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Ahh, I love the sound of the former East Germany being
torn down in the morning right outside my hotel window. |
The second day of the Berlin conference was just as excellent as the first! We had an official welcome session for all the Americans and were split into "small" workshops of about 50 people to discuss topics. My group's topic was about the transatlantic relationship - we talked a lot about Crimea. For lunch, I went with some friends to a Italian place which was fun! After that we went to this really cool chocolate store which had chocolate replicas of famous Berliner landmarks. While we were in the store, it started pouring rain, so we headed back to the hotel.
That night was the fancy welcoming ceremony at the University of the Arts. We took buses there, and everyone looked spiffy. The program was really good - several officials, both German and American spoke. There was also a short musical program by some Fulbrighters - I was really excited because one of the young men played the harpsichord!!
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| The famous Fernsehturm (TV tower). |
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| Trying to split our U-Bahn ticket costs... |
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| Chocolate Bundestag (Parliament) |
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| Deconstructing the former East: Day 2. |
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There was a giant Haribo bear at the hotel which was
filled with free gummy bears (and other gummy animals)!
It was amazing - I was taking a picture with it when one
of the German Fulbrighters decided he wanted to be in it
as well! |
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| Harpsichord at Universitaet der Kunst |
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| Brandenburger Tor |
After the program there was a buffet in the lobby. Since there were still about 600 of us, we had to stand again. I was with some people who decided to hang out and wait for the line to die down - except the line almost never did that! Finally we got in line and waited for about half an hour. The food was pretty good, though, and I met a girl who is doing a Fulbright in the US for international relations! I loved getting to talk to the German Fulbrighters. After eating, I had the idea to go and see the Brandenburger Tor lit up at night, so a group of us went back to the hotel to change shoes/put on pants and then headed that way! We were running against the clock since our day passes expired at midnight and trains run less frequently at night - we made it back to Alexanderplatz at 11:58!
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| AMERICA, I SEE YOU! (It's the embassy.) |
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| Me + Gate + A tiny bit of America |
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We stood in the road for this picture. It's Melody, Hannah,
Lisa (the German Fulbrigher!), me, Maggie, and Doria. |
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| "Guck mal! Baustelle!" |
I feel like I have been neglecting my praise of the excellent German hotel buffet breakfast. I first experienced it as an exchange student, and it is life changing and delicious. Each morning, I had bacon, a croissant with nutella, muesli with yogurt, some fruit, and coffee. It is simply delicious.
On our third day in Berlin, the Americans all went to the rotes Rathaus (red city hall) for our morning program. It was kinda interesting - a man from the state of Berlin (Berlin is both a city and a state) was there. Unfortunately he had to speak in English because many people there did not speak German - I believe that was frustrating both for him and for the German-speaking Fulbrighters.
After the program, we were heading back to the hotel when we noticed that the city had set up an observation platform so that people can watch construction on the new U-Bahn line. Only in Germany would the city set up an observation platform for that!! Germans love to stop and stare at...anything, but especially construction.
That afternoon, Doria and I went to visit the East Side Gallery, which is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and was totally redone by artists. I mostly took pictures of the stuff people graffitied over it.
On the way back to the hotel, it started hailing on us!!The white flecks in the picture below are the hail falling from the sky...Berlin is ridiculous!
That evening was pretty calm since the German Fulbrighters had all left - we just had dinner at the hotel and turned in early! I kept on waking up early the entire week, so I was happy to go to bed.
On Wednesday I was up early enough to go for a walk after breakfast and before the program started for the day. This is the famous clock in Alexanderplatz - I think it's gorgeous! As you can tell, I was there at 8:30.
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| Train station at Alexanderplatz |
That morning we had a workshop for all the teaching assistants - we broke up into groups and complained a lot. Technically we were coming up with suggestions to better the program, but it turned into people complaining. It was interesting to hear other people's experiences and made me grateful to work at such a great school! (I told my 5th graders this today and they all groaned. I think they thought I was lying.)
For lunch I went with a group of people I met at orientation - we got doener again and then went to the Ritter Sport store!
That afternoon, 12 people presented the projects they had been working on all year. I was expecting this to be really dry, but it was actually really interesting - one person talked about slow food in Turkey and another talked about advertising in the Slovak Republic. Following that, we participated in one of the most German traditions of all time - Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake!). I was by some people who weren't living in Germany in line, so I got to explain the concept to them!
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| Came in like a wrecking ball..... |
That evening we all had dinner at the hotel, then we were all bused to a club that the Fulbright commission had rented out for us. It was a fun time! It turns out that the Fulbrighters as a group are horrible at dancing.
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| At the club... |
On Thursday morning I hung out with the Sachsens until they left me. (By abruptly walking away from me without saying good-bye, which I thought was hilarious. They all texted me to say sorry though...except Philip.)
After that I went to see a few places in Berlin by myself before taking the train back home. The Berlin Conference was an amazing experience - I learned a lot, ate some good food, and saw some interesting people. YOBO!
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