we, too, are Berlin-ers! (also retrieved from the archives)

preface

while the above is worth no less than a thousand words, please read an account of CILAS' first exchange trip to Berlin written by the young gentleman with the red hair, otherwise known as Fayez.

introduction

in late August of 2014, a group of five CILASians - myself included - headed to Berlin to attend a conference as part of an exchange program with scholars of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. After a period of almost seven months of phone and Skype calls, we were at last united with our exchange partners in Berlin. We all concluded that this trip was an eye-opening experience.

expectations on the plane

since our selection to participate in the exchange program in January 2014, we have been discussing different socio-cultural issues in both Cairo and Berlin with our German counterparts. We came to understand that there are similarities between the two cities; similarities that include youth unemployment, the rise of entrepreneurialism and street art. How these similarities manifest themselves is what we came to discover.

visits in Berlin

during our stay in Berlin we were eager to learn more about those Berliners hanging out in cafés; mingled with them and explored alternative lifestyles. We visited a number of parks, including Tempelhofer Park and Tiergarten. Moreover, we attended a lecture at the Bundestag on the history of the building. We then went to the headquarters of Heinrich Böll Stiftung where we were introduced to the eco-friendly design of the building.

the conference

towards the end of our stay, we hosted a conference as to share our reflections on post-revolutionary trends regarding education, student movements, entrepreneurship and the media. German coffee helped us introduce ourselves in relation to different spaces across Cairo reflecting on different facets of our identity. We concluded the two-day conference with an Egyptian cooking session.

back on the plane

we, as un-usual, fell asleep on the plane to Egypt. To be fair, our eyes were so widely opened that we really needed to nap. There is one thing we are all sure of which is that our plans for the future have changed a little a bit.