Blog
Student Reflections
Clouds Over Berlin
We arrived to Berlin after many hours of travel and it was pouring rain. Due to the rain,
we had to wait in the bus near our hostel because we couldn’t walk to the hostel with all of our
bags. There is a group of around 30 students, there are only three boys in our group. Once the
rain cleared we had some time to walk around the neighborhood where we will be staying for the
first two weeks of our trip. Our neighborhood is predominately a Turkish Muslim community.
There are many different fastfood places where we can buy delicious kebab, falafel, shawarma,
etc. Many of the restaurants, bars, and grocery stores in our area consist of lowprice items. The
neighborhood itself consist of many families and is very lowkey. The majority of the women in
our area wear hijabs. Our hostel is conveniently located next to a train stop that can take us all
around Berlin. Taking public transportation in Berlin is the most effective way to get around.
The public transportation system is extremely reliable and also runs often. During the first few
days we have only seen the sun once, it is always very cloudy. Berlin seems to be extremely
segregated. The Turkish Muslims and the Germans live in very separate areas, this observation is
something we will be learning about through our courses. I don’t want to make an assumption
that all of the neighborhoods are like this, but these have been my observations so far.
Our orientation went very well. We arrived to our first day of class in a small building
that is located three stops away from our Hostel. At the start of orientation all of our professors
introduced themselves and explained the different work that they explore and how it correlates to
the classroom concepts we will be learning. The first thing that stood out to me was how
impressive the fieldwork my professors have done. Both of our “main” professors have
published outstanding books on their fieldwork about gender/sexuality/immigration/etc. (i.e. the
topics we will be studying on this dialogue). The second aspect of our orientation that stood out
to me was when all of us were introducing ourselves and we all study extremely different majors.
As a human services major I spend the majority of my academic time with other HS majors. I
really love getting to know students from other majors and I believe that all of us having
different perspectives makes for better classroom conversation. The third thing that stood out to
me about our orientation was the location that our classroom is in. We don’t have an official
classroom so our room is located in the middle of a very quaint area of Berlin. As you walk
around, there are many different vegan/vegetarian food options that are reasonably priced. This
is something that is very interesting about the different areas that we spend time in, all of the
food is very cheap! This observation depends on the neighborhood that we’re in. If we are in a
predominantly German populated area, the food tends to be more expensive. If we are in an area
that is predominantly Turkish Muslims, the food options tend to be more specific and the prices
also tend to be lower. That is my observation so far, I’m sure there are areas that are more
integrated that will go against what I’ve seen in the few areas that we’ve traveled to.
