Inside Student Blogs Raffi Williams 
Berlin-Metropolitan, Fall 2009
Raffi's Posts
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What do you take home from a trip like this?
As I approach the end of my term here in Berlin, I am confronted with the question of, “what do I take home from a trip like this?” I raised this question to myself a couple of weeks back. And still I have not come to a satisfying conclusion. A trip like this is too [...]
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Negotiating the New
I was thrown into a group of thirteen in a foreign country. I did not know any of the other people and I knew even less about my surroundings.
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How to Be a Winner At Traveling
To be a winner at traveling one needs to follow only a few simple rules.
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Berliners and Their Overalls
In the United States, it is rare to see overalls outside of fishing docks and farms in anything but black rubber ones for the docks or blue denim. Here in Berlin overalls are all over. Every construction worker wears them.
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Thanksgiving German Style
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays; it has the two things I love, food and family. Not being in the States for the holiday, meant that I had to figure what to do during one of my favorite times of year, when the rest of the country I am in does not celebrate the holiday.
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Clubs
I feel I would a disservice to myself if I did not mention the clubs in Berlin; the clubs that leave your ears ringing until ten the next night. The ringing leaves your ears, just in time for you to do the whole experience again.
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Making Friends
An important part of life is having friends; I do not think that anyone would argue with that statement. An important part of having friends is having friends with varying backgrounds and interest. While I am in Berlin I thought it important to make German friends.
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Lacrosse in Berlin
I find comfort in sports. Some people relax with a book, dance, alcohol, movies or anything else, but for me nothing is more relaxing than playing sports. Sports specifically, hockey and lacrosse, take me to my heaven on earth.
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Excursions
My German class has taken me to the Berlin Wall and a Flea Market, my Metropolitian Develpoment class has walked me around Berlin showing me the different architecture types, my European Identity class has taken me around a Jewish neighborhood as well as a to a former Statsi Prison, my Visual Culture class brought me to Dessau and showed me the home of modernist architecture; the Bauhaus. If I were to write about each trip it would easily take up a short book, so instead I will just give some of the highlights of a few of the trips.
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A Bit of a Conundrum
I recently have encountered a little bit of a conundrum that I did not think about prior to my departure for Europe; how in four months is one supposed to take in ones home city, as well as other corners of Europe during weekend visits?
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A Flea Market and The Wall
I think I had what could possible be described as the best Sunday ever.
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Berlin is not Beijing
Berlin is an empty field and I am a three year old with an endless imagination, I can have fun here until my mother calls me in for the day.
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From Beijing to Berlin
Even with my lack of information working against me I was still able to carve a community for myself in Beijing. China wound up being a life changing experience, I learned what truly mattered to me, how to live on my own as well as how to be successful when I am pushed out of my comfort zone.
