Day Three in Germany

The conference continued today with a discussion on risk assessment and a Socratic Exercise with two selections.  One from Plato's Republic and on from Mencius.  Philosophical reading is something that was not included in my education so I was a bit nervous in anticipation of this discussion.  Refreshingly, once we got into the conversation I was really engaged and fascinated.  I realized that there are no 'right or wrong' answers just points for further discussion.  Of course later when I was talking with one of the moderators from the Institute he stressed that there was SO MUCH more that we could have talked about and that we had only scratched the surface. Well at least I enjoyed the (evidently tiny) bit that we explored.

Considering this is my first time in Germany (other than a couple of meetings within a mile of an airport, I wanted to make sure I got to see some of the city. Before I left I got some great advice from a friend and also some college students that I met when we were bagging trees.

There is no way I am going to be able to spell all of the places correctly but here goes:

I don't have a picture of the Philharmonic but you may have read about the fire.  We were right there!  I hope that it looked worse than it was.

The Institute also organized a tour for those of us who didn't have flights out right away. Kerstin who is one of the best cultural guides in the area took us through most of the highlights of Berlin.