Getting Oriented
Hallo from Munich! It has been a very long first few days getting situated with the 6 hour time difference, but I think we’re all finally starting to get back on track. Our first day here, Sunday, was exhausting. We arrived around 11 but it felt like 5 AM. We immediately went to a traditional breakfast, where we were strongly encouraged to try the white sausages (not bad, but they had an oddly smooth texture). After that, they made a point of keeping us from sleeping by taking us on a walking tour of Munich ending in a gorgeous garden. Once we started walking, people felt much more awake. Despite that, I’m sure I can speak for all of us when I say that sleep was a welcomed relief.
Today, Monday, we got right into it with class. From around 9:00 to 4:30, we had class in the debate room of a nearby hotel. First we started off with a game to get to know each other. We had to take turns going up to the front of the room and sharing a fact about us that we thought was unique. If our fact pertained to someone else in the group, they could veto us and we would have to find a new fun fact. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I was vetoed twice! We did get some fun stories out of it though. After that, we went into our first reading, which discussed some of Hitler’s rhetorical techniques that he detailed in Mein Kampf.
After that, we started on our first group presentations that we had prepared. These were on Nazi artifacts and fit really nicely with the text we had just read. We all were able to relate the rhetorical devices in the reading with our artifacts which was really interesting to see firsthand. We then moved into a description of the debates we will soon be participating in and an activity to show us how to properly question someone with yes or no questions. Soon after, we were off on our one hour break before a group dinner. Some people walked around, but I decided to take a nap. Dinner was really good, I was particularly a fan of the desert, scrambled pancakes with a type of applesauce.
After dinner, we walked back to change before heading off to a club that was having an 80’s themed night. That was a ton of fun and I was glad to get to know more about a lot of my new classmates! On the way back, a few of us ran through the Stachus fountain which was extremely refreshing and definitely on my bucket list. All in all, Germany seems really cool so far! The architecture is absolutely gorgeous and live music seems to follow you everywhere which really adds to the atmosphere. I can’t wait to take a ton of pictures tomorrow on our official tour. Until then, tschüss!
