My Experience on Berlin College Campus

This summer I spent three weeks at a course with GLS in the Berlin College Campus. It was an unforgettable experience; I made amazing friends, improved my German, and truly explored Berlin. In this reportage, I plan on especially giving insight into life on campus. I found when I first found out about the course, I wasn't able to find many photos online of where I would be living- so hopefully this report will be helpful to anyone considering living in Berlin College.

In this picture you can see the main "avenue" of GLS. To the right is the building with most of the classrooms, and that gazebo marks the top og the stairs down to the Büro, where you would go to sign up for activities or if you had any questions.

And here the view from the other direction. You can see the hotel in the far background, and actually that window is where the hotel pool is, which you can book for a swim with your friends. You can also see the gazebo that is outside of Building 4, where we would meet every morning for morning activities. I would also really recommend doing the activities- the tour guide we had, Jens, was really entertaining, informed and we would actually learn a lot every day. Although it means we would all have to be ready to leave for 10 am, it was always worth it and was a great way to get to know new people.

In this picture you can see the outdoor dining tables. Every morning we would have our breakfast here after coming up from the breakfast buffet. For breakfast there would always be options of Brotchen, yoghurt, muesli, fruit, cold meats and cheeses. You would also be able to grab a coffee coin from the breakdast buffet for the coffee machine at reception. Breakfast was another good way of meeting people- so even if your roomates didn't wake up in time to come down with you, there would always be someone you could sit with!

Here is a closer look at the outdoor dining tables. They weren't just used for breakfast time of course- often teachers would take us out there for group work during class, and it was also where everyone sat for dinner. You can see the steps that lead down to the cafeteria there. Every day when class ended, dinner was directly after, so you would normally go straight down and queue. Dinner was lovely- there was always a hot option, vegetarian and non vegetarian, side salads, vegetables, and a dessert. My favourite dinner was probably the Wiener Schnitzel we had one day, with the lasagne a close second. Dessert was often a traditional German tart or pastry, with custard or cream. 

On the topic of relaxing on campus, here is a picture of another little spot, the sun shelter. As you can probably tell, there are a good amount of trees and grass on campus, and that can also be said for most of Berlin. Personally, I was very surprised and the sheer amount of green spaces, trees and parks at Berliun. There were even two parks within five minutes of GLS; Mauer Park and Volkspark am Weinburg.

Of course, the famous hammock was another place to read and relax. I thought I would be here pretty often, but as it turns out with all the activities and classes and meals, I was quite busy so didn't have much time!

Then of course, the campus cat. I never actually found out his name, but he was very friendly and always lazing around in the sun. I'm not even normally a cat person, but this one was cute.

Here is yet another picture of the tables, but I'm including it because in the background you can see the table tennis area. You could get bats and balls from reception whenever and play a few games, and it was always a good laugh. One Friday I remember there was even an official tournament. Also thought I should mention, that skip you can see was not always there. It was the very last day when I took these pics so I think that's the reason for the skip. In fact every Friday there would be a barbecue outside that would set up there. There would be grilled barbecue chicken, grilled mozzarella, rolls and salad and it was a nice way to end the week of classes.

Ok, so I know this isn't technically the campus, but the wall art is actually on the side of a building on campus so I am justifying it's inclusion. This is the view when walking in the back entrance through the hotel car park on Oderburger Strasse. I was genuinely surprised at the amount of wall art in Berlin- some really talented graffiti artists have their work visible throughout the city. I especially liked the colours in this particular piece.

Finally, there is a little photo booth just outside campus. For two euro, you can take four pictures and it was always fun.

In conclusion, my time in Berlin was amazing, and I have no regrets about choosing to live on camous. I will of course miss all of my friends, but we have all promised to stay in contact and I have no doubt that we'll see each other again in the future.