The following year I started university at the London School of Economics: European Studies. I immersed myself in the history, philosophy, economics, poetry and literature of 20th century Europe, learning to understand and appreciate how we got to where we are.Â
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I spent a year in Berlin, attending university to learn about the city and the country and their restitution as a thriving centre of European culture, economics and leadership. What struck me was how at home I felt. Berlin and London: two great world cities.
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But this was Berlin ten years after the fall of the wall. Still grimy and still torn. We were coming together, learning from each other, accommodating each other and adapting to a bigger Europe with a future that promised freedom. I lived in the former west and studied in the former east. This was the promise of Europe.