The next morning I did my best to make the clothes I had hurriedly thrown into my suitcase the day before come out casual-formal, and headed to the Berlin offices of the Boston Consulting Group for the alumni meeting. Since the bulk of the proceedings were in German, I contented myself with taking pictures for our next newsletter and working out how I would introduce myself in German when the time came. I had taken my first German language class the previous morning and was pretty excited to use the first few snippets of language I had learned. I am actually able to understand the general topics of conversations now, and from time to time feel that I really am understanding what's going on around me, but up until this meeting, I had never tried to speak any German outside of stores. I managed to say a typical 'hi my name is.. I'm a trainee from Canada and now Systems Administrator for AIESEC in Germany' which is pretty weak considering the amount of time I've been here, and yet, I still managed to surprise my work mates who nearly fell out of their chairs.
After the presentations our group went to do a little touring. One alumnus had used his connections to set up a tour of the German answer to CNN, NTV. We had a two hour tour of the studio and office facilities led by the head of the company. We saw everything from their live Reuters news feeds, to the studio sets and editing rooms. We also had a got a good look at the city from the roof of the building where we had stopped to see the satellite feeds to the station. Berlin is huge, it doesn't have a New York style mass of giant buildings, but instead sprawls across the horizon in every direction, occupying a space eight times larger than Paris even if it is home to a third of the number of people. They tell me it's nothing like it was even three years ago, but I still can't believe the number of cranes that dot the skyline. There is construction everywhere as big companies open new corporate headquarters and government grows once again around its old roots in the restored Reichstag building of imperial times. And with the German government come the governments of most every other country, all erecting new embassies. We got a better view of the city and its frenetically growing centre from our next tour stop, the observation deck of the Daimler-Chrysler building. We were whisked to the top of the nearly thirty story building by the continent's fastest elevator, and from there tried to pick out the landmarks. On one side you could see the modern glitz of the glass and gunmetal Sony Centre, the epitome of modern style in the city, and not far from it the former headquarters of the Third Reich, old cathedrals, the Reichstag, and the lone remaining watch tower from the Wall all stand in stark contrast to each other. One thing that doesn't jump out at you looking down over the city, is that it was once divided. There is hardly a square meter of the wall left standing everywhere, with only a line on the street marking where it once stood. The one watchtower is currently the centre of a heated debate since it is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new building. The wall traversed some pretty valuable real estate, and split what was once the vibrant centre of Berlin. A concerted effort is being made to restore the bustling activity to this part of the city, and billboards depict the grand future the neighbourhood is destined to have.
Our busy day was slated to come to an end at a Spanish restaurant, Bar Celona. My German isn't yet good enough to explore it, but nonetheless I've come to the conclusion that Germans love puns. Grammatical and linguistic humour peppers even my English conversations with Germans. They find similarities in the sound of English words that I would never have noticed existed, and put these discoveries to use in pun form whenever possible. I'm getting used to it. But back to the restaurant, because Bar Celona does not in fact sport a bar. The organizers of the weekend had coaxed a bank into springing for the meal, and so we were all treated to a three course meal of assorted meats, seafood and your choice of paella. Throw a little Spanish wine into the motley mix of aging AIESECers, and pretty soon we were all singing. Again. Apparently AIESEC songs have the ability to travel between generations as well as nations. Exhausted after what had become a rather long day, we passed on the kneipenbummel (pub tour) and went to bed in anticipation of tomorrow's early start. We were having breakfast at the Kaiser's, or more precisely, the Reichstag restaurant.
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