A week in Berlin... kind of life-changing :)

So I'm back from Berlin, my dear friends. It was a week of fun, interesting information, no time for the Internet, no time for anything, pretty much... I met some wonderful people there and it's funny that it was only 5 days but still it felt much longer (but in a good way) and with some it felt like I had known them before. I already miss them!

The reason I went there was, of course, the seminar on Cultural Diplomacy in Africa (but as I told most of you - I was mainly hoping it was going to be fun :)). The programme was interesting, although not very well organized sometimes. Often, I couldn't figure out the connection between cultural diplomacy and the topics we were talking about, but well, it was good if the topic was good.

What was great about it was that there were people from all around the world and no matter how different our backgrounds were, we all, more or less, shared the same values and worldviews. Which is great not only because of the issues we were dealing with, but also for the fun that comes afterwards - you don't have to worry about what you can say and what you cannot as a joke because the people will understand it's a joke.

So... we had the chance to talk to the ambassador of Lesotho, we had a seminar on water problems in KfW Bank, we talked about tourism and Africa, about racial issues, we had workshops on corporate social responsibility, human rights and other themes... we also went to a jazz club where we were shooshed a couple of times because, apparently, at a jazz club you're supposed to sit down, smoke a cigar and listen to the music respectively, instead of having fun, enjoying the music and dancing... So we left and went to a reggae club (as cultural diplomats, it was a must... :)) and there we were not shooshed even once, we had lots of fun, danced until the first morning trains started going again... Which meant that we all slept about 2 hours and then went to the bank for a seminar. What was really surprising for me was that none of the people who went out didn't fall asleep in the bank! :)

The week was great for me for various reasons. I might have figured out what to do after graduation but I'm not going to talk about it yet much. The point is - I met some amazing people and I'm so so happy for having had the opportunity to go there and meet them. I think I have a couple more great friends. 

And, not to forget, since it's all about cultural diplomacy... I got some ideas about how to spread some information about Africa. I'm gonna start small, though, but I guess that every person matters. The goal would be to break the prejudice, the stereotypes, to teach people about Africa. It seems I talk a lot and it actually already happened to me that a friend of mine told me: "I heard some people talking about Africa and they were saying complete nonsense so I was thinking about what you told me and told them that nothing of what they're saying is true because I know a girl who was there..." :) So even I can have some influence! Because each one of us actually can. I'll let you know if I need some help. :)