Cultural blog
This week, having no class on Tuesday, 9 of us from our International Class decided to take a trip to Berlin. Most of us had never visited Berlin before and were interested to find out about the rich history and about each other. Since there were different nationalities and cultures all taking part in the trip, including 3 Dutch, 1 Spanish, 1 Colombian, 1 Turkish and of course, Kerri, Trisha and I, it was quite a different experience for me and has definitely developed my cultural awareness of various other cultures even more as I have never travelled with people from other cultures before. I have also never lived in a room with people from other cultures, which was interesting as we shared a hostel dorm together. It was interesting to observe the different practices; habits and rituals that different individuals have that are either individual to the person’s personality or to their culture.
Travelling with people from different cultures was very beneficial to my personal and cultural growth as we all learned a lot from each other. It was a very enjoyable experience which I am looking forward to repeating during my time in Denmark, when we visit somewhere else or take day trips together. Something I enjoy the most about my Erasmus experience is socialising with a group of people, all from different countries. I feel I have learned so much from this, including words and phrases from different languages, trying different foods and taking part in different traditions. This is something not often experienced in Northern Ireland, which I now know through taking part in Erasmus, is such a shame, and that the population of Northern Ireland are losing out on this valuable experience due to the lack of culturally open-minded people in Northern Ireland and their reluctance to mix with people from different cultures. I myself would have been in this category before coming to Denmark, however my views on mixing with people from different cultures have changed significantly, and on my return to Northern Ireland I will be more aware of different cultures and will make the most of any opportunities that arise to socialise with people from different cultures.
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| The group at Berliner Dom |
When travelling together with a variety of people from different cultures there are of course some difficulties which we faced. These were that not everyone always wanted to do the same thing; however, thankfully, we were able to compromise on things. Another issue was that the Spanish and Colombian people like to eat dinner at around 9 or 10pm, were as the rest of us liked to eat at about 6pm. We also managed to compromise on this however and dined at 7 or 8pm. This is something which I would never have thought of as being an issue; however I am now more aware of these issues when planning future trips.
During my trip to Berlin I learned a lot about the troubles associated with Berlin and Germany. I was very surprised to learn about the life that the people of Berlin led as although I had heard a lot about the Second World War, I had not heard much about the segregation of Berlin. We visited the remains of the Berlin wall, The Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Berliner Dom and the newly regenerated area Potzdammer Platz.
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| The group at Brandenburg Gate. |
All in all, my trip to Berlin was very culturally enriching due to the people I was travelling with and also due to the historically intriguing, lively and artistic city of Berlin.
Next week we have our Easter holidays where everyone in Denmark returns home to their families, as Easter is seen as an important family time here and also by some of the other Europeans here on Erasmus Therefore we also decided to take a trip home to celebrate Easter.
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| Kerri and I at the East Side Gallery |
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