And we’re finally here!

Well, it’s been a long 24 plus hours since we left Pittsburgh to head to Berlin. The students will give all the details, but lightning struck our plane (which had just landed) and the repairs and review took two hours. We missed our connecting flight  in Paris, maneuvered around an immense Charles DeGaulle airport and arrived here But seven of the students’ luggage did not.

We’ve been so fortunate on these trips We slid into Ireland in the midst of Icelandic volcano eruptions and had on-time flights with all other trips. As sports fans know, we were due …..   We’ll survive.

The late arrival cut down our time today for a city tour and visit through the Topographie of Terrors. We’ll catch up on this through our time here. But it is quite a city. Different from other European cities we’ve visited because World War II devastated Berlin and other beautiful German cities. No real old town here; much had to be rebuilt. What was spared is beautiful, and we’ll hear more about it this week. We start the media visits tomorrow with a lecture at Freie University, which was established when Germany was split under the four Allies’ control after World War II. I am thrilled to watch this come to life with 11 great students. Keep watch for their posts …..

And now it’s really time to say goodnight. Don’t look too closely for errors here. This sleep-deprived professor and copy editor surely made some.

It’s finally time to go!

After all the planning, all the classes, all the preparation, and for me, all the correcting of papers, it’s time to travel to Germany.

This is the sixth trip for students in the School of Communication. We’ve been to London, Ireland, Toronto, Prague and Italy. The Ireland and Italy trips featured visits to a number of cities, and we’re doing the same this year, stopping in Berlin and Munich and a quick trip to Salzburg.

Why travel? It makes history come alive, for one, and it broadens students’ (and this faculty member’s) world knowledge. I’ve enjoyed every single trip and the company of my students and fellow faculty. Germany has been at or near the top of my travel bucket list for years. We’ve had great previews through visitors to our classes, the students’ research and a tour of Pittsburgh’s German neighborhood, Troy Hill, led by the wonderful Helen Sobehart, this spring term. Plus the  trip to Teutonia Mannerchor, a vibrant and longtime German society on Pittsburgh’s North Side, gave us a great preview of German food and culture. We want to go back for Oktoberfest there to tell them our stories.

And we hope to tell our trip’s stories through these blogs and the stories on our website. Kudos to our 11 students making the trip and my two fellow faculty members, David Fabilli and Aimee-Marie Dorsten, for coming along. I love to travel and and passionate about ensuring our students have that chance, too.  Watch for our work … and for any Point Park students reading these blogs out there, think about joining us next year!

Auf wiedersehen, Pittsburgh!