Before I go out and tourist this Saturday, time to post about my second week in Berlin. The big news was laundry. No, not really. The big news is the Zeintwende conference I attended.
I spent two days hanging out at the Hertie School where they and the German armed forces Centre of Military History and Social Sciences held a conference on how European countries are re-thinking their world views in the aftermath of Russia's re-invasion of Ukraine in 2022. I blogged about it
here, so I will not repeat my summary of the event. I will say that it definitely facilitated two of my objectives for my time here in Berlin: interviewing folks about the civil-military relations of European countries (as part of the larger, global project) and getting European perspectives on the state of things. So, I learned a great deal, and I met with folks who I will eventually be meeting for interviews. I definitely am feeling good about the research project even though I haven't interviewed anyone here yet. But that will change soon.
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Nice views of Dom
and TV tower at hight
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The conference had one complication--a transit strike. Google maps wouldn't show u-bahn routes, but I tried my local u-bahn stop anyway, but the subway entrance was fenced off. I tried another entrance and same thing. I was able to take the s-bahn and then walk about 15 minutes to get to the Hertie School on the first day. I walked all the way home (I could have gotten a cab or taken the s-bahn, but it was a nice night). The strike ended the afternoon of the second day so I could go home after the conference and then come back for a great dinner with some of the folks who were still around. My first real German dinner, as I have been mostly cooking for myself, and, yes, my first beer on this trip.
I did also do laundry. The place I am staying has a scary looking washing machine and no dryer, so I took my stuff to a nearby laundromat. It was super clean and got cleaner as the attendant showed up midway through my cycles and was super thorough. The machines automatically put in detergent and such so I didn't have to buy any or measure any. There was a central panel that controlled all the machines so I didn't have to have a lot of coins (5 Euro notes were handy). And plenty of instructions in both German and English. My plan was to read a novel while I waited, but I got to chat with a lovely Australian couple that were cleaning their clothes in between their Norwegian cruise and their German touring.
I made progress in revising the legislative civ-mil project, and now have some appointments for the next project.
The most dangerous aspect of this trip: I live way too close to one of the best bakery chains in Berlin: https://zeitfuerbrot.com/en. Yum.
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Nope, didn't go, but thought about it.
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