[Community without borders]
Last weekend was the first time we traveled outside of Berlin—outside of Germany, even, visiting Amsterdam in the Netherlands! It was a beautiful city, and one I’d very much like to visit again. We became aware that many of us in the program had Thursday and Friday off for a national holiday (Christi Himmelfahrt, or Ascension Day) rather late in the game; meaning, we did not have a huge amount of time to plan. Due to this, we were unable to book tickets for a couple of the Amsterdam sights, like the Van Gogh museum or the Anne Frank House, since those require booking multiple days in advance. However, we were determined to make the most of our time there, and I’d say we succeeded. From making friends with other exchange students we met there to roaming through street markets, and even staying up just late enough to catch the (absurdly early!) sunrise on the canals, we had a fantastic experience. Besides, a city flooded with bicycles and steeped in history is right up my alley. If anything, I’m glad we didn’t see everything in one trip, since now I have a great excuse to go back.
Back in Berlin, I’ve started to get more involved in the community at my workplace. My daily coworkers seem quite surprised by the determination of my IIP group to travel to other countries on the weekends. They do not, however, possess negative judgement on the matter; just the opposite in fact! One of them mused that it must be similar to traveling to a different US state on the weekend, and she supposed if she were only in Europe for a few weeks, she would absolutely make the most of it as well. She and my other coworkers enjoyed hearing about Amsterdam and said they look forward to stories from Vienna (our next stop). Having been there a few times each, they had plenty of advice to offer about specifics of the city, which I took gladly. We get along well at work, and it seems like their tourism interests overlap heavily with my own. I promised them I’d go to one of Vienna’s beloved “Kaffeehäuser” to engage with historical intrigue over a slice of Sachertorte.
Fortunately for me, I’ve now had the chance to do some smaller scale traveling with these very colleagues! On Thursday, we had a “Betriebsausflug”—directly translated as “work journey”—to Pfaueninsel, or Peacock Island. It was essentially a company retreat with about twenty Ernst Busch employees from the archival department and beyond. We took a train to Wannsee, then a bus to the river Havel, followed by a ferry to the island. It was beautiful, even though it rained for most of the morning, and the name of the island is no exaggeration. We saw peacocks, peacocks, and more peacocks, as well as some other birds I’ve never seen before, a field of water buffalo, and a lovely little castle. Besides the beautiful sights, the trip was a great way to get to know more about my coworkers as people. They are just as curious about the American perspective as I am about the German one, which makes for quite interesting conversations. My three closest colleagues are fluent in English, but their comprehension is better than their speaking, since they usually have no reason to use it, so they said they appreciate the practice. I was glad to see we had more in common with language learning than I’d originally assumed. I was also able to speak with the dean of the university, Dr. Anna Luise Kiss, about everything from my aspirations as a student to American and German politics. She was incredibly kind, and she invited me to participate in the community garden behind the school building, which ended up being a much more rewarding experience than I expected. Apparently the gardeners get together every week, and I plan to join them. It was a great way to be social with new people, speaking among us multiple languages, some I didn’t know at all. Words weren’t necessary for everyone to enjoy fresh-picked strawberries together, anyway.
On the whole, I haven’t been experiencing much ambiguity in my internship, partially because my colleagues are very clear in their instructions and partially because they insist that questions are welcome. Also, due to most big meetings being entirely in German, everything is covered twice: once in German with everyone, which I don’t understand in its entirety, but usually get the general idea, and once in English with just me and my supervisor, who offers translation before I have to ask. Her English summaries hit on the most important points in a succinct fashion, which clears up any remaining confusion. My job may become more complicated once I start my independent project, but I believe the potential for ambiguity does not pose a large problem. If I am faced with unclear directions, it is not daunting to ask for clarification, because I know I’ll do a better job when I have all the information I need, and they know this is a learning experience for me, so they are happy to provide detailed explanations for the questions I have.
