The week before Easter, I was fortunate enough to chaperone 11 GISW students of grades 9 through 12 on a study trip to Berlin, organized by our very own Mr. Jessen-Klingenberg.

It was the most amazing trip! I returned to a city that I had left in 1989 and to which I have returned many times, but more or less to visit friends!

Thanks to the excellent organization of Mr. Jessen-Klingenberg, we visited Berlin as excited tourists and experienced six jam-packed days with great destinations throughout the city.

No matter whether we discovered the City of Potsdam, the Palace of Cecilien or the Sanssouci Castle during one of our day bike trips or walked across the city on foot to see the Stasi Museum, the DDR Museum or the Brandenburg Gate up close and personal, our group was full of enthusiasm and everyone was able to keep up with Mr. Jessen-Klingenberg’s pace. We strolled through the beautiful Tiergarten and at the Russian Memorial we even discovered that Mr. Jessen Klingenberg not only speaks Japanese but Russian as well ....

During our visit to the Neuen Museum we came eye-to-eye with Nefertiti. And as a perfect ending to our week-long adventure, we watched the award-winning movie “The Silent Classroom” during movie night.

Mr. Jessen-Klingenberg made us fall in love with his beloved Berlin and completely enriched our public tours with his phenomenal knowledge and many anecdotes.

I would like to wish the graduates, who experienced this trip with me, best of luck for their upcoming oral Abitur exams and all other GISW students a successful completion of their second semester.

Dagmar C. Tawil