Tuesday - This morning we ate breakfast with Erik Kirschbaum. He's an American journalist who came to Germany for a semester abroad in college and loved it so much, decided to stay. Erik has lived here for about two decades I believe and he's currently working for the Reuters News Agency in the Berlin bureau as a business writer. He got married here and raised four children in Germany, but grew up in Connecticut and attended college in Wisconsin. He was extremely interesting and talked a lot about what it was like to live in Germany as an American. He told us he's not a German citizen though because he still likes to vote in U.S. elections.
Side bar; almost every German I've met speaks English (most better than we do) and they were taught as far back as the fifth grade! I wish Americans did that also, like making Spanish lessons in elementary school mandatory. Kids are so impressionable and I think learning a second language at a young age is that much easier than trying to learn it at 28! Sense my frustration.
Anyways, there are seven million foreigners living in Germany including the biggest population of outside people from Turkey. There are between two and three million 'Turks' living here and I have been told more than half of them are unemployed! I found that statistic astonishing. As I am learning though, it is not that expensive to live in the city and there are many more than you'd expect collecting unemployment and living in subsidized housing. I also learned about the tense relations between Germans and Turks (not necessarily from Erik, but others. I'll explain more later).
Erik Kirschbaum seemed very eco-friendly. He talked about the 'energy issue' here and switching off nuclear power. Germany I learned is a world leader in renewable energy! Half of the world's power is produced in Germany. There is a law the government in Germany set up to encourage people to install solar panels on their roofs. The republic then pays homeowners .50 cents a kilowatt. So essentially some, like Erik produce power and get paid for it! He installed panels on his house and paid about 30,000 Euros for it, but he says it'll soon be paid off and making him money. Erik also talked about the German party and the election system, but I have already talked about that.
What I will tell you is the Yellow party is the FDP. They were once the kingmakers and are currently the lawyers, dentists and doctors. They are very liberal on social issues and getting the government out of peoples' lives. Big corporations love the FDP because they have immigrant workers and need the labor force. Members of the FDP hold many seats in the Bundestag.
After we wrapped up at the hotel it was on to visit the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. The students at the high school were really quite amazing. I was impressed with their knowledge of world issues and the growing curiosity Germans have with the American presidential election. Most of the youngster (again) I spoke with would like to see Senator Barack Obama lead America and to help strengthen U.S. relations throughout Europe.
Side bar; almost every German I've met speaks English (most better than we do) and they were taught as far back as the fifth grade! I wish Americans did that also, like making Spanish lessons in elementary school mandatory. Kids are so impressionable and I think learning a second language at a young age is that much easier than trying to learn it at 28! Sense my frustration.
Anyways, there are seven million foreigners living in Germany including the biggest population of outside people from Turkey. There are between two and three million 'Turks' living here and I have been told more than half of them are unemployed! I found that statistic astonishing. As I am learning though, it is not that expensive to live in the city and there are many more than you'd expect collecting unemployment and living in subsidized housing. I also learned about the tense relations between Germans and Turks (not necessarily from Erik, but others. I'll explain more later).
Erik Kirschbaum seemed very eco-friendly. He talked about the 'energy issue' here and switching off nuclear power. Germany I learned is a world leader in renewable energy! Half of the world's power is produced in Germany. There is a law the government in Germany set up to encourage people to install solar panels on their roofs. The republic then pays homeowners .50 cents a kilowatt. So essentially some, like Erik produce power and get paid for it! He installed panels on his house and paid about 30,000 Euros for it, but he says it'll soon be paid off and making him money. Erik also talked about the German party and the election system, but I have already talked about that.
What I will tell you is the Yellow party is the FDP. They were once the kingmakers and are currently the lawyers, dentists and doctors. They are very liberal on social issues and getting the government out of peoples' lives. Big corporations love the FDP because they have immigrant workers and need the labor force. Members of the FDP hold many seats in the Bundestag.
After we wrapped up at the hotel it was on to visit the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. The students at the high school were really quite amazing. I was impressed with their knowledge of world issues and the growing curiosity Germans have with the American presidential election. Most of the youngster (again) I spoke with would like to see Senator Barack Obama lead America and to help strengthen U.S. relations throughout Europe.
At this school only 80 students get in out of 300 applications. Academically, it's considered one of the best and brightest in all of Berlin. It's basically equivalent to a magnet school in the United States, but it gets money from the state and is affiliated with the church. It was one of my favorite sessions so far. The students were able to ask questions and we in turn, did the same. They did talk a lot about their opinions and comments on America but they also wanted to know how we covered news in the U.S. They told us they get most of their news in a 15 minute increment on a very popular news show called "Tagessschau." Most of them seemed to watch with their families as well.
For dinner, a handful of us in the group went to fellow Blake Warenick's favorite lebanese restaurant in Berlin called "Babel." It was delicious! I've never had lebanese before and I ate my first falafel. Delicious! After that we went to a Hookah bar and I experienced my first taste of smokeless tobacco. It was quite different, leaving a light airy taste in your mouth. Not something I'm terribly fond of, but pleased for this experience. Then we went to another little bar for a nightcap and before we knew it, it was already nearly 2 a.m. We hopped on the S-bahn and went home.
By the way, I forgot to mention we lost a fellow; Dan Tritle in Hackessher Market. We were in a group and all of a sudden we took off completing forgetting Dan somewhere along the way. Turns out he met up with some interesting folks from all over the world and went on a pub crawl! Hilarious. Berlin is great. If only I could find some work here, I'd like to stay for a while.
jill konopka
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