Sarah – Germany

Hallo! My name is Sarah Pickup. I’m a rising Junior attending the Berlin Summer 2025 Study Abroad program. I’m double majoring in Sociology and History, with a Concentration in Public History.

I am very excited to travel to Berlin, Germany as it will be my first time out of the country. This also makes me a bit nervous because although I’ve flown many times domestically, I’ve never flown internationally, so I will be starting this trip with a brand new experience.

I wanted to talk a little about myself. I am disabled. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, which is thankfully in remission, meaning my immune system is no longer causing damage to my joints though I have already sustained joint damage from when it was uncontrolled. I have ADHD, and I’m on the Autism Spectrum with low support needs. I also recently received a new chronic illness diagnosis this past semester, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, or IIH, which means my brain has too much cerebrospinal fluid in it and they don’t know why.

When I started looking at this program, I was worried that I would be unable to attend it due to my disabilities. I was reassured by my faculty leader that ECU has accommodated many students with disabilities in the past but I’m still nervous about the trip. I decided to include my disabilities in my blogs so that others like me can see my Study Abroad journey.

As a history major, the majority of my personal research about Germany has been from around the 1800s-1950s, so I fear most of my knowledge about Germany will be unhelpful in modern Germany. I have learned a bit about the country in my German 1001 class during the Spring 2025 semester and I bought Rick Steves’ Berlin guidebook as well as his German phrase and dictionary book so hopefully all three will serve me well.

I am taking two German language courses from Inlingua Berlin, which will transfer over to ECU when I return to the US. I am also taking GLST 2600: The Holocaust with Dr. Jones in Berlin. As a history major, I am very interested to learn about the Holocaust in Germany, as this is an opportunity that rarely comes up.

Guidebooks for visiting Germany

I am very happy to be traveling to Germany since my maternal side of my family is half German. My mother also lived and worked in Heidelberg, Germany for two years in the 1980s and I always wanted to travel to Germany ever since I learned that. It’ll be exciting to reconnect with my familial culture.

I’m now about a month out from Berlin and I can’t wait to start my exciting adventure!

Auf Weidershen!

Pre Departure Preparations

May 28, 2025

Hi guys!

I thought I’d update you all on some of my preparation work for my journey to Berlin.

Part of traveling to a foreign country as a person with a disability is figuring out all the logistics. When you have a disability, or multiple disabilities like me, you have to plan ahead and work around obstacles that non-disabled people might not otherwise have to think about.

For example, my living accommodations. This study abroad’s living arrangements has host families. I haven’t been assigned my host family yet but I was worried about my host family’s home as many buildings in Berlin are walk-ups and I can’t do a whole lot of stairs due to the damage in my joints. I was also worried about the temperature of the house since, due to a combination of medications I’m on and my Autism, I don’t tolerate heat well. I brought these issues up with my faculty leader who has assured me she would find accommodations to suit my needs.

I don’t worry so much about the stairs but I do still worry about the heat since air conditioning isn’t as common in Germany as it is here in the United States. I’ve bought items to help keep me cool that I’ll bring with me. Cooling towels, hand fan, neck fan, sweat towels, Liquid IV in case of dehydration, fever wipes. It may sound like overkill for Berlin, whose summer temperatures average 57°F (14°C) – 75°F (24°C), but with no air conditioning and lots of people, it’s a disaster in the making for the heat intolerant.

Another problem I’ve encountered is medications. I’m on quite a few medications for my conditions. Most of them are fine. One, however, is a controlled substance in both the United States and Germany. Traveling to a foreign country with a controlled substance is a completely new and honestly terrifying experience for me. I don’t want to be detained by German Customs for not following their laws correctly or have my necessary medication taken away. To make sure I’ve followed the law to a T, I not only consulted ECU’s Office of Global Affairs but called German Customs and BfArM (The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Germany’s version of the FDA). In order to bring my medication into Germany, my prescribing doctor is required to fill out a Schengen Medication Certificate. It is a multilingual form that declares what my medication is, my prescription strength and dosage, and my prescribing doctor’s information. My situation could be worse. I had considered doing a study abroad in Japan, where my medication is completely banned.

Flying with a disability can be challenging as well, though I feel I have a bit of an advantage here since although I haven’t flown internationally before, I have flown domestically more times than I can count. I booked my flight well in advance, as soon as I got the go ahead from my faculty leader. I wanted to make sure I got the seat I wanted since I have a bad hip and can’t sit in middle or window seats. I actually regret it a bit since I looked at prices a few weeks later and they were a couple hundred dollars cheaper but what can you do?

There were no direct flights out of Raleigh (RDU) to Berlin (BER) so I’m flying a connection first to New York (JFK). That’s exciting in itself to me. I’ve never flown or been to New York before. From New York (JFK), I’ll fly overnight to Berlin (BER), arriving at 7:25am.

The RDU, JFK and BER airports are all part of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Program, which aims to bring awareness to people with invisible chronic illnesses and conditions. All of my disabilities are invisible unless I’m having a bad day and using my cane so I will be wearing my customized lanyard which airport employees are trained to recognize. It doesn’t give me any special privileges or rights but it lets airport staff know that I may become overwhelmed easily due to my Autism or I may need to sit down if the TSA lines are too long. It’s just a way for airport employees to know “hey, this person’s disabled even though they don’t look like it, so keep an eye out in case they need help and can’t ask!”

Writing about my disabilities and Germany has got me thinking about my GLST 2600 class. I really hope we discuss Aktion T4 in it. It’s not technically part of The Holocaust but it’s an important part of Nazi Germany’s systematic killings. Aktion T4 is often overlooked when people talk about Nazi Germany’s victims. It was a forced euthanasia program for those with disabilities in Germany, Austria, and surrounding European countries. The first season of the PBS/BBC WWII drama World On Fire doesn’t name Aktion T4 but it does have a good plot line about it, if you’re interested. I plan on visiting the Memorial to the 300,000 victims in Berlin.

Well, that’s all for now. The next time you hear from me, I’ll probably be on the plane or in Berlin!

Tschüss!