Week 8 - Personal

Countries around the world...

This week went very quick in my opinion as it was filled with the excitement of our Easter holiday break to Berlin and I was super excited as I have always wanted to go! The week began with the usual teaching on Monday and Tuesday. Monday I continued with English and set up a shop scenario in the classroom so my Dutch pupils could come up practise their shop phrases and try and hold a conversation in English... it went brilliant! Phew! Then on Tuesday to my surprise, the day that was filled of religion and the Easter story was finished off by myself having to take a surprise English lesson that the teacher told me to prepare in 45 minutes. You can imagine the nerves and rush of that! However, everything went well through teaching the children countries in English and finishing it off with a game of find the country on the map and Pictionary; Even though the boys lost… damn!

Thursday then was the day we set off to Berlin on the bus trip… which took all day to travel. Never have I been so uncomfortable in all my life including my friends who were there too but we all managed to just about survive and arrive in Berlin. The terrible part of it was that the hotel was thirty minutes away from Berlin so we were unable to experience The Berlin night-life. However, we were all still excited to look at all the different historical elements within the city!

Me at the Brandenburg Gate

The Friday then was a day filled with walking, seeing and learning all about Berlin... and believe me we walked loads as our feet were aching by the end of the day! We started off by visiting the landmark of the Brandenburg Gate which was breath-taking! It was huge and absolutely beautiful! The amount of people at the gate was also mind - blowing showing us how popular the city of Berlin really was. 

 

Me at the Reichstag!

The Berlin Wall

We then picked up maps and continued on to look at the (my favourite) the Reichstag! The building was beautiful but to my disappointment we didn’t go inside – this is on my to do list the next time I visit! We then mapped out, over Berlin soup and beer, what museums we wanted to see… bit by bit our day was coming together. We then visited the Jewish holocaust memorial, the natural history museum, contemporary art museum and the best by far The Berlin Wall museum. The Berlin Wall let us go up to the wall and see how big and vast it was. The museum explained stories of the victims trying to get across the border; some who succeeded and the many that failed. All in all, the Jewish memorial and the Berlin Wall Museum were highlights of the day!

The Jewish Holocaust Memorial

Hitler's Desk from his office

The Saturday then consisted of finishing of the museums that we didn’t get to see on the previous day. We visited my favourite museum called the Berlin History Museum that contained over 800 years of the city’s history. I could have spent all day in it as I myself am a history nerd haha

However, inside the museum it took you through the medieval period, WW1, the Nazis, WW2, The Berlin Wall and then Germany as a free and prosperous nation. The museum really made my day as I got to see artefacts such as Napoleon's hat and sword and Hitler’s very own desk! We then went on to an visit an art gallery seeing various famous artists. Then we continued onward to Checkpoint Charlie which was excellent to see.

“Study the past if you want to define the future.” 

Confucius 

Jewish Museum.. The Garden of Exiles

Finally the day was finished off with the trip to the Jewish museum. Here we read stories about the victims of the holocaust from friends and neighbours. The museum really affected me when we went to the ‘holocaust tower’, where you entered and the door slammed and echoed behind you. You were then in a pitch black room, that was freezing and when you looked up you seen a little day light but not much. It was to represent the Jews going into the gas chambers… alone, scared and lost. It sent shivers down my spine. The museum was filled with Jewish history, with various art pieces and information. An inspiring quote that the designer of the Jewish museum said that really fits was:

“What is important is the experience you get from it. The interpretation is open.” Daniel Libeskind

My package from home from my family

All in all, this week has been one of the best weeks yet during my Erasmus trip. I have got to go somewhere I have always wanted to go and see and Berlin did not disappoint. To top it off I came back to Nijmegen I had received a package from home containing home comforts. Really I am one very happy man at the minute.

Top tip for this week, if you have any dreams of going somewhere or doing something… go and fulfil them. For when you do you will feel no greater sense of happiness and joy.

References:

Confucious.Available: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/history. Last Accessed 01/04/13/

Libeskind, D. The Jewish Museum - Berlin.