It seems just yesterday that I was walking into my little Berlin apartment for the first time, that I was trying to find my way to the office, that I was navigating the subway interchanges for the first time and that I was observing the sights and sounds of Berlin for the first time. Now…

In this blog I am going to take some time to reflect on some cultural aspects of my time here in Berlin, more specifically, how I was received and an American and intern/tourist and how I perceived the culture around me.   I have not noticed much hostility towards Americans, which many have warned me…

Today I’d like to talk about two different events I attended which are a little outside the scope of my usual work and tourist activities. The first was an organized dinner for female architects in Germany and France. The dinner moves around from place to place in an attempt to build up the community of…

My blog posts have so far been rather serious, or maybe as serious as I can get on a fantastic study abroad in Europe. So today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about food in Berlin! The first topic I would like to address is the grocery stores. They are so small here!…

I finally feel that I have been in Germany long enough to have some sort of understanding of its national environment. Of course, it helps that I have been researching demographics for one of my projects at work, so now I have the facts. So here goes… Germany has the largest economy in Europe and…

In Architecture we use the term ‘missed use’ to describe a building which has multiple functions and program areas. For instance, a mixed use building could have an tea shop, a pub a yoga studio and some apartments. Berlin is a mixed use city. I don’t mean just that it is diverse. All cities this…

Though I am only about a month into my internship, I finally feel that I know enough to share some of my observations on my firm and its culture. I will be the first to admit that these observations may be a bit skewed because I am outside of my native culture. By this I…

I’d like to write a bit about Berliner and their use of public spaces. As and architecture student, I am very interested in how the general population interacts with spaces, private, public and transitional. I would assume that this interaction varies depending on culture. In the US we have specific views on the uses of space…

Unlike many of my IIP Peers, I am here in Berlin persuing an architecture internship. I have find it intriguing to live with so many business majors. I don’t interact with business students on a regular basis back on campus, so this opportunity is providing me with some insight into business as a field of…