In my lifetime, I have never needed sleep so much. Having cleared my system of cramped airplane seats, flight delays and travelling, I felt ready to greet the day and see some more of Berlin
In other great news, our suitcases arrived today! Ironically though, I ended up wearing something that I had in my carry on but I was, nonetheless, excited. After getting ready, having breakfast, and exploring the most delicious coffee machine that might be my favorite part of the trip so far, we headed off by metro to Freie University to meet with Dr. Elfriede Furich to take a tour of the university and learn a little more about the German media landscape
My main takeaways from what Dr. Furich had to say about German media were eye opening. Their abundant consumption of radio and lack of consumption of Internet (at least compared to the US) was of particular interest to me considering I, and I would wager, most other Americans, actually never listen to the radio and consume the most media through the Internet. Another striking difference between our two nations’ media landscapes was that Germans still love their books. Not just reading, but physical books. Bookstores, although in slight decline, are still thriving in this German environment full of people who still value face-to-face communication. It seems they also value traditional forms of media like books, newspapers and radio much more than we instant-gratification-seeking-Americans do.
After that visit, a few of us took a trip to the Check Point Charlie Museum. This very detailed museum presented the horrors of the East quite poignantly, with many real historical artifacts and tons of information I was unaware of. It is definitely a must see for my fellow friends interested at all in Cold War history. Then it was off to the Brandenburg Gate, a little touristy but very impressive to see, followed by a couple of us that hadn’t eaten heading back to the Sony Center for dinner.
That’s all for now! I’ll be back with more of what tomorrow has to bring.
Tschuess!
Michelle
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