Awkwardly Introverted

Poland surprised me in the best way possible. From the haunting echoes of Auschwitz and Birkenau to the vibrant streets of Warsaw and Kraków, this country carries its past on its shoulders — but it’s also fighting hard to move forward. They are trying to make up for their past better than America is. That was clear. Warsaw has been remade from rubble — literally. It’s so colorful and full of life now. My guide once joked, “Warsaw ain’t pretty,” but honestly? The square was gorgeous. Bright buildings, cobblestone streets, music in the air — and that moon 🌕? I swear it looked like you could reach out and touch it. That’s a core memory right there. The coffeehouses in both Warsaw and Kraków were what coffee dreams are made of. Cozy corners, rich espresso, desserts that looked like art. They’re not just cafés — they’re experiences. Kraków gave me a funny and horrifying story I’ll never forget. The night before we were leaving, my duffle bag just gave up on life. The seam ripped while ...

 Auschwitz & Birkenau 😢 🏘️  There’s no easy way to write this. There was no easy way to be there. Auschwitz and Birkenau are not just historical sites — they are mass graves disguised as silence. Standing where over a million people were murdered is not something you prepare for. It doesn’t feel like a “place.” It feels like grief itself. In the air. In the earth. In the walls. 🛑 ARBEIT MACHT FREI — “Work Sets You Free” That phrase still haunts me. You see it welded into the gate at the entrance to Auschwitz I, and again at Sachsenhausen before that. It’s a lie. A psychological weapon. A false promise meant to manipulate. The Nazis gave prisoners a sliver of hope just to crush it. Nobody was set free by work here. They were worked to death, starved, shot, gassed, or simply forgotten. What kind of evil do you have to be to hang that over the gates of a death camp? And it wasn’t just Auschwitz. This phrase greeted prisoners across multiple camps. It was propaganda as pois...

As heavy as Berlin’s past is, it’s also a city full of light — through art, resistance, and memory. I kept thinking about how the Berlin Wall became an open-air gallery. Instead of tearing it all down, they turned trauma into color, expression, protest. I love that energy. It’s like Berlin is saying, “We won’t forget — but we’ll keep moving.” I wish I had more time — especially after coming home and learning that the Nefertiti Bust is housed right on Museum Island. That’s one of the most famous sculptures in the world! Next time, I’m doing a deep-dive museum tour — no rushing. One painting I saw in the Alte Nationalgalerie, located on Museum Island in Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪, really drew me in — Émile Bernard’s Le Café (1913). I’m not even sure why it pulled me so strongly, but it did. There’s so much layered into it — beauty, spectacle, power dynamics, maybe even exoticism. It felt bold, dynamic, almost cinematic 🎞️. Definitely the kind of painting I’d hang in my own space 🖼️. A conver...

“Before Auschwitz, There Was This” Germany | June 2025 Before this trip, I had never even heard of Sachsenhausen. That fact alone haunted me. We talk about Auschwitz. We talk about Birkenau. But Sachsenhausen — one of the first Nazi concentration camps and a model for many that followed — is often left out of the conversation. Why? Maybe because it’s located in a peaceful, scenic town just north of Berlin — Oranienburg — where tourists sip coffee and locals walk dogs. But that’s the thing about the Holocaust: it didn’t only live in places that look haunted. It infected the ordinary, too. Sachsenhausen opened in 1936 and was intended to be a “model” camp — which just makes it sound even more chilling. It wasn’t just a place of punishment. It was a training ground for SS officers. It was where techniques were tested before being rolled out elsewhere. This was not a hidden failure of humanity. It was a system, perfected. There is a gate that greeted prisoners — including Jewish people — a...

  🚧 Blog Post 1: Berlin Berlin is a city that knows how to hold pain and possibility in the same breath. On the surface, it’s edgy, modern, and full of life — from punk Elmos on street corners to people of every background living their truths. But beneath all that is a deep, complicated history that never really lets go. Before this trip, I thought I understood the Berlin Wall. I’ve seen documentaries, read articles, even watched Reagan say, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But standing there — hand on concrete, eyes tracing the cracks — was different. The wall wasn’t just stone and steel. It was a line drawn through families, ideologies, lives. That gold plaque quoting Reagan’s speech? Gave me chills. I geeked out seeing it in person, especially with the U.S. Embassy right nearby. The symbolism wasn’t lost on me — division, unity, and diplomacy, all colliding in one space. I also learned something small but oddly poetic: Berlin means “swamp land.” And yet, here it is — a cit...

A Holocaust Study Abroad Journey — Blog Series Intro There are some things you can only learn by going. Not by reading. Not by watching. Not even by listening. You have to stand where it happened. Breathe the air. Hear the silence. This past spring, I traveled across Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic as part of a Holocaust-focused study abroad program. What I experienced was more than history — it was human. It was haunting. It was healing. And it changed me. This blog series is my attempt to process all of it. The sorrow. The beauty. The rage. The resilience. It’s part travel journal, part reflection, part truth-telling from the perspective of a Black American woman trying to make sense of a world that still hasn’t learned. You’ll see moments that broke me. Quotes that stuck with me. Stories that should never be forgotten. And how visiting Holocaust sites forced me to think not just about then, but now — about racism, memory, identity, and silence. This isn’t just about the past...