Berlin, Snow, Surprises, Snow, Scary Elevator, More Snow

Berlin
Last week, there were two Fulbright conferences in Berlin. The first was sponsored by the Fulbright Alumni for Science and Technology, and the second by the German Fulbright Kommission. Russ flew over from Florida and I took the 5-hour train ride along the Elbe River from Prague to Berlin. Russ gave a presentation at the FAST conference. I had a bit part in a panel during the second conference.

Snow
It snowed every day….no major storms, but snow and wind and cold. It was hard to be outdoors, where we all wanted to go to see the city. The FAST conference committee planned that all sessions would be in the afternoon and evening, scheduling tours for the mornings. That was really nice. Russ and I went to the Natural History Museum, which had a wonderful exhibit of plant fossils and a display of birds that made me want to start rejoin the Audubon Society. We also went to the Pergamon Museum and saw spectacular archeological exhibits.

While walking to the museum, we passed the Lutheran cathedral which we heard was built to rival St Peter’s in Rome. A large quad in front of it was being set up for a rally, or something. From a metal superstructure, red banners were being hung that had swastikas on them. It took one’s breathe away and everyone was reacting with similar horror. We debated if it was an example of freedom of speech, but it turned out to be a backdrop for a movie that was being filmed.

Russ’ panel at the conference was particularly interesting. He spoke about the efforts of the Florida Integrated Science Center to produce good science in support of good policy making. Another speaker was a consultant who works with science organizations and policy-makers to apply science to policy. Unplanned, their presentations were strongly complementary and persuasive.

Then Russ got a miserable cold and was knocked out of commission for several of the events at the second conference. The second conference was the Mid-Year Conference for all the German Fulbrighters…sort of like our Velke Bilovice retreat. They invite all the other Fulbrighters in Europe. Since they have the largest number of Fulbrighters, they don’t try to have everyone speak. Instead there is a strong networking bent to the conference…lots of social and cultural activities. We went to see the Reichstag, and to the opening party, which was quite a big bash with lots of food and few speeches. I went to the Official Opening, which had no food and lots of speeches…luckily all quite entertaining. I also went to the closing Gala, a concert put on by a selection of Fulbrighters. It was a WOW concert, with wine and lots of finger foods. We both skipped one party because Russ was feeling particularly crummy and we thought a quiet dinner would be a delight, which it was. I walked to Checkpoint Charlie…very moving.

We took a bus trip around the city too, on a day that was too cold for walking, even if you didn’t have an awful cold. We saw remnants of the Berlin Wall, and got a real feel for the differences in the development of East Berlin and West Berlin. My impression was that East Berlin had built large functional structures that replaced the destruction of the War with needed offices and apartments. The West seemed to have restored more of what was destroyed. More of West Berlin has a historic look and feel, although still far from the look and feel of un-bombed Prague.

Culture Surprises
There were a couple of meetings on the Bologna Agreement, the purpose of which is to “harmonize” higher education systems in the EU so students can move freely among the universities. That is not an easy undertaking! Germany is also initiating an “Excellence Project” that will provide a huge budget supplement to each of 10 of their universities to become “excellent.” When I mentioned this to my students today, they were very skeptical of the German intentions. Their concern was that the excellent schools would exclude minorities and create an elite class of leaders who would get the best jobs in government and business. Considering that WWII ended in 1945 when most of these students’ parents were not yet born, the closeness of this issue surprised me.

That was only the first cultural ah ha in today’s class. Our reading included a quote from Amitai Etzioni that people have a “moral obligation to take an interest in their communities.” I asked for their reactions to the quote, expecting a discussion of what communities are and to what degree a person could meet this obligation by taking an interest in a non-geographic community, such as women, or university students, or cancer survivors. Ha! They immediately went to the “obligation.” They said that under communism, anything that was not prohibited was an obligation. They saw no “moral obligation” to take an interest in one’s community, or anything else. A public relations person in the Czech Republic would be well advised to avoid using the word “obligation” in persuasive writing. The picture it paints is not a pretty one.

Snow
The train trip back to Prague was a snow event. The scenery was lovely. I studied my Czech textbook as much as I could, but it was hard to keep my eyes off the quaint river towns covered in snow. Friday and Saturday here were warmer and I grew hopeful that when Meg and Steve arrived on Sunday, we would have spring-like weather for seeing Prague’s sights.

Very Scary Elevator
I had a good meeting at the Donors Forum on Friday. I had to say that so I’d have an excuse to include a picture of the elevator to their office on the 6th floor. It is a cross between an elevator and an escalator. It just keeps going around and you step/jump in when a “box” comes up, then step/jump out when you get to your floor. SCARY!!! I wonder what happens at the top if you panic and don’t get out….

Snow
I awoke Sunday morning to 4 inches of snow. That is a lot for this city that “doesn’t get snow” and that ought to be having spring by now. It was still coming down fast, furious, and blustery. The winds were at about 15 to 20 mph. Meg and Steve were due in from Amsterdam at 11:00, having left Dulles Saturday evening and flown all night. Their flight, according to the Czech Air website was cancelled, but the one ahead of them was much delayed and I held on to hope that the two flights would be combined. There was plenty of time for them to make the delayed earlier flight.

The only tracks out my window were footprints accompanied by paw prints. The streets had not been touched. Taxis were not running, but the airport shuttle was. I walked over to Republiky Namesti and caught it. It took about an hour to get there, twice the usual, but we made it fine. Every flight was cancelled until 5:00 except that the delayed one I hoped they would be on. It was listed as in route. Turned out the website was wrong. That one didn’t ever leave Amsterdam either.

Later, I met a flight at 10:30 in the evening because KLM said they had gotten a flight to Munich and would be arriving from there. Wrong again. I had my laptop with me and got an email from them from a hotel in Amsterdam. I am now an expert on getting to and from the airport on public transportation. The latest is that they are due here at 10:30 tonight. Here’s hoping that they are seeing some of Amsterdam, other than the airport.