My Junior Year in Munich: Salzburg

So as you probably have noticed, I once again have gone a couple months without writing one of these. It is sort if crazy that I am abroad so long that multiple times I can go a couple months without writing anything and still have time left. Since today is June 24 and I head back to America July 23, I now officially have less than a month left in my trip.

So what have I been doing this semester and why have I disappeared? I would like to say that I have been swamped with homework and assignments to make it look like I have been productive with my life, but this is JYM, so that is simply not the case (not until as of late of course).

No. My life has been filled with strenuous days in the English Garden, laying on the Eisbach (part of the Isar River), getting tan, eating food, drinking beer, and playing games. Rough life. This is why you come to Bavaria, because the summers here are amazing and extremely relaxing.

Soooo where to begin? First I should also say that I got this scholarship from the government and part of it was that I got paired with this classroom in North Carolina and had to write 20 blogs (2 a week) for the students to read and discuss, and then Skype with the students at least 3 times. So I wrote the blogs, which the topics were given to me and were generally really boring, like recycling, food, and transportation. But you gotta do what you gotta do. I also lucked out and I am pretty sure the class never read my blogs because the teacher never responded to my emails about setting up a Skype meeting, but I still got the credit for the scholarship, so chalk that one up as a win. So basically the time I used to normally write on this blog was consumed by writing for this blog that was really boring and no one actually read, so yea, good stuff.

So I went to Salzburg in Austria, It was pretty unexpected. I woke up that morning at 8, received an invitation to Salzburg, and was on a train at 9:55. Gotta love Europe.

New characters are now being introduced into this story line, so fasten your seat-belts. I fair amount of people joined our program for the second semester. Since we have been here longer than them, we are known as Old-JYMers and they are known as New-JYMers. Pretty complex, I know. So me and Cam hopped on this train with New-JYMers (Libby, Blake, Evah, Julia, Julissa, Allister) to Salzburg for the day. You can get there with the Bayern Ticket (5 people all day unlimited for 39 euros) so it is really cheap and only takes a couple hours.

Salzburg is of course famous among Americans as the place where sound of Music was filmed. We didn't see any of the places where it was filmed, but that is fine without because that is the one movie is the world I harness genuine hatred for.

However, Salzburg is beautiful. There is a river, of course, and a giant fortress on top of a hill dominating the landscape. It was wicked hot when we were there, so we walked around a little bit, found a cafe, chilled, went into the fortress, ate some ice cream, and then got back on the train. It was a good time.

Here are some photos.