Marian Söderholm at ufaFabrik, Berlin
Not only is this my first post here, but also the very first post on the Youth Exchange blog! I feel honoured, and quite excited. For the next two months I will be writing about my experiences during my internship at the ufaFabrik in Berlin, and also following fellow travellers who are experiencing similar but yet very different adventures in other countries. This is a space for public thought and personal reflection, and I hope it will inspire others to take the chance, if and when it presents itself, to travel and work in another country for a while, however short. It’s worth it, I promise.
So, what is this all about? Who am I, and why am I writing here? Let’s start with the basics: my name is Marian Söderholm and I am a student at Kulturverkstan in Göteborg, Sweden. I am studying the final term of a 2-year course in Cultural Project Management and currently one month into a 4-month internship at ufaFabrik - International Centre for Culture and Ecology - in Berlin, Germany. I am 25 years old, 5′6” and I have, together with my colleague Martin, founded an Emergency Chocolate Money box in the office where we work.
Here at the ufaFabrik I am involved in local promotional work for the theatre, music, cabaret and comedy performances we stage every week. I also assist in other projects, such as editing the website, writing articles and EU applications, working on premiere evenings and exploring the potential of visibility through social media and cultural networks. I am also running my own projects within the ufaFabrik – at the moment doing research and conducting interviews about environmental policy and innovation, and finally writing blogs and reports for my school back in Sweden (which now, for some reason, feels like a million miles away). And, to top it all off, I work at the Kinderbauernhof – the Children’s Farm – one day a week, cleaning rabbit cages and feeding Rudi and Rosa, the two largest and friendliest pigs I have ever met.
I have, as I mentioned, been in Berlin for just over one month now. During this time I have experienced snow, sunshine, early morning coffee and late night dancing, Turkish food markets and vegetable kebabs, birthday parties and bookshop parties, language lessons and street dance classes, new housemates and old friends, film festivals and German hip-hop, sculpture and S-bahns, theatre premieres and pony stables. And that’s not even half of it. The other day, a friendly bartender welcomed me to Berlin - the City of Choice, and every day it becomes clearer what he meant. I see people walking the streets here whose faces are old beyond their years, but I also see in Berlin a never-ending source of energy, creativity and youthfulness. My decision to come here will not be regretted. In two months’ time, when I return to Sweden, I will have a whole new network of friends and colleagues in the cultural business, and a whole new language to speak.
It was through my previous internship at the Trans Europe Halles’ Coordination Office in Lund that I discovered the existence of ufaFabrik, and also through TEH that I became involved in writing this blog. I have a lot to thank Trans Europe Halles for, but I think I also have to thank myself. For seeing and grasping opportunities when they arise, for taking the chance to move to Berlin and for not being afraid.
