Humboldt University: My time in the heart of Berlin… and Football?

I undertook the course ‘European Constitutional Law: National Identities Between Unity and Plurality’ at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin over June and July [last] year. The course was incredibly rewarding, albeit very expensive, and finally showed a glimpse of the university experience I had been looking for throughout my degree.

Australian University culture really fails to formulate friendships and connect people, largely because it’s uncommon to move on campus for your degree. There’s a real herd mentality that’s affecting Australian universities, and so in degrees like law when there’s such a large cohort, and students will predominately socialise with people they knew in high school, it makes for a very lonely university experience.

This was not the case in Berlin.

I have made unforgettable connections, from quite literally all across the globe. My social circle had roots in South Korea, Switzerland, Spain, France, Chile, Russia, the Netherlands and so much more. The course itself was great, but the people really made this experience the highlight that it was.

And so now to the second part of this post… the football (or soccer as we so graciously call it). Whilst I was studying, the UEFA Euro Championship 2024 was hosted in Germany. The atmosphere of the entire city was incomparable to anything I could have ever experienced here in Sydney (it even beats the Blues winning Origin). All 51 games of football I watched with fellow students at bars, biergartens and fan zones (with pints for $3.50 if you weren’t already convinced to go to Germany) in different country’s sports jerseys I’d thrifted from local flea markets.

For five weeks, I lived and breathed football, and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I was so indescribably lucky to have found my people in a place that was so beautiful, my classmates and I even made a pact to reunite for every Euro football championship. UK and Ireland we’re coming for you in 2028!

I had never been so far away from home, and yet felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. If you’re contemplating completing a Global Short Program, I would recommend it immediately, but I would also warn you; prepare to become a fundamentally different person when you come back to when you left.

Brooklyn Rullis
Bachelor of Laws
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
Global Short Programs Travel Scholarship

For more information about the UTS Global Short Program visit: www.uts.edu.au/thinkglobal