Spotted: M trading in his bright clothing in for the hipper, dark colors only fitting for the cool vibe that is Berlin. Looks like M’s world abroad may be transforming not only his wardrobe, but he may be expanding his understanding of Germany.
Welcome back to your one of many sources into the adventurous lives of Northwestern’s Berliners (hoping you’ve nailed down the references by now). After a few weeks of eating countless late-night döners and bratwursts, watching monster truck takes on Mozart’s operas, and marveling at the shining Victory Tower during my dusk runs in the forest-filled Tiergarten, I am nearing the end of late nights spent reading about German culture and embarrassingly failing to speak a coherent sentence in German 101 (yeah, you actually study while studying abroad, who know?).
I could describe a v v v #studyabroad experience that I had during these past few weeks, but I think it’s time for a little reflection and #studyabroadconfessions (cue: “Reflection” from Mulan).
Immediately upon arriving to Berlin, I fell captive to the classic symptom of living in a new country: culture shock. Having known almost next-to-nothing about Berlin itself (#tbt to my first blog post), I felt that I would not be able to fit myself into German culture. Being Mexican and Latino, I have spent my entire life surrounded by the burning, yet cathartic sensations of biting into salsa-covered tacos, meaningful, warm, and animated conversations adorned with the sounds of Spanish, and friends and family who empowered my identity. I felt I had next-to-nothing of this in Germany, but not only by picking up German phrases along my way (#lecker #tschüss) as well as discovering a fire Mexican place or two (Not sponsoring me, but shout out to Maria Bonita), I found to connect to Germans in an unthinkable, yet incredible way.
Taco Tuesday is the best day of the week.
***Story Time***
A week or so ago (the sun never sets here, so I’ve lost track of time #sorry), our group attended a theater production at the Schaübuehne, a cool and unique theater here in Berlin, by the name of Dritte Generation. Not wishing to overload y’all with a full recap, I’ll just say that the production touched upon third-generation Germans, Palestinians, and Jews and their cultural confusion brought about by the conflicting intersection of these social groups’ tense past experiences. Again, not wanting this to become an essay regarding the production (because I did that already), what I do remember is the entire audience, especially German audience members, pensive about what they had just seen.
Prior to this, I had been intimidated by the seemingly untouchable, cool-haired Berliners who all seemed distanced from the past events of the division of their city and the cultural confusion touched upon by the production; however, this production brought these NYC-esque Berliners to a level where I began empathizing (despite cultural differences) with Germans and understanding the complexity that interweaved into their identity. Their identity had been stigmatized, divided, reunited, and now shared by incoming refugees, and with that in mind, I grow excited to write about the experiences of Berliners I will meet throughout the city in my “Writing the City” course in the Humboldt University aspect of this program (yay for more studying abroad)!
Leaving this on a lighter note, I advise y’all to follow me on Instagram (@Mauricio13G) because I have been posting bomb.com pictures of my entire trip; I’ll provide an example here:
Looking at Berlin with a new perspective.
Alrighty y’all, thanks for tuning in again, and I guarantee that y’all will here from me soon (but actually)!