IAAS meets Berlin

On Thursday we met at Bonn central station to take the train to Berlin. There we wanted to help Sarah, a former member of IAAS Bonn, to found the third IAAS committee in Germany and to increase the level of awareness for our organisation in the capital city.

We started on Friday presenting ourselves in some lectures to students at Humboldt University.
Afterwards we visited the Natural History Museum. What impressed us most was the inexhaustible variety! It started with imposing dinosaurs being continued by a very detailed presentation of earth history explaining important processes within the universe.
Furthermore there was a worthwhile exhibition about flies and their global significance concerning relevant communicable diseases.
To improve our group dynamic and to integrate the new members we decided to complete the successful day on a Scandinavian Christmas market.

Since Berlin is a city of great importance regarding German history, on Saturday we booked a guided tour through a remarkable bunker located in Kreuzberg. The former gasometer was transformed and upgraded into a bunker to maintain the safety – especially for women and children – during the Berlin bombings in World War II.
After a lunch break we started a sightseeing tour visiting Alexanderplatz and the cathedral. In the evening we gained some experience in Berlin night life.

On Sunday, to keep up the spirit of agricultural exchange, we headed to an ecological research station. We took a look at the different research fields and visited the nearby Christmas market.
At the end of the day we continued our sightseeing tour with the Holocaust Monument, the Brandenburger Tor and the East Side Gallery with its surrounding neighbourhood.

The new week began with further IAAS-presentations and the distribution of IAAS-leaflets in several universities that are related to agricultural sciences.
In the afternoon we had a meeting to organize our national cooperation and to talk about other IAAS-relevant topics.
Afterwards we closed our sightseeing circle by visiting a monument in memory of the Berlin Wall and its victims in Bernauer Straße.
We spent a convivial last evening at Sarah's place.

After another presentation during a lecture on Tuesday and incredible successful five days, lacking sleep and laughing a lot, we entered the train tired but berlinized on Tuesday.

Now we are looking forward to welcoming a new committee in Berlin soon!