Fulbright Seminar Day 1

I woke up early and wandered down to breakfast. Because it was early, it was quiet with few there. Then a Fulbrighter asked if he join me. He is one of the first people in our country who has received a PhD in dance history. He now teaches at Rutgers. It turned out he was originally from Grand Forks and he was concerned about his father and the Red River Flood. After breakfast I found out how to connect to the Internet and certainly hope the hotel honors the discount price we are supposed to have for our Internet connection. When I went down to the lobby there was the same guy again and I told him what I read about the Red River flood on the Internet and that relieved his mind.

We were all taken to Humbold-Universitat for a presentation about the economy. This University looks much like one would expect in Europe --Classic buildings and stone walks.

I particularly enjoyed the stain glass windows in the building where we went for the presentation. When the presentation ended I just followed the group out to a bus. However, soon I realized this bus was not returning to the hotel. I asked the students if they spoke English -- of course, and learned they were all going to a special session. As we arrived at the site, I knew I was somewhere by the Berlin Hbf, so started to walk over there to get myself back to the hotel.

The day was sunny with a nice temperature, so this mistake could have been much worse. The walk allowed me to get a photo of the Reichstag.

Then the route took me over the River Spree.

I got back in time to attend a session on the how the Bologna process, a reform movement for the European higher education system is changing education and how it affects the ability of European students to study both in the US as well as in other European countries.

After I went to the nearby Galeria to do a bit of food shopping. The store is offering for a limited time Tom Drag sculptures. They are on sale and also on display all over the store. The photo below may give you an idea.

I chose something to buy because I thought I'd never find anything more unique to bring home. Then after paying for my choice, it took about 15 minutes to find the box for it and then about five minutes to figure out how to get the sculpture into the box.

A a result I almost missed the bus to the evening activity. Ironically, the destination, the Center for World Cultures, was back to the place where I was at 12:30 by mistake. For me a highlight of the evening was flute and piano music prepared by two former Fulbrighters. Their selections were Central European composers and it was great. The speeches were good too. We were welcomed the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. The major presentation was given by Dr. Weisazaker who spoke about what went wrong at the Copenhagen meeting and then concluded with the positive ideas about how we can deal with climate change.

We then, now a group of 650 persons walked down two levels to a reception. Believe me, it took awhile to get this many people through a buffet line even though there were 3 buffet lines. We were to find our own way back. We ended up with the 100 bus which went from this site back to Alexanderplatz where our hotel is located.

Tomorrow we head to the Academy of Music as our venue.