Overall, the trip was very simple and agreeable. Nothing major went wrong; no lost luggage, no delays, no getting lost.
3/1/16
I made it to the Humboldt University on the famous Unter den Linden avenue without too much trouble, except for the luggage that I was lugging around. We received our first bit of information about what exactly we will be doing the next five months here, namely in form of a large binder with 10 subsections. We got USB modems for (as usual terribly basic) internet access and were then shuttled to our apartments.
We live in Berlin-Mitte, the middle and oldest part of the city, albeit in a realtively quiet area. Outside at night, no noises are heard at all. Possibly also due to the fact that the street is currently being rebuilt.
We are living on a city block that at one time bording the Berlin Wall, i.e. one city block in East Berlin. The building reflects its East German heritage in that there is no elevator which for some is not a great problem, but it can get rather annoying when you live on the 5th floor like me.
The official program for the day having been concluded, my roommate, a nice Polish lad, and I settld in, unpacked, and decided to go to the various grocery stores around the area to scope out the selection. The results:
Aldi: closest store, abysmal selection, only for basics
Kaiser's: great selection, significantly more expensive that most
Lidl: not too far away, good selection, good prices
Netto: my go to, unfortunately the farthest away, decent selection, good prices
After two hours of walking around visiting grocery stores, it had gotten dark and we made our way home, ate, and called it a day. Having slept very little on the plane to London, it felt like Monday and Tuesday were combined into one day, a "Super Tuesday" if you will.
3/2/16
Although having comleted some but yet not quite enough paperwork on the first day, we were off for round 2. The 117 participants are split up into five groups, so that we don't inundate any one location with too many people at one time.
Four my group, we first went to the Bundestag ID location, where we received our IDs for access to the federal buildings. After that, we had a few hours free during which we went as a group to a cafe in order to get to know one another better, and to the Friedrich Street train station, where I procured a SIM card for my phone while others purchased a month ticket for the public transportation.
After this, we went back to the university, where we signed some paperwork for the health insurance as well as received our student IDs, which double as a semester ticket for public transportation, and other important information for our time at the university. We were then able to get cafeteria cards (although we should not have actually been able to) and ate at the cafeteria. I got a hamburger and fries, which drew a look of contempt from another American in the program, but I'm always curious as to how American foods are prepared abroad. I give it 4 stars.
From here, we took a stroll down Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate for a quick photo op before continuing onwards towards our next destination for a briefing by a chief of the Bundestag police in the Paul-Löbe-Haus, one of the federal buildings which lies directly beside the famous Reichstag and is referred to as the "motor" of the parliament as it affords the parliamentarians a nice work space.
Then we took a group photo before continuing on to the Reichstag for a private tour which started on the western end and ended up on the roof, which was my first time up there. We tried hurrying so we would make it during the sunset which was exceptionally good that night, but unfortunately got there too late. Nevertheless, glass dome and roof of the Reichstag offered a great view of the city, and they are a definite must visit again for later in the semester.
3/3/16
The day started off bright and early at 8:30 in the Paul-Löbe-Haus, where we had an overview of everything we would be doing in this program, from events to excursions, and we finally found out who our representatives are.
I got Ralph Lenkert of the political party "die Linke" (Eng. the left), which is not in the government coalition, but rather in the opposition. In European parliaments, there are generally more than two political parties, so two or more parties band together and make a coalition to decide who will have the majority. The minority coalition is called the opposition.
We also filled out some more paperwork, namely a form releasing our images and likenesses to be used in videos and photos taken during our work as interns to be used by the Bundestag publicly, and another was a non-disclosure agreement about not disclosing what we are working on in the representative's office to outside parties.
After several hours of going over that stuff, we were served lunch in the building. It was typical cafeteria food. We went back to work in from of a treasure hunt that was more of a lesson in how to navigate the federal buildings and so ended our work for the day.
A group of us went shopping afterwards for things that we didn't have, such as irons, laundry baskets, towels, etc. which entailed a lot of walking so by the time we got home, everyone was just wiped out. Straight in bed.
3/4/16
This was a short day. A couple hours in the Paul-Löbe-Haus where we discussed the planning of the welcome event for the interns.
Around noon, we went up onto the roof of the Reichstag where there is a restaurant and had some refreshments before continuing on homeward. Later in the evening, a bunch of us (enough to fill half a pub) went out to a pub quite some distance eastward, saw some interesting types and places along the way.
After the pub, some continued on to a club, and some just went back some since it was already late and we still had quite a way to go before we got home. All in all, a good night where we all got to know each other better.
3/5/16
Today. Nothing super interesting yet, as it's only noon, but I will update with photos later when I get a good wifi connection at the university. Lots of cool sights and insider views.
Until later.
