The Weather is Warming Up!

I skipped softball practice this morning because I've got quite a bit to do this weekend. The next few weeks will be very busy with some friends visiting from Seattle, then my Fulbright Conference in Berlin, and finally my trip to Turkey. The weather today was really nice though. It was quite warm outside (relatively speaking).

I got back yesterday from my trip to Marburg. It was a really fun trip, and I enjoyed hanging out with Carissa, Sarina, and other people as well. The carpool ride back to Berlin was pretty interesting too. There were three other folks, and we just spoke German the whole time. I don't think any of them really spoke English well, so it was cool to just chat in German. This trip to Marburg really helped me see how far my German has come since I started learning the language, even more so just in this past year.

In other news, my article on study abroad is now up on BetterGrads.org. Its posting was bumped by a few days to coincide with their new blog series on scholarships. It's much shorter than the original article, but I think it still gets my main point across. More recently, I've been working to increase Scholarship Junkies' web presence via Twitter, Facebook, and site/blog updates. It's no secret that if you want to be seen as an expert on a given subject, you've got to consistently weigh in on issues related to that subject. Hence, the latest blog articles and cross-linking opportunities.

The plan for Scholarship Junkies is to continue with blog articles on recent, relevant topics (working on the next one now). At the same time, once we launch the new site (hit some technological snags...thank goodness for my colleague, Michael, who oversees our tech stuff), we will be able to generate much more new content and repost relevant information. From my perspective, we're not even running at 50% of our full capacity yet, so there is tremendous potential for explosive growth.

Speaking of Scholarship Junkies, our business account got dinged $15 from Chase for not having their "required minimum balance" for a "free" business checking account. I knew they'd changed their policies recently for personal checking accounts (hence, why I closed my account), but I didn't know they were doing it for business accounts too. The customer service rep wrote to me that their Business Select Checking accounts rewards customers for keeping more balances; I wrote back that a system that "rewards" customers by not penalizing them is no reward system at all and that we would be taking our business elsewhere. Bottom line: don't bank with Chase unless you've got lots of money!

Finally, I'm very excited for the coming months. I will be busy with one of two things: one, interviewing students for my Fulbright project; or two, traveling somewhere in Europe. I've got a number of short trips planned (both for work and for fun) for Istanbul (Turkey), London (UK), Trondheim (Norway), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Paris (France), and Athens (Greece). If I can, I'm going to try and go down to Switzerland after my Fulbright grant period is over, since I have about a week and a half after that before I have to return to Seattle. One goal for Switzerland: bungee jumping! :)

Anyway, we'll see what happens. Cheerio.

Sam

Group Dinners in Marburg Again

When I lived in Marburg last summer during my language course, I would often cook dinner with friends and have a big group dinner. Today, I arrived back in Marburg for my monthly medical trip, and I'm staying with my old neighbor, Carissa, and her roommate, Sarina. They had both just been in Berlin last week too, so it was nice to see each other again.

I had to wake up really early this morning, but last night I watched the Blazers play the Heat. I didn't make it through the whole game, but I saw enough to know they played better than they've been playing recently. Pretty exciting for them to start off their 4-game road trip against some of the top teams in the Eastern Conference with two consecutive victories.

Anyway, I had to ride a tram, a bus, and two U-Bahns to catch my ride to Marburg. I carpooled with two other people, and it was a pleasant ride. We spoke all in German at first, and in fact, they couldn't tell where I was from, even though they knew I wasn't German (i.e. whether I had immigrated to Germany recently or otherwise). Funny, soon they decided they wanted to speak English, which was fine since we'd already been conversing in German so much. Of course, they spoke impeccable English, and in fact, one of them sounded just like an American. If I hadn't known that she was German, I would've thought she was American based on her accent (or lack of the typical German accent).

We had a nice conversation. Apparently we all had lots of areas of interest. The girl with the American-like English accent studies at my university, and the lady driving is actually a teacher who studies the same subject I study at the Humboldt Universität. After our very insightful conversations, we agreed that we should meet up regularly in Berlin to discuss our respective research. Always great to make new connections.

In Marburg, I met up with Sarina at the university library, where I had actually never been during my six weeks here. One thing I really don't like about many libraries is that you cannot bring your backpack in. In fact, at this library, we had to even leave our jackets downstairs, etc.

I felt like I was so productive today because I didn't have internet in the library. My old username and password from the university no longer work (only natural, I suppose). So I worked on more transcriptions. I made some good progress.

When we finished our work, we headed into town to pick up some groceries for dinner. Normally, when I stay over with Carissa and Sarina, it means we cook chicken 'cause they typically don't cook meat (although recently they've ventured further into it :D). So tonight, we tried something new. We cooked chicken with peas, carrots, and a mushroom-based sauce. We ate it with rice. Good stuff. Check it out.

Tomorrow, I have my medical appointment and then will hang out with Carissa in the afternoon. I believe Sarina has to work on her 20-page paper, but hopefully we'll see her for dinner. In other exciting news, Carissa will be joining me, James, and Nick in Istanbul in a few weeks. I can't wait!

Ok, that's all for now.

Sam

Farewell Parties Already?

My fellow Fulbrighter, Michelle, leaves tomorrow for Essen, after having spent the past few months in Berlin working on her project. So tonight, she threw a little "farewell party" so we could all celebrate.

Funny though, 'cause we'll see her in about two weeks for the Berlin Fulbright Conference. Nevertheless, it is really rather sad that one of my Berlin buddies is moving already.

Since she's leaving tomorrow, we had to help finish all of her remaining food items. So here's the feast we had tonight:

I was really quite full, but Michelle gave me some food to take home too. Woo! Now I have food for tomorrow...I'm running low on food. Time for my weekly grocery shopping on Tuesday.

Since I haven't blogged since Wednesday, here's a snapshot of what I've done since then. I met with my other faculty advisor on Thursday, and the most exciting news that came out of that meeting is that we're going to try and write an article together (in German) on what I've found through my research. I hadn't seen her since November, but apparently since then she's already had two more articles published. So I'm excited to work on that with her. Now if only I could get this official permission from the Berlin Senate to do interviews...still waiting.

I also visited a school on Friday through the Embassy's Meet US program and spoke on "Immigration, Integration, and Multiculturalism in the United States." Since the students study mainly British English, they also talked mainly about Great Britain (and Germany, of course) when it came to this theme of migration. The teacher asked me to come and speak from an American's perspective, so I provided some historical context and then shared my personal experiences.

At one point, I asked the students whether they felt the US or Germany was a more tolerant society in relation to the theme of immigration. Not all the students spoke, but one of them who did felt quite strongly that Germany was much more tolerant. In my personal view, I disagree with her, but I did not share my thoughts until I'd heard from all the students who wanted to speak. Several of the students, particularly those with migration backgrounds, disagreed with that first student's opinion and thought it was likely better in the US, even though only one student had ever been to the US (and to a small town of 300 in Minnesota no less).

I also had them read an article on the Dream Act, and the questions they asked were fascinating. After having learned from my brief historical overview that one can become a US citizen simply by being born on US soil, one girl asked why then isn't the US allowing illegal immigrants to pursue education and jobs if they arrived in the US as young children? In her view, it was hypocritical for the US not to give those students (the roughly 1.2 million undocumented students across the country) the same chances as others who might've been born on US soil.

I told her that I agreed with her perspective, and I sincerely hope that legislation like the Dream Act will pass sooner rather than later. Since I had given them a run down of the legislative evolution in the US (including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the National Origins Act), I also made sure to leave them with a final, more positive thought. I told them it's important to also be able to take the long-view of things. Certainly, it's frustrating and sometimes downright unfair that more tolerant legislation isn't passed more quickly; but if the United States' young history is any example (particularly in recent months), things can and will get better.

I suppose I'm an optimistic idealist to some degree, but I'd like to think of myself as more of an idealistic pragmatist. It was really an awesome experience having these discussions with that class of 11th graders, and again I was very impressed that they were able to discuss it all in English. I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to explain all that history in German. :)

Anyway, one final piece to share, as promised a few blog posts ago: my Scholarship Junkies article on studying abroad will be featured tomorrow on BetterGrads' College 101 blog. This version is considerably shorter, but I think it still does the job—if not a better job than my longer version.

Till next time,

Sam

Visiting the Ministry of Magic...err, British Council in Berlin

Tonight, I attended an event called "Future Agenda—The World in 2020" at the British Council. It's located in the center of Berlin at Alexanderplatz (right next to the tram lines where Matt Damon abducted Julia Stiles in The Bourne Supremacy).

After having to buzz in and enter through a slightly confusing (at first) automatic glass door, I had to take an elevator up to the fourth floor, where the British Council is located. When the elevator opened for me to step in, I had a brief moment where I felt like I was walking into a corridor in the Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter land, if you're confused—see photo from Google below).

The elevator had what looked like dark green tiles with gold trim and tinted-, mirrored-walls that made the space look larger than it actually was. Nevertheless, it made me pause before stepping into the elevator—the lights were all, for the most part, off.

Once I made it to the fourth floor though, I got my name tag and signed up for one of the four discussion groups. I was invited to pick up a copy of the book, Future Agenda—The World in 2020, which was quite a thick, comprehensive book. You can find an overview online too.

Since the project is sponsored by Vodafone, their Senior Communications Manager gave a short presentation on their "four macro certainties" that will need to be considered as 2020 draws nearer:

1. A continued imbalance in population growth;
2. More constraints on key resources;
3. An accelerating shift of economic power to Asia; and
4. Universal data access.

Now, whether you agree with these or not, they are certainly major issues to consider. For example, by 2020, the world's population is expected to have increased by 750 million people. Most of this growth will take place in regions of the world that can least afford to support them (limited resources, weak infrastructure, etc.). 

In four groups, we discussed four different themes, respectively: the Future of Wealth, Cities, Work, and Environment. I joined the group discussing the future of cities, and we discussed three insights: dense cities, bridging the last mile, and mega-city-states.

I plan to read the entire book thoroughly, but here are snippets from each of the three insights our group discussed:

• Dense Cities | "As urban migration increases, efficient, densely populated cities, not distributed options, are the blueprints for more sustainable places to live."
• Bridging the Last Mile | "Making public transport as flexible as private focuses attention on improving the last mile between multimodal hubs and the home/work destination."
• Mega-City-States | "Increasing competition between cities overrides national priorities as mayors lead bold initiatives to place their cities at the forefront of the global stage."

So that's what we discussed. My initial impression was that I did not necessarily agree with all of them. Frankly, the mega-city-states idea reminded me of Greek city states and made me wonder if they're proposing we revert to the system of the ancient Peloponnese with the major change being the advanced technology of today. All facetiousness aside, I do agree that developing more effective, more efficient public transportation is a major part of the future.

Clearly, there are many other factors to consider—many of which are addressed in the complete book such as local produce, scientific advances, and medical tourism—but I think such a discussion requires more than just a small group activity on a Wednesday evening. I'm not saying tonight's event was not useful, rather I think it must be part of a larger series of discussions and then action plans to create any kind of effective change.

I left the event tonight wondering how I was supposed to apply what I'd learned or even what the heck I was supposed to have walked away with. About the only solid thing I walked away with was a full stomach 'cause they fed us with a nice buffet dinner. 

I also met a number of other folks at the event. Besides two other Fulbrighters, I also met a number of Bosch Fellows, who were all pretty cool. After learning about their experiences, I have to say I'd consider applying for one of those fellowships. I also met someone who works for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and it turns out he actually interned for Congressman Jim McDermott at one point. Small world as Congressman McDermott actually told me connect with another of his former aides who now works in Germany. Funny.

The ride home today was quite quick—only 40 minutes. I had new headphones, which I bought at Saturn before the event tonight, because my old ones had broken down. I could only hear out of one earbud. Not exactly good for my ears, I think, to be blasting music to just one ear. So I'm happy with my new headphones (only 5€!).

I also tried a new suit-shirt combo tonight that I actually like a lot. I wore a black shirt instead of my usual white. I decided to go with my blue tie instead of gold or silver. Turned out better than I'd expected! Here's my MySpace-like picture so you can see. :)

Things are picking up as I've got articles to read, interviews to transcribe, and papers to write. I've also got a presentation at a school on Friday that will cover the topic "Immigration, Integration, and Multiculturalism in the U.S." I asked the students to read an article on the Dream Act ahead of time too, and the teacher turned it into a fantastic lesson plan that I'll have to ask for her permission to share it. I'm really very impressed with how quickly she took the link I sent her and turned it into a very good exercise for the students in her English class. Respect.

Until next time,

Sam

6 Hours of Public Transportation...

...in one day is terrible. My day could've been worse, but it all turned out okay in the end.

This morning, I was able to sleep in a bit longer than usual on Tuesday as the 8th grade class I normally volunteer with had an English proficiency test this morning. So I arrived two hours later than usual to work with the 7th grade class.

My commute to the school takes at least one hour each way though through a combination of a tram and a bus. The bus ride itself is 40 minutes long and runs from one end of the line to nearly the other end. So there were my first two hours of public transportation in Berlin today going there and back.

Once I got back home, it was already 1:30 PM, so I made a quick lunch and then went downstairs with Lenz to meet his girlfriend's dad, who is the manager of the computer software firm below our apartment. Since Lenz is going on a trip in a few days, he wanted to make sure I had someone to contact in case of an emergency. Really a pleasant meeting.

As soon as it was over though, I had to head out again as I had a meeting with my Fulbright faculty advisor at Humboldt University. Again, another hour ride into the center of Berlin. Good meeting. Finished in 30-40 minutes and then hopped on the tram again to ride home, with a quick stop at the grocery store. There were hours three and four on the trip there and back.

Once I made it home from the university and grocery shopping, it was already 6 PM, and I was supposed to meet my old roommate, Ronny, at Potsdamer Platz for his birthday. So I made a quick dinner and ran out the door by 7 PM to catch the tram. I had to switch to an S-Bahn and made it to Potsdamer Platz in just under an hour.

Ronny was back in Berlin after spending a few weeks with his family back home in Gießen, so it was nice to catch up and celebrate his birthday. We went to watch True Grit, which was quite good. I had no idea what it was about before watching it, but I enjoyed it. I did not even know Matt Damon was in it.

After the movie, Ronny and I went around the corner for a few drinks (after a quick pit stop at McDonald's—I did not eat any). The place we went to was certainly a bit more spendy, since we were at Potsdamer Platz in the middle of a touristy area, but it was cool. We had some Vietnamese spring rolls along with Tiger and Singha Thai Beer.

By the time I made it home after an S-Bahn and tram ride (plus about 10 minutes of walking), I'd spent six hours total today riding Berlin's public transportation. As Ronny reminded me again today, "this city is huge." Thank God I have a Semesterticket to ride all public transportation in Berlin through my university. :)

Sam