A Month In

This has probably been one of the most eventful months ever. This past weekend alone I experienced Karneval, visited Munich, and saw a castle and a concentration camp. Karneval is much bigger in the Rhine region than in Bavaria, so I am happy that I got to experience it on Thursday. I dressed up, went to a parade with all the AIB students, and went to a bar with Shelby and her host mom. People get crazy here. They throw a lot of candy at the parades, but for some reason I was hit in the face with a juice box. 

We left for Munich that Thursday night. I loved exploring the city and seeing the differences between different parts of Germany. I ate 3 pretzels a day while we were there, I cannot resist! On Saturday we went to Füssen and saw the Neuschwanstein castle, which was absolutely was gorgeous on the inside and the outside. The next day we went to Dachau concentration camp, which was a really big change. It was really hard to be there, knowing and seeing pictures of what happened. "Cool" doesn't feel like the right word to use to describe it, but it was really interesting and I thought it was important to go and understand what happened because it was such a huge piece of 20th century history. That afternoon we were able to do something a little less somber as we walked through the English Gardens, and it was nice and peaceful. 

This week I have had to focus a little more on the schoolwork I have been neglecting. It takes a lot of effort to have an exciting weekend and then come back for school and actually focus. I am trying to stay focused. I am still working on the time management skills because it is hard to be a procrastinator and not be in town on the weekends to catch up. 

This weekend I listened to a Breakaway podcast because I go every week in College Station and I miss it. I was inspired to make the most of my time and not waste it. I am not Catholic, but I decided to give up Netflix for lent because I like the idea and I appreciate the reasons behind it. These past few weeks I have been wasting hours on Netflix, and even if I was simultaneously doing homework I would play it in the background and it is somewhat mind numbing because it doesn't let me think about other things as easily. I decided I am going to use my time to improve myself spiritually, academically, and become more well-rounded in general. My host family has a copy of the Hobbit in German, so I am going to go though and try to read it (extremely slowly) in order to pick up the language better, because I want to come back conversational.