By jadoerge
As I sit writing this blog only one week away from my two-month long semester break, I think it is a good time to begin to reflect upon my time here before I leave my second-home here in Germany to go touring around Europe.
Since arriving here, my time here has been nothing short of a whirlwind. My three-week long orientation with the Junior Year in Munich program went by in a flash of meeting new people and trying to speak to each other in what our director calls “Mickey Mouse German” since we were all on different levels of speaking ability and had all been out of practice for most of the summer.
In any case, the classes that I took this semester through the program (National Socialism in Munich, Intro to German Literature, Goethe’s Italian Journey, and Grammar) have all been great and served very well as preparatory courses for the full-fledged experience of taking most of my classes directly through the University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximillians University). My class about Goethe was especially enlightening, not only in that I learned a lot about some of Goethe’s greatest works, but rather the discussions that we had in the class about how and why we, as humans, travel. Whether these journeys be physical or into oneself, it was a very interesting topic to be covered through the lens of J.W. Goethe’s works. My one class that I did take at the University itself (Comparative Politics of Middle-Eastern Europe: Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic) was in any case the most challenging for my language skills. However, I found this challenge very helpful in building my political science vocabulary in the German language. This was especially true when I, along with 5 other German and Polish students, had to hold a 70-minute debate about the pros and cons of a presidential vs. parliamentary system in regards to the three countries we were focusing on. Talk about a workout for the mind. All in all, I found this semester very academically stimulating, but not so stressful and work-intensive as to take away from me being able to truly experience all that Munich and Germany in general has to offer.
Culturally, I’d say that I’ve grown quite a bit here as well. Upon first arriving here in Germany, I wouldn’t say that I was completely culture-shocked, but there were certainly some things that took some getting used to. Taking time nearly every afternoon to have coffee and cake, however, was one adjustment that I think that I can get used to. It has been especially nice living here in Bavaria, as it reminds me a lot of my home state of Texas. As in the south of the U.S., southerners here in Germany are in general a much more relaxed, easy-going people. The older generations especially are never shy about giving you a big “Gruß Gott” and a smile when you walk into the door of their shop or bakery. I will hold off on major reflections about the culture, however, because I am eagerly awaiting my second semester to further integrate myself as more of a local rather than a tourist here in the city.
This semester has certainly been an adventure thus far and I can’t wait to start my travels in the next couple of weeks! My girlfriend Morgan and I have a nearly month-long itinerary planned out in which we will be visiting Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Italy, France, and possibly Switzerland! So say that I am excited would be a gross understatement. I can’t wait to share all of the stories from those travels, but unfortunately I will be having very spotty internet along the way so these stories will have to wait to be transferred from our travel journal when we get safely back to Munich. Until then!
Johannes