Germany

In summary, Germany was amazing!! I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends while touring a city (also country) that i've never been to before. We left at 6 am Sunday morning (March 15) and we arrived in Munich around 1 or 1:30. We went straight to the Alte Pinakothek, where we looked at a lot of paintings, some of which I actually did like. After that, we went to the hostel. My room consisted of 5 of my friends and me, which throughout the week was really fun sharing a bathroom with 5 other girls. I don't know how, but we managed to get all 6 of us ready in less than 45 min every morning. Anyway after that we went to diner and then for a little walk around part of Munich. The next morning was the first day of school. Each weekday we had a German class for 3 hours in the morning from 8:30- 11:30. After that we went to the Deutsches Museum, where I was attracted to the chemistry part. I think I pressed just about every button for the experiments. hahaha :) Then a few of us went to the Planetarium. That was fun, because out of the 3 teachers that came with us, only 2 knew German. The other teacher, who teaches Latin, and I didn't understand anything. Then came dinner again and another walk through part of Munich. The next day started with school and then we went to a city outside of Munich, Augsburg (I don't know what it is called in English). There we visited the city center and a place called the Fuggerei, a residence built for people who couldn't afford to live on their own. At the Fuggerei there was someone interviewing people why they came there, and of course we were a group of about 40 so she stopped us. One of the teachers talked in German, but she preferred English, so the teacher told me to speak. I had no idea what to say, I ended up making something good up, cause I had just read the reason behind the Fuggerei. I realized though that my English has gotten worse, it took me a while to think of what to say and then I made lots of mistakes while saying it. OH well... Next day, Wednesday (18) we went to school and then we went to Olympia Park, the tower (I forget what it was called), and the BMW Museum. That was a lot of fun. At the top of the tower, there was a Rock Museum inside. It had a piano of Elton John when he played in Germany, which was cool. In the BMW Museum we asked if we could sit in one of the cars, everyone was taking pictures in a convertable. There were also video games that we could play, but I used a program they had to create a car which was cool. Thursday was school and then we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp. As much as I knew that what happened was really bad, being there and seeing the place and reading the info at the same time was really hard. I won't hold back from saying that I did cry and felt very depressed, and I can tell you that I wasn't the only one. As soon as I walked into the camp I felt it. I don't know what or why, but I just remember thinking that it happend here, people died here, I was standing in a place where thousands of muders and deaths occurred less than 60 years ago. There's not even a word to describe the feelings, you would have to go to one to find out for yourself. Friday was the last day of school and then we went to a beer factory, where they told us how and where the beer was made. I forget which nights, but we all went to 2 pubs (I guess you can say.. in italian it's called birreria), where some of us drank beer. And then another night, 2 teachers, a friend named Raffaele and I went to another "birreria", one of the more famous ones, and drank beer. At this "birreria", Hitler did something (I don't remember what he did), and also it is famous for the typical Munich lifestyle, with a band and the (funny) clothes. Friday night was the last night so of course we tried to party (tried being a key word). One time the teacher told us to go to our own rooms so we did. Then of course I'm the innocent American who won't get in trouble, so my roommates made me open the door so we could sneak out into the other room. When I opened the door, the teacher was standing right there, looking at me. I was shocked and afraid at the same time :) We were able to eventually sneak out when she went to bed, but then she found us in the other room. We didn't really get in trouble, we just had to go to our own room. Saturday morning we went to the Neue Pinakothek, where I saw a lot more paintings that I actually liked. Oh yeah and I found a Starbucks in Munich!!! let me explain why I was so excited before you think I'm crazy.. Starbucks doesn't exist in Italy, so I haven't gone to a Starbucks or even seen one in a little more than 6 months. Luckily, I found one there and ended up drinking 4 coffees in 2 days. I introduced my friends to Starbucks as well, and they all liked it :) We left around 12:30 Saturday and arrived around 8 or 8:30.

So that was my Germany trip!!! I had a lot of fun! Hope everythings going well for all of you!!

Ciao for now,
Heather