I'm Not Very Good At This

So much for keeping this updated somewhat regularly

Last Saturday I went for the coolest hike of my life. Me and a few others took the Bayern regional train out to Kochel. We then took a bus to the base of Herzogstand Mountain. It was a pretty steep mountain and I think it was around 5500 feet, but it wasn't too bad and the weather was nice. At the peak of Herzogstand we relaxed and took some photos and ate some food that one of the guys we were with brought. When we were on top on that mountain the clouds rolled in within 2 minutes we went from miles of visibility to about 20 feet, it was pretty cool. Here are the pictures.

Those two photos were taken by me standing in the same exact spot looking in the same direction within two minutes of each other. It was pretty cool.

Actual view from the top

Thats part of the long path we took getting to the top

of Herzogstand, complete with the thing that goes around your wrist

From the top of Herzogstand we walked along a ridge that connected to the peak of another mountain called Heimgarten which was about 6000 feet. The ridge was pretty narrow at some points, about 3 feet wide, and there were some plaques for people who had actually died walking across it. But those were mostly for people who decided to not stay on the trail, which we did, so it was safe.

The three above photos is what the ridge looked like when we were walking it. I thought it was cool how the clouds were just stuck on one side of the peak and couldnt get over. Below is what the path looked like when we finished it and got to the peak of Heimgarten.

The tan line is the path that you walk. The tall peak in the middle is Herzogstand, the first peak that we were at. 

From the top of Heimgarten you could see this body of water, which unfortunately you cannot see in the photo but it was very blue.

From the top of Heimgarten you begin the long descent down the other side of the Mountain towards the city of Ohlstadt, which is actually pretty far from Kochel. I was really relieved when we were finally able to get back on the train and sit and relax. I remember I went to bed aaround 1am and didnt get out of 2pm the next day. I wasn't sore just physically tired. The hike was difficult, but not hopelessly so, and I had a lot of fun with the other people I was with, and the view from the top was amazing. 

This is the group I went with. Front to back Helen, Catie, Me, Ayhan (who volunteers for JYM), Mitch, and Dallas. Photo was taken by Josh

Left to Right: Catie, Josh, Me, Mitch on top of Herzogstand

Here are some artsy photos (Featuring foggy crosses)

This one is super artsy. Could probably be in Bates Art Museum

Whoa

So that was that exciting trip. Besides that its just been class and shopping and other boring stuff like that. The good news is that this changes soon. 

In 14 hours I will be on a plane to Krakow. Tomorrow and Friday I will be in Krakow and Saturday and Sunday I will be at Auschwitz. This is all part of the Auschwitz Jewish Center for Students Abroad program that I got accepted to. It seems like a really good program. I will of course take a lot of pictures there (but definitely no selfies) and post them on the blog that I write here about it.

Sorry this blog wasn't exciting. You were probably expecting more since I haven't posted in almost two weeks. Oh well. It happens. Goodbye.

Some more stuff on Class, and more random thoughts

So since my last blog, I have had the rest of my classes. On Wednesday I had my language class and Germany Today. I still like my language class. Germany Today I am not sure how I feel about. It could be good, it could be alright. I guess I will have to wait and see!

Thursday I had my language class again, and Munich and National-socialism. After my language class we had a a personal 5 minute meeting with our professor to talk about ourselves. She is a very nice lady, probably around 30 and lived in America for a while when she was younger. During the meeting, she just asks what school you went to, what books you used there for German, what you want to gain from being in Germany, what you think your strong and weak points are with the language. She told me she thinks I have good pronunciation and can tell I understand what she is staying, and that I just need to stop being so shy, so she is going to start calling on me in class because she knows I can answer the questions, but am just to shy to do so. I was thinking "well she has me figured out" because that is exactly how I am. Either way, should be a fun class and I should learn out. Also, I told her my writing and my vocab were the weakest, and wanted to work on that.

Munich and National-socialism will really be a lot of fun. We have a couple trips throughout the semester planned, including one to Dachau. For instance, our next class we are meeting at the University and will be walking about Munich talking about National-socialism. I love how for this class we get to learn about things and say "wow that was really cool, anddddd now lets go see it" and step out the door and be there. So cool. The only problem with this class is that the professor speaks with an accent and it is a little hard to understand sometimes.

Today we had to go to JYM to receive a copy of the official semester schedule, learn about the history of JYM, and get lectured to by a JYM Alumni (class of 1953) about global warming. Not sure where that fits in, but it was still kind of cool.

Tomorrow some of us are going on a more difficult hike in the foothills of the alps. Should be a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to it. After tomorrow I will have been here 4 weekends and will have gone hiking on 3 of them

Now time for random thoughts.

The director of the program here in Munich actually sends his kids to a summer camp in Camden, Maine. What are the chances?

Europe is one big Catch-22 (Hi Ms. Iverson). You walk everywhere, which means you have to drink a lot of water, which means you always have to pee, which means you have to always go to the bathroom, which there are very few public ones in Munich, and you almost always have to pay. The other day I actually wished a kid good luck when he said he was going to try to find a bathroom.

The cashiers here rarely ever have the right change in their tills to give you change back. They often have to go to other registers to get it or ask you if you have some more coins so they can jumble it and make it work. Yesterday I got a pizza for 5 euros and payed with a 20, but there wasn't 15 euros in the till so he took out is wallet and gave me 3 5's from there. What??? Are you allowed to do that?

I made a countdown calendar that tells me how many days I have left in Germany. Some people will interpret this as I am not having fun. Don't! I am simply curious, it is just how my mind works. Counting today I have 286 days left.

The light switches here are giant white squares, yet still impossible to find in the dark.

For some reason I can get to class in 25 minutes by subway, but coming back it always takes me 45. This is annoying. The other day was the first time I saw someone checking us for subway tickets. He was undercover, wearing cargos a plaid shirt, and a fanny pack, and like it was straight out of the movies he pulls out his wallet and flips it open to reveal his badge. Classic. It should also be illegal to close the windows on the subway. So hot, so smelly.

The elevator in my dorm takes forever. I often wait 5 minutes for it come. There are 3 of them for my 19 floor building, and I live of floor 6. Therefore, I often just take the stairs. A huge plus about the elevator is that, unlike in America, the close door button actually works. It feels so empowering even though it really does not make a difference.

That is all. Pictures of my hike tomorrow are sure to come

This past week and the beginning of classses

HI everyone. It appears I am not doing this more often as I said last time.

Not happened last week, we had a lot of free time. I picked my classes last Monday (Language class, Munich and National-Socialism, Germany Today, Intro to the Study of German Literature, and Goethe's Italian Journey.)

Here is a picture of my schedule, the ones that are circled are the ones I'm taking

Tuesday we had a session talking about intercultural communication and communicating  with Germans as Americas. It was basically a bunch of stereotypes and we listened to music.

Wednesday we had a short little history tour of the University, talking about art and people and stuff like that. Here are some pictures

This is the entrance of the building from the inside, as in the light between the two stairs is the street where you come in, so I guess I am looking out? I think this is where the White Rose got caught distributing their final pamphlet

This is one of the lecture halls. It's huge, sits hundreds, and isn't even the largest in the building. The white balconies actually have seats in them too. This is looking towards the stage where the professor speaks at a podium, which you can kind of see between the heads

This is the back of that same room, looking towards where you enter

Nothing important happened on Thursday that I can remember

On Friday we went on a trip of Andechs Monestary. You take a suburban train to the end of the line, about 45 minutes, and arrive at the Ammersee, which reminds me of Naples, mostly because of this boat. 

Can't see to well but it is one of those with the big water wheel as a propeller, like the one on long lake

Here are some pictures

A Dock

Lakeside dining

The sign greeting arrivals

A really nice building that I'm not sure what it was

This sign should help solve the mystery

We then hiked a couple miles up this incline, which was neither a mountain nor a hill. Somehwere in the middle. When we were walking up there was a Junkers Ju-52 circling overhead, so that was cool. Sounded incredible.

At the top there is the monastery, overlooking the city, and since this is Germany, there are some bier gardens up there too. Here is the monastery

And the view from up there.

There is also this cross

There were a ton of people because it was family day, so they had a train for the kids. I can't decide if the conductor has the best or worst job in the world

When we got to the top, all we had on our mind was food, so we went to the beer garden. I got a delicious pork roast and potato salad and a giant pretzel for 8 euros. It was awesome and cheap so I was very happy. We sat around and talked for a bit, and then decided to head back down the mountain. When we got to the bottom I realized I never actually went into the Monastery, which is supposed to beautiful, so I guess I have to go back to check it out. At the bottom I got a couple scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream for 2 euros, and it was also delicious. We called it a day and boarded the train back to Munich.

Saturday and Sunday I chilled/did laundry.

Yesterday was our first day of classes. As you can tell by my schedule, I only had my language class. the professor was really nice and I was able to understand most of what she was saying, so that is good. It does not seem like we will have much work to do outside of class, which is also a plus. For this class we had to buy one book, which came with 2 cd's and it only cost me 25 Euros. In America it would cost hundreds. America should catch on.

Today I had Intro to the Study of German literature and Goethe's Italian Journey. The Literature class was kind of overwhelming, because its very difficult to analyze a poem when you don't know what the poem is talking about because you don't know the words. Funny how that works. Ill figure it out though.

Goethe's Italian Journey seems cool. We study Goethe's travels around Europe and we will also be doing some traveling as a class to Weimar and Italy, so I am looking forward to that. We will also be writing about our own travels while here. Professor Soder, who is also the director here in Munich, is wicked funny and just a great guy, so he will make the class a lot of fun. He is always cracking jokes.

Overall, it seems like some good classes! Excited for tomorrow and Thursday so I can check out the classes I am really looking forward to (Germany Today and Munich and National Socialism)

Thats all for now! Until next time