Laura's Trip to Berlin

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, on Thursday at the compound rec center, and Friday at our neighbor's house.  I was in charge of pumpkin pies yesterday, and turkey and gravy today.  I will post pictures later...today my post is about my recent trip to Berlin.

First of all, it was really, really hard to be away from Jack (and Rob) for a whole week.  It was hard because Jack is learning new words daily, so while I was gone he learned to say "cookie monster" and "santa", and how to give hugs!  Rob (aka Super Dad) kept him busy during break, and then got him ready in the early mornings for school. He employed a few of the compound teenagers to help out, filled the house with new toys, and taught Jack some new dance moves (videos to come another day).

On the other hand, I had a good time on the trip.  As I mentioned before, I was co-chaperoning a group of high school students for a Model UN conference.  The students were incredibly focused on the conference, and they were all very well-behaved.  We had a good mix of fun and work.  The weather was cold and a little rainy, which was a refreshing change from Saudi's heat.  (Side note: the weather here has cooled down quite a bit (65-75), so that Jack is required to wear a sweatshirt when he goes outside at nursery).

On the first day, we had a bus tour around Berlin before going to our hostel.  We stopped at several Berlin icons, including the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie.

This brick line marks where the Berlin wall used to stand dividing East and West Berlin.

The high schoolers in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall.

The entrance to the Berlin Zoo.

The next four days were spent at the JFK American School for the BerMUN conference.  Students play the role of delegates from various countries to the UN.  They research their country's stance on current world issues and write resolutions to present.  They then lobby to get other delegates to back their resolutions, debate, and vote.  Our students represented Venezuela and the USA.  The students were amazingly knowledgeable in world affairs and represented their school well.  We took the subway from the hostel to the school everyday, and in the evenings we went to dinner or ordered pizza.

One of our students giving a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference.  Seated at the front table are students from various schools who were chosen to serve as president of the UN, secretary-general, and other positions.

The students had to act as their country's delegation the whole time, putting their personal views aside.

After the conference was done, we took the kids to see the new Harry Potter movie and the Blue Man Group, and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.  We spent some time in the Christmas Markets that are set up all over Germany, shopping for Christmas items, eating bratwurst, and even sledding!  Some of the students had never been sledding before.  Even though it was a wooden hill with man-made snow, it put me in the Christmas spirit.

This bear is the symbol of Berlin, so they were everywhere.

Sledding!

A public toilet... 1 Euro ($1.40) for the toilet, 7 for a shower.

The last day we were there, we went to Potsdam, a town near Berlin.  We went to a museum about the Holocaust and stopped at several palaces.

Sanssouci ("no worries") Palace

The gardens of Sanssouci

The windmill at Sanssouci

Schloss Cecilienhof, the location of the Potsdam conference between Truman, Chuchill, and Stalin.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at Legoland

All in all, it was a busy and fun trip.  It is nice to spend time with students outside of school, and a good challenge to lead teenagers through a foreign city!  The students are so sweet, always offering to carry my bags and asking if I missed my family. These students are literally world-travellers, but I was surprised that several of them have no street sense!  They walk in the bike paths, don't understand the subways, etc...I guess that's what living on compounds in Saudi does.  This is a very safe, sheltered place for kids to grow up, and I'd rather have a polite, caring, sheltered child than a street-smart one :)

Thanks for reading!