A week in.

Well one week has gone by, and I feel pretty settled in. I began language school on Monday, and I felt a little bit alone. I met one other American student, but other than that everybody was from mostly France or Spain. I don't live on campus, so my biggest chance at meeting people at the school was in my class of maybe 9 people.

Luckily on that Monday night, there was a school wide welcome party where I met some people. Along with meeting a couple important friends, I met a guy who was born in England, but lived in Australia. He was maybe in his 50s, far above the median age there at the school. We started talking about politics, and we both agreed there were some problems in America. Soon he began talking about how "the rest of the world" sees America. He was a big subscriber to conspiracy theories. He was talking about all the things you "never learn about" in America. Like about how 9/11 was likely a conspiracy to cash in on insurance recently taken out on the building. Or how, Barack Obama could win the election because he has the three important characteristics of American presidents: he is male, can trace his roots to the UK, and is "white" (I am not sure how he came up with that). He was an anti-intellectual intellectual. He felt he was free because he was less educated. He wasn't "spoiled by the system."

I was a little perturbed by all this. Was this really how America was perceived: a whole group of people who have been hoodwinked into believing that social progress was real and attainable, and citizens too dumb to realize that all their news was lies? I tried to play the guy off as kind of crazy to some people next to me when he left. Their response was something like: oh, yeah, he really knows a lot. . .

Now after a week in Berlin, I think this man is an outlier. It was, however, interesting and challenging to meet someone with such a different view than mine. He made me think especially about my own education. Is my scholastic journey a blind following? Is it just "the system" teaching me what to know and what not to know? What is truth, and how should one seek it?

Through this experience, I came to really appreciate a place like Bethel. Education should intentionally expose people to new, and sometimes strange ideas. To be educated is not to follow the ruts that society has made for us. Rather, it is to come to our own conclusions, and be creative. We must "cultivate our garden" as Candide would say (that one's for you Keith Sprunger).

Anyway, enough of that.

I have made friends this week, and I don't feel alone here in Berlin anymore. I usually hang out with a group of Spanish people. They are unassuming (which was not my first impression of students here at GLS), and fun to be around. They almost always speak Spanish, but I have fun anyway. They must be on their summer break still, because they are making there time here in Berlin like a vacation. We have been seeing all the tourist places over the last few days. Here are some pictures.








Week of September 6:

The Bad:
It has been windy, cloudy, and cold the last three days.

The Good:
I figured out my alarm clock. I just needed to hold down a button for maybe 3 seconds to set the time. Therefore, I think my outlet converter might in fact work.

--Austin