Joaquin Jalova · 15 minute read
Five months removed from my studies in Berlin, I reminisce about the steady flux of German culture that changed how I viewed the world. What I find meaningful in writing this account months after my lungs breathed the quiet German air is the added weight of memory. Perhaps, this is greater than a modest list of everyday life in Berlin, but a memory of the experiences that made life, in my view, artistic and meaningful. I’ve been reeling from the idea of calling a foreign land home, but instead of reinforcing the fears of treading an unfamiliar place, I learned in Berlin to embrace that home can be anywhere that’s filled with life with all its magic and inconvenience, which in turn can help one become a better person for ourselves and to the people around us.
“Berlin is tough but sincere. Please show respect and be kind to each other” - automated bus announcements in Berlin
The peculiar atmosphere of Berlin met my nineteen classmates and I, and our professor who I remember vividly had a knack for good fashion. The weather upon our arrival was quite grim akin to the stereotypical overcast skies when I think of Europe. We arrived on a Sunday, which apparently is a rest day in Germany and meant most shops, supermarkets, and businesses were closed. I can still picture the quiet streets that greeted us, and that one light-hearted interaction with a stranger wherein we asked him if shops were open. He replied, what store?
To which my classmate jokingly responded: Anything
I could not also forget how our welcome dinner received mostly negative reviews, but I thought to myself that authentic German cuisine might be an acquired taste for most people including myself. While jet lag coerced me to be wide awake at the break of dawn, it made it easier for me and my friends to make it to our lecture room which was nobly dressed in portraits and paintings.
Surely our classes were interesting on their own, but having no cultural awareness, my innocence displayed itself quite clearly from the outset. My first mistake was not knowing that Deutschland is Germany in German (I have mistaken them for the Dutch). The second mistake was not knowing how to pronounce it. So when I did, I remember Professor Kontje corrected me quietly, as he said softly: Deutschland, Joaquin, doych / land. He taught with a cadence that of a man of wisdom and more. For five weeks, we studied European Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Revolution [HUM 4], along with German films and literature [LTWL 180]. In the interest of brevity, I have listed below some of my favorite texts and films from these two courses.