This song always makes me think of the one and only Mr. John Morgan King. He was an incredible teacher and person who challenged me to grow and challenge myself and ideas. I owe him a lot... and today, this song in a way describes my experiences!
When one is comfortable and at home in the U.S. it is so easy to forget how big the world is and how different things can be. It also becomes easy to be pulled into the idea that different equals worse, crazy, or simply negative. Abroad it becomes incredibly easy to realize how few the fundamental differences between people truly are.
Yesterday was a great day with my usual classroom routines. Early morning, Potsdam for class, lunch with my class mates, afternoon class, walk to my Potsdam apartment to check the mail, train to Berlin, cake and coffee with Colby and Martin, and home to bed to watch some German TV. (All in the snow of course!)
Today was different! Today we had a "Berlin city tour." I woke up late (at 8) since I didn't have to go to Potsdam and I walked to Alexander Platz to meet the rest of the people. The walk is exactly 40 minutes and was delightful! We met by the Fersehturm (television tower) and split into 2 groups.
One was the English tour, the other the German. Sadly, since the English tour didn't have enough people, a bunch of us had to join in. Oh well, I guess one day off of German is ok!
The tour was very different. That being said, I know I would have never done this and I am so glad I did!!! Different isn't always bad. The tour was on street art and graffiti. Both of these arts are illegal in Berlin, but are everywhere! It has become quite the attraction around the globe! There are "crews" that are well known and there are rules that the crews respect (like not painting or pasting over one another's work). When the crews break the rules, there can be conflicts... All of these "arts" are done at night since they are illegal and they tent to be done fairly quickly. We learned about 3 different types of art: 1. graffiti 2.street art- prints, drawings, or paintings that are done on paper and pasted to the walls 3. sticker art - stickers that crews have and paste on the walls, signs, or columns on the streets.
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| Our tour guide pointing out some of the signs pasted |
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| Some graffiti on the walls of Berlin |
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| My stencils |
It was pretty great! After the tour we got to go and spray paint ourselves! We first picked and cut out our stencils and then we spray painted! Our guy taught us a few tips and then we were ready!
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| My masterpiece |
Mine turned out ok, but the fun was in the process! After painting, we headed to Kreuzberg to an Arabic place to eat! Sooo delicious!
The best part of today was getting to spend more time with the other students! There are some incredible people in the group. Here is a breakdown of most of the people... The easiest thing for me to do is to go by country... isn't really fair, but it's the easiest! Here is a breakdown of the people I've been around the most: (disclaimer... I know I am using the word nice a lot, but everyone really is super nice)
Denmark - 4 awesome people! I really have only spent a good amount of time speaking to 2 of the girls. First observation, they look like they walked out of a fashion magazine! I wish I had their style! They are so pretty and so incredibly nice!
Dutch - There are 5 of them, I believe. 4 girls and one guy. All very very nice!! Their German pronunciation is sooo lovely and just like everyone else, their English is unbelievable... One is actually German and speaks fluent German, another is prepping for a half marathon...
Australia - 3 girls. One of the girls has been here for 6 months. She is also super nice and has been great about planning activities to get the group together outside of class. Once I'm in Potsdam I think I will be able to enjoy these plans a lot more. She really has been great about helping all of us as we acclimate to living in Potsdam. The other two girls are also super nice, but I don't see them as much because they are in the other class.
Czech Republic - 1 guy. He is hilarious. He studies sports and biology. He is here and will be taking these classes: Football, ping pong, swimming, volleyball, etc. CRACK ME UP! He is very funny and you can tell he is VERY smart. He is not one of the ones that speaks the most, but there is not one sentence that he forms in German that grammatically incorrect.
Hungary - 1 guy and 1 girl. The girl is super super nice and the guy is too, I think... I feel so bad for him. He does not speak German or English, but he is getting better FAST!!!
Italy - 1 guy and he is very very nice. He is also very interesting and interested!
Portugal - 2 guys... They are the clowns! Haha.. I don't think they speak a lot of German and they are the typical kids in a class that talk while the teacher (or guide) is taking. But also very nice!
Brazil - 2 guys. Both again very nice! One cut his finger and now has to have it wrapped until monday. The other strikes me as very quiet and VeRY smart! Also another one who doesn't say much but always is correct.
Russia - 1 girl. Very quiet but very sweet!
England -- 1 girl. She is very nice and sooo funny! She had the hardest time with the street art today, but laughed the whole time. She talks and I hear Eliza Doolitle.. She says people at home tell her she sounds like a farmer, I think it's hilarious.
I could keep going, but it wouldn't make a difference to you... See what all these things have in common? They are all unbelievably nice. 15 different countries, 4 different continents, and they are all nice. I've had some really deep conversation about the different education systems, politics, and overall ideals of countries represented in our class, but one thing is for sure... Even though we don't all live in the ideal country or environment, we are all just students trying to learn. We are all just people trying to better ourselves and the world we live in, and this realization is magical. Wether we enjoy or make street art, act on a stage, play the trombone, or just travel for fun, we are just people sharing all the world...
After our great bonding experience over lunch, Mette (the Danish girl) and I headed back to Prenzlauer Berg. Here we browsed through a few second hand stores (super cute clothes) and then settled down for some kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake).
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| Mette |
This area is truly charming and it was wonderful to sit down with her and talk. I can't wait to visit Denmark, it sounds absolutely idyllic!!!
For now, I am going to continue enjoying my time with these awesome people and try to warm up my toes!
Funny story from todays tour: The tour guide explained to Mette that the graffiti was on one of the sides of Berlin after the wall fell because of the cows that there were... She said, the cows? He said yes... there were a lot of cows! Mette comes to me looking confused and I can't stop laughing.. She asks, do you know the connection between cows and graffiti. I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard. I could just picture the wall falling and all these cows and graffiti on the other side. CHAOS! He meant CHAOS! But in german, it is pronounces kinda like cows. Poor guy! Too funny
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