DAAD Conference in Mannheim and Going the Distance

The weeks and weekends have been flying by. I recently re-read a few of my old posts from when I just arrived in Germany and was commenting on "how much time I had." I would give anything for that to be true, honestly. The University started during the first week of April, and already it feels like just yesterday I was reading the syllabi for the courses. Since I haven't posted much of anything about the new semester, I'll first write about my courses and how they are going.

I'm enrolled in 6 courses this semester and I'm finding all of them very interesting. Like my first semester here, and unlike LSU back home, the majority of my classes meet once per week for 2 or 3 straight hours. There are pros and cons to this system: a pro is that I have more free time to do what I want, and can spend my remaining time abroad in Germany bike riding or hanging out with friends. A con is that frequency and repetition help me retain information, so by only looking at the material once per week, I often play catch-up with readings and assignments. This semester I am doing much more assigned reading that last, but I'll get to that in a bit. All in all, still a great semester.

1. European Integration: This is a class offered only for international students at the University of Bonn and through it we learn about post WWII Europe from the perspective of West and East Germany. One or two students every class period give a 15-20 minute presentation about a different topic relating to the subject and then the professor gives a more detailed presentation afterwards. It's a really great class in understanding the other side of post WWII life.
2. Focus on Scotland and Ireland: This course was chosen to really just learn something I know little about. My aunt and uncle once traveled to Scotland for a vacation and brought me back a t-shirt with the flag on it, but other than that I know relatively little. We break down Scotland into different spheres like Religion or Education and peer present the topics after some research. The professor is actually a Florida native but is a huge geek about kilts and haggis. The class is taking a week long trip to Edinburgh in June.
3. Behavioral Economics: Similar to last semester I decided to enroll in Behavioral Economics, but this semester it's the Master's edition and not the Bachelor's. Same subject matter more or less but a bit more in depth.
4. North American Popular Culture: Initially I thought this course would be something else; from the course description it seemed like we would be learning about popular radio and television programs in the US, celebrities, etc. In reality we are taking a hard academic stance on defining just what 'popular culture' is. It's kind of boring. In defense though, we had a weekend seminar for the course where we had to come prepared by having watched episodes of Mad Med, Two and Half Men, Louie, Modern Family, and the Daily Show and then be able to discuss their relevancy to popular culture. That part was fun, although the class was 7 hours long.
5. Transatlantic Relations in the 21st Century: This class falls under the umbrella of International Relations and discusses the future relationships of the US with Germany, specifically. Our professor for this course is a retired US diplomat (who at first frequently mentioned his robust resume, but has since gotten in the groove of leading discussions), and definitely comes across as such: he is reserved, speaks slowly and quietly, and is always looking to bridge topics of conversation into a compromise, somehow. This class has me reading maybe 6 or 7 newspaper articles a day along with a few long reports per week. It's my first real IR class, but I'm enjoying the intensity it brings. Each session we present a developing topic (past examples include Ukraine and NSA) and then discuss the implications of certain 'solutions' for about 90 minutes. The sessions get better every week, so although the course started off slowly it is something I really look forward to.
6. African American History post Civil War: This course actually has me taking a train once a week back to Cologne, as the course is offered at the University of Cologne instead of in Bonn. Besides the fact that it's nice to explore new university settings, the course is through the Master's program, so I'm surrounded by students who really know their stuff. What is most interesting though is recognizing the perspective I have: in middle and high school in Louisiana, I grew up learning about slavery, the Civil War, the movements of 1964 and more, but for many European students, learning about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad requires intensive study. I take it for granted. During many of the lectures I'm recalling instances when I was 12 years old, sitting in middle school, and writing out vocabulary words on index cards for this, and here I am again learning it in a Masters program in Germany. It's really interesting.

Once again I'm having a great semester filled with interesting classes, cool professors, and great readings and assignments. I guess the one downside to the semester is that it doesn't end until mid-July, but on the upside we have many public holidays (hand it to Germany) and a week break at the end of May.

As mentioned in one of my first blog posts, I am a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Scholarship holder this year. Starting in the second semester DAAD began hosting a series of conferences for all scholarship holders from around the world. I was grouped into the "Economics, Law, Political Science, and Public Policy" conference and would be driven out, housed in a hotel with all meals paid for, a bit spoiled, and then driven back to Bonn all in a weekend's time by DAAD. I got back a few days ago and I cannot really put into words how great of an opportunity it was. In only the short 48 hours there I met so many people from all over the world, attended a handful of lectures which sparked interesting debates and conversations, and just, I don't know, had a great time! I never wanted the conference to end. I was surrounded by tons of students just like me, students who are galvanized by meeting people from other countries, hearing what they have to say, what they study, what their interests are, and where they want to be in the future and what they want to be doing. It was a great eye-opening experience. Although I think this was my last opportunity to meet other DAAD-ians this year, I am still keeping in touch with a few friends I made at the conference and also plan on getting together with a group that lives here in Bonn.

Now that the weather has turned into true Spring warmth and sunshine, I set out the goal of riding my bike as often as possible, trying to find new villages and landscapes that I didn't cover in my first semester. I got back from the DAAD conference humming with energy and a 'high on life' kind of attitude, and with the great weather I couldn't ignore, took the bike out for a spin. In October I discovered that only about 90 minutes south of Bonn, along the river, the landscape opens up into valleys with rolling hills and castles overlooking the river. I never really much explored into the landscapes, so this ride I went uphill, through some small villages whose churches dominate the city square, and found huge fields of yellow blossoming flowers. It was awesome. The most fun might have been speeding down hill through the fields and then through the villages back towards the river. Just another day on the bike.

And then, as if my 'high on life' attitude from the weekend still hadn't expired, the next day I took my bike out with a 20 pound pack filled with my tent, sleeping bag, and other essentials and rode south to Koblenz, a city which was on the "Place to Ride" list for quite some time. My friend Anne also tagged along for the 70 km ride along the river. Filled with funny moments, sore butts, and salvation in the form of chocolate milk and peanuts from a grocery store, the ride was fantastic. I camped out along the river, across from the Deutsches Eck and Festung and rode back the next morning. Quite a week!

Taken in the area of Andernach, about 20 km from Koblenz

"Take my picture with Kaiser Wilhelm II in the background" "....your bike isn't in the picture" "..oh.."

"How 'bout now?"

Celebratory beer...Prost!

Weekend in London, again

So I managed to make it to London again. This marked my fourth trip to the city since the end of November (and probably marked my last visit, unfortunately) but the trip wasn't on a whim, rather, was planned in December. Much like my first visit to London I was making the weekend jaunt to see a concert on Friday night, play tourist on Saturday, and then head back on Sunday to Bonn but this time around I wasn't travelling alone. I left Bonn with Dave, a friend from Uni, and was meeting up with Samson who was wrapping up a giant European tour. Now I was a seasoned traveler to London and corrected the mistakes made in the past; instead of arriving into Stansted airport and buying a bus ticket on the spot at an egregious price, Dave and I bought train tickets a week in advance (and at great prices: for any so-to-be London travelers, check out the Stansted Express). Pluses from the train include timely departure and arrival, drop-off at the hub tube station in London, and speed. What I learned, painfully so, during my first trip to London in November was that the National Express bus from the airport to the city, although helpful, ran into huge traffic delays on a Friday afternoon, had no wifi for communication purposes, and created many headaches. It was all due to the bus in the first place that I almost missed the concert my first weekend there! But I digress. The train was great because it got Dave and I into the city right on time to connect with Samson before heading straight to the concert.

We three were staying in south London for the weekend at a friend of a friend's flat. Samson became 'mates' with one of the roomies during a previous trip to London and got us the hook-up for the weekend, which was super appreciated. Meadsy, thanks so much man! It ended up being a 5 minute walk from the concert venue which was crazy awesome. Dave and I reunited with Samson outside of the tube station, gave each other huge hugs and caught each other up on all of the crazy travels since the last time we had seen each other. That included Samson's trips to Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Torino, and south England, Dave's trips to Switzerland to ski and Ireland for St. Patty's, and my trip in South Africa and Namibia. So many side-splitting stories (mostly when Samson was storytelling) and great times.

Friday night we headed to the concert almost immediately after meeting up and had an absolutely fantastic time. We saw Flying Lotus in concert, which is a producer I've been wanting to see live since 2012, so this really was a dream come true. We strolled up to the venue around 8 pm, Samson and I sporting our banana costumes from Karneval and Dave sporting his chili pepper costume as well. Everybody loved us.

Let's goooooo! 

The place was sold out, and I mean to tell you, hundreds if not thousands of people there. Whether we were the chosen ones, or more likely because we were wearing outrageous outfits which everybody loved, we made our way all the way to the front row no problem and just took it all in. We danced a bunch ( I woke up the next morning with my abs sore??), sang along to the raps and lyrics, made friends with our neighbors, and just had one of the best concert experiences of all time. Once the encore had finished everyone started heading out, but we staked our spot in the front row, and sure enough Flying Lotus came out to greet the fans. Surreal!

"I shook hands with him! He likes the banana suit!"

Once the concert wrapped up we walked back to the flat, dumped the costumes, and headed out to Ronnie Scott's, London's best jazz club, for their "Very Late Show" which started at 1 am and ran through 3 am. That was out in Soho, and far away from south London, so we three hopped on the Boris bikes and biked through London. Really, it gets me every time. Those Boris bikes are always so much fun, especially with friends when you make a little "biker gang" and whip through the streets and in and out of taxis, city buses, pedestrians, and stop lights. It was about 30 or 40 minutes from A to B, but the whole time I'm leading the crew with my Google Maps pulled out, constantly checking the route. All of a sudden I look up to double check and THERE is Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey all lit up! Honestly we couldn't have planned it any better. Trying to navigate through the back streets of London on a Friday night, needing some reassurance of the route and there we go stumbling upon the most iconic aspects of the city. After that, all was well, we zipped over to the jazz club, docked the bikes at the station, and after a little persuasion from Samson to the doorman (who was "not impressed" with our attire), found a booth at the club and settled in. 

This show was killer! It reminded me how long it's been since I had seen good live jazz. I saw some in Cologne when I first arrived, but it wasn't the same kind of hard-bop, intense improvisation, energetic jazz I was spoiled with back in Louisiana. This show was the epitome of the great live music I gave up by leaving Louisiana for a year, but hey, at least I got to see this show. It was a quartet with a drummer that was just killing it on the solos. Great sense of timing and rhythm and a quiet but strong leader who gave the other players direction and structure.

They played some jazz fusion covers of Billy Cobham, Freddie Hubbard, and Herbie Hancock...I mean the set list was just great! After the concert we biked back home on a high from a night filled with great music and great company. We got back and I crashed, but not after receiving a congratulations from Samson for staying up until 5 am. Samson knew as well as anybody that I just can't (or couldn't) hang past midnight or 1 am, as evidenced through our nights at Karneval and my time spent in Nottingham. But I did it! I made it!

Saturday started off late, but by no means was dull. Although Samson and I had been to London several times, this was Dave's first visit. We rented the Boris bikes again, rode into the city, and tried to hit as many big attractions as we could in the few hours that we had. We biked across the Westminster Bridge to a view of an approaching Big Ben and Parliament (super touristy but necessary), hit Buckingham Palace, Regent's Park, and Hyde Park, Downing Street, rode our bikes through the roundabout at Charing Cross, and made our way to the British History Museum. We actually saw the Rosetta Stone. Again, the Rosetta Stone, there, 12 inches away from our faces. It was absolutely unbelievable to see it up close. Then the museum closed abruptly so we had to leave, but on to the next adventure, right? I had dinner reservations with Josh and Marta and had to peel, but Samson took Dave to Camden Town and killed a few hours there. 

Meeting up with Josh and Marta for the, seemingly, last time in the near future was weird. Weird in the sense that it finally hit me, the finality of a year abroad, coming to an end on July 30th. Up until this visit to London everything I had previously experienced wasn't so distant that it couldn't be experienced again. But having dinner with Josh and Marta signaled the numbering of the weeks, the hyper-organized structuring of my remaining weekends so that none go to waste. It was nice enough that they took time out of their studying for final exams at LSE to meet up with me though! We had a great dinner at Il Portico, a restaurant recommended to me by my London advisers in the Campbell family, with wine and dessert. We even met the owner James. All in all, a great send-off meal filled with conversation, laughs, and memory sharing.

Cheers!

After dinner I met back up with Samson and Dave where we were again going to Ronnie Scott's for round 2. One night of poppin' jazz just wasn't enough. The quartet swapped out the lead trumpet for a lead saxophone, changed the set list around, but still wowed the crowd. Another great night of jazz. When we got out of the club we were greeted with a stiff London rain and a 40 minute bike ride back. We biked back, in the rain and gusts of wind, but had the streets of London all to ourselves at 4 am. Cycling back at top speed with Samson yelling "LONDONNNNN, LONDONNNN, LONDONNNN" at the top of his lungs made us all crack up with laughter. Not to mention he was riding a defective Boris bike whose seat wouldn't raise, so Samson looked like he was riding a tike's bike whose knees kept hitting the handlebars. So jokes. 

We didn't get a lot of sleep that night due to early departure times but boarded our buses back home just fine the next morning. Dave and I boarded our 9.5 hour bus ride from London to Cologne, and luckily we both slept the majority of the ride home. We made it back to Bonn Sunday night, ready for class the next day. London: all in a weekend's work.