Goodbye # 2

Goodbyes Part 1

More from Berlin

Day Three: Today the group was excited for our tour. Guides gave us a walking tour of Berlin's famous street art.  We saw all the famous arts from Blu to 1up and others throughout the tour.  The group soaked up the street art, tags and graffiti all day and were overwhelmed with inspiration.  Later that afternoon, we participated in a street art workshop where students were able to create stencils and spray paint them on boards and the building.  This day was very positive and the students reflected on the differences between street art/graffiti.


Street Art vs. Graffiti

Graffiti—tags, quick, not usually impressive, often annoying, usually one or a few words…

Street Art—often big murals, lots of effort put into it, obviously creative, very few tags put on it, almost never careless, often meant to send a message.

--Madison

We took to the streets of Berlin today for the street art tour.  I can truly say that Berlin is beautiful.  The walls tell stories that anyone can understand.  The differences between tags and more time consuming pieces is painfully clear but both together influence the flavor of the city.  Each of these walls is a constantly changing work—art gets covered from time to time but that is what makes what you see have more value—when it could be gone the next day.  I really love street art because it is ever changing with the times and it’s made by people who are leaving a piece of themselves for the world to see.

--Rachel

Street art is respected by other artists as it has a great deal of work put into it and typically high quality.  Graffiti is a modification of a building or place and it is typically a tag or something of importance

--Ace

I would say the difference is:  street art has more meaning and takes way more time and thought into what you are doing.  Graffiti takes almost no time to think about. Like gang names or paintings that are destructive or degrading to a building or artist.  There are famous street artists like Blu, Just, and 1 up.  They take everything from hours, days or even weeks, just to get their signature up.  1up does that almost everywhere.  I personally think that street art is a great way to express yourself and should be legal everywhere.

--Bailey

Day Four: Today we finished our tour of Berlin by going to Alexanderplatz for some R & R and last minute shopping.  The group was exhausted from the walking tours we did all week.  The students were excited to go back to Frankfurt to be with their host families.  Again, the theme of our time in Berlin was logistics, construction and public transportation.  Though we were delayed, our students were greeted by all of their host families back in Berlin.  During our train ride our students were asked to journal about the differences between the two cities.

Differences between Frankfurt and Berlin:

I’ve spent more time in Frankfurt so I’ve had the chance to explore more of the city and take time to do my own thing.  However, while spending 3 and a half days in Berlin I’ve felt more comfortable.  Mostly because there’s so many more diverse people and styles.  Berlin has more public and performance art.  People are more direct and up front.   Frankfurt is more uptight, clean, smaller and low energy.  Berlin is more fast, big and what I feel to be more accepting.  Berlin is more dirty and grungy.  The people just seem not to care about what others are dong, saying, thinking or feeling.  I really enjoy both, but if I had to choose between the two, I fell in love with Berlin.  Why?  That’s really hard for me to explain mostly because there are so many amazing things.  In Berlin there are so many different styles and people.  I don’t really want to tough everything but it is so unique and weird.  I fell in love with the art and the old grunginess of everything.  Frankfurt is wonderful but I feel like it is a little uptight and clean cut for me personally.

--Megan

The time I have spent in the cities, have led me to these opinions:  Frankfurt has a mix of tall building city skyline, and the lush green parks with trees and grass.  To me Frankfurt is more of a friendly city.  Berlin, on the other hand, has had was intimidating.  There was a lot of trash and street art.  I found Berlin raw—it has the potential for anything.  If someone wanted, they could change the city for better or worse.  Overall, I do not prefer one over the other.

--Ben

Frankfurt is much more conservative—not in their political beliefs, but in how they ac t, dress, and carry themselves.  They are more conformists, following more mainstream America culture patterns than Berlin.  You can find those type of people in Berlin, but counterculture is more prevalent and accepted.  You won’t get judged for being different.  Berlin has more cultural freedom and street art.  It’s grittier, but feels lke home.  The music and food are better and I feel more at home in Berlin—I definitely feel at home in Berlin.

--Ranen

We are back from Radio/Internet Silence in Berlin...

Sorry for the delay, but things happen while traveling that you cannot control...like when and where the public transportation has construction, WWII unexploded ordinance discovered near the train tracks, social and emotional breakdowns within the group, etc.  Following you will find a day by day play by play of our four fabulous days in Berlin.

Day One:  We got up super early to catch a train to catch our train to Berlin.  Once there, we dropped our bags at the hostel, and went on a City tour on foot.  We ate at Punk Pizza that night and everyone enjoyed it and the atmosphere.  This is the third round of Punk Pizza experience which has writing on all the walls, and while we are not allowed to write in the walls, I can't promise nobody wrote on the bathroom walls (And Stuff...)  I guess they just had to leave a mark...and they are not alone.


On Long Distance Train Travel:

I actually prefer travelling by train over plane or car.  With planes, it is too much of a hassle—there’s no scenery and it’s less comfortable.  Traveling by car is slower and you actually have to do the driving, but there are some advantages like freedom of direction and being able to stop when needed.  The reasons I believe train travel is the best method of travel is because there is room to walk around and there is a bathroom and the scenery is beautiful.  Being a giant with back problems, the space is especially nice.  It is a shame that train travel isn’t as popular in America.

--Cayden

Having never been on a train before, it was interesting to feel the difference between travel by train and travel by car.  I liked that I felt free to walk around the train and talk with my friends  .It was easy to fall asleep and feel comfortable while fitting in those seats.  I had heard that the train was very fast, but it didn’t seem as fast as I imagined. A name like the bullet train sounds like you will be shooting off at the speed of light.  My face didn’t even feel pushed back!  Overall, it was easy and relaxing

--Ashley

 

Last time I was in Germany the first non-city train I took was the ICE--190mph is insane!  Tunnels are quick as lightening and cities are mere minutes away.  Typically, to do a trip that is four or more hours away, many would flying over driving, but trains are not an option due to the shear size of our country.  Mostly everything is convenient here.

--Dane

Traveling by train by for four hours is much better than traveling via other modes of transportation. There is actually a bathroom, unlike a car, it is a little nasty, but so are rest stops, and it beats waiting for three hours for one.  I also prefer train to airplane because it is a little roomier, and you can walk around without worrying about rushing back to your seat if you hit a bump.  There are also isn't an annoying flight attendant walking by asking you if you have trash every 15 minutes, even if you are asleep.

--Sierra

On the City Tour:

Berlin is one big human place. One block has more history, emotion and realism than many other places all over the world. It's pretty easy to see while on a walking tour that every building of this city has been fought over more than once, the damaged bricks marking the somber occasion of war and death in the form of bombs and bullets. We listened to stories of great statues and magnificent pieces of art being stolen, and bunkers being destroyed. The architecture telling the stories of lives ending. Regimes ending. The very beginning of a country rising out of  the he ashes of war and separation. Berlin is a city of struggle, triumph, and a perfect page marker in the book of human history. 

--Reilly

Cayden at the Holocaust Memorial

Whole group at the Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag building was a capitol building for Germany before a fire destroyed it just before Hitler took power.  The building wasn't used at all during this time, it was just ignored.  years after the war, the Reichstag building was refurbished including a large glassed dome, where you can see the activity of Congress below, and is now used as a the government building to show how transparent the government action is now.  They have nothing to hide.  I think this is unusual way to make a government trustworthy and I would share this idea in my country.

--Zach

Reichstag Building

During the Berlin tour we saw a lot of different things that provided a lot of different emotions.  A lot of the time, I didn't even really know what to do with them.  I was angry during most of it and just wanted to yell, even though I knew it wouldn't help very much.  It was very moving to see the wall and all the different art pieces that were created in honor of the people who were murdered during the war.  I could definitely recognize the pain, and see a torture that was once present in the area that we walked through, despite the people who just walk through this every day place.

--Ivy

The city tour through Berlin was a little overwhelming at first, but I loved it.  The history information we were given wasn’t overwhelming; it was just enough information for me to walk away feeling educated and informed. 

–Abbee

Day Two: 
Tuesday, we hit the ground hard and were slowed down by the fact that unexploded ordinance (WWII bomb) was found near the tracks.  What normally would take an hour to Sachsenhausen, it took us 2 hours.  The students experienced the down side of public transportation but did not allow that to affect their experience.   The overall mood was somber as we walked into the camp where we saw remnants of the camp.  The tour was a fact filled overwhelming experience, placing them in the place they have only read in books or have seen in movies.  Later than night we went to the DDR museum where we were able to interact with East German technology and culture with a night cap at Baraka, a Moroccan restaurant.  It was a heavy day for our travelers but they all left with a new found appreciation. 

NELA circled around a model of the camp.

Reilly contemplated the killing floor.

Sachsenhausen Holocaust Memorial:

As this is my second time visiting here I experienced very different feeling then I had felt the first time. Two years ago when first visiting I went into the camp with almost no prior knowledge of what it was. I remember as I walked around each knew thing I saw hit my harder then the last. Seeing the barracks with 400 hundred men crammed in a small room was crazy, but seeing the site at which prisoners were murdered and cremated was totally insane. From there going to see the old medical facilities which still had dried blood in the basement was the worst. However this second time around I noticed that it did not seem as impactful but rather I learned more about the entire camp. This could've been because I already knew what was to come. Either way with both trips to Sachsenhausen I have had interesting experiences that I could never forget. This camp acts as a wonderful memorial to the holocaust. By opening up this to the public and allowing people to see what actually happened here is an extremely impactful opportunity. It services as a good reminder of the unfortunate events that occurred and a wonderful memorial to all those that suffered.

 --Matt

When you first get there, you get to sit in front of the gates, and the whole time you are breathing and trying to calm down before you walk into to the place where all the prisoners used to stay.  When you walk through the gates, all you feel  overwhelming sadness and just pain.  It doesn’t feel like you are outside—it just feels like you are trapped in a bubble of hate, pain, and overall negativity.  It feels like you can’t breathe or move.  As you walk more of the ground, you feel heavier.  We walked into where they killed people, and when you walked in there you could hear them scream and you could feel the pain.  I would say that this site measured up as a memorial to the Holocaust.  I liked how they didn’t build anything over the top of it, just left it exposed.  It is a place where you know that people suffered and where no one will suffer again.

--Aurora

Although the memorial was an emotional place, it definitely was more impactful for some than others.  I personally didn’t have much of an emotional response, and I think that is because of the way we experienced it.  Because we were stuck in a large group for the entirety of the tour, I believe it took away the overall impact for me.  The our guide was overly focused on numbers and facts, which limited any emotional response I could have possibly had.

--Mia

DDR Museum:

I found a lot of things out at the museum that I didn't know about.  The biggest thing I learned is the way of life for many people who lived on the east side of Berlin.  Though they were living under a horrible, oppressive government, there was still a sense of structure and order in people's lives.  I had imagined that life was a very chaotic fight for survival, and everyone had trouble having basic necessities. However, it seems that this was not the case.  There was still an oder to live to people in East Berlin and Germany.  They could still buy food and clothing and a few basic luxuries.  The problem was that wages were too low to be able to afford them.  Although life was much more difficult economically, it was still livable and there was still s sort of social structure.

--Galen

The most surprising part about the time period was that the Cold War started directly after WWII. When I learned about the Cold War in the 8th grade, I always envisioned it as such as horrible and stressful thing.  At the museum, the exhibits only focused on the daily lives of the people living behind the wall.  It was nice to learn, but it left out information about how the Cold War started.  Overall, however, it was amazing and I would suggest people go there if they go to Berlin.

--Kelsey

Noah crashes the simulator with Madison as a passenger.

NELA paints the simulated wall.

The DDR Museum surprised me by showing how people of the time lived and acted.  This museum showed us, by being interactive, how the Cord War affected both West and East Germany, how they acted towards each other.  The museum was awesome!  I drove an virtual car, watched old shows, and listened to music…I very much loved the interaction and learned.

--Antonio

Well, I just want to say that I love interactive museums.  I am being serious.  They’re the best. I love to touch things and pull out drawers and be up close to the exhibits.  It is also a great way to learn about the time period.  I knew nothing about it so I am glad that I got to have that experience without a guide.  My only wish it that I could have stayed longer.

--Josh