New Year, New Role, Same Berlin!

By Mitchell Welsh

It's a new, very cold year in Berlin, and I am once again back with the CIEE Berlin team, this time in the role of Student Life Manager. It has been amazing to come back to CIEE, but with a new role comes new challenges; I worked mainly with the high school programs before, and during the summer. Now, it is deep winter in Berlin, one of our coldest in years as temperatures drop below -10 degrees centigrade! Despite that our new cohort of Open Campus and other students have been bringing their enthusiasm everyday since arriving in January.

It was a difficult start to the semester, with a snow storm cancelling many flights meaning many students arrived later than expected. Despite the weather and the delays however, our students have taken to every opportunity to expand their horizons since they arrived. Since week one, every one of our optional cultural excursions has had a waiting list, our Resident Assistant led nights have been at capacity, and a vast majority came and enjoyed a magical snowy day in the city of Leipzig with high spirits. Even when our return train was cancelled due to the weather, everyone took it in stride and made the most of the extra time to explore Leipzigs cultural and historical offerings. Whether it has been cosy nights in creating Henna art, or trekking out into snowy Berlin for a city tour, I have been taken a back by the curiousity to learn and enjoy the study abroad experince this cohort has shown.

It's always wonderful to see how are students thrive, and their active appreciation for the events and classes we as a study abroad centre organise for them! As we reach the end of Block I (where it has only gotten colder!) it has been very gratifying and motivating for us in organising the coming Block II programming to know the work we do is more than worth it. So that's Berlin for January! Next month, we'll be back with some student perspectives on the Spring Semester. 

Until then,
The Berlin Student Life Team