2008 Woodie Awards
Berlin Diaries
A Miami Student editor recounts parts of her cross-Atlantic spring break trip
Stacey Skotzko, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: Features
This journey would be 10 days and take me about 4,475 miles - beyond the boundaries of a typical spring break trip. I signed up for this trip to Berlin, Germany, with 13 other Miami University students and three professors. The honors program offered the class Film and Architecture in the Metropolis, which was taught in part by my former German professor, Mila Ganeva. As a scheduling conflict did not allow me to take the actual class, I signed up for an independent study to be able to attend the trip. So there I was - not knowing a soul and headed to a foreign city that I had visited briefly once before. It was going to be an adventure.
11:20 a.m. EST - Saturday, March 10, 2007
Here I am. We're at cruising altitude out of Cincinnati, en route to JFK airport in New York. I'm starting my European adventure once again - part deux, abridged. I'm off for a week in Berlin, where I'm visiting the city that I've been studying from afar. This trip will be much different than my three-day whirlwind tour a little over a year ago, when I visited Berlin while studying in Luxembourg at Miami's Dolibois European Center for the semester. There will be no eight-hour train ride, no huge backpacks, no reassurance of being with people I know.
Nope, it's me and a group of 13 strangers for an entire week.
It will be nice to be in Europe again. I can close my eyes and see it, feel it - the cobblestone, the sound of unfamiliar languages.
So right now I'm looking out the window (I love window seats) at white clouds for miles and miles. I've missed traveling. We'll be in JFK in about an hour. I've never been to New York and I'm a bit excited, even if it is just the airport.
15:26 Berlin - Sunday, March 11, 2007
Welcome back to Europe. I'm sitting in my gorgeous hotel room with my new roommates, almost too exhausted to write, but giddily happy at being in Berlin on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I got maybe three hours of sleep on the plane, which for me is great. But Berlin … the city, the smells, the people … it's all so strange and wonderful.
I am rooming with three girls, all quite different but we seem to get along fine so far. Kori is quiet, but sparks out the most witty and sarcastic comments if you give her the chance. Amy loves to laugh and claims to have a good sense of direction, but we quickly learned to trust it otherwise. Chelsea is one of my favorites. She has a completely random personality with a child's sense of adventure. She is a honey connoisseur and wants to study archeology. Plus, we have three eccentric professors on the trip who love German, architecture or both. This trip is going to be quite a good time.
11:35 Berlin - Monday, March 12, 2007
Where do I begin in describing the best day in Berlin? Following breakfast at the hotel, we headed out and caught a bus from the Zoologische Garten U-Bahn stop. We rode it all the way down as our "pre-tour," then trekked back on the same route on foot. The city is just amazing. It's a kaleidoscope of old and new, young and experienced, historical and modern. A brick line of the former wall runs on the pavement through the entire city, even its most cutting-edge districts. We saw the Reichstag, which is full of history, both glorious and tragic and the place of the current German government. Later, a small group of us traveled to the top of the Reichstag and watched the sun set over Berlin.
Touring with the group thus far is going well. Chelsea wanders off at some points, but always finds her way back. Jason, another student on the trip, has a huge camera and has been mistaken multiple times for a paparazzo. We still really don't know each other and it proves for some awkward interactions, but with time that will disappear.
We ate lunch at Humboldt University today, the historical university in Berlin where famous people such as Albert Einstein studied. The sun was shining and it was quite warm - almost 70 degrees. There was a book sale outside the front of the building and we pieced through both English and German books, from romance novels to collected works of Marx. Once we walked inside, it felt odd to be in a foreign university, but still strangely familiar. These were students and even though they spoke a completely different language and lived a different lifestyle - with U- and S-Bahn stations and Turkish kabobs for dinner - we were still quite similar. The lunch there was delicious and inexpensive. Berlin is an affordable city, and is known to be "arm, aber sexy," which translates to "poor, but sexy." I think it's accurate.
The rest of the tour was like a whirlwind, with the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and being pointed out various architecture monuments.
I am exhausted. Time for a nap, touring wore me out.
8:30 Berlin - Saturday, March 17, 2007
A rainy morning in Berlin. I'm pretty tired, but still extremely happy from the soccer match last night. It was a Hertha BSC (the Berlin team) v. Cottbus (a city in Bradenburg, Germany) and even though Hertha lost, it was still absolutely insane. It was held at the Olympiastadion, where the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals were played, and where, in 1936, Jesse Owens shocked the Nazis. Music was playing and people where everywhere, all decked head to toe in their Hertha blue and white gear. The smell of sausage and beer permeated the air.
We walked into the stadium itself and stopped to gawk again. It's absolutely enormous. Throw in about 51,000 screaming, intoxicated and soccer-crazed fans, and you've got a good night.
The game was intense and even though we didn't understand half of the cheers - my German classes didn't prepare me to translate soccer match chants - we tried to chant along anyway. We left the game with a herd of fans, anticipating chaos when we arrived at the U-Bahn. But the Germans, always efficient, got us out of there in no time. Plus, we had two students on the trip with us, Josh (who became the U-Bahn direction extraordinaire) and James (who always picked the exact right spot for train doors to open). We rode home in a packed car full of still-cheering fans - and we all counted it as one of our best nights.
OK it's time for breakfast and another day. We've been touring all week and we have a free day today. We're going to the largest and oldest open-air market in Berlin. I can't wait.
13:30 Berlin - Saturday, March 17, 2007
That open-air market was quite incredible. Let's just say it was sensory overload. There were rows after rows of fruits and vegetables, carts of sausage, stacks of cheese, bouquets of fresh flowers, little jewelry stands and the hustle and bustle of a Saturday morning. This was the real Berlin and not what you see on the postcards.
11:05 Berlin - Monday, March 20, 2007
All good things must come to an end and I'm on the flight back to JFK, saying my "auf weidersehen" to Berlin and to a spring break that I will never forget. I've seen so much this week - the city's architecture, embassies, a soccer game, the major monuments and the day-to-day activities of Berliners on the U-Bahn. I've laughed so much and was just silly with new friends in a remarkable city. It felt so good to return to Europe and made me certain that I will do it again - soon.
All right, we're at cruising altitude. It's time to get some homework done, as I know reality will hit like a brick once I return. But the Berlin memories will keep me going for a long, long time. And as Marlene Dietrich, the famous Berlin actress said, "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin." I still keep a suitcase in Berlin.
11:20 a.m. EST - Saturday, March 10, 2007
Here I am. We're at cruising altitude out of Cincinnati, en route to JFK airport in New York. I'm starting my European adventure once again - part deux, abridged. I'm off for a week in Berlin, where I'm visiting the city that I've been studying from afar. This trip will be much different than my three-day whirlwind tour a little over a year ago, when I visited Berlin while studying in Luxembourg at Miami's Dolibois European Center for the semester. There will be no eight-hour train ride, no huge backpacks, no reassurance of being with people I know.
Nope, it's me and a group of 13 strangers for an entire week.
It will be nice to be in Europe again. I can close my eyes and see it, feel it - the cobblestone, the sound of unfamiliar languages.
So right now I'm looking out the window (I love window seats) at white clouds for miles and miles. I've missed traveling. We'll be in JFK in about an hour. I've never been to New York and I'm a bit excited, even if it is just the airport.
15:26 Berlin - Sunday, March 11, 2007
Welcome back to Europe. I'm sitting in my gorgeous hotel room with my new roommates, almost too exhausted to write, but giddily happy at being in Berlin on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I got maybe three hours of sleep on the plane, which for me is great. But Berlin … the city, the smells, the people … it's all so strange and wonderful.
I am rooming with three girls, all quite different but we seem to get along fine so far. Kori is quiet, but sparks out the most witty and sarcastic comments if you give her the chance. Amy loves to laugh and claims to have a good sense of direction, but we quickly learned to trust it otherwise. Chelsea is one of my favorites. She has a completely random personality with a child's sense of adventure. She is a honey connoisseur and wants to study archeology. Plus, we have three eccentric professors on the trip who love German, architecture or both. This trip is going to be quite a good time.
11:35 Berlin - Monday, March 12, 2007
Where do I begin in describing the best day in Berlin? Following breakfast at the hotel, we headed out and caught a bus from the Zoologische Garten U-Bahn stop. We rode it all the way down as our "pre-tour," then trekked back on the same route on foot. The city is just amazing. It's a kaleidoscope of old and new, young and experienced, historical and modern. A brick line of the former wall runs on the pavement through the entire city, even its most cutting-edge districts. We saw the Reichstag, which is full of history, both glorious and tragic and the place of the current German government. Later, a small group of us traveled to the top of the Reichstag and watched the sun set over Berlin.
Touring with the group thus far is going well. Chelsea wanders off at some points, but always finds her way back. Jason, another student on the trip, has a huge camera and has been mistaken multiple times for a paparazzo. We still really don't know each other and it proves for some awkward interactions, but with time that will disappear.
We ate lunch at Humboldt University today, the historical university in Berlin where famous people such as Albert Einstein studied. The sun was shining and it was quite warm - almost 70 degrees. There was a book sale outside the front of the building and we pieced through both English and German books, from romance novels to collected works of Marx. Once we walked inside, it felt odd to be in a foreign university, but still strangely familiar. These were students and even though they spoke a completely different language and lived a different lifestyle - with U- and S-Bahn stations and Turkish kabobs for dinner - we were still quite similar. The lunch there was delicious and inexpensive. Berlin is an affordable city, and is known to be "arm, aber sexy," which translates to "poor, but sexy." I think it's accurate.
The rest of the tour was like a whirlwind, with the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and being pointed out various architecture monuments.
I am exhausted. Time for a nap, touring wore me out.
8:30 Berlin - Saturday, March 17, 2007
A rainy morning in Berlin. I'm pretty tired, but still extremely happy from the soccer match last night. It was a Hertha BSC (the Berlin team) v. Cottbus (a city in Bradenburg, Germany) and even though Hertha lost, it was still absolutely insane. It was held at the Olympiastadion, where the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals were played, and where, in 1936, Jesse Owens shocked the Nazis. Music was playing and people where everywhere, all decked head to toe in their Hertha blue and white gear. The smell of sausage and beer permeated the air.
We walked into the stadium itself and stopped to gawk again. It's absolutely enormous. Throw in about 51,000 screaming, intoxicated and soccer-crazed fans, and you've got a good night.
The game was intense and even though we didn't understand half of the cheers - my German classes didn't prepare me to translate soccer match chants - we tried to chant along anyway. We left the game with a herd of fans, anticipating chaos when we arrived at the U-Bahn. But the Germans, always efficient, got us out of there in no time. Plus, we had two students on the trip with us, Josh (who became the U-Bahn direction extraordinaire) and James (who always picked the exact right spot for train doors to open). We rode home in a packed car full of still-cheering fans - and we all counted it as one of our best nights.
OK it's time for breakfast and another day. We've been touring all week and we have a free day today. We're going to the largest and oldest open-air market in Berlin. I can't wait.
13:30 Berlin - Saturday, March 17, 2007
That open-air market was quite incredible. Let's just say it was sensory overload. There were rows after rows of fruits and vegetables, carts of sausage, stacks of cheese, bouquets of fresh flowers, little jewelry stands and the hustle and bustle of a Saturday morning. This was the real Berlin and not what you see on the postcards.
11:05 Berlin - Monday, March 20, 2007
All good things must come to an end and I'm on the flight back to JFK, saying my "auf weidersehen" to Berlin and to a spring break that I will never forget. I've seen so much this week - the city's architecture, embassies, a soccer game, the major monuments and the day-to-day activities of Berliners on the U-Bahn. I've laughed so much and was just silly with new friends in a remarkable city. It felt so good to return to Europe and made me certain that I will do it again - soon.
All right, we're at cruising altitude. It's time to get some homework done, as I know reality will hit like a brick once I return. But the Berlin memories will keep me going for a long, long time. And as Marlene Dietrich, the famous Berlin actress said, "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin." I still keep a suitcase in Berlin.
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