I spent two weeks at the GLS Berlin College and it literally changed my summer. I got to know amazing people from all over the world, discovered the city as if I was a 'Berliner', improved my German as well as my English language and never felt as indipendent and responsible for myself.
To begin with, every morning we could choose between two activities. Once signed up for one of them, the meeting time was fixed at 10a.m. in the meeting point on campus. The morning activities consisted in visiting the museums and the best attractions of the city.
We have always joined the places with the public transport, which was really fast, efficient and convenient. In fact, at the beginning of the stay, all students needed to buy the 9-Euro-Ticket, a monthly pass valid on almost all trains in Germany!
After lunch (not included and done independently), it was compulsory to go to classes. The German lessons started at 3p.m. and ended at 6.15p.m.
Each class was composed by 10/12 students, who all had the same level of German. The language level was checked on Sunday just after the arrival trough a written and oral placement test.
Classes were mostly interactive and German was the only language allowed.
At 6.15 p.m. dinner was provided by the campu's canteen.
After dinner there were the organized evening activities. The ones I liked the most were the city tour by night, graffiti and bowling.
However, the first place goes to the evening visit to the East Side Gallery, an open-air gallery on the surviving section of the Berlin Wall, along the Spree.
On Saturday, there was the whole day trip.
The first week we went to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. It has been a deeply moving visit which I surely won't forget.
The following week we went instead to Potsdam and saw the summer residence of the Prussian King Frederick the Great.
As for the accommodation, unfortunately not all students sleep on campus. In fact, I slept at Meininger Hotel, an hostel at 10 minutes of walk to campus.
The room was really small and it could have been cleaner, however breakfast was great and the location was perfect, since there was the U-Bahn stop of Senefelderplatz right in front of the building.
I would recommend this experience to everybody, since it's a life changing and unique experience which allowed me to begin new special friendships with people I will probably never forget, to get to know other cultures, to feel part of the same world and to obviously see Berlin as if I have been living there for years, thanks to the truthful stories and explanations of Gülçin.
Thanks GLS!