My eternal Struggles with Public Transportation
A post by HZB summerstudent Susan Nguyen: A sterile voice echoes throughout the station, informing its temporary residents of upcoming trains and expected delays. The astringent smell of coffee wafts about whilst the constant tapping against dimmed mobile screens, and the ever so occasional crisp flip of the pages of a newspaper punctuate the stillness of the morning. Strangers pass by, most in a languid manner befitting of this early period within the day, and most communicating in a language that is unknown to the observer. A gust of cold air from the incoming train rushes forward to greet the crowd awaiting on the platform. I exhale, perhaps out of tiredness or out of relief for its timely arrival, before stepping across the threshold.
I have always harboured a great degree of contempt for public transportation, or rather their existence as transient, liminal spaces. The very nature of these locations often evokes within others such an unnerving feeling of disconnectedness from ‘reality’. Despite their appearance as centres of human activity, every single person within the bustling crowds possesses a similar motive: a desire to escape from this place to their actual destination, with overexposure gradually transforming that desire to desperation.
However, with the necessity of commuting to and from the Lise-Meitner Campus in Wannsee, I would spend approximately one hour transferring from three different modes of transport (i.e. bus → train → bus) for each journey. Thus, the pragmatic side of me, which strongly dislikes the unsettling and often unproductive character of liminal spaces, commenced a minor experiment to determine the most time-efficient route to HZB.
Despite the more secluded location of the HZB campus in Wannsee, I was intrigued and perplexed upon discovering that there were up to twelve separate routes from my accommodation alone. In spite of varying journey start times, differing trains (RE1, RB23, etc.), unexpected delays, engineering new routes not on Google Maps or accidentally rushing onto the wrong bus and somehow still arriving at a station on the route of the RE1 train after six weeks of commuting to work, I eventually grew confident that whichever arbitrary journey I was on would lead me to my desired destination (and miraculously at almost the exact same time!).
The Way of the Canoe
This conclusion stands in utter contrast to the one which I arrived at following a simple group bonding activity while canoeing on Wannsee lake. For around three hours, my coworkers and I paddled to and fro, with short pulses of intense activity punctuating the otherwise gentle lull of the canoe along the natural flow of the lake. The others and I had no particular destination in mind, simply choosing to admire the beautiful reflection of the sunlight against the waters, getting excited about spotting the random Studio Ghibli-esque windmill and experiencing culture shock over the necessity of a fishing license in Germany (and TV licences in Ireland). Despite our apparent lack of progress, that is travelling for 3 hours only to arrive where we started, I left feeling fulfilled and with a sense of accomplishment.
A Derivation of Meaning from the Simplicities of Life
In spite of the dichotomy between these distinctive experiences, each instilled within me valuable insights. As the dreaded trials and tribulations of my final year in university and the full throws of adulthood (such as a 35-page thesis, degree-defining exams, job interviews, taxes, etc) approaches, I can admit that it is little overwhelming. The uncertainty of the future and the myriad of possible pathways toward an ill-defined concept of success is simultaneously liberating and frankly intimidating. However, if I am to trust my own experiences in Berlin and those of the people around me, I believe that everyone is capable of successfully navigating and engineering their own unique pathways to ‘success’, after much careful research and experimentation. Of course, this is while remembering to appreciate the moments and experiences that lead us to our arbitrary definitions of success (and more importantly, of happiness).
I would like to thank all those who reached the end of this stream of consciousness, coming from the mind of an (admittedly often) sleep-deprived individual who spent far too much time with the transportation system in Berlin. Ciao!
On the author: Susan Nguyen is currently an undergraduate student completing her Bachelor’s degree in Nanoscience, Physics & Chemistry of Applied Materials in Trinity College Dublin. During her time in Berlin, she investigated the influence of MXenes & carbon additives on the OER performance of transition metal oxides for water electrolysis.
