German class. After class, though, we decided to ride one of the buses to the end of the line. To our great surprise, we discovered a Western shopping district and then beyond that were mansions and a lake! We explored for a bit before hopping the same bus back and taking it to its other end. There we discovered a cemetery before it was time to go to the Schoneberg Rathouse for another of my classes. The Rathouse has an exhibit up right now that is called “We Were Neighbors.” It’s about the Jews who fled from/were deported from the neighborhood under Nazi rule. There are books in which visitors can read interviews with people who survived, and around the neighborhood there are plaques which have some of the rules against the Jews written on them. Apparently, when the plaques were first being put up, people didn’t realize it was a memorial and so called the police to report anti-Semitic vandalism. I guess that’s heartening in a way. A little less heartening was the way the guide kept referring to the “Germans of Jewish faith” who were persecuted, trying to be politically correct but overlooking the fact that heritage Jews were persecuted as well.

From there we went to the Berlin Philharmonic for my architecture class. We had front row seats for 15 euro a piece! The building made me feel like I was underwater, but the design was interesting and the music was beautiful. On the way home, we picked up döner and baklava J

Hillary and Alex got home that night. They slept in the next morning as Em and I got up for a long day with my Communities class. The professor had planned a field trip from 9-6 that took us all around Berlin to look at different Holocaust memorials. It was a lot to take in, but I’m really glad we did it. We started at the train platform that the trains to the deportation camps used to leave from. Then we went to a few monuments commemorating synagogues that were used as collection points and then destroyed. We continued to the many memorials and monuments in the “center”(?) around Tiergarten (which I’ll reflect on later when my thoughts have settled) before ending at a small museum near Alexanderplatz that talks about the efforts of one man to save the Jews in his broom-making shop. Tired and a bit chilly, we met up with the other girls and went out to a beer hall together. It was relaxing to sit inside someplace warm and just catch up with everyone.

Saturday was everyone’s last day. Hillary and Alex wanted to see the East Side Gallery so they went there while I took Emily to the Soviet Memorial at Treptower Park. My Communities class had gone to the memorial and I was moved (and a little unsettled) by it so wanted to share it with her. We walked around there for a while before heading off to see a wishing tree, a petting zoo, Oranianstr., the 36 Boyz shop, good Turkish food and a strange pastry. Then I had to go to an event for my internship so Emily came with. Despina had arranged a “curator battle” in which two curators set up anonymous shows which were opened together. Visitors viewed both shows and then voted for their favorite. Again, I’ll have more to say in a week or two, but for now let it suffice to say that the event put the idea of curation to showcase art against the idea of curation as an art in itself (sometimes as the cost of the works in the show). It was fascinating. Em got pulled into being security, Michelle and I worked the ticket/voting table, and other people were in and out during the night. Hillary and Alex came by at the end and we all left together. And that was it. I took everyone to the airport the next day before going back to my apartment to clean, do homework, and try to sort out my life a bit. It was exhausting to run around so much, but I was glad to have the chance to see everyone and show them some of the city. And I realized that I could really stay here for a few years once I get the language down. With nothing to tether me in the states once my undergraduate degree is finished (because, really, it’s not like I’ll have a job offer right away or be able to afford to stay in NYC) there is no reason why I shouldn’t come here and maybe get my masters here. My resolve to learn German is a bit renewed…

When I'm at school and have internet bandwidth to spare I'll spellcheck this and add pictures! Ah the patience one develops when on limited internet plans...

Das Wetter ist schön

We are still wearing scarves and coats as spring tries to sneak in unnoticed, but increasingly I see the crocus blooming and feel the sun on my cheeks. She’s coming soon and she’ll be beautiful!

I’ve been trying to clean a lot and get a lot of midterm projects finished so that I can focus on my friends when they arrive in a few days. Despite this, I’ve somehow managed a few adventures since last writing.

Interesting insights from German class: When we practice using the phrase “You should…” my teacher drills us by having us give her advice. She says, “I have a headache.” Somehow all the American students respond with 5 different ways of saying, “When you have a headache, you should take [a pill/medicine/pills/tablets].” When she says she is tired, they tell her to drink coffee and when she says she is sad they respond with “Call your mother” or “Go to a bar” or “Quit complaining.” I could comment, but you can probably tell already why I was amused.

One of my other professors started a conversation about how upset he is that the Turkish politicians are suggesting the Turkish population in Germany teach their children Turkish, “because it is important to have a strong mother tongue.” Yikes. That conversation went on to debate language acquisition, bi-lingual education, German “migration” issues and “dead multiculturalism,” national identity based on language, state censorship, the purpose of elementary schools, double-speak as an accepted national dialogue, and (of course) racism towards immigrants. It was a pretty intense class.

Then it was the weekend again. I got a new tram pass and, unlike in Prague, the program director here wrote us official letters explaining that we’re affiliated with a German university and therefore do qualify for the student discount on transit passes. A lovely surprise.

One of the RAs organized a trip to see the Berlin fußball team play against the Frankfurt team at Olympic Stadium. Watching the sun set above the match was beautiful. Meanwhile, the fans were as fun to watch as the game and I really had a good time. Of course, the Berlin team won 3-1. Then we went out for dönor (since I hadn’t tried any before that, because of my vegetarian tendencies and such) and discussed spring break plans a little.

The next morning I went to Tempelhof airport to do culture observations for one of my classes. The pre-WWI airport was rebuilt in Nazi times and then was vital during the Berlin air-lift. It was shut down in 2008 and the city re-opened it as a park. Since they’re indecisive and broke, they didn’t landscape beyond putting up a few fences and signs that say “relic of historical use”…and the result is that there is this huge open airfield for people to use. Since my architecture class seems to be focused on public space more than anything else, I wanted to observe how people responded to a mostly open public space. It turns out that they do the same things they do elsewhere: walk, bike, talk, and play. The park does have a different feel because the space is SO huge and open, so I’m glad to have seen it. Michelle came with me so we then came home for lunch and homework before heading out again.

We went to a burlesque show in Kreuzberg. At a punk-rock bar. And we’re doing a presentation on it as one of our midterms. The assignment was to go as a group and explore a place of knowledge production. I’ll post my paper when I get it finished, because you will be surprised at how much knowledge production we witnessed in those few hours. But then we got tired so we went home to sleep.

The rest of the weekend was quiet. Angel and I explored a cool playground, but my other time was mostly spent doing homework. Yesterday was Azzuré’s birthday so we went to a vegan/vegetarian burger place called Yellow Sunshine and then went out for a drink after school. With all our work, we didn’t stay out late, but some other friends had birthdays yesterday too so we were all together. This was nice because it drew people from a few of the different cliques out of their groups and around one table. Really fun. Although one of the students is an exchange student from Mexico who put me in a reflective mood at the end of the night. He told me stories about the prejudice he faced in America, but how he loves Canada and Australia. He’s enjoying Berlin, but he misses Mexico because the culture there is friendlier. He commented that it’s harder to make friends here because people are more reserved, and that people here (like in America in some ways) work too hard to enjoy life. Mexican culture, as he explained it, prioritizes family and friends and celebrations. Beyond that, things are expected to work themselves out in time. I can see why he would be homesick.

I’ve been having a lot of these thoughtful conversations lately, about memory and time and relationships and change and conversation and socialization and the concept of home. Maybe eventually I’ll write a paper about something interesting stemming from one of these talks. Who knows?

One of the more academic conversations was at a field trip today. I went to a museum for one of my classes. To be honest though, I need to make dinner before I can focus on writing any more. Sooo this will be enough for now. Part II coming soon!

When it rains it pours...

There hasn’t been much to say up until now, and with the terrible internet connection it’s been impossible to upload new photos. But of course, no news is sometimes good news and now with the end of my first month in Berlin I can finally share some stories.

It was a quiet first month. The program here is new and a bit disorganized (though everyone running it from this side of the Atlantic is helpful and brilliant) so it’s taken some of my classes a while to get going. With the weather being so cold and the German government holding our passports for visa processing, I’ve really been spending a lot of time just reading for school. Things finally started to pick up about a week and a half ago. Since then, I’ve had two class trips, explored Hamburg, presented a midterm, and begun an internship. Though not necessarily in that order.

One of the field trips was with my German class. We went to see one of the few old buildings in Berlin: the Knoblauch House (Garlic house, apparently). The building has been turned into a museum that gives insight into the life of the city’s early wealthy. We followed that trip with some time practicing German in a café before going to a museum that looked at the lives of the city’s early (as in industrial-age) working and elderly characters. That museum focused on the work of the artist Heinrich Zille. He worked with crayon, lithograph, and film, and he loved to showcase the ordinary: women with children, old people walking, furniture, men at work…the people of Berlin as he knew them. I really enjoyed his style, but can’t find an image of my favorite picture anywhere so can’t share it.

The other field trip was with my Cities, Culture, Communities (I think?) class. We met early on a Saturday in Kreuzberg to learn about the history of the neighborhood. The area had a bad reputation so a few years ago some of its young residents decided to begin giving tours to show people the Kreuzberg that they knew. Our tour started at the neighborhood museum where we heard a lecture on the history of migration (since apparently the government here doesn’t like to acknowledge that immigration exists) since the settlement of the area. The first immigrants in Kreuzberg were actually the French Huguegnots way back in the day. Currently, people talk about the Turkish population but the area actually has a lot of Arab immigrants and a huge Polish population. It’s the home of the anti-Nazi “gang” SO36 (aka the “36 Boys/z”), a small petting zoo, numerous bars, courtyard mosques, a legal red-light district, excellent food and the park where the May Day demonstrations take place each year. All things we saw or visited on our trip. Our tour guide was 12 when the wall came down so she remembers growing up with it cutting through her neighborhood. She told us about how she used to bounce balls against it. She also remembers a time when she couldn’t fathom that there were people living—a whole city of them—on the other side, strangers she later hugged and cried with on a cold November 9^th when the wall was opened.

While all this was happening, I was planning a midterm presentation on the biographies of objects for my museum class. Well…that and studying for German and hunting through a fleamarket in search of pieces for a friend’s art project. Also, NYU here doesn’t arrange internship opportunities but the art teachers independently set their students up with artists in the city. One of my good friends started working with a pretty awesome woman who mentioned that she may need more help with event planning and publicity stuff over the next few months. My friend suggested me because she knows I’m interested in curation and have a bit of experience in all the non-art things that her new artist friend had mentioned. So I went for an interview and ended up hanging around to help clean the studio for a fundraiser that happened last night.

In between the cleaning and the event itself, my school took us on a ‘mandatory’ (because people would not go?) to Hamburg. We took a bus tour and a boat tour and a museum tour… I actually had a pretty good time. The tours were tough because it was hard to hear over the chatter of my restless peers, but they sat through the 4 hour bus ride there and then a 2 hour bus tour and then a 2 hour boat tour so I totally understand the restlessness. The city is interesting. It’s small and the only real residential area we saw was full of mansions on the water. The rest of the city is built around the center-city shops and the ever-busy port. In the evening we walked around the famous red-light district and decided that it looked like Times Square before running away to an area where we had been told the student like to hang out. We found a place called Culture House and just sat in there for a while to talk and people watch until it was time to return to the hotel and get some rest.

I went with a group to the Hamburg Deichtorhallen on our second morning there. We walked in and the gallery was strangely empty of people. Then a man came in and asked what we were doing there. Apparently the museum was closed and the door was locked. He asked how we broke in and our group leader explained that the door had been open and that she had called a few days ago to let the gallery know what time we would be coming. He insisted that she hadn’t called and she told him to check for a recording. He also insisted that the door had been locked and we must have broken in. Since we were standing inside the front hall, arguing this point really seemed like an exercise in absurdity. Amongst ourselves we decided that, sure, we must have broken in. Right.

Later, when we were legally inside, we explored photographs done in a diverse range of styles. Stephan Tillmans makes “Leuchtpunktordnungen” shots of television screens while Helena Schätzte groups portraits of old people with photographs of rugged landscapes. Interesting stuff. The other part of the gallery was hosting a Gilbert and George exhibition. I’ve never been sure how I feel when confronted with their work, but this time was different. This time there were a mind-blowing number of works covering this huge gallery, and there was a film screening in a side room which explored their many years of working together. Seeing their pieces as components of different series’ with different names and goals helped me appreciate them much more than before. The video also mentioned that they curate all their own shows and are the only living/British artists to show a retrospective at the Tate Modern. It was pretty fascinating.

With two hours until we headed back to Berlin, a friend and I went in search of adventure and stumbled into a Carnival celebration. There were people dressed in beautiful ornate costumes posing for pictures and dancing in the street. Inspired, we went in search of masks for ourselves, which we found (along with some lunch) just in time to get back to the bus. I read on the way home and then unpacked and cleaned for a bit. Suddenly it was 10 pm and I was meeting my friend to head to that fundraiser I mentioned.

I feel like I’ve lived 10 years in the past few days. So last night we ended up bartending at the fundraiser. It was supposed to end around 1 am but 1 came and went. We were having a lot of fun talking to people and dancing and practicing our German a bit. Everyone there seemed to be having fun too. The crowd was mostly a chill one and people were friendly. Then around 5 some drunk jerk set off a fire extinguisher in the hall so that was the end of the party. We tried to clean up a bit but I got cut on some broken glass…between that and the chemicals and the fact that we hadn’t slept the past few nights we decided to head home. We spent today cooking and doing homework quietly in my room. Tomorrow classes start again. I have one week to do a field study, crank out another midterm, and figure out how to best host my soon-to-be visiting friends when I’m in class most of each weekday.

And spring is officially coming. I saw a crocus blooming in a park.

As I said, things are starting to pick up at last.

semester šednost

So that's Czech, not German, but it's appropriate.

My days here start around 8.30. I get up and get dressed, make breakfast and pack my bag for the day. I open the window curtains, turn off the lights, put on my coat/scarf/shoes, and lock my door on the way out. Walking to the U2 station nearby takes only a few minutes but is always cold enough to make getting to the station a relief. I walk past the American Church, a Turkish bath place, and usually someone with a dog. Yesterday, I saw a man on a razor scooter walking his chihuahua.

Unlike in Prague, I get a seat on the U-Bahn every day and I don’t have to transfer at all. It takes about half an hour to get to the “Culture Brewery,” the complex that NYU’s building is in. I walk from the U2, passing expensive cafes, bike rental shops, the original curry-wurst place, three gold stumble stones commemorating the murders of the Jewish residents of a building, a plaque commemorating the murder of an “anti-fascist,” an absinth bar, a men’s underwear shop, and a grocery store all before turning up the steps into the complex which I cross to the school building.

My classes are wonderful. I’m behind in German, but so is everyone else. I’m re-reading my old notes and hopefully I’ll be ready for our first test next week. My Architecture of Berlin class also has a graded assignment next week. I’m presenting a midterm assignment (early, I know) on the biographies of objects. I’m actually really excited, and then I’ll go on to write a paper on the same topic which will be my final exam. The class is interesting. We discussed how the museum was developed to provide a place for the “common man” to go for examples of how to culture himself and build his home. It was the one cultural space, save the department store, where women were also allowed, and it was hoped that women would both make sure the men behaved well. The other theory drawn up by those new to positions of power in the industrial age, was that including artifacts from the lives of the common men would pull them in because they would feel proud to be included. In post-modern times, the museum has developed in such a way that the ritual of ‘visiting’ it (for a transformative, cleansing purpose) has become hugely important. Apparently, our instinctual draw towards stability and stasis used to be soothed by religious and community rituals but now is soothed in cultural institutions, such as museums (the article we read was by a man named Tony Bennett). Interesting ideas… And my professor always starts by asking us to write something down on colored note cards, which he then sticks on the board in clusters by topic. Visual learner? You bet.

My Museum Island professor is new to teaching American students, new to teaching this course, and new to dealing with the university. He was surprised that they hadn’t ordered readers for us, not knowing that he had to submit a master copy before they could send out for copies. Poor guy. He also wanted to schedule extra trips on Fridays or Saturdays, but he’s somewhat shy so he let two girls with trips planned every weekend bully him out of using those days. Sometimes I don’t understand my peers. Hopefully the professor will get more comfortable and confident as time goes on. He’s fascinated by how maps change over time and how public space is (or isn’t) used at different points in history. He talked us through the growth of Berlin from a fishing town and medieval manor to its current urban mass.

After that class, I stay in the same seat for the next class as well. New York and Berlin as Knowledge Cities is the class that I joined after talking to the professor over dinner at the end of orientation. It’s an education focused course and it’s discussion-based. We started with a light piece that describes a fictional knowledge city, and he used it as a springboard; we discussed what we felt was good or bad about the city described in the piece and by doing so were able to better articulate our understanding of what a ‘knowledge city’ should be. I’m curious to see how the class develops. At one point, we got sidetracked because one of the boys asked if we could define ‘knowledge.’ I worked through my own thoughts on a piece of paper while listening to the professor and the class talk out all their different understandings of ‘knowledge.’ The struggle between their desire for a workable definition and their understanding that the definition would have to be so broad as to barely qualify as a definition was really fun to listen to. I haven’t been part of a conversation like that in a long while. The professor is a very energetic lecturer because he is totally in love with teaching. And he’s fascinated by changes in youth culture that he witnesses by working with new students each year.

The class I had tonight is Cities, Places and Communities of Berlin. The professor gave us a lot of country history and an outline of the current political system (party platform sketches included). He also assigned us a graphic novel as our first reading assignment. He usually teaches a Friday morning class of 4 that takes a lot of in-depth academic trips. This semester, he was assigned a Thursday evening time slot because my school decided that study abroad sites shouldn’t offer Friday classes so that students would be able to travel. Which I have my own opinions about either way, but you’d think the school would have asked the faculty and/or students if we supported this new idea of theirs. *Sigh* Because it’s a Thursday evening instead of a Friday morning class, our professor has suddenly found himself with 18 students and more trying to get in despite the course cap. He’s a bit overwhelmed. Today he gave us travel suggestions and a website to go to for restaurant ideas. Saturday, he’s taking us on a trip through a Turkish neighborhood. We’ll see the mosque, the immigrant museum, and a restaurant where we will eat and where he promises we’ll return once we taste the food. I’m pretty excited.

That’s my classes. We have a mandatory trip to Hamburg next weekend, and then it will be one weekend to do work before Hillary and Alex come. I’m a little curious about how we’ll all sleep in my room, but I’m very excited to see them.

Also, I finally got some pictures online. They're here!

One small step for mich!

First full week of classes down. I have to spend tomorrow running to different print-shops and bookstores to pick up all of my coursebooks—which I’m not looking forward to in the rain—but the courses themselves are all incredible. I’m taking elementary German II with the woman who coordinates the language classes, but I’m also taking “Place-Building-Time: The Architecture of Berlin,” “Creating an Educational Landscape: Museum Island,” “Cities, Communities, and Culture: Neighborhoods of Berlin,” and finally…well…

I was supposed to be taking another EU course because the one last semester was such a good experience. After having a class taught from a Czech professor’s perspective, I was excited to try a class on similar themes from a German professor’s perspective. Then, at the dinner we had with the faculty, I realized that the EU professor will be a lovely teacher but will be focusing on economic policy. Which really isn’t what I was looking for. When I sat down at the table that night, I was joined by a gentleman who introduced himself and mentioned a course that he will be teaching at Humbolt University once their semester starts. The course is called “Globalization, Education, and Social Identity” and I told him at once that I would beg to audit if my German were any good. It turns out that one of the courses he is teaching at NYU also has a heavy education focus. It’s called “New York and Berlin: Global Knowledge Cities.” Aside from laughing at how fantastic these names are and the ease with which I just earned (most of) a sociology minor, I’m more excited than I can possibly express after meeting all of my professors.

This weekend will be running around to get books, starting on an immense amount of reading (my fault for overloading), visiting a Turkish market, sampling some Georgian food, and maybe even taking in some German Techno (Yes, Matt, I’ll be thinking of you the whole time).

Over the next weeks, I need to figure out 1) how to catch my family on skype when the limited internet means I can’t just keep the window up while I write papers, and 2) what are some colorful cheap dinner dishes I can make since I can actually use this whole kitchen.

Apologies for the misinformation in the last post. The neighborhood I live in was part of West Berlin. Where I walked and where I go to school were in the East...

I put some pictures up on my Picasa. The link is here.

Now it might be time to rest. Sleep well!

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!