nyuberlin-blog
Four Months in Berlin
NYU 2014 in Berlin for Spring 2013;
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Because I am still in Germany, it feels like my study abroad experience is not over yet. Even more so, I'm not ready to let it go yet. As an au pair, I speak more German in two days than I did outside of German class in Berlin in four months. I've put off a departing post because it's just too difficult to think about, but it will come soon.
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this is amazing and perfect
then I don’t know where I am right now. I think I left pieces of it on the U-Bahn. Someone in the Mauerpark flea market has a bit— I wonder how much he’s selling it for. A little bit fell out of my pocket in front of the currywurst stand, and I must have given some away with my change for a döner....
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The fist day I arrived to Berlin we went on a bus tour and stopped at the Brandenburger Tor. On my last night in Berlin, I decided to visit the gate one more time.
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The last breakfast and last supper with my German class.
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This past Sunday I could not resist procrastinating in beautifully sunny Mauerpark. I walked around the weekly Flohmarkt, or flea market, with my friends and then relaxed on the grass. Now, I have a lot of stress while finishing a final essay, but it was worth it.
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Berlin and beyond
We had a lunch seminar with Melody Barnes, who served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and her husband Marland Buckner, Founder and Principal of the firm Global Strategic Partners who worked as Director of Federal Government Affairs for Microsoft Corporation in Washington D.C. We got some insight into working for the government and a major corporation, got tips for the future, learned about Obama and Bill Gates in a way we never would in the news or an article, and had a great laugh.
Most importantly I discovered the greater purpose of studying abroad. I am not just expanding my global perspective, which could be done through research and reading, I am engaging myself globally. While spending four months in Berlin, I have thought in different ways and opened my life to a new culture. I am not simply reading about a different culture, I am experiencing it.
Furthermore, I decided I wasn't ready to leave Germany after four months. I have accepted a job as an Au Pair in western Germany for three months. With this will come a greater immersion into the German culture because I will live outside of the city, in a rural, tourist-free town. I have only gotten a glimpse of German culture in Berlin. Let's see what's to come.
#nyuberlin#berlin#Melody Barnes#Marland Buckner#Au Pair#Germany#Berlin#culture#studying abroad#nyu#summer
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As seen on a German class excursion, Berlin is a city full of art, some organized and some chaotic, but all beautiful.
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May 1st: Tag der Arbeit in Berlin aka Labor Day done right.
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Studying abroad in Berlin has made it pretty easy and relatively cheap to travel.
Photos:
1-5; April 2-6; Paris
6-10; April 25-28; Barcelona
hopefully I can get one more trip in!
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Last week NYUB sponsored a trip to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, one of over a thousand labor camps during WWII. (labor included tasks such as prisoners walking and running for hours a day in shoes to test the material)
First, a woman who does research on liberated men and women who were children in concentration camps gave us a presentation. Then, we got a tour of the camp.
Photos:
2. The entrance and guard tower. The time painted on the clock is the time when the camp was liberalized.
3. "Arbeit macht frei", a misleading sign on the entrance gate meaning work frees.
4. The sign "neutral zone" is also misleading. Prisoners who entered the area were immediately shot. Sometimes guards would throw a prisoner's hat into the area and tell them to retrieve it just so they could shoot them and be rewarded with a longer leave.
5. The inside of a bunker where bunk-beds had 3 levels. There were strict rules about how a bed was made, down to the number of squares that were visible when made. This was done so that prisoners could be punished.
6. Soviet Liberation Memorial with red triangles. There was an identification system in the camp and prisoners were marked with a triangle to represent what type of prisoner they were. The red triangle was the symbol Nazis gave to political prisoners.
8. Remains of the crematoriums which were in the process of being torn down when surviving prisoners spoke out and stopped the action.
9. Behind the Pathologists offices there was a Brothel. Prisoners who worked hard were given a ticket for a visit where 10 prostitutes, 5 Polisha and 5 German were forced to worked.
It was quite an emotional and informational visit.
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NYU students and staff members gather in Kimmel to stand up for love, in support of those affected by the tragedies in Boston.
To Boston from New York, with love ❤
#NYU #BostonStrong
(at Helen & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life at NYU)
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Perfectly put, I completely relate
As my time abroad draws to a close, I’m beginning to freak out a little. Have I seen everything I wanted to see? Crap, still need to see the Uffizi. Have I tried all the restaurants I’ve heard are great? Definitely not. There’s still so many things to cross off my abroad bucket list. So many...
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On Monday my Environment & Society class took a trip to the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. The institute focuses research on evolutionary adaptations, diseases, and conservation. We saw naked mole rats, which they are observing the aging of. Some facts about die Nacktmulle: they can run backwards as fast as they can forwards; they "work" all day; they move their nest to a new chamber every day; the queen is the biggest and lives the longest; only one queen can live within a community, if there are two, they will fight each other until the death; After our tour we used a blowgun, which proved to be quite challenging.
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View of the Fernsehturm, a television tower in the city center of Berlin, from our bedroom windows.
It's the second week of April and it's finally getting warm in Berlin! Simply being able to go outside with a jacket, without a winter coat, thick scarf, and gloves, makes me a happier person. Fortunately, I love the cold winter but it's just a hassle to put on and take off layers.
Yesterday we went to Tomasa, a restaurant, for a suite mate's birthday dinner with her parents. It was a beautiful restaurant, essentially a small house; the vibe was very cool and the food was delicious and relatively cheap for the big portion size. Outside, the restaurant has a courtyard with seating and I'm really excited to go back there once it gets even warmer here, which even seems possible now in Berlin.
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here is a synopsis of my spring break in 10 picture:
1-3 are in Rome (Fontana di Trevi; Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti [Spanish Steps]; Colosseo [Anfiteatro Flavio])
4+5 are in Naples (Monte Vesuvio from Castel Sant'Elmo; Napoli Sotterranea)
6-8 are in Florence (View from the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore [Duomo]; Ponte Vecchio; Giardini di Boboli)
9+10 are in Verona (Giulietta; Arena di Verona)
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When making the decision to travel throughout Italy and to stay in hostels solo, I was a little uneasy. I thought I would spend most of my time alone and go to sleep early every night. Fortunately, I met tons of people from around the world:
Roma- I spent most my time with a friend from NYUFlorence and she introduced me to a new friend from NYULondon, who introduced me to a new APUG friend from NYULondon. In the hostel I met an Austrian woman about my age and a 40-year-old energetic Brazilian woman.
Napoli- Shiama, a medical intern from London and Paul, a political enthusiast from England, Joel, a fire ranger from Ontario, 2 Americans teaching English in Sevilla and their 2 friends studying in Sevilla, and I got to speak Polish with the hostel owner's wife
Firenze- 3 female US university students studying abroad in Sweden, a Japanese guy, and Brazilians studying in England through a government sponsored program: Renata, Stanley, Carlos, Filipe, and Gui (and a few more of their friends)
Verona- 2 girls from Brazil studying through the same program but in Germany
I also had a wonderful conversation with Orazio, a policeman around my age from Bologna, on a train ride to Brescia. And an awkward conversation with an Indian man on a train ride to Bergamo.
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SpringBreakITaly2K13 is sadly coming to an end. I have taken tons of pictures and will try to pick some out to post about my trip soon enough. I visited Rome, Naples, Florence and Verona where I met tons of people from around the world. Tomorrow I go to Bergamo before I leave for Berlin on Sunday.
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