Field journal week 1 - Sunday, May 19th. 

(I completed my LiA project at the start of the summer, and kept a handwritten journal. I’m typing up and posting my entries retroactively, so I’m inserting my more recent reflections on the experience in addition to what I wrote in the moment.)

I arrived in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday morning. I’m staying with a host family in their Kreuzberg apartment, and they were very welcoming. I’ve studied German with my grandma, a former German teacher, for years, but my grandma speaks slowly for my benefit, and only uses words she knows I’ve already learned. I realized when I arrived that speaking with my host family would be much harder. We went for a walk around the neighborhood, and I love it. Kreuzberg is on the edge of what was West Berlin, and many Turkish families moved here in the 1960s during West Germany’s “Gastarbeiter Program.” Now, it’s one of those young and hip places with a majority of first and second gen-immigrants. 

I’ll be working at an NGO called Give Something Back to Berlin (GSBTB). The organization is a bit all over the place in terms of its purpose: it’s essentially a place where immigrants, refugees, or anyone newly arrived in Berlin can come to find community, creativity, and language support. They offer music classes, childcare, art therapy, community dinners, and English, German, and Arabic lessons. My job is to teach piano, guitar, and bass lessons to large groups of adults, as well as to help out with any other tasks they might need. I come in at around 1pm, and usually leave around 9pm, as most of their programming is in the afternoon and evening. I start on Monday, so we’ll see how it all goes this week. 

Also, I should add that this feels completely different from what I did last summer! Last year, I was at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, where I was reading a lot of academic journals about carbon tax legislation. Everything was directed by my supervisor. This summer is much less academic and more hands-on, and it’s also obviously a completely different field. I’m definitely law school-curious, though, and GSBTB’s applications to immigration law will continue to fall into that category.