Students must schedule their own travel arrangements to Berlin. Students will be housed in shared apartments with full kitchens (2 or three students per two-bedroom apartment) in Kreuzberg, a culturally vibrant section of Berlin. Students will be responsible for a refundable housing damage deposit. There is also an optional cell phone rental program. Students are responsible for all meals.
Dear Global Education Office:
Bitte, how do you do laundry here?
Let's be honest. You can visit Berlin any time. When you do, you can probably visit the Altes Museum (which I am sitting in front of in this picture), wander around Potsdamer Platz, listen to a concert in the Philharmonie, frequent a Biergarten, and visit major buildings all over the city. If you are an intrepid traveler, you may wander into the Russian bar to listen to a band self-described as the Emigrantski Raggamuffin Kollektiv, wander Berlin looking for your favorite street art, or hang out at night in front of some of Berlin's landmarks. What you probably won't do is build up a relationship with the shop keeper across the street, ask him the best techniques for washing laundry in your bathtub, or discuss his perceptions of American politics. You also probably won't take classes that allow you to learn the subtleties of the German language, and that include exclusive tours of Tempelhof Airport and the Nordic Embassies. You may not pick up on the struggle of how a city deals with a complicated past. Most importantly, you won't really experience a different community, learn the issues it faces, or see the unique places (like train car communes) that are embedded within it. It's those memories that make studying abroad so amazing, and teach you to think about a global community.
I realize now that before I went to Berlin, I thought I was going to have a vacation with classes, but study abroad is so much more than that. Being part of a community allowed me to learn so much more about a world I thought I already understood, and gave me a new way to look at myself and others. I learned other sides to issues I didn't realize were multifaceted, and gathered new experiences that I will always remember. My favorite memories of Berlin aren't of the landmarks I visited, but of nights spent in my neighborhood speaking faltering German to the people I met. I definitely took a piece of Berlin home with me, and I hope I left a little piece of myself there too.
-Jessica Nicholson
