Berlin Seminar

Hallo Freunde und Familie!
The other participants of the CBYX program and I had our 5-day mid-year seminar this past week. It was a really exciting couple of days (unfortunately for us, too short). It was so great to see everyone from Bonn again. All 23 of us stayed in a nice hostel right in the middle of Berlin. In the mornings we ate breakfast together at 8:00 and then went directly to our seminars. We had presentations on subjects like Germany before and after WWII, the divided city of Berlin before the wall fell, the European Union, and the persecution of the Jews in Europe. We also had some guest speakers that we talked to in kind of a Q and A format. They were all very well done and fascinating. In the afternoons we went on various excursions around the city. It was extremely cold this past week (- 20° C!!), so we did not get to do as much walking around as we would have liked. The president of Israel, Shimon Peres, was giving a speech on Wednesday, so there were a lot of police and military tanks everywhere. That also made it a bit difficult, but we still got to see plenty. We visited the Parlement (Reichstag) and climbed all the way up to the top of the dome and had a great view of the sunset and the rest of Berlin. That was probably my favorite little trip we made.
In the evenings we had free time and most of us threw some money into a pot and went to the grocery store down the street and cooked together in the hostel´s kitchen. Living with them was really like an episode of the Real World, except it was realer than the Real World. The best part is that we all have really different personalities, but we get along so well. No drama, just fun. I don´t think I´ve ever laughed more in one week.
I got to know the public transportation pretty well in Berlin. It is really quite amazing. It is probably one of the best systems in the world. Everyday I become more and more used to all this great public transit in Germany, that I think I am going to be hit hard when I come back to the US. Especially since I have no intent on purchasing a car. That needs to be changed.
So all and all, a wonderful week in Berlin. There is a chance that when we have our end-of-year seminar in June, we will get to meet the Chancelor of Germany, Angela Merkel! Pretty exciting.
Miss you all and always love to hear from you.
Elena