One of the highlights of this trip has been watching the World Cup at Checkpoint Charlie beach, with makeshift sand and beach chairs in front of a giant HD screen in the heart of the former East Berlin. Below is radio reporter Matthew Katz relaxing with mad hatter Faryl Ury of APTV and Anna Rhett Miller from CNN.
Thanks to Michael Lipin, a reporter for Voice of America, we had plenty of USA swag for the crucial match between USA and Slovenia.
I confess to divided loyalties here, as the Anzur family is from a small town near the Slovenian capital of Lublijana. A weird referee call robbed the USA of its winning goal and the Yanks had to settle for a tie. My son Andrew is joining me in Berlin for a few days on a break from his summer internship with the US Commercial service at the Embassy in Bucharest Romania. He made things interesting by cheering loudly in various slavic languages for Slovenia, along with NPR reporter Jack Zahora, who speaks Czech, Polish and German.
We've enjoyed several matches and a lot of beverages at this venue. Of course, they show Germany's number-one news program, the Tageshau, at 8 pm.
Even when the USA isn't playing, we enjoy watching others cheer for their favorites. We felt sorry for the lone South African fan who tooted his vuvzela in vain as his team was defeated.
I've enjoyed getting to know Jo Dondis, a freelance TV producer from LA, as well as all of the other RIAS fellows, as we relax together and watch the games.
Michael Lippin, a Washington-based reporter for Voice of America, is perhaps the hardest working person in our RIAS group. He reported on the environmental conference and other EU issues for VOA's international audience, in contrast to most of the others in the group who didn't have an assignment from their home news organizations. It was different in 2001 when a lot of the people in my group were filing broadcast reports. That's a sad commentary on the fact that US news organizations don't do enough these days to keep Americans informed about global developments and why programs like RIAS are so badly needed. 
Michael photographed and interviewed Erik Betterman, the head of Deutsche Welle and a member of the RIAS board. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Betterman, who has spent some time in the US and understands American media very well. He was kind enough to introduce me to the representatives of the Deutsche Welle Akademie, which conducts highly respected media training programs all over the world. I've benefitted from the resources on their website in the past and it was great to connect with the people behind the effort. I would welcome any opportunity to collaborate with DW Akademie in the future.
