T-Minus 46 Hours and Counting…

That title pretty much sums up my life right about now. Currently, my to-do list is stretching miles long with no end in sight. Now is the time where a maid would come in VERY handy….oh wait…I just paid my little sister to do all my cleaning and laundry for me!!! Yay!!! Now the only thing left up to me is homework. For my Latin-American Literature class, I was assigned three papers and an extensive reading list. So far, I have two papers done and most of my reading completed; however, I still have one paper left that I have to finish before arriving at the airport (and of course I saved the worst one for last).

In these few precious moments that I have to reflect on the past few months, I feel a sense of calm. I am ready to go and experience a different way of life, yet there is still this lingering anxiety, anticipation and nervousness about the trip. I have been well prepared by my very capable and amazing director Dr. Aronson Friedman, which makes me feel much more at ease. She has worked long and hard putting this trip together for many, many, many months now, so I just want to say thank you to her! I have high expectations about this country and this trip, as I have heard many wonderful things said about the past study abroad program to Peru.

I hope to have some sort of Internet access set up as soon as possible after we arrive. I’ll update everyone then as to my first impressions and experiences!

Lots of Love,

Stephanie

* Stephanie is participating in a study abroad program in Lima Peru, organized by Valdosta State University's International Programs and Modern and Classical Languages.

First Weekend Trip (Munich)

Hello again! Well, we finally had our first class with Dr. Droms. She is seriously one of the best teachers at the business school, and being able to have her as a teacher for International Marketing in Germany is amazing!

In Dr. Droms class on Thursday, we basically discussed the many cultural differences we have been experiencing since we arrived in Germany. We also talked about how the marketing techniques were different between Germany and America. One of our assignments over the weekend was to eat at a McDonald’s on our weekend trip. Dr. Droms wanted us to see if we noticed any differences. While there were no major differences in the McDonalds between America and Munich, there were some little variations. First, they offered a shrimp burger and real potato fries. Something I’ve never seen in the states! I tried the bacon cheeseburger, regular fries and a coke. It was exactly what I would have got back in the states. However, their large coke is a lot smaller than our large coke. I was expecting a big coke, and I got like a medium size in my opinion. Customers also have to pay for condiments and the straws are not wrapped like they are in the states.

I am also taking a German Language and Culture class with a professor from Germany. Everyone is in that class. In our first German class we learned the alphabet — it was pretty fun. We did have some German students who were laughing at us though. We probably sounded like we were in kindergarten! It was funny!

After class we went to pack to get ready for our weekend trip to Munich. We left on the train from Karlsruhe heading to Munich at 6:06pm (the Germans are very precise)! We arrived in Munich around 9:30pm. We checked into our hostel, and decided to hit the town. We just walked around and explored the city for a little while. The next morning, Friday, we woke up early and caught a train to Fussen. It is a two and a half hour train ride from Munich. We went to see the Schloss Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that Cinderella’s castle in Disney World is modeled after. King Ludwig built it back in the 1800s. Once we got there, we had to take a bus to get up the side of the mountain. When we finally made it to the castle, I was captivated by its beauty! It was absolutely gorgeous! There really are no words to describe how beautiful the castle and the forest surrounding it looked. The pictures just don’t do it justice!

After we left the castle, we headed back to Munich. We decided to eat dinner at the world famous Hofbrauhaus. It is one of the most famous beer halls in Germany. It was one of the most popular places where Hitler use to give speeches.

Saturday, we caught up on some much needed sleep and then headed to the Brandhorst Museum, a new museum that just opened up about a month ago in Munich. It included many paintings from Andy Worhol and other famous contemporary artists. It was a VERY contemporary/modern museum — very interesting — something you would never find in Valdosta! After we left the museum, we headed to Mike’s Bike Tour, a five-hour bike tour around Munich. It was the most fun thing we did all weekend. I would strongly recommend anyone going to Munich to take this tour. The tour takes you all around Munich to show you all the major sites in Munich. Here’s is a list from his website (www.mikesbiketours.com) of all the places we went during our tour:

• Marienplatz (Old and New Town Halls, churches, Marketplace)
• Hofbräuhaus Beer Hall am Platzl
• National Theather - Opera House
• The Residenz of the Wittelsbach Family
• Odeonsplatz
• Hofgarten (the back yard of the Residenz)
• Saatskanzlei (Governor´s offices, formerly The Bavarian Army Museum)
• Schwabing (Leopold Strasse)
• The English Garden (about 1/3 of it)
• Chinese Tower Beergarden
• Surfer´s Bridge
• Prinzregenten Strasse (National Museum of Bavaria)
• Friedensengle (Peace Angel Monument)
• Maximilianeum (Bavarian Parliment)
• The Isar River and the Lukas Kirche
• Deutsches Museum
• Isartor (Eastern gate of city wall from 14th century)

After the very informative, enjoyable tour, we were so tired that we decided to head back to the hostel. The next morning, Sunday, we woke up, packed all of our stuff up, and headed to the Dachau Concentration Camp Museum — our final stop before heading back to Karlsruhe. The camp was one of the first to be opened and was one of only a few to last throughout the entire war. It was really sad to know that thousands of people lost their lives in harsh, inhumane conditions where we were standing. The camp had a huge museum that took about an hour to go through. We also toured the bunkers, old prisoner cells, the gas chamber and the crematory. It took about two hours to go through the entire camp. After touring the camp, we hopped on a train headed to Karlsruhe. It was nice to get back to see everyone, share pictures, and tell stories!

* Mallory is participating in a study abroad program in Karlsruhe, Germany, organized by Valdosta State University's Langdale College of Business Administration and International Programs.

Finally in Germany...

Hey! We finally made it to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It is absolutely amazing here! I have only been here for a couple of days, but I can already tell that I will definitely be back!

We left the Atlanta airport on Sunday night around 7 p.m. We ended up getting to Frankfurt, Germany around 10:00 am Monday morning, Germany time. After we got to Frankfurt, we had to take a train to Karlsruhe. VSU assistant professor Courtney Droms and Dr. Fred Ware made us stay awake the entire day to help us get over our jet lag. We went down to the Europaplatz to eat lunch in a local mall. After lunch, we went to look for fans, money and towels (things we didn’t pack because of the weight limit on our luggage). Later on that evening, we had dinner at the hostel. The food was surprisingly good! It was different, but really good.

After dinner a couple of us went to a local Starbucks to get a taste of home! After Starbucks, we found a local Pub, Scruffy’s, where we enjoyed a couple of drinks before heading back to our hostel. I don’t know where I found all of the energy to do all of that during the day! I was definitely running off of adrenaline!

On Tuesday, our German Language and Culture teacher met us at our hostel at 10 a.m. to give us a tour of Karlsruhe. We went to a local castle and explored the burial site of the founder of the city, Karl. Afterwards, our entire group decided to plan a spontaneous trip to a nearby city called Heidelberg. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there by train. We toured a castle called Schloss Heidelberg. It was huge! It was way bigger than the castle in Karlsruhe. We had to walk up over 200 stairs to get to the top! It was well worth it! We spent all afternoon exploring the castle. We then took a short walk over to one of the nearest restaurants to eat dinner. Then we headed back to Karlsruhe. We all went straight to bed. We were so tired!

Today, Wednesday, we had an official welcoming from the mayor of Karlsruhe. He gave us a speech on the history of Karlsruhe and showed us a video of things to do in the city. We learned there was a water park somewhere in the city, and I can’t wait to go! This afternoon we have been running errands and getting ready for our first weekend trip to Munich! We leave tomorrow afternoon after our first class!

I can’t wait to get back to tell you all about the fun things we did in Munich! I can already tell that this is going to be a trip of a lifetime! I have already started to form close friendships with the people on this trip. We are like one big happy family having the time of our lives in one of the coolest places in the world!

* Due to internet connections, I am not able to upload photos yet. Once I return, I will be able to post photos of the amazing experiences I am blogging about.

* Mallory is participating in a study abroad program in Karlsruhe, Germany, organized by Valdosta State University's Langdale College of Business Administration and International Programs.

One week left!

Hey! It’s Mallory, again. I can’t believe it is almost here! It is exactly one week until we leave the Atlanta airport and we are on our way to Germany. I feel like I have been planning this trip for months, and it is finally time to have fun! I have been so busy these past few weeks booking and planning our trips for the weekends. We get four full weekends to do whatever we want in Europe. We get out of classes every week on Thursday afternoons and we don’t have to be back for class until Monday mornings.

We are planning to go to Munich the first weekend, London the second weekend, Rome the third weekend, and Paris the fourth weekend. We have been using Ryan Air (www.ryanair.com) to book our flights to London and Rome. Ryan Air offers some really cheap flights! We booked our round trip tickets to London and Rome for about $100 a trip. We will be taking the Eurail (www.eurail.com) to get to Munich and Paris. We are allotted 8 days on our Eurail passes, which were included in our study abroad packages, so these trips won’t cost anything!

We have also already booked our hostels in each city. We will be staying at the Euro Youth Hostel in Munich, which was recommended to us by the study abroad group that went last year. They said they absolutely loved it! I hope we get the same experience they did! The hostel we booked in London I found on www.hostels.com. It’s called the “Bestplace in Waterloo.” It had very high approval ratings and the previous customer comments looked pretty good. When we go to Rome, we will be staying in another hostel that the group from last year recommended, the Alessandro Downtown Hostel. It is located in the downtown Rome. It is very close to all the major attractions we hope to visit while we are there. Dr. Ware and Dr. Droms booked the hostel we will be staying in while we are in Paris. It is called the Fiap hostel (www.fiap.com). Dr. Ware has been to Paris many, many times at knows the area like the back of his hands. He is such a knowledgeable person when it comes to Paris and I can’t wait to get there!

Well, the next time I “blog” will be when I am in Germany. Only one week left!

* Mallory is participating in a study abroad program in Karlsruhe, Germany, organized by Valdosta State University's Langdale College of Business Administration and International Programs.

Meet Mallory Harris

Hello everyone! My name is Mallory Harris and I am so excited to be leaving for Karlsruhe, Germany in less than a month! We leave Atlanta on June 21 and come back July 22.

I am currently a junior pursuing a degree at the Langdale College of Business Administration in finance. While studying abroad, I hope to become culturally aware of the many different societies that are in this world.

I plan to travel to Munich, London, Rome, and Paris. All of these cities are unique and diverse in their own special ways. I look forward to tasting the different foods, hearing the different languages, and experiencing the very different and diverse cultures. Karlsruhe, Germany is centrally located to all of these cities, which will provide me with an even bigger opportunity to experience Europe.

I also hope to be given the opportunity to learn some of the different language while I am abroad. Being able to communicate in different languages is a very important and a valuable asset to any person, particularly those in the business community. Studying abroad will not only be a trip of a lifetime, but an incredible learning experience. I plan to take full advantage of this educational opportunity!

* Mallory is participating in a study abroad program in Karlsruhe, Germany, organized by Valdosta State University's Langdale College of Business Administration and International Programs.

Meet Katelyn Toler

Hi, my name is Katie and this summer I will be studying abroad in the Peru program. I am an upcoming senior at VSU. I hope to graduate next May with a Spanish Degree and an ESL endorsement so that I can teach English as a second language. I am applying to the Peace Corps and hope to get placed teaching English in South or Central America.

I’m pretty stoked about this trip because it will be the first time I have been out of the country for such a long time. I have been to Costa Rica and Mexico. We will be living with host families while in Peru and I am excited to be experiencing another culture so closely. I hope to improve my Spanish greatly and to learn a ton about their customs, beliefs, etc. We will be going to see Machu Picchu and travel around to see the country.

* Katelyn is participating in a study abroad program in Lima, Peru, organized by Valdosta State University's International Programs and Modern and Classical Languages.

Meet Stephanie Brearley

Bienvenidos! Hi, my name is Stephanie and I’m a Junior here at Valdosta State University. I am majoring in Spanish and loving every minute of it! This past Spring I decided to finally sign up for the summer 2009 Study Abroad Program to Lima, Peru and surrounding areas. I am so excited to be able to explore the different cultural aspects of this wonderful country!

Our group will have the pleasure of studying at one of the oldest universities in the America’s (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos) and staying with a local host family for three weeks. After that, it’s time to discover one of the seven wonders of the world (Machu Picchu), Cusco, The Sacred Valley, Pisac Indian Market, Puno and Lake Titicaca. Needless to say, we will be having one jam packed, adventure filled month. Although at times I really wish we would be staying longer, I plan of making the most out of every moment there. Until then, I must simply wait patiently until July 4 when our plane will at last leave Atlanta.

For anyone who may be following these postings throughout my trip, I will be writing weekly (most likely more). I will also be posting pictures so you too can have a small window into my world!

With much love…Stephanie

* Stephanie is participating in a study abroad program to Peru, organized by Valdosta State University's International Programs and Modern and Classical Languages.