“I felt like I was eternal, because I was experiencing something internal”

I find myself in the rooftop of a cafe in Munich with my good friend and interviewee, Anna. Anna Bertelli is a 21 years old philosophy exchange student at LMU, who has been rewarded with a special scholarship. She has been a volunteer in Cambodia and is very committed with the environment and with nature, in general. And in this interview we will get to know why.

Good evening Anna, tell me, why did you choose this location for our interview?

“I have chosen this  location, because I have never seen the city from a real high place and I think it is important when you get to a new place to look at it from an external perspective. I think it is a special thing to be able to see from another perspective rather than our perspective from the ground.”

And what brings an Italian girl from a small town to such a big city like Munich?

“Basically my passion, in Pavia I found out that I am really interested in environmental issues. We have just a few courses about environmental issues in Italy, but they are not in Pavia, so when I had the opportunity to do an exchange with another country, I chose Munich because it has the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, which is a research center that offers really good courses about environmental issues, for example, climate ethics, environmental anthropology and so on. I came here for academic reasons, but also to learn German and to find out how it is to live in a really big city.”

Did you notice many cultural differences between Pavia and Munich?

“I think italian people are more warm and attached. It is a bit difficult to build a deep relationship with germans, because they are really private, but there are exceptions. I found out that there are also german people who can be warm and those people were the ones with whom I made more friendship, but i find it easier to be friends with people that come from other countries.”

As far as I know, you have been rewarded with a special scholarship, is that right?

“Yes, after highschool I got a scholarship from my region. It is given only to the people who have the highest grade in highschool. I had the opportunity to choose between 80 countries to experience, and the trip was for free. I chose Cambodia, because the project was so appealing and it mixed a lot of things I love to do. I wanted to discover this new completely different world, country and religion. We visited the Khmer Temples; we found out the history of this country, we met local people, that told us their stories of poverty and struggle, we helped local families to build their houses, made of palm leaves and palm trees,  we also went to a school to teach English to children and then we helped old women to build little bags that they would sell. Then we had a lot of opportunities to discover this culture, for example, through food, and  we took part in a circus that taught us a lot of things. In the evening, we used to go out in Siem Reap, which is the city where we went, but we also had the opportunity to see the countryside and the surroundings. I found a really incredible group of friends there. They were like me; they wanted to experience. I love them.”

From where does your environmental dedication come from?

“I think it comes from my childhood, because I spent it with my grandparents. They have this house surrounded by nature, and I used to go with my grandpa to the mountains really often. Every day we went to the river and since I was a child, I felt this connection (with nature) so strong. I was so lucky to experience this thing, our belonging to nature, and my grandpa told me so many things about the functioning of life, of trees, of flowers, of animals,… he told me to bring some kind of flowers in the wood or to help  him with the animals and I really felt this connection. So yes, the basis for my passion for nature comes from this particular connection from my childhood, basically.”

Concluding, are there other significant experiences you would like to share?

“Yes, when I was 13 years old, I went to a campus in the mountains and one particular afternoon, we were sitting in this big field in front of a big mountain with a sunset. We had this kind of teacher, who taught us how to feel nature. We were all silent and listening to him talking about that mountain and then he played an African instrument, a really long flute. It was incredible, because it was completely silence and we heard the echo of this flute and then some timid animals, that did their noises and everything was echoed and the colors were incredible… I felt like I was eternal, because I was experiencing something internal, which is the incredibly strong relationship between us and nature. We are inside it, we are not something separated from it, and in those moments I experienced in my life, I felt like I was part of it, like I was a tree, a part of the mountain, a piece of the field,… and it was just so human, but also so not human. It was both, cause I was going against the human thinking, sometimes we think we are something more, something different from nature and that is not true. In those moments, I felt like I am both, like I am part of nature and also myself.”

Thank you very much Anna for such an interesting interview! I really liked your point of view. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Munich.

“Thank you, it has been a pleasure.”