Berlin Fulbright Seminar, March 11-15th

Beware! What follows is a very long account of last week's conference in Berlin. If you'd like the short version, you can just check out the pics, which are also in the album "Nix Pix" to the right. If ye dare to brave the long version, here it be! :)

Fulbright Berlin Seminar

You know, Berlin actually improves on acquaintance. I just spent most of last week there, and somehow, the city just didn’t seem quite so… brown… this time. Maybe it had a lot to do with the weather, which was cool and sunny and perfect. Maybe I just had a really good time (though to be fair, the other two visits were pretty fun, too). Whatever it was, Berlin as a city actually proved to be downright appealing this time!

I was there for a seminar which is held by the Fulbright Commission every year in March as a way for its grantees to get together and talk about Germany, international relations, current events, their research, and their experiences. 350 people attended this week – everyone from lowly teaching assistants like myself to ambassadors and other bigwigs! – and the conference didn’t disappoint. It was marvelous. Years from now, I’m sure nobody but myself (if even that) will be interested in all the minor details, but I’ll record them here anyway just for posterity. :) (That, and it’s my blog, nyah nyah!)

Easy Like Sunday Morning, March 11^th

I’d been looking forward to the conference for weeks, and so it was easy to get up at 5.30 on Sunday morning to catch my train. Bert was a real trooper, too: he not only stayed up late the night before in order to make me little business cards on his computer, he also sprang out of bed the next morning to help me get ready (even slipping into my bag a surprise lunch of all my favorite snacks: nutella and banana sandwiches, raw almonds, peppermint iced tea, oranges and strawberries… mmm!).

Thus armed with nutella and business cards, I bundled into an ICE and zoomed off across the golden, sunrise-lit landscape toward the German capitol.

The ride was beautiful. I love trains. Being the efficient environmental fanatics they are, Germans boast an excellent public transportation system, whether within cities (usually via a comprehensive tram line), between towns (the S-Bahn), or between all major points across the country on a white bullet train. Looking down across the valley from the Hambacher Schloss, you can see any number of the regional trains that make up the S-Bahn system, sliding silently across the green landscape like so many shiny red caterpillars. I like to find a window seat and face the direction of travel, so that I can feel the gentle press backward against my seat as the powerful engine pulls us smoothly away from a platform, and watch the rails glide by outside as we slip from town to town.

ICE’s (InterCity Express, the bullet trains) are even cooler, ‘cause they have comfy seats, tables, and snack bars in addition to the big picture windows. I kept trying to get some work done on the train on Sunday, but my eyes were drawn irresistibly to the hills, forests, fields, and villages lit up in a springtime sunrise on the other side of my window.

Landscape loveliness

I arrived at the bustling new (read: sunny and glass-bedecked) main station in Berlin around 12.30, and set off to find an S-Bahn to take me to the Alexanderplatz, a square near the city center which is home to one of Berlin’s most famous landmarks: the Fernsehturm. I’ve never been quite sure why the Fernsehturm is so interesting, frankly. It looks like a disco ball on a skewer, and hosts a ridiculously overpriced rotating restaurant somewhere inside its round body. But it was pretty neat to stand at my window on the 28^th floor of the Park Inn Hotel and see nothing but its mirrored sphericalness looking back at me, blinking merrily in an indisputable reminder that “HEY! You’re in Berlin!”

The view from my window.

Oh yeah, and the hotel was posh. It’s the tallest hotel in the city, and greets you with red carpet and chandeliers. Breakfast and dinner are served in a plush restaurant on the third floor that is surrounded by picture windows, and you can feast on treats like grilled salmon and steamed vegetables and mountains of salad, not to mention the typically fantastic array of breads and rolls that is standard to every German restaurant or bakery: whole wheat with toasted pumpkin seeds, oat and sunflower, croissants, sourdough… you name it. Mm, I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it!

Anyway, so I dropped my bags under the watchful silver eyeball of the Fernsehturm, met my roommate (Amanda, a sweet fellow TA from Alabama) and then joined a small cluster of other Fulbrighters to go sightsee at the Tiergarten, the largest park in Berlin. It’s quite pretty; apparently it was set aside as hunting ground for the king somewhere in the beginning of the 17^th century, and has stayed a state park/garden in various forms ever since. It is also the home of the Siegessäule (sometimes also called the Siegesspargel, or “Victory Asparagus”), that famous column you always see in pictures of Berlin, topped by a flying golden angel holding a torch in one hand and a prostrate figure of some kind in another. I guess I could have looked more into the meaning behind this famous sculpture, but Conny and Nate appeared at the base of it with their bikes; and at the mention of “Biergarten in the park”, I forgot all about prostrate golden figures at the possibility of making myself prostrate with golden bubbles.

Conny and Nate bike all over the city.

We had a great couple of hours, wandering around the (pleasantly wild-ish) park and catching up over a fresh tomato and basil pizza at the Biergarten. Then they walked me all the way back to the Alexanderplatz, and I made it just in time for the welcome dinner and official start of the seminar in one of the conference rooms at the hotel.

It was so nice to mingle with some other people in my program. That evening consisted simply of a couple of speeches and dinner, followed by everyone hanging around and taking advantage of the open bar; and the everyone there was so friendly and interesting that it must have taken me an hour to actually get out the door once I began to head for it at the end of the night (in the meantime being very grateful for the little cards, as I must have “exchanged cards” with at least ten people just that first evening!). I got to pick the brains of professors and politicians, and swap stories with other TAs who are “stationed” anywhere from bustling München to tiny fishing towns on the northern coast.

Just Another Manic Monday, March 12^th

Monday was great. After stuffing ourselves with a delicious breakfast, everyone met in another of the bright conference rooms to hear about some of the research projects being conducted by Fulbrighters all over Europe. We heard presentations on alternative energy, the (mystery-surrounded) Russian pipeline, propaganda in the architecture of East and West Berlin, open-source code in Scandinavia, Klezmer music, international security, and cultural diversity. There are some fascinating studies going on out there!

When we broke for lunch, I gave Conny a call to see where we could meet up. What was between the Technische Universität Berlin, where she works, and the Alexanderplatz?

“Let’s meet under the Brandenburg Gate,” she said.

Well okay, then! Shall we do the Eiffel Tower tomorrow, and maybe Buckingham Palace on Wednesday?

I walked down Unter den Linden – what you might call the Berlin equivalent of the Champs Elysees – and we picnicked on one of the benches next to the gate, watching tourists take pictures while Conny filled me in on her dissertation work.

That afternoon, everyone met up again for a discussion panel comparing the undergraduate education systems between Germany and the States. Apparently there’s been an agreement in Bologna, which plans to practically overhaul the European university system in an attempt to standardize higher education between Europe and North America. Imagine a German university no longer offering a Magister, but instead Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees! Weird. The idea is an interesting one, and well-intentioned; but of course this is no small tweak, and there are countless little arguments and counterarguments – which we, of course, picked apart in heated detail.

That night we had the “official” opening ceremony, which included lots of speeches by public officials and an address by the German Ambassador Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz . It was interesting, but I wonder at which point a person becomes so internationally renowned that he drowns in his own importance…? Maybe that sounds cynical. But while many were thoughtful and relevant, some of the speeches sounded more like an opportunity to indulge in long-winded self-congratulation than to offer particular praise for the Fulbright Exchange or insight for the current grantees. But it comes with the territory, I guess, and many of these folks certainly have earned the laurels they flaunt.

Ruby Tuesday, March 13^th

Tuesday’s structure was similar, with panel discussions and research presentations, except that the debate got even more heated. No wonder, considering the topic was “Immigration in Germany and America: How Much Do We Need?” To their credit, the panelists came prepared with a wealth of current information on the consistency, distribution, and trends in the populations of both countries, along with potential opportunities, problems, and ideas to approach both. They argued for cultural diversity but against current policy, and I thought the session was informed and sensitive. However, I think there are some topics where people’s first reactions are of the knee-jerk variety, and the panelists were challenged again and again by individual audience members who wanted to hear them address every detail of an impossibly gigantic topic in under two hours.

For instance, one of the panelists made the mistake of using the term “ethnic Germans” at some point. What he was referring to are those communities with German ancestry who live in Russia or the Czech Republic, who can claim German citizenry based on their heritage. By “ethnic German,” the panelist meant to separate these communities from their other possible identities, like “Czech citizen”.

But instead of taking in the entire context, one audience member simply fastened onto the term “ethnic German” and took it to mean current German citizens with non-migrant backgrounds, as contrasted to those whose parents or grandparents might have immigrated to Germany from somewhere else. Suddenly the panelist had to defend the term against charges of implicit racism!

To say the least, the panel was anything but boring. I was happy to get out into the sunshine, though, and picnicked again with Conny on the grass in front of one of Berlin’s landmarks: the monstrous Cathedral. (Did I mention the weather was perfect??)

All you need for a springtime picnic: sunshine, carrots, and a cathedral

Tuesday afternoon we got to hear about more presentations, and then that evening was the “Fulbright Music Gala.” This means that several amazing musicians on an exchange year at various music schools around Europe performed a variety of enjoyable pieces for us – we got to hear Beethoven, Fauré, Bach, and even some 20^th-century musical numbers either sung or played on violin, oboe, piano, cello, etc etc etc. The tenor even sang Eichendorff’s Mondnacht, one of my favorite poems of German Romanticism, set to music by Schumann.

Wednesday Morning 3 a.m., March 14^th

Yesterday, we assembled in the Rotes Rathaus (“red town hall” – so-called because of the bricks, not out of any particular political reference ;) ) to hear about the experiences of teaching assistants from Norway, Hungary, Sweden, Angora, Spain, and the Czech Republic. This was a fun and feisty exchange of stories between the “featured” grantees and the audience, and there were points when the entire hall was roaring with laughter. Immediately afterward, we were received by Barbara Kisseler, Head of the Senate Chancellery. She was an excellent speaker, and fielded questions from the audience with intelligence, thoughtfulness, and humor.

Excellent a morning as it was – and lubricated by free wine as it also was – I decided to be a bad little grantee and skip out on the afternoon’s workshops. Casey, a friend of mine from Arizona, was going to be in town for the day, and we had plans to run around the city and eventually make dinner with Conny and Nate that evening.

Which was exactly what we did. We checked out a booksale in front of the Humboldt University, got a cappuccino at the Hackescher Markt, window-shopped, walked around the Charlottenburg castle gardens, fed the ducks, and just talked talked talked talked talked. Then we had beer, salad, goulasch, Spätzle, Sauerkraut, bruschetta, and dessert (all delicious! I was so full!) at Conny and Nate’s apartment and talked even more – politics, education, you name it. Then they all walked me back to the S-Bahn station so that I could spend one last featherbedded night in the company of my buddy, the Fernsehturm.

Me, Nancy, Casey, Conny

Thursday Never Looking Back, March 15^th

Today, like every other day this week, has just been laid-back and lovely. I slept in until – gasp! – nine-thirty, took advantage of the gorgeous hotel breakfast one last time, stowed my baggage at the Alexanderplatz station, and took off to get a little sun and exercise before boarding a train again for five and a half hours that afternoon.

The first stop was the Egyptian Museum, the institution which boasts the famous bust of Nefertiti. (I’ve discovered that I often like to travel on my own for short periods of time. The entire last four days had been full of socializing and chitchat – albeit with fascinating and educated people – and I was ready to just be free and independent for a while.) So I moseyed across the river Spree, poked my head into some shops, then wandered up the marble stairs to the museum and picked up one of those informational headsets. I then got to spend a leisurely couple of hours being inside a Discovery Channel special on ancient Egypt: approach a cool-looking sandstone figure, press a button, and a smooth History-Channel-type voice guides you all around it. “Now take a look at the gold plating at the nape of the neck,” the voice purrs, as mystical “ancient Egyptian” music tinkles softly in the background. “This is all that is left of the decadent headdress that was removed after this advisor displeased Queen Hatshuphotetankenatneripatratihousethatjackbuilt…” There weren’t any mummies (alas), but lots of exciting art history and the pages and pages of hieroglyphs that seem to fascinate everyone who has ever learned to spell their name in 5^th-grade history class.

Queen Nefertiti

On another floor of the same museum is also a pretty nice collection of classical Greek vases and Roman busts. And while none of those exhibits compare to the impressive marbles and gates in the Pergamon Museum, I especially enjoyed the Greek vases, with their elegant cartoonish illustrations of scenes from the myths that still comprise some of our culture’s favorite stories, thousands of years after they were first told. Though many illustrations are less elegant, and vastly amusing: as in, some of those satyrs are having a really good time!

Well, speaking of history, I think I have officially written the longest blog post in all of Weinstraßendom. Time to enjoy the sunset from my train window and get ready to go back to normal life in wine country tomorrow… and for those who have plans to visit, we might now have another stop to put on the agenda! :)