Everyone has been talking about the volcano in Iceland, but let’s see the positive side: Thousands of tourists are stuck in Berlin and are allowed to spend more time seeing just how beautiful this city can be in spring. Thank you, volcano!

Many international students who should have been on a flight back home now can linger around Humboldt University and learn about exchange programs. At the cafeteria, I meet Luba Levkina and her friend Inga Matalinova, two girls who decided to do an exchange program without the help of the infamous ash cloud. Both went to school together in Russia. Read on to hear their experiences coming to Berlin.

Young Germany: Hello Luba, hello Inga, what brings you to Berlin?

After having to endure five months of the coldest winter to date, everyone was elated to see that at last, the weatherman had remembered Berlin.

I love the spring, and I have a special way of welcoming it with ice cream. If I manage to eat an entire ice cream without my fingers freezing off, I know that the weather is not just an April Fools’ joke. Every year I try out a new ice cream parlor.

Last year, it was the well-known Dolce Freddo at Nollendorfplatz in Berlin–original ice cream produced by Italians.