And the semester is over!

Yay! I'm done!

Class update to start:

Research: Well, the presentation apparently didn't go so well. I was nervous, I'll admit but I thought I did okay... apparently they couldn't understand my accent though (yes, I know I have a thick American accent (for Europeans anyway) when I speak English. If they really had a problem understand though, some one should have interrupted my presentation to say something. But regardless, it apparently went well enough that I got an A. So glad to be done though.

Genocide: This was the 15 minute discussions we had one-on-one with the professor. I was supposed to go at 3:15. Imagine my surprise when I showed up at her office to see Kristina, Tim and another girl sitting outside her door waiting. Turns out she was backed up by an hour because the 15 minute discussions had actually become 30 minute discussions. So I finally got to go at 4:30. We had a nice talk about my paper and she gave me an "A+", that is a 1,0 and I walked out of there feelign pretty good.

Orgo: The exam went fine, though it started 25 minutes late much to our unhappiness. Nothing unpredictable and I walked out of it feeling pretty confident that I had gotten my A. Sure enough, we got an email saying we could come pick up our Scheins after class on Tuesday (yes, we had a week of class after the exam. Approximately 15% of the class showed up but he still held class... and sure enough, I got a 1,7 which is indeed an A!

Lit: I finished up my paper over the weekend and finalized it on Tuesday in time to turn it in on Wednesday for the last day of class. He promised to read it over the weekend and get back to me. I'll note that it's Monday and I have no response... so we'll see.

Transportation: The exam was Thursday morning. Wednesday he gave me his phone number so the three of us (Tim, me and Lukas from Prag) could call when we got to the Bahnhof because we were taking the exam in Pasing, (about 15 minutes east of the main station) where his office is. So the three of us meet at 9:42 for the 10:00 exam... and call the number... and we can't get through because the number doesn't work. Brilliang. We were, however, extremely lucky and Lukas happened to know where the office waas so we walked 20 minutes to get there to take the exam. On the bright side the exam wasn't horrible. On the even brighter side, it was my last one!

So now, the days inbetween...
Up until Tues/Wed/Thurs of my first three presentations/exams, I pretty much studied nonstop. Friday we went to see Hans present his Thesis. Afterwards, Matt, Kristina and I headed to Marienplatz to find the crypts of the Munich kings. Some 30+ famous Bavarian royalty (including Maximilian I and Ludwig II) are burried under one of the Munich churches. We even got lucky and the watchkeeper let us into the normally closed off section where they have the hearts in jugs... kinda cool/weird. Anyway, from there we went to see Harry Potter (in English)!

Saturday was back to studying as well as a bit of souvenir shopping. Sunday was more studying and then Knocherlball! Well, the festival anyway. It's a famous Munich ball in the English garden from 6-10 am. We weren't up that early. All the streets were filled with music and booths and food. It was a lot of fun. We even got free smoothie popsicles that they were handing out! Afterwards we all met up for Hans' and Ashley's going away dinner at a typical German restraunt. Very yummy spaetzel.

Monday, I met up with Lisa again. She is done with her Darmstadt summer and her dad and brother were visiting. We went to the Bavarian Film Studio and toured. They filmed Das Boot and The Neverending Story there! We got to see the sets as well as the Neverending story actual dragon. Believe it or not there was no actual U-Boot... there were three models (small models) and a set of the inside of an U-Boot that they used for filming. That was slightly disappointing. Afterwards I went with her family to Hofbrauhaus.

Tuesday/Wedneday was mostly studying. Thursday was exam followed by the end of the tourist shopping. Friday was the start of packing followed by the Goodbye party for the International students. Saturday was hard core packing and then in the evening the Sommernachtstraum (Summer Night Dream) in Olympic Park. It was a huge event. We got there at 6. There were live bands (including the apparently famous Münchener Freiheit), and tons of food. At 10:15 the pyro-show/laser-show/fireworks started. 45 minutes of it all synced to music. We had a lot of fun and the fireworks were amazing.

And now I'm in Austria. I took the train down Sunday morning to say goodbye. I ended up going to Harry Potter (in German this time) with Lisa Sunday night. I head back to Munich tonight and am super excited for Italy!