That Cultural Vistas Fellowship

Documenting my 3rd time in Bärlin

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Signs

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The Last Hurrah - The Fellows in Service Project

If I were to sum up everything I learned and experienced in Berlin this summer in just under 7 minutes, what would I say?

This was the question I asked myself as I prepared my Fellows in Service Project: a PechaKucha presentation about my trip abroad that I would be presenting during Exposure Series night at my university. My task: present 20 slides, each lasting 20 seconds, for a total presentation spanning 6 minutes, 40 seconds, on a topic of my choice.

Okay, I thought. That can't be too hard. There are tons of things I could talk about. I could talk about the amazing experience of being in Germany when they won the World Cup. Or about my internship at the Charité where I worked on a study about diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Or I could talk about the cool side trips I took to Hamburg and Prague (my first time in a city where I did not understand any of the language around me)....

There were also cultural things I could talk about: how workplace etiquette in Germany works, or how you have to bring a bag to the grocery store and bag your own food at the speed of light, or how you have to learn to sort recyclables or risk receiving judgmental glares from your neighbors.

This is starting to seem a lot harder than I thought it would be, I thought as I stared at my blank PowerPoint document. I didn't want my presentation to just be a rehashing of the cool stuff I'd done this summer. There was obviously a lot that I could say, but I wanted there to be a focus. A message for the audience to take home with them. 

And then it hit me. Why not talk about sustainability and how being in Germany changed the way I viewed how problems such as environmental problems could be solved? Going abroad changes the way you think, and this can help people solve problems at home. The theme of the fellowship was sustainability anyway, and while I was in Germany, I had taken many photos of everyday sustainable things I encountered and had occasionally written on my blog about things I had seen in Germany that were designed with sustainability in mind, such as laundry culture, transportation options, and urban planning.

It was honestly extremely difficult to choose just one part of my experience to talk about, but I'm please with the result. I present to you: Sustainability Through System Solutions: Insights from Being in Germany

Cathy Chow: Sustainability Through System Solutions from UM North Quad.

Presented at the Exposure Series, a Powered by PechaKucha event, at University of Michigan North Quad. Friday, October 17, 2014

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Leftover pictures from the trip to Prague

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Last Saturday in Berlin

was spent at the beach (since I had so much fun last time). It was the weekend, so it was busier, and the water was cooler, but it was still an excellent day (: I haven't gone swimming for years, but I'm glad I've rediscovered this hobby.

Sat 19.7.2014

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Coworkers

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Tempelhof Freiheit + my prof and I

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Scenes from the Charité. Goodbye.

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The Last Day and a Visit from my Professor

Today was my last day at the Charité. We didn't make too much of a fuss. I shadowed some patients, we took some pictures, I ate lunch with Christian, and then I was done. Just like that.  

I took one last walk around Tempelhofer Freiheit this afternoon and tried to find the Fisch Döner that keeps evading me. But sad news bears, I couldn't find the Fisch Döner place this time either )':

I had made plans to get ice-cream with a German professor from U of M who was in Berlin for the week. She's actually the professor in charge of my internship class that allows me to get credit for my internship. I didn't know her all that well, but when we were emailing each other about the class and she learned we'd both be in Berlin, meeting up just ended up happening. She's a musician, and we watched a street musician right outside the Gedächtniskirche on Ku'damm.

We tried speaking in German in the beginning, but it's tough for me to say all the things I want to say when everything's in German, so we ended up reverting to English and having a surprisingly nice and deep conversation. One of my favorite kinds of people to talk to are older people because they always have more insights into life than I do, and she was no exception. I also find older people to be a lot more open about the topics you can talk to and they tend to handle everything in a more mature way. And to think that when I was younger I hated older people!

So it was a nice evening, and I learned a lot about the secret lives of professors :D

Fri 18.7.2014

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Obviously I have no pictures of my day on the beach, but here's the nice pink sunset on my walk home :)

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F.K.K. = Freikörperkultur = free body culture

Nudity is less of a deal over here. Nudity beaches are easy to find, and unlike in the U.S., mixed nudity beaches exist. Places such as Teufelssee (which I visited) had nude people as well as clothed people and nobody made a fuss. Nobody gawked at other people. There was no pressure to strip or to be clothed. You could go for a nice swim. Or you could sit and read a book. Either clothed or unclothed. Or you could just go tan without worrying about tanlines. It was wonderful. 

Some stuff I learned from going to the beach and also from the internetz.

FKK Etiquette:

do not take pictures without permission

do not stare. (this would be rude even if someone were clothed)

if sitting on a public seat, have a towel if you're nude

do not harrass/touch people. this is not a place to hit on people and people will not appreciate it. if you automatically sexualize naked bodies instead of treating them like they are, you are not mature enough to go to a nude beach

Pros of swimming naked in a lake

no gross wet clothing feel

no nasty chlorinated water

people can't see your body under water anyway so it doesn't matter that you're naked

other people are nude so it's not like people are here to judge you

My professor told me this factoid about FKK. Apparently part of the reason the nudity movement started was in an attempt for people to get more vitamin D (which is produced automatically by the body when there's sunlight). It wasn't some weird sexual thing. It was literally a health reason. 

Reading the comments on the internet, which were written by mostly Americans, made it clear that Americans tend to sexualize unclothed bodies. The amount of comments I read that said stuff like "nude beaches are sexy" or "bring a partner to go with ;)" or "it's an excuse to ogle that hot chick you didn't stand a chance with" was just mindblowingly annoying. Here's to hoping that in the future, Americans can be more European in the way they treat human bodies. Trust me, it's much healthier.

Thurs 17.7.2014

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Ernährungsberatung (again)

At work, I shadowed the nutrition ward again and learned that without proper motivation, treating patients is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Motivation may in fact be the most important thing when treating obese patients. Today, we met one patient who was very lazy-dazy indifferent about everything, and surprise surprise! He hasn't lost any weight. He claims that he can if he wants to, but that he simply doesn't want to. And the problem is that there's nothing that we can do about that. We can't force him to want to unless we scare him by talking about all the negative consequences of being obese. Overall, I came out of that session not knowing how the nutritionists would proceed in treating him.

Nothing special happened after work as I was pretty worn out by all the travelling I'd done.

Wed 6.7.2014

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Poorly shot video of the Mannschaft in Berlin. but this is why i'm not a cinematographer

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Partying with the Mannschaft, Part 2. Berlin.

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Party with the Mannschaft, Part 1. Berlin.

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Partying with the Mannschaft

I took the day off (with my supervisor's permission of course) because the German soccer team was coming home and coming to celebrate at the Brandenburger Tor. Getting into the park was a bit rough, as they had closed off all but one entrance. But I got in eventually! And as I got in, the airplane (Siegerflieger - "victory plane") carrying the team flew over us in a victory round. 

On the screens on the Fanmeile, they showed the plane landing, the players getting out and getting onto the bus, and then changing busses to an open rooftop bus and then slowly making their way to the Tor. Like, it took 3 hours for them to get to the Tor from the Airport because there were mobs of people on the streets. They finally emerged onto the stage in front of the Brandenburger Tor, were interviewed a bit, and then they left. I bet they were really tired. Afterwards, there was a music party. And so ends the World Cup festivities.

Tues 15.7.2014

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Café Kranzler, Berlin

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Goodbyes

Kathy is leaving for Tunisia soon, so today is our last day together. We got an ice-cream sundae at Kranzler's, which is a famous place on Ku'damm because that's where the celebrities tend to eat, according to Kathy. We ate on the balcony overlooking the street, and the ice-cream was fabulous as all ice-cream at expensive places tend to be. :)

After walking a bit more, we ended up at Steglitz and ate some more, this time at a Chinese restaurant. The people were from Hong Kong and spoke Cantonese like me! The owner was this cute old Asian man who kept looking over at me and coming to talk to me. I think he probably missed home and was happy to have a fellow Cantonese-speaker in his restaurant :) PS the food was pretty good too.

Mon 14.7.2014