Since Kenya transitioning back to Munich has been really,
really strange. It’s a weird feeling because I kept thinking after Kenya I
would be flying home, all the while knowing at the back of my mind I still had
a full semester left to complete. Realizing that was really unfortunate because living
in Munich is fun, and exciting, when there’s a lot of time to travel and hang
out without the worries of school. School is just something that’s super
stressful and the thought of having to start first semester of my last year in college only two weeks after coming home is rather daunting.
And this semester school has continued to be challenging, but in
different ways from what I’m used to in the United States. Normally I would have mounds of studying, homework, online assignments, lab reports, etc, but that's not how they do grades here. It's normally one or two grades during the semester that make up your entire grade for the class.
I’m taking two classes at the University
of Munich, one in English, and three at JYM (my program). At LMU I’m taking a
Walt Whitman course, which I love, and we’re reading through “Leaves of Grass”.
I’m also taking an introduction to film analysis in German, but the teacher is
actually American (with phenomenal German), so that’s kind of awkward but
encouraging. He’s a German-learning inspiration haha. At JYM I’m taking my
second German Grammar course, second semester of independent research about
childhood obesity and comparing American and German societies and cultures, and
an overseas internship. The internship was actually something I recently just
started. At first I was taking Spanish 1 at the University (which is miserable
to learn when it’s taught in German), but then about a month ago (after I’d
applied to a few clinics in Munich) a lady from Klinikum Schwabing called and
asked if I’d want to do an internship with them for a month. I definitely said
yes and dropped my Spanish class.
I started working at the clinic on June 1st and I
will finish on June 30th. The shifts are longish (about 8 hours) and
it’s in German..but it’s okay because I like the work and the opportunity to
see a German working environment. The routine is always the same, which I find
nice with the language. Too many changes and things happening at one time is
hard for me in English, and if it were in German I’m pretty sure my brain would
start fighting back eventually. Studying medicine here is something I’ve been
thinking about a lot lately. However, if I don’t want to actually practice here
it may be a little pointless to go through the schooling. Although the
“tuition” is literally almost no money. Those will be some fun decisions to make in the near future.
I like the clinical setting a lot, and enjoy the
environment, and the method of medicine used. However, I’m not sure if it would
ever be something I could truly excel at due to the language. I don’t
understand German sense of humors, and I can’t be myself with German-speaking
kids like I can with English-speaking kids, obviously. And that’s hard for me
because I go from someone who loves spending time around children to feeling
super stressed on how to properly communicate with them. It would become more
about communication and knowing what’s going on than building relationships.
Can you tell I’m completely torn between two completely
different worlds? It’s so frustrating. But just even having the opportunity to
decide is something I’m grateful for.
The month of April went by very quickly, and was used up
getting transitioned back into Munich and German. They had their spring version
of Oktoberfest during that month, which is called Frühlingsfest, or Spring Festival. We
went a few times, and one time as a big group from my program, which was really
fun. I actually finally bought a dirndl and was able to put it to good use. I
have no idea if I’ll ever have the opportunity to wear it in the States
(outside of Halloween), but hey, a dirndl is a dirndl. And they’re super
awesome.
May was a very exciting time because there were lots of visitors
from the States. The first was a friend from Clemson named Victor, whose doing
a study abroad program for a month in Trier, Germany. He came to Munich a week
early to hang out and see everything. Markus and I picked Victor up
from the airport and showed him the city on the first day. I was amazed at his
determination to see everything on the first day, despite the jetlag. Even that night in Studentenstadt (where I
live) he came around 10 o’clock that night and grilled with us. The week was
fun with him because I was able to be a tourist with him and go see lots of
places. We took him to BMW World, Olympia Center, Monday night rollerblading
through Munich, Hofbräuhaus (the most famous brewery/restaurant in Munich),
hiking in the Alps, and many other fun adventures. I still had school so he did
a lot of things on his own too. He’ll be back again sometime in the next few
weeks before heading back to the States.
Jarrod and Stacey also visited during the same time that Victor
was here. I was so excited to see them, even if it was for a day. I was
supposed to meet them the first night for dinner, but that had absolutely not
worked out. They didn’t have a cell phone or internet outside of their inn,
which created many problems. Jarrod just messaged me to meet them at a beer
garden at 6:30 pm. Two problems with that: I had babysitting until 6:45 pm,
still had to take the transportation to where they were staying, and I had
absolutely no idea which Biergarten
he meant because there are a ton in
Munich. We later found out he meant the Hirschgarten one, which he thought was
the only one that existed at the time (haha Jarrod).
The next day they picked me and Victor up from my program’s
building and we drove out to Dachau Concentration Camp together. It’s the
concentration camp that has the “Arbeit macht frei” (work will set you free) on
the entrance gate. Honestly, I probably could have walked there and assumed it was only a few old buildings if I hadn’t
seen the information center and the Arbeit macht Frei gate. It’s crazy because the place is definitely dated, but it’s beautiful around the camp. I think the most intense part for me was when we were walking back from the crematory and found a small hedged path that led to the back of the woods. There were memorials and graves of the countless bodies that had been buried there. On various headstones or monument stones it stated in Jewish, German, and English “Don’t forget”. Even as they were telling everyone these stories of what happened to people in various places throughout the camp it’s still hard to fathom that anything could have happened in a place that appears so unthreatening and even normal. I guess I’m not sure what I thought a concentration camp was supposed to look like.
The next group that visited Munich was two of my childhood
friends, Tyler and Lauren. Tyler just finished studying abroad in Paris, France
(he’s also the one I visited), and his family and younger sister came to travel
with him during the few weeks after he’d finished up with school. I met with
them on their arrival day after a long test at my program, and we went to the
Englischer Garten and met with some friends for one of their birthdays. It was
so nice because the tables were set up right by the river and everything David
made was so good. Frischkäse and Bretzen is seriously the best combination in
the world. We ate a ridiculous amount of food and then went to bed early because of how
tired we all were.
During the next few days I showed them the city center as well, we
went to Olympia Center to have a picnic and watch a really random (but free!)
concert, Schloss Nymphenberg, Hirschgarten (where we ate a ton of Bavarian
food), Hofbräuhaus, Rischart, shopping on Kaufingerstraβe, Viktualienmarkt
Biergarten, BUBBLE TEA FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AND IT WAS AWESOME!, and a bunch
of other things. It was really fun being able to hang out with them, and I was
kind of jealous they’re already heading back home and finished with their
second semesters. This semester and the workload are seriously dragging. I just
want the work to go away. L
Anyway, we spent a lot of time hanging out, playing games, and
watched one movie every night. One thing I’ve noticed too about people that I’ve
met here too is that a lot of quality time is spent together. They don’t watch
movies as much, or go out to eat. If they do go out to eat, they sit and talk
for a while, and just relax. Their pace with everything is always so relaxed
and calm. Even the average working person living here works around 32 hours per
week, and still makes an excellent salary. That’s not the point of going to
Simone’s, but it’s my current stream of consciousness. Also on the way back
from Aarau we passed the Rhein River, which is something I learned about in
high school, which made me extremely happy. I took lots of pictures. I know this isn’t the most exciting blog I’ve ever written, but I’ll
try to write more in the next one, after I’ve finished up my internship and have
extra time to think through what I really want to say.
Until then, thanks for reading! About one month and fifteen days
until I come home. J
Love, Jessica
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