July 10

Today was our last official day of class before our presentations on Thursday; over the weekend, we prepared outlines and today we shared them with the group, Manuela, and Kathryn. So far everyone’s presentations are sounding great, and I’m excited to find out more about what the other groups have been up to for the past three weeks. A common concern seems to be that since we're just wrapping up with our community partners, most of us haven't really organized our research. Regardless, I think the the presentations will be interesting for everyone since we’ve all been investigating such diverse questions. I also can’t wait to get more of an overview as to what each organization has specifically been doing, since even though we’re all connected to immigration and refugees in some way, the ways we’ve been engaging are actually quite different.

After class, a group of people got lunch at the local Lebanese place in Kreuzberg (which is super tasty!) and then the rest of the afternoon was free. I stayed for office hours and then got lunch at a local cafe; I highly recommend the “Vanilla Quark” dish that is available most places.

"Vanilla Quark" at Estate Coffee near Schlesiches Tor

 

Some people visited their community partners today, but the majority continued working on presentations and maps since the class session this morning provided us with more direction and ideas. A lot of groups seem to be playing with the idea of making a digital map, or printing out maps from google and annotating them, although Clayton and I are trying to do ours by hand. In class today Manuela recommended a big art store by Moritzplatz, and while it's not the cheapest, it's definitely still fun to go into. I went there in the evening with Justin to pick up some supplies, and then ran into Sophie and Nikki on the way back in front of the “Rebel” store not that far from Görlitzer Bahnhof. It's a great store, and a popular item is the T-shirt that says “Kein Mensch ist illegal” (No person is illegal). After getting the cheapest colored pencils I could find, I spent the remainder of my evening working on my map with Clayton. A few people went out in the evening; Justin and Sophie went to a show with a variety of musical styles in Neukölln. All in all it was a relaxed but productive day!

Shirts like this one are from the "Rebel" store near Görlitzer Bahnhof