The procrastinator in me has put off writing this chronicle for too long. "Ugh where do I even start"—it starts now, gather around! Hearing about my aunt's trip to Germany over the holidays really encouraged me to revisit one of my favorite and most impactful trips. I'm not exactly sure how I'll go about this because it was a long trip with lots of information and a surplus of alcohol. Next time I will journal; good idea Michelle! But I think I'll just try to look at pictures I took and go day to day (which see instagram for these dumps because I'm not great at managing photos on here and I don't want to have to pay for storing so much bloat). Additional memories may pop up as I write this, so don't expect everything to be in order. For some general background, I went to Berlin for a study abroad class in January 2021 and spent a weekend in Munich after. The course was Americans in Berlin and focused on the rise of Nazism in Germany following WW1 until the fall of the wall in the Cold War; there was a specific focus on American culture/history during this time period, which was really cool and informative actually. Gabe signed up with me and two of my fraternity friends enrolled as well, which was unplanned but a welcome addition.

I guess the trip starts with the trip over there doesn't it? My flight from DC to Paris was either 10 or 12 hours I don't remember. I knew I needed to try to get ahead of the jet lag because we had an orientation event pretty much as soon as I landed and checked in. Naturally, I slept maybe an hour. Time got away from me for some reason. I had taken an edible and watched The Hobbit while I got served a pretty decent meal. I was in economy but it was honestly very comfy and a great experience 10/10 would recommend. Except there was a little scare right as the edible was kicking in and food was coming out because the guy behind me had allegedly taken sleeping pills and wasn't waking up to the attendant slapping his face and yelling "sir!" They were gonna land the plane, but luckily he woke up and meekly shook his head when the attendants asked if he had taken sleeping pills. "Sigh okay drink some water."

I got some cool shots as I was landing and then headed off to figure out how I was going to get to the apartments we were staying at. I figured out the ticket system with some help from a local (who told me to get the ticket because the fine is fat if they catch you)—almost went the wrong direction on the U-Bahn though and luckily realized before I got on. That coulda been bad because I was already in a time crunch. It took about an hour to check in with the program and get my keys, but because my room wasn't ready yet I chilled with some of my Pi Kapp friends, Breur and Harry, who were also on the trip. I didn't have much time to check out the place before we had to meet with our professor for some orientation stuff, which was tough because I had been up for more than a full day at this point I think. Gabe missed most of the orientation because he HAD taken the wrong train and added about an hour to his trip. Tough day huh buddy?

Our apartment was sick (check video). It was top floor and had a sick balcony overlooking the main drag of Mitte (middle). Me and Gabe had two other roommates staying with us, Chuck and Sammy, who were some very stereotypical frat boys but generally a good time. Honestly, by the time I arrived they had already gotten on some weird app where you can find chat rooms for certain groups around you and naturally they joined the drug group and bought weed at the park down the street. Their boldness (or stupidity) was impressive considering it's much more taboo in Europe, but I wasn't complaining. Our location was right downtown next to Alexanderplatz and most of the historical museums and stuff. We were right in between a strip club and hookah lounge (ironically the only strip club I've ever been to). Our classmates all seemed chill and it was nice having an immediate group with our two roommates and Breur/Harry. We ate at some pizza place down the street for a quick/cheap dinner that was actually pretty good; the owner did however tell us not to come back without German vaccination proof (this was a newly enacted policy as Covid was still a fucking thing and shockingly no one outside the US knew what the CDC was so our "proof" meant fuck all to this German guy—luckily our guide Paul was super dope and found the singular pharmacy that would still give us the vaccination pass as Americans not on a visa, which was clutch because we were gonna be SOL the whole 3 weeks if not). We ended up going here a few times throughout the trip for lunch or quick bites. Somehow, we still ended up going out after orientation the first night. I don't really remember which bar we went to, but I do remember being absolutely dead when we got back since I had been up for 36 hours or something crazy at that point and we had class early that next morning.

Jan 4th -

Our first day after class we started on one of the many tours we'd go on. It was definitely exhausting packing so much history into these three weeks, but it was absolutely worth it because without a program like this I'd never have gotten to do most of this stuff. We started off at Bebelplatz where the Nazi Book Burning took place. I don't remember exactly what the buildings I took pictures of were, but I know they gave some speeches there or something. The Empty Library memorial was in this plaza and a really powerful reminder to what it means to burn books—it was especially powerful when reflecting because similar sentiments/book bannings were gaining momentum in America following the trip. This is something important to me, and it should go without saying, but anyone who burns or denies access to books in an organized manner is not someone who should be tolerated. Knowledge, through books especially, is meant to be shared and free to everyone. Removing classical literature or fiction books because they portray hard realities or explicit content should never be normalized. It really pisses me off when the religious nuts get their panties in a wad over Harry Potter or any other "witchcraft-esque books." This isn't the salem witch trials anymore; you can go peddle your Giant Fairy books all you want, but you can't just delete shit you don't agree with. As I revisit this, the same thing applies to the growing anti-science sentiment. CDC communication/guidelines and other critical datasets are currently being scrubbed from the internet. These datasets are staples in medical research and allow scientists/doctors to study diseases, deaths, risk factors etc. (some examples: STI Treatment guidelines, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, Behavioral Risk Surveillance System). I know I can often be pessimistic and alarmist when it comes to trusting humans to do the right thing, but as someone who has worked my ass off studying and participating in science for years, it's incredibly frustrating and concerning seeing these systematic movements to undermine science and reason. Hell my brother has spent the last 9 years (3+ to go wooh bubby!) grinding to be a doctor just for leaders/people in this country, who barely passed high school biology, to say they know better and that vaccines do cause autism (as if being autistic is somehow worse than getting polio or dying from preventable diseases). I hate to sound angry and ranting, but I tolerate stupid fucking people enough as it is. And questioning 60+ year old, peer- reviewed science is as stupid as it fucking gets. And yes, I saw firsthand in Germany what prizes are won for playing these kind of stupid games.

Next, we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was one of the checkpoints between the Russian and American side of Berlin following WW1. Funnily enough, you'll notice it's right next to a KFC and McDonalds now. The Topography of Terror was also on this tour. This was the headquarters for the Gestapo and SS. It was mostly destroyed from bombings during WW2, but the outer Berlin wall runs along it still to this day, which you can see in my images with writing on them. We continued to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. My pictures don't really capture the atmosphere, but as you go deeper into the memorial you're towered by 15+ foot pillars, and the place quickly becomes a dark maze for contemplation. Invoking the vulnerability, isolation, and confusion that Jews felt as they were systematically separated from their families and homes. Representing the colossal loss that European communities felt and the collective memory of Germany and the world as a whole as we reconcile over what atrocities were committed. Naturally, you'll also see people parkouring across the pillars—humans remain the same wherever you are.

We finished the day with a ~3 hour bus tour of the city, overviewing many of the attractions we would see in Tiergarten/Mitte. We got our first look at the Brandenburg Gate and ended with a class dinner at some Bavarian place (we really thought the program included more meals than this but whatever). It was definitely a packed first day, but really highlights how historically rich this city is and how most days would be similarly busy.

Jan 6th -

Class time and gathering our beerings (I mean bearings!) were what I assume we did in the gap between my pictures. We obviously found our way to Hofbrauhaus by this time to experience what Bavarian culture had to offer: bier, pretzels, and sausage. A group of us ate dinner here and drank a few mugs as we had fun embracing the parts of German culture we were familiar with. It appears we spent over 3 hours here based on the picture timestamps which adds up because we were absolutely ready to roll to bars/clubs at this point. We met up with a few of the girls in our class and one used to live in Germany and spoke decent German as far as I could tell. It must have been pretty broken though because the bouncers we talked to mostly laughed as she tried to get a bunch of Americans into these German clubs during covid. It didn't matter though, we found a cool bar/club that I vaguely remember being a maze/massive. It was a great time and a great kick off to our time in Berlin. Other than that, I'll admit my memory is a little hazy. I know we somehow got back home via train and being surprised at how easy and convenient it was. It definitely saved our asses with how safe and consistent the public transportation was because I know we'd head back super late some nights. Though, I don't think we were out much past 1 this night since we had an early morning the next day.

Jan 7th -

We went to Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp in Berlin. It was comparatively small, but that didn't dull the impact. It began snowing pretty hard as soon as we arrived, and I remember thinking how bitterly cold it was, even in all my layers. I felt ashamed when we headed to the sleeping quarters and I saw the tattered undergarments the prisoners wore for "clothing." I saw their "beds" which were essentially three cots, smaller than a twin bed, stacked on top of each other. They slept 3 in each cot for 9 total people in a stack. I saw their gold teeth (the remaining ones that hadn't been smelted back down into gold and sold to some rich person buying jewelry) and their pitiful excuse for sandals that were removed before the prisoners were executed. This camp was small enough that it didn't have a gas chamber; it had a trench where the prisoner would be looking at the wall as a soldier hid inside the wall behind him and lined up a rifle to the back of their head for execution. As we walked around the rest of the camp, the snow didn't really bring cold with it anymore. It amplified the tragedy that occurred here—a reminder of how low humanity could go. I doubt I'll experience many things as somber as this—a testament to both the cruelty of the Nazis and the fortune/privilege in my own life.

Jan 8th -

We went to Potsdam this day, which is about a 40 minute train ride but still part of Berlin metro. It's a very rich historical area in terms of US and world history. I think we started by briefly walking around Nördliche Innenstadt/Berliner Vorstadt, which if I remember correctly was a super cool town architecture-wise with large and expensive houses/villas. The roads were mostly cobblestone and an area for older, wealthier people. After this, we focused on historical locations. We went to the Glienicker Brücke, which was the bridge connecting Berlin and Potsdam. You'd probably recognize it if you've seen the movie Bridge of Spies, as it's where the US and Soviets exchanged captured spies during the Cold War. The major attraction of the day was the Cecilienhof Castle, which is the site of the Potsdam Conference where the Big 3 (Stalin, Churchill, Truman) decided on post-WW2 order for Europe. It was also where Truman issued the order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. There was a lot of history surrounding this site that I likely forgot, like why it was chosen etc. I won't bore you with the details but it was one of the cooler places we toured. We had lunch back in Nordliche Innenstadt and saw the Brandenburg Gate of Potsdam, which is actually older than the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. From here, we walked to Sanssouci Palace. The palace itself was over the top extravagant and massive, even though it only had 10 rooms. It was meant as a private retreat for Frederick the Great. Potsdam was definitely one of the cooler days we had. There was a lot packed into that area, and it really reinforced just how massive Berlin is—both culturally and physically. That night, we went to an ice bar which was pretty fun and something I hadn't done before. The cups were made entirely of ice, which kept the bier cold.

I don't really remember what we did on the 9th and 10th, but I took some pictures on the 10th by the TV tower in Alexanderplatz. This reminds me, I think we went to a Five Guys that day because it was in the same area. We were all craving American food by that point and you got unlimited refills, so it really hit not gonna lie. This is about halfway through the trip though, so I think I'll take this time to recap what I got out of this trip because the themes are increasingly more relevant nowadays. This was my first time in Europe, so obviously that was a big takeaway from the trip as a whole. But what stuck with me the most from Berlin was the history we studied and toured. Specifically, the time surrounding Hitler's rise and fall from power. Before coming to Berlin, I had the notion that most Americans probably have that "oh wow Hitler's so obviously the worst how could he have ever risen to power, shame on the Germans etc. etc." What I didn't know was that when Nazis were treating disabled, gay, and Jewish people like they were is that many people were okay with ignoring it or even agreeing with it. If people found out about a scandal, Nazis would sweep it under the rug and give the classic "oh it's just a few bad apples, we'll reprimand them." The persecution of Jewish people was often downplayed or dismissed as exaggerations. Many populations in Europe and North America harbored deep-rooted antisemitic views or were dealing with societal issues of their own (i.e., "The Jewish Problem/Question"). This caused most people to look past the rise of hate and totalitarianism. For class, we read a book called In The Garden of Beasts which recounted the lives of American ambassador to Germany William Dodd and his family during the 30s. The story of his daughter Martha was particularly what stuck out to me. Berlin's social scene leading up to WW2 was booming, and she had gotten in a relationship with the head officer of the Gestapo. She would hear about the horrors of the Nazi officer's treatment of Jewish and gay people and dismiss them, even defending them to her friends and family. Like many, she was influenced by propaganda and even admired the "strength" and "order" of Nazis as they were "reviving" Germany from its post-WW1 depression. Over time, she began to see the Nazis for what they were, but her realization came too late. Ultimately, Dodd and Martha came to deeply regret their complacency in allowing Nazi policies to escalate from legalized persecution to industrialized genocide. But the fault didn't lie with just them, this complacency and willingness to look the other way was emblematic of society as a whole. All it takes is for regular, everyday people to tolerate hate and discrimination because "well it doesn't affect me" or "is it really THAT bad?" All of this to say, the rise of Nazism and the atrocities that came with them weren't the sole fault of Germans. It took everyone's actions and inactions to get there—from the steep reparations for WW1 destroying Germany's economy to the commonly held beliefs for gays, disabled, Jews, or any non-conforming populations.

This realization really drove home the idea I grew up learning about that "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." It put to bed the foolish belief I held that "oh this could never happen again" or "that'd never have happened in America." Yet here we are; you can find Nazi sympathizers holding up swastikas in broad daylight—just the other day my brother saw a group of them driving home from work in Cincinnati. You can see the rise of anti-intellectual movements calling vaccines, climate change, evolution, or any other scientific fact a hoax. You can regularly find confederate flags proudly displayed pretty much anywhere south of Indianapolis as well as many other displays of racism—hell we had a kid in highschool who ran through the cafeteria with a massive confederate flag during lunch. You can see hate for anyone that is different, whether it's because they're gay, trans, black, yellow, atheist, or identify as a purple fucking people eater. I mean shit you can even see a rapist become president of the most powerful country in the world. And you know, if you're reading this, you're probably asking similar questions I ask myself: "bu-but Jackson, what can I do? I mean I'm just a regular, everyday person who works to pay their bills and find a little bit of joy during their brief time on this earth." I hear ya, and I don't know much but I think it's just as simple as doing what you can. If someone's prattling off about vaccines causing autism or trans people eating children or any other homophobic/racist/hateful shit then just call them out on it. Don't tolerate it, and educate when and where you can.

Recently, I've noticed similar themes/connections in shows I've been watching. In Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, it struck me how food is such an ancient and universal truth in bringing humans together, no matter their background. The principles for cooking remain the same no matter what color you are or what borders you're between. And with For All Mankind taking place during the space race in the 60s-80s, there's the ideas from the time that women can't be astronauts or that gay astronauts/scientists had to hide who they are because they'd be fired or accused of being a Soviet spy. And fuck it's hard to believe that those beliefs were held not long ago because it's just so fucking stupid like how do you not laugh at someone thinking women can't do math calculations as well as men or that black people are too dumb to be scientists. I mean shit a human is just a human; it's really not any more complicated than that. And so while watching these shows, it's just so frustrating to realize we've come so far, yet those beliefs and biases are still held by many people today. It just makes me wanna rattle their stupid little monkey brains and ask them if there's anything in there. And ultimately it just reinforces what I took away from Berlin: history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes.

Jan 11th -

Don't have much from this day, but we went to the Allied Museum. This was clearly one of the less memorable exhibits we did, but it was mostly just about the role and history of the Allies from post-WW2 to their disbandment in the 90s following the fall of the wall. I believe we also learned a lot about the failed assasination attempts at this exhibit (might have been somewhere prior), but those stories are all incredibly wild. So many times he was close to being killed and would evade most of them by sheer luck/coincidence. One was like a bomb briefcase accidentally being moved, where a chair took most of the blast. Another, HItler left earlier than planned, so a suicide bomber missed him. Many of these were meticulously planned for sometimes over a year. Highly recommend reading into them more if you're interested.

Jan 13th -

Got a Berliner doughnut, which they just call a doughnut in Berlin. Went out with the boys it seems. Patio cigs, roomies were black out, and played some smash on switch.

Jan 14th -

Went up the radio tower in Alexanderplatz after class. It was a little cloudy (per usual in winter there), but you could still see quite a bit of the city from so high up. That night most of us went out to an art museum exhibit. There were like 7 rooms I think, where each room was a different exhibit. This was honestly super cool and one of the more memorable things we did. The pictures/videos on ig will more justice, but the first room was like an infinity mirror set up where the lights overhead moved in patterns to some ethereal ass music. This all reflected "infinitely" in the mirrors and was probably my favorite room. The next room was a group of black spheres that moved collectively to a white backdrop, which also had music. This one was cool, but didn't get a video of it. The third room had three glowing rings moving to music and changing colors. The fourth room was a large pillar of lights that imitated a bonfire and even gave off heat (or at least it felt like it did, may have been an illusion). There was room to sit down and chill by the "fire." The fifth room was super stimulating, with moving triangular lights overhead changing color to a music set. There were beanbags on the floor so you could lay down and enjoy the show. Seizure warning to put it mildly, but probably my second or third favorite room. The last two or so rooms were pretty forgettable, one was just like a set of instruments you could play that created lights to the beats. It was the most interactive so a good way to end with the group messing around. It was probably an hour-hour and a half overall. The exhibit was called Dark Matter if you're interested.

Jan 15th -

Gabe and I went to the East Side Gallery after class, which is the remnants of the wall with all their murals. Also saw the Mercedes building. The gallery paintings were all super iconic and most of them thought-provoking. Seems like we met up with the rest of the gang (ausgang) that night and went out. Probably had some late night turkish pizzas across the street from our apartment, which I thought I had a picture of somewhere but basically was like a turkish taco bell late night munchy except way better (shits were the same though unforutnatley).

Jan 16th -

This was one of our free days to explore, so me and Gabe went to a couple of the museums downtwon on Museum Island. I thought we went to both the Altes Museum and Pergamon Museum, but it seems like it was just the Pergamon one. Can't remember if the Altes was closed or something. The main German history museum was closed for renovations unfortunately. The Pergamon Museum had mostly ancient sculptures and architecture from Middle East/Mesoptamia region as well as modern day Turkey and some of the Roman Empire. There was an exhibit for Uruk, which is considered the oldest city (depending how you define city). Settlements merged here around 5th millenium BCE (~7000 years ago), where the metropolis grew and developed into a city around 4000 BCE. The city existed for some 4600 years until it gradually was abandoned around 100 CE. During this time, its influence towards technology, urban expansion, writing, etc. was carried all over the world. The first form of writing, cuneiform scripts, were developed here in around 3200 BCE. It was really fascinating, and something I hadn't really learned since grade school probably. I had never really realized how long humanity had been so sophisticated.

One of the central exhibits was the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. This gate was reconstructed from the original brick/stones, and I want to say something like 20% of the exhibit was from the original site. This is from 6th century BCE in what is modern-day Iraq. Another main attraction was the Pergomon Altar, which for some reason I didn't take pictures of apparently. My favorite was the Market Gate of Miletus, which is a Roman gate from the 2nd century Turkey.

Jan 17th -

The last class trip we did was to the Stasi Museum covering hsitory of the Stasi in East Germany. The exhibits weren't that cool honestly, and we were all a little hungover/checked out at this point. This being our last night in Berlin, we had a group dinner with the lads and said our farewells to a wonderful, beautiful city. Ausgang indeed.

Jan 19th - Jan 21st

Fortunately for me, my Germany trip wasn't quite over yet. I was heading to Munich and staying a few days with a family friend who went to school with my cousin. I will say getting there in 4 hours on a high speed train was fucking amazing and eye-opening. No security, get right on (which thank god because I took the wrong train to get there and had to walk half a mile with all my luggage on cobble streets so I barely made it to the station in time), extra $10 for first class—it was just so convenient and easy.It really makes me pissed how America has nothing like it. Instead, we have cars and traffic because idk people are all "don't take muh cars grr" and oil/auto industry lobbied away all public transport. Bastards. Anyway, I won't go too into detail about the architecture/history, but most the of the buildings were beautiful and had some cool stories behind them like a Devil stomping in a church or Hitler's first rallies etc. Overall Munich was much less "westernized" and not as many people spoke English, so it was really convenient having locals to guide me around. We went to cool markets and had great Bavarian food. Eve and Babak's family were so wholesome, and the trip really brought home how nice it is to make friends and connect with people all over the world, no matter their background. We're not all that different, these Germans and me. Danke Deutschland; tschau!