Orientation 2009: The Quiet Group?

By Helen Fields (Burns 2009)

Some people suspect that Frank Freiling tells every class of Burns fellows that they are "the quiet group," hoping to drive them to new heights of debauchery during the weekend retreat at Airlie. More on how the deck chairs ended up on the bottom of the pool later.

Helen Fields with Roman Kessler enjoying the view from the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The 2009 orientation week kicked off with a tasty chicken dinner at a historic, oil-painting-bedecked home near the White House. The fellows introduced ourselves; wine was consumed; we were told, for the first of approximately five million times, that we should use the valuable Burns alumni network for all our needs in the future. Need a source on the Bavarian fig industry? Ask a Burns alum. Got a question on finding work in San Diego? Try a Burns alum. Looking for someone to change your oil? Check the Burns list first.

The bulk of the talks during orientation week were at the German Marshall Fund. In two all-day sessions, we learned about U.S.-German relations, the upcoming German elections, and a World Bank program to limit the effects of climate change by saving the world's forests. Two Washington reporters dropped by to expound on the state of U.S. journalism, specifically the state of their Web sites, and to tell us we should all be blogging. A researcher from Goldman Sachs told us it's all just "a marketplace of ideas" and that Goldman Sachs has no particular influence in Washington.

Three former fellows came to tell us about their experiences. We were advised both to hang around with other foreign correspondents and to have an immersive experience by avoiding our own country's people entirely. The trend of unusual names continued; for a brief, exhilarating moment, there were three Helens in the room to match the three Romans among the German fellows.

Our last day in Washington began with an enlightening talk about economics at the European Commission, and then continued with a visit to the Newseum—a new, large, and very shiny love letter to the First Amendment. It normally costs 20 bucks to get into the Newseum, so it was a special treat to ramble through its halls for a morning and admire a chunk of the Berlin Wall, an exhibit on presidential dogs, and a lovely view of Pennsylvania Avenue. However, an alarming gap in the Newseum's collection of newspaper front pages from around the world was discovered: the current day's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was missing. Alert! International incident! International incident!

Fellows chat around the pool while Helen knits

At last, our brains full of wisdom, we rode the minibus out to Airlie Conference Center near Warrenton, Virginia, the lovely retreat where Burns fellows gather every year for a weekend of bonding and relaxing by the pool.

While it's possible that Frank tells everyone they're the quiet group, it's also possible that we actually were the quiet group. Someone who will remain nameless…ok, it was me, knitted during parties. It's true, three deck chairs did find their way into the pool. But the fact that the person who put them there carefully fished them all out again kind of ruined the effect. Discussions about hotwiring ICFJ staffer Mario Scherhaufer's car and driving it into the pool went nowhere, and we finished the weekend without having made any mark in the history books.

With that, it was off to our fellowship sites. The German fellows scattered by plane, train and automobile. The U.S. fellows piled onto a turboprop that tried to kill us by falling out of the sky. We arrived in Newark happy to be alive and dispersed to our various international flights. Bring on the editors! Bring on the demands for wise commentary! We're ready to do some journalism!

Helen Fields is a freelance science writer based in Washington, D.C., who keeps up with the times by blogging at www.heyhelen.com. She previously worked for National Geographic and U.S. News & World Report. Her fellowship hosts are Bild and Welt/Welt am Sonntag in Berlin.