Out & About

to keep y'all in the loop

[whereislena]

berlin art week 2016

[whereislena]

MUSTAFA’S GEMÜSE KEBAB ~ WORTH THE WAIT

[whereislena]

It’s only been three weeks and I’m already annoying devoted to Berlin!

To catch y’all up:

Before beginning my fall term in at Bard College Berlin, I spent a week exploring the city. With no classes to attend, no deadlines to meet, I was more or less responsibility-free. The only thing I had to manage was navigating a new city in a relatively new language. The majority of this time was spent alone, watching people. I didn’t necessarily have many (any) “friends”, but I spent a lot of time watching young people hang out with their friends! Which, I think, was almost maybe even just as fun, sometimes perhaps.

One of the most striking features of Berlin has to be the architecture. I know that just sounds like something that a tourist is supposed to say, but it’s true. There is a profound sense of history that lies within the city’s concrete. It pops up between new geometric high rises and café-clustered cobbled streets. It’s in the old houses, the old churches, and the monuments for the murdered. World War II nearly demolished Berlin but the horrifying stain of Nazi Germany will never be expunged. It is incredibly interesting to observe a city try to both move on from and commemorate its terribly violent past. (Not to say that there aren’t oppressed peoples in Berlin today. There are. Or that such ) A lot of this reckoning occurs within the city’s urban planning. Which is, again, a large part of what makes Berlin so visually, intellectually, and emotionally compelling.

So, these are some of my first glimpses of the city.

[whereislena]

Hallo aus Berlin!

In the interest of efficiency (a quality these Germans seem to really dig), I’m going to be posting some travel updates here.

First and foremost, I would like to state that I absolutely detest travel blogs. Especially “semester abroad” ones. They’ve always seemed self-indulgent and just, I don’t know, annoying. I mostly hate the narrative of how LIFE-CHANGING travel is. Life is always changing! Whether you’re at home or halfway across the globe spending all of your money on a cup of coffee. I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to study in Berlin this semester (shouts out to Grandma + Grandpa, Mom + Dad!) but I also refuse to feed into the idea that bopping around other people’s cities is somehow the only way to “find yourself”.

But now look at me, folks! Three days abroad, and here I am. On my very own semester-abroad-tumblr-travel-blog. A changed woman.