Introduction to University life and a trip to Luxembourg

After returning from Munich, it was time to start classes at the university; my summer vacation which started the second week of May and lasted through the first week of October was officially over! I was ready to start classes, but of course was not ready to give up the freedom of summer!

A few days before leaving for Munich I moved into my room and got situated. The living situation here is a bit different from the standard dormitory setup I was a part of my freshman year of college: instead of sharing a room with another student (like in the US), I have my own room, complete with a desk, dresser, and a few book shelves. Although I have my own room, I share a hallway with 4 other students, and together we share a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a shower. I live with two girls from Germany, one girl from Japan, and one PhD student from Austria. Although we share an apartment, more or less, I hardly ever see any of them--even though I leave my door open! I'm also pretty sure I'm the only person who uses the kitchen, although the fridge and pantry are filled with food. I'm not sure what everybody does all day, but I know they aren't spending their time in the apartment! So, the social living scene isn't all that exciting, but I live in a great area of the city. I live in a 5 minute radius of: the main library, the Economics library, all of my classes, the multi-purpose field, the main University building, a few cafes, the central bus and train station, and my favorite, the cafeteria! I really lucked out with the location of the apartment, being central to the city where I don't even need to take a bus or train to get where I need to go. The grocery stores are within 5 minutes by bike, as well as other important stores, so all is well!

The Hofgarten, with the main University building behind

Academically speaking, I will be taking five classes this semester. Below, I've provided a brief summary:

1. Verhaltensökonomik(Behavioral Economics): This course is taught in German and is a Monday/Wednesday course lasting for 1.5 hours each day. It is taught in a large lecture hall with around 90 enrolled students (although only 60 attend the lectures). Content wise, this class deals with the psychological and social aspects that economics seeks to explore. It is a relatively new branch that is viewed as "soft" in the economic realm and "hard" in the psychology realm; many academics view this branch of the field as a hybrid between economics and psychology. To my economically-minded readers: We are taking a rather mathematical approach to the topic and proving theorems in class, not sticking strictly to psychological theory and vocabulary words.
2. Game Theory (Economics): This course is taught in English and is a Wednesday/Friday course lasting for 1.5 hours each day. It is taught in the same lecture hall as the above course with relatively the same attendance. The professor looks and talks like Ralph Fiennes, so the first day in the course I couldn't shake the fact that Lord Voldemort was teaching me Economics, but rightly so because the first class kind of scared me anyways. This course is inherently mathematical, so at times I just feel like I am in a math course where economic terms get thrown around randomly. I am excited to see how this course goes this semester.
3. Deutsch in Wirtschaft und Handel (German in Business and Commerce): This is a German language class which will help me improve my grammar and vocabulary through conversation homework. Some of the goals of the course are to prepare students with writing CVs in German, writing professional emails, and learning the right vocabulary for various other tasks. This is a class which meets just for 2 hours each Tuesday and is a 9 person class, and it's proven to be a light work-load with a great payoff!
4. Green Utopias/Dystopias: Literature from the Anthropocene: This is my English literature course which meets once a week for 2 hours. The class is limited to 30 students, but we break into small groups to discuss reading assignments. We have a reading list of five novels which deal with Earth as imagined in a utopian/dystopian future where human actions have considerably changed the Earth's ecosystems. This class has already proven to be very thought-provoking and I look forward to further discussions.
5. Changes in America's Republican Party with the advent of the Tea Party: To be honest, this is probably the class I have looked forward to most since learning of my schedule. It's a 9 person class which meets once a week for 2 hours. The content of this course deals with a highly detailed academic review of the Republican Party, and specifically, what influences the Tea Party has had and will continue to have going forward in American politics. Each class has a themed lecture and we will also be covering the Midterm Elections and presenting on several key states. I will also make an additional presentation on the results of Louisiana's midterm elections.

I am very excited for this semester, both between the courses I am enrolled in and the various programs sponsored by the University. I think this semester might be filled with the most interesting courses I've yet to take in college, and that isn't meant to be a knock to LSU, but after 4 semesters of working hard, I've earned the right to take a few fun General Education credits here in Germany. I will have to work hard in the courses, but I also have a great deal of liberty which I hope to exercise when I choose to do some travelling abroad in Europe. We'll see what the coming months hold!

After settling in Bonn, I began to look for some ways to branch out and meet new people. The University has a well-organized sports program and offers groups/classes ranging from soccer to Nordic walking, mixed-dancing classes to Capoeira, and everything in between. Unfortunately for me, I was late to the game and found that, out of all of the relevant 10 or so sport classes I would have wanted to sign up for, all were booked! I went ahead and just started Google searching things to do and came across a rock climbing group in Bonn full of international people who don't speak German. This was great for me because I flew over some of my climbing gear and didn't know where to start. It also helped that I would be meeting people from all over the world who preferred to speak in English rather than German. I contacted the head of the group, Guillermo (from Argentina) and he was more than willing to help me out. The next day I met him and some other climbers at one of Bonn's climbing gyms. We climbed for about 2.5 hours, and as I was leaving, Guillermo asked me if I had any plans for the weekend. He told me they climb every night of the week in gyms, but try to make an excursion to the outdoors every weekend for more practical climbing. This weekend, they were going to Luxembourg to a world-famous climbing place and said I could tag-along if I was free. I quickly became free!

Climbing gym in Bonn

We met early on Saturday morning, where I was introduced to the climbing group for the weekend: Guillermo would be heading the group with his wife Isa (Spain), along with long-time friends Vasiliy (Russia) and Kathrin (Germany)....and then there was me, 10 years younger than the youngest! We loaded into the van and headed out for the 2 hour ride. When we arrived we immediately hit the trails with all of our gear and started to climb.

View of fields in Luxembourg after an ascent

Before the 2 hours at the climbing gym days before, I hadn't climbed in nearly 4 months. Needless to say I was really out of shape, but I was surprised that I was able to go 6/6 in all of the routes I tried out. I attribute a lot of the unexpected success to the great encouragement from the others, who were always yelling down from below "You've got this, you can do this!" and then, it just happened! We spent our time hiking through the fairy-tale-esque forests, fields, and valleys before heading back to the campsite and starting the BBQ.

Mid-hike picture of a cow pasture

Each person threw in a contribution to the potluck dinner and we ended up having a variety of sausages, cheeses, and kebabs of onion, bellpepper, tomato, zucchini, and mushroom for dinner. It was great. To boot, we bought a few Belgian beers from the bar nearby. Afterwards, just when we all thought we were full, Vasiliy busted out two bags of marshmallows and skewers. Add that to some new-found chocolate that Isa found in her bag and we were close to making the smores trifecta, but alas, no graham crackers were to be found.

"Rocky Mountain Marshmallows," "Made in the USA," "A True American Tradition," "Classic"

 After having a great fire and feeling as full as could be, we all headed to sleep. The next morning we woke up to a breakfast of breads, cheeses, peanut butter, coffee, tea, and chocolate milk. We then headed out to climb for the remainder of the day. We climbed for the next 6 hours before heading back to Bonn.

A Luxembourg Sunset

As we were sitting above the valley watching the sunset above the routes, we said "How crazy would it be if a climber just poked their head up here?" No more than 10 seconds later, as if on cue, Vasiliy poked his head up and said "Hey guys!" You couldn't have scripted it any better!

Isa, with Vasiliy who just completed a route

My trip to Luxembourg was short, but it felt like time passed so slowly that it was easy to live in the moment and take in everything that I was experiencing. It really was a great weekend, not only because of the friends I made, but because of the little things too. The first day we were climbing on a face that had several routes nearby for other climbers. Along that face we were sharing the area with 3 other groups, and what I found really interesting was that every group was speaking in a different language. On the far left we had French, then to the right of that Luxembourgish, then Spanish, and we were speaking in English. By the end of the weekend though, in addition to those languages I also heard Russian, German, Italian, and Flemish spoken. Call me a tourist, but I still get goosebumps being surrounded by all these different cultures.

I am tempted to say that my trip to Luxembourg beats out my trip to Munich for "Best Weekend in Europe," but it's comparing apples and oranges at this point. I am seeing every experience for what it is and am not trying to compare against experiences; each experience is just adding to the tapestry of my short time here in Europe.