Le Jour Vingt-et-un (Day 21)

After a good night’s worth of sleep, we woke up ready for another travel day! This time to Germany. I think all of us by now are used to this whole packing, unpacking, new hotel, new environment, and I would say I’m pretty well-trained for future overseas endeavors at a fast pace; well, at least in my head I am. At breakfast this morning, I tried a new, amazing combo: Bread with nutella, honey, and banana. You guys MUST try it! I was also really sad to leave my Jeryn waitress friend; she is just the cutest lady. I wanted to make her feel special and appreciated, so I wrote her a nice note and wrapped it around a euro as just a small gift for my delight in her presence! After Dr. Mac ushered us along (we were obviously last once again apparently), that meant everyone was accounted for and off we went!

 

It was a dreary day today, but it was fitting to where we were going first before going to Munich: Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp. We all tried to prepare ourselves for the sadness we were about to experience, arrived, and were handed audio guides and a map to go exploring until a video we all were to meet up for and watch. Everyone sort of ventured off by themselves to learn about all the different aspects and events that took place in this historic camp. It’s a huge camp, but the only part that’s really open to the public is where the prisoners were kept: roll-call square, living quarters, kitchen, infirmary, open-fire ranges, bathing rooms, the creamery, and more. There were so many pictures, information, and maps to view and read about. I learned that the Nazis are known for their impeccable record-keeping skills, so this is how we have so much information on what all went on during this time. It was sickening, sad, and somber. The video we watched was graphic, and my heart hurt for the poor victims who received this inhumane treatment at the very place I was standing in. I couldn’t believe I was actually there, in the exact place I’ve read about, done projects over, and watched in films my whole life. It really was real…

 

We all had a somber spirit while departing, but Brady pointed out something interesting: after experiencing something disturbing or sad, Americans tend to change the subject or make small talk about random topics; the British use humor. So true, and that’s exactly what seemed to happen.

Moving on to Munich, it’s beautiful here! Much more city-like than I expected (nothing has hardly been what I pictured I realized), but it’s awesome! It’s very clean, big, well-structured, and I can tell there is a big concentration on architecture, which I love. The people here are also clean, put together, well-mannered, and friendly! I like everything about it except the food and the language; the food weirds me out (or maybe just all the gross meat stuff that look like brains made out of any and every kind of animal you can think of, including horses and baby cows), and being so used to the beautiful Latin languages I know, German sounds harsh and…not pretty.

 

We’re staying at a Holiday Inn; the hotel is awesome, but our room is our least favorite so far: brown. Small. Twin beds. We liked our Princess Nice room the best we decided! We watched four presentations by our peers for the upcoming German adventures, and shown how to use the subway (which is very clean and not sketchy here). Afterwards, a bunch of us immediately went to the Haufbrauhaus for dinner, the famous beer place we were all told we HAD to go to, so of course we did. Kell, Syndney, Allison, and our roommate from Verona, Amber all ate together. This place is HUGE, and we sat outside on a 2^nd or 3^rd floor balcony, listening to live German band performances with men in those brown shorts, suspenders, and hats, and enjoyed the atmosphere. We each ordered a beer, well, it was a half-liter beer, but the regular size is a whole liter! Which means the equivalent to four beers, except even stronger in alcohol. We couldn’t even finish our half-liter, mostly because we’re just not beer drinkers. Kelly and Sydney ordered this sausage dish (which turned out to be a complete fail and looked just like an enlarged hot dog weenie. Ew.), but I got a mushroom and dumpling dish and it was really good! I was glad I stuck to something that I was at least somewhat familiar with for tonight.

We were sleepy, so we came back to the hotel after attempting to find wifi, which we can’t, and crashed.