The Moment We Have All Been Waiting For

The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.

Gerald R. Ford

In the second week of May, the CBYX/YFU exchange students reunited once again for a seminar in Berlin. This seminar was extra special because it included all of the American exchange students through CBYX. As I had said in one of my earlier posts, CBYX scholarship recipients are distributed to four different exchange organizations (YFU, CIEE, AFS, and ASSE). That means at our Berlin seminar, we had 300+ students come together to visit the Bundestag and the US Embassy. (Throughout the week, we were mostly with our YFU group. In the Bundestag and US Embassy, we had the opportunity to meet the other CBYX students. I’ll get to that part later!)

We started off our first full day in Berlin by participating in some sessions preparing for our visit to the Bundestag. Then we got to choose a tour to go on. I decided to go on a walking tour taking us to several embassies. We learned fun facts about each embassy and admired the different architecture. Each embassy has unique factors to represent its country. We then had free time where we explored the city and visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Holocaust Memorial, and the East Side Gallery. Afterward, our YFU group met up again and we went to a disco. It was really fun.

One of our longest and probably most exciting days started out at the Deutscher Dom. We simulated a plenary session and walked around the museum to learn about the history of the German parliamentary system. In the afternoon, everyone met at the Bundestag. Our program started in the plenary hall where we were able to observe a real plenary session! After the plenary observation, we were split into groups where we could ask politicians questions. The program was very interesting. After our Q&A session, everyone joined together in the Paul Löbe House for a special guest speaker. Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, the President of the Bundestag, greeted us and gave a speech. After Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble’s speech, we had dinner and social hour with all of the CBYX students.

The next day, all of the CBYX students visited the US Embassy. At the US Embassy, we had the opportunity to talk to different foreign service officers and ask questions about their careers. (I took great interest in this part because I might want to become a foreign service officer one day.) After speaking with the foreign service officers, we listened to ambassador Richard A. Grenell speak to us. After the US Embassy program, we split off into groups to go to a museum of our choice. I decided to go to the DDR Museum. The DDR Museum is an interactive museum letting you immerse yourself into daily life in former East Germany. (For more info on the DDR Museum, check out this link: https://www.ddr-museum.de/en) Back at the hostel, we had a little graduation ceremony. Each CBYX student received a letter from Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble which is pretty special.

Our week in Berlin was a great experience. I learned a lot, got to visit one of my favorite cities, and had an amazing time with amazing people. It’s hard to believe that the next time we will all be together will be at the airport on our way home.