Rushing About Berlin

KL is of the opinion that the students need to be tired out every day so they don’t have the energy to get into trouble in the evening. To that end, she requires everyone to walk everywhere, and quietly fails to let them know it would be possible to take the bus or train. The trouble is, I have very bad feet, and even the most powerful arch supports only take me so far.

By the end of one day, we had walked so many kilometers, my FitBit was jumping for joy. At the Reichstag Building, our final stop for the day, I was limping badly and wasn’t able to walk up the spiral ramp to the top of the famous glass dome that tops it. That was when I learned KL intended to have us walk back to the hotel—a 45 minute perambulation. I had to put my foot down, physically and metaphorically, so I drew KL aside.

“This is me telling you that I physically can’t walk back to the hotel,” I said quietly. “I know my body, and I’ll get at most a third of the way there before I won’t be able to take another step. So we have a couple choices. I can take the bus back alone and you can usher the students back to the hotel. Or we can split into two groups: bus riders and walkers. Or we call all take the bus.”

She offered up a fourth choice: let the students decide. “I’ll bet most of them want to walk,” she said. 

Well . . . 

When we put the choice to the students, every one of them voted for the bus. :)

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