Yikes! When I went on the hotel's computer earlier, the keyboard was German (duh) but the major and annoying difference is that the Y and Z keys are flipped. So when I type "today," it'll come out as "todaz." Don't worry, I eventually asked the desk how to hook up my laptop so I don't have to deal with German keyboards.
My long journey was very uneventful. Heathrow was, a mess, in my opinion, compared to any other airports, in terms of security and flight connections. It took me a good hour and quarter to get to the other side of the security from my arrival plane! You had to take a bus connecting between terminals and the buses actually ran in the same area where the planes were actually sitting on a set route. You really didn't think about how big planes are until you're actually down on the ground. Wow. I saw signs for "Central London in 15 minutes, Trains leave every 15 minutes." There was a great temptation inside me to take a train to London and just walk for about an hour as I didn't have to leave for another good 3 hours. The woman at passport control and another passenger said no way I will make it back in time for a 11 AM flight to Berlin, even if just for an hour. I sighed and followed the rest of the crowd to change terminals. Oh, it would've been awesome! I tell you, the lines for the security in ANY terminal were unbelievable- even worse than in the US. Yet, their video demonstration was much more edgy than the ones in the US. I nearly laughed when I noticed them. Oh, they asked me if my laptop was working and to turn it on after it passed through the x-ray machine. Yes, they also did make me take off my shoes. They really checked every other passenger. It's just insane compared to other European security I've been through (Madrid and Prague which were literally non-existent).
I met a freshman girl from Princeton, Naomi, as we boarded our flight to Berlin from London. She's really cool- she wants to be a history major and is studying Russian. She's going to Russia in the summer with her study group (as a reward for first year Russian). Lucky! So we wound up sitting next to each other on the plane and shared a cab over to our hotel. Her grandpa's a travel photographer and takes pictures of German concentration camps.
The hotel, Hotel Augustinehof, was very nice- 4 stars. I forgot how tiny European hotel beds were! And the shower- so, so, so tiny that you could barely bend down to reach for something and the door opening is like a foot wide. Thank goodness I wasn't paying for this! AJC did leave some yummy German chocolates on our pillows- including a gigantic white chocolate bar. Some people from Colgate were here already- they got here at 10 AM and had the entire day to explore Berlin. Lucky people who paid $2,000 for their direct flight tickets from Newark to Berlin (Only Continental and Delta fly direct otherwise you have to connect through London or Paris).
We ate at Kadima restaurant which was basically dairy. It's attached to the New Synagogue of Berlin. The program director, Dr. Pruin, talked a bit about herself, the mission of the program, and our itinerary. The people involved in "American Jews Meet Germany" program felt that American Jews don't have a good understanding of the complex relations and Jewish identity in Europe, especially in Germany. By bringing American Jews here, they hoped that we will abandon or correct our misconceptions about Germany as a unified state and how the Jews fit in the picture. I had a little bit of a hard time wondering how can American Jews be part of this process when so much of our focus in on Israel. It almost created an additional responsibility for us (American Jews) to be aware of Europe's needs for financial and leadership support. She warned us that it'd be a tough week.
Mmmm we'll see how it all goes., America
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