Study Abroad Student Blogs

Hey hey coming at you live from officially the second half of this wild ride called study abroad! This week it really hit me that I’ve been in Berlin for over a month, and I was actually kinda impressed with the progress us NU kids have made. For the most part, I’ve gotten pretty good at tackling the public transportation here (minus that time yesterday when Alex and I took the wrong train back from Alexanderplatz and ended up 100 years away from the hotel with our arms completely full of very heavy groceries… just ignore that…), I’ve learned not to walk in the bike lanes lest I risk getting flattened by the packs of slightly intimidating bikers, and despite having a not-so-wonderful sense of direction, I kinda know my way around some of central Berlin pretty well too. Definitely would not call myself a real seasoned Berliner, but hey it’s pretty nice not to feel like such a helpless newbie anymore!

Also, this week began the new courses at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin), and I am PUMPED about it. On Monday we had orientation and a welcome session where we got to meet some of the other students participating in the summer program at Humboldt and also tour some of the campus and see where our classes would take place. As I wandered into the big meeting room with my name tag pasted to my chest and made a beeline for the free coffee table through the bunches of small-talking students, I got very strong “first day of school” vibes. “First day” scenarios are not always my favorite, with the cyclical repetition of answers to the typical name-major-college-hometown questions, but within the first few moments of arriving at the orientation I found myself getting actually pretty excited to get to know some of my new classmates/program-mates. It was fascinating to connect over areas of study or even familial ethnic background with students who lived across the globe from me and to learn what we had in common and in difference. I am also thrilled to be taking classes within the Humboldt campus because it’s in such a central location–literally a stone’s throw away from the Berliner Dom, around the corner from Alexanderplatz, and a stroll over from Hackescher Markt. Together with the river, bridges, museums, T.V. tower, and little shops and markets, it’s really the most Berlin-idyllic location and I am LIVING for it. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is also one of Berlin’s oldest universities and is associated with 40 Nobel Prize winners and some brilliant lecturers, including Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, and Georg Hegel, so I’m a little bit starstruck about taking classes here myself.

I am enrolled in two courses for session II of the Humboldt summer program, a German language course and an Anthropology/Culture course titled “Interreligious and Intercultural Dilaogue in Germany; Interrogating Memory and Migration” (lil bit of a mouthful). I am miraculously not 100% lost in my new language class, despite not knowing a word of German before June (shoutout to my wonderful incredible amazing 101 session 1 teacher Wiebke you rock). And today I began my Interreligous and Intercultural Dialogue course. I’m interested to see how it plays out and what I learn through the course in the next few weeks

So that’s all from me for now! I’ll let you know how my classes turn out and about any cool new sites I get to visit. Catch ya later~~

views from across the bridge from the Humboldt Theology Dept. building where I take all my classes (the building with the red roof tiles)