Fall Jam 2019

At this year’s fall jam during the fall vacation in Berlin, there was a very high demand for enrolment. Many of the adolescents who were participating in the last summer school and various new faces registered in order to improve their German and discover new sides to Berlin together with us, all under the theme of “Surviving in Berlin’s urban jungle”. On the first day, we started the fall vacation school together with over 30 teenagers.

The backgrounds of the participants were as diverse as their histories. Their home countries stretched from Guinea via Russia to Syria and Afghanistan. Every day we started with two hours of German class, where every single one of the students was challenged and supported on their individual level of knowing the language.

We treated everything to do with the urban jungle. Traffic, emergency numbers, the system of road signs and signals, shopping possibilities – for two weeks, we gained insight into everything important to know in daily life in Berlin. Every day at lunchtime, our wonderful cooks provided an amazing lunch, enabling us to start with fresh strength into our afternoon session. We explored the city and got to know each other better. While playing beach volleyball and bowling, friendships were made that might make it easier to feel at home in this big, anonymous city. Since we wanted to improve our knowledge on this city and its history and also understand the dynamics of Berlin, we had a rally at the Brandenburg Gate and visited the recently inaugurated miniature world Little Big City Berlin. The collective cooking and sewing also made it obvious that our participants had lots of hidden talents that are just waiting to be discovered and nourished.

All things considered, we had two amazing, tumultuous, and successful weeks. We are already looking forward to the next vacation school together with you – as you know, our places are highly popular, so register yourselves as soon as possible!