Montag, 28. Oktober 2013

Studying, Socialising, Sleeping..



Me signing into the matriculation book
I can't believe that it's already been two and a half months here at the school! Time flew by so quickly, I didn't even notice it. First off: I am really busy! The work back home was nothing compared to here. However, I actually am really glad, because otherwise I would just hang around, do nothing and maybe get homesick. The big events in the last month were probably Southwest Studies, Howling, Buddy Dance, END (!!!) and so much stuff that I actually cannot remember everything.

Let's start off chronologically with
Buddy Dance! After dinner, a friend and I had to do a scavenger hunt all around campus to find indications and hints about where we had to go. Finally, after 8 hints, we arrived in a small room in the castle where we met our buddies. Mine was (and still is) Jessika from Kansas. The next hour was spent talking and eating Russian and Indonesian food. The evening was concluded by a photo session, where we all took pictures together with our buddy. The concept is that all the second years may choose one first year of the opposite sex that they want to be paired up with. It was a great experience and I am really looking forward to a whole year with my buddy.

I would like to say that one of the biggest event in the last month was Southwest Studies. That is a week where all the first years leave for a trip to get to know the Southwest of the United States. I chose to go on the Grand Canyon trip. It was an inspiring and eye-opening experience. My trip was called Boucher Creek and lasted five days. That means five days of hiking inside the Grand Canyon.
The Colorado River
My group in Grand Canyon
After two days of downhill walking we reached the Colorado River. The cliffs around us seemed so high and it felt like the rim would be weeks of walking away. At the river we took a mud bath, which was very funny and refreshing (the mud was actually very cool). Because the temperature was so hot inside the canyon, we slept outside every night - the starlit sky was amazing. After five days of intense walking we finally got out of the Grand Canyon, only to see that the National Park was actually shut down and closed. This was due to the shutdown of the federal american government because of disagreements on the Health Care bill. It was an amazing feeling to be one of the last groups of people inside the National Park; everything was deserted.
The last night of the trip everyone spent their time together roasting marshmallows in a campground just outside of the national park. It was an amazing trip!

The END Finale
Finally, I would like to talk about END, which stands for European National Day. That happened just a few days ago last weekend. For this Cultural Day, all the Europeans at this school had to prepare week activities (notably a room of tales and a global issues presentation about immigration), a dinner for 300 people (including cooking and serving), a party and most importantly a Cultural Day Show. A few weeks before the show I was voted as a coordinator for the whole event, which was a very stressful, but also very rewarding position. During the weeks before the show, everyone gave their all to be ready to present an astonishing show. Everything was portrayed in the show, ranging from Jump style (a German way of dancing) to a skit about the second world war. When the day of the show finally came, a lot of actors first had to wait or cook for the extensive dinner in the cafeteria. Among the food was Schnitzel and Tiramisu; which was greatly appreciated by the guests.
After the dinner, the show finally started. Under this post I will post the link to the website where you can watch it. It was gigantic success; nothing went wrong. I am really happy to have been part of that show with more than 60 other people.


This concludes my post of events happening at the moment. Of course at the same time I still have to focus on academics, services (we had our HIV-AIDS presentation last week in front of the whole school), sports and friendships.
Sun in the Grand Canyon (it was cold!)
So, to sum all this up, life is very very busy here, which is why I can only update this post now, after months of not writing anything..

I hope everyone is doing good back home or wherever anyone who is reading this is!

Thank you, but sadly I have no idea when I will update next. For now there's only this English part of the post, the German one will follow soon (I hope).

I'm out,

Julian