Orientation and Registration

Hello Everyone!

my first beer: a radler

   Orientation is almost over - we've been at it for two and a half weeks now and classes begin on Monday. Orientation has consisted of a couple of hours every day where we are given new and important information. On some days, orientation consisted of getting paperwork done and on others it was field trips and sightseeing. With the rest of our days free, it has given me time to settle into my room and figure out the basics of living in Munich. 

One of the days for orientation, we got to learn some traditional German and Bavarian dances. It was so much fun, and I was overheated and out of breath by the end of the third. Once you are doing it you see how quickly chaotic it could become if everyone was drinking beer (as Germans usually are). German fondness for beer has not been exaggerated. I didn't actually grasp the extent of it. You can get beer out of vending machines - and drink it in public. Crazy. 

Speaking of beer, I've had my first one in Germany. I had it at lunch - a half liter of something known as a Radler. A Radler is fifty percent sparkling lemonade and fifty percent light beer. It isn't bad. 

doner kabob

I've also had my first doner kabob. I thought it was going to be this magical new thing I had never had before. Turns out it is a Turkish gyro (a gyro is technically Greek). It was actually really good. I go to this place by the JYM office and it is like the size of a closet. It is tiny!! Every time I order I get to watch one of the guys shave the meat off of the spit and then put it in my kabob.

Registration for classes has been kind of chaotic. LMU (Ludwig Maximilian University) is the university that my study abroad program, JYM (Junior Year in Munich) is aligned with. I am registered at LMU as a student, and free to take classes there. LMU does not have a centralized registration system or process like universities do in the US. So instead, it depends based on professor and department. The history department is not one of the better organized departments. Instead, I had to e-mail the professors directly and ask them if they would add me to their class. It was not my favorite process, as two out of the three e-mails had to be in German. GERMAN. Anyway, each time I got an e-mail back from a professor saying they would be happy to have me in their class I (maybe) screamed. It was a really nice feeling. 

So the classes I will be taking will all be in German, but I have rendered the titles for you in English. They are as follows: 

At JYM I will be taking: 

• Advanced German Language
• Munich and National Socialism (Nazis) - this class is going to involve quite a few field trips, yay!

At LMU I will be taking:

• The History of Munich and Bavaria for International Students (this one will be in English)
• Mechanisms of Assyrian Power (basically how they held onto power)
• Of Quiet and the Night Life: A History of the Night in the Early Modern Period (which is basically from the 1500s to the 1800s)

I have met some really great people who are in the program with me, and it has been a pleasure to get to know them and spend time with them!

Eric, me, and Ella near Sendlinger Tor

Kait and I on one of the JYM tours

Julia, Julia, and I at IKEA

Kait, McKenzie, and I where they
hold Oktoberfest

Julia and I in her room hanging out

Tschüß!