Wow, we’ve only been in Berlin for one week! Somehow it feels like much longer than that- I guess we’ve all settled in.
This is an amazing opportunity and I’m so glad I was able to come on this trip. It’s barely begun and I can already tell that I’ll remember it for many years to come.
Despite it having only been a week, strong connections have already formed between all of us here. It’s such a unique environment, living 24/7 with an entire class in a foreign country. Honestly, being a rather introverted person, I was a little worried about being constantly surrounded by people for 6 weeks straight. But it is proving to be such a blessing. It’s cool that we’re all engineers because we all get excited about the same things and we have so much in common. And we’ll also be taking classes together throughout college, so it’s great to form these connections now, knowing that many of these people will become lifelong friends. And being able to share all these experiences with each other, talk to people we didn’t know before, and just do life together is so fun!
What I’ve seen of Germany so far is very different visually from any cities in the US. The buildings are all such interesting shapes- some of them even have trusses on the outside of them! And although none of us are able to speak the language very well, it’s amazing how much can be communicated through what little we do know. This morning after chruch, I met a girl named Morbina who spoke no English, and was able to learn that she’s 23 and is from Iran, as well as tell her what we’re all doing in Berlin, where we’re staying, and for how long. Just simply being able to communicate made me so happy!
We’ve been able to see so much of the city in the short time we’ve been here and it’s incredibly interesting to learn more about all the history here. Some of the places we’ve seen: We visited one church that was situated some 7 feet below street-level and Professor Nielsen told us that the entire city was once at that level, but all the rubble was moved to the roads after the war and the city was literally built on top of ruins. We’ve also seen the Berliner Dome, which had patches of different colored stone on the outside from repairing bullet holes from the war. We’ve been all around downtown and we’re discovering all the best places to eat and hang out. It seems like we’ve seen a lot already, but we still have so much more to see!
If this was only one week, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip holds!