2 Months In????

 Things are getting sticky. We're over the precipice but still have a fair amount to go. It's weird being abroad while there is a war brewing in the Ukraine and COVID is still a very real threat. This past weekend I went to Munich with Isabelle and Emily. The city itself was a lot different from what I expected. The layout was hard to grasp at times but it still was very pretty. When we got off the train in Munich we saw a group of volunteers in red puffer jackets with the Ukrainian flag on the back around tables of supplies and information. It appeared they were helping to collect and guide the Ukrainian refugees that just came into the country by train. It was more apparent this was the case when we walked through the train station the next day and saw how active and full the volunteer station was with people with multiple bags and children. 

Other than the impending doom and angst of the world around us, I enjoyed Munich very much. It was a hodgepodge of gothic architecture, baroque palaces, and Neo-classical structures. We spent most of our time in palaces in the city and around it in Nymphenburg. It was a dizzying experience looking up at the grand murals above you. It's hard to grasp how people, royalty, walked these halls before you as a daily and normal experience. What kind of a world view must one have to live in such an ornate building, separated from the typical life of the times. I couldn't fully grasp the idea of it. 

When we were on the train home I decided to watch a movie called "Munich: The Edge of War" which was basically about Nazi Germany and the British in 1937. Watching that movie on a train in Germany was certainly a choice, and the whole time I had a weird feeling. One that I was watching a part of history most germanys would rather forget while in a public space, but also, that I was in a country where atrocities like this had happened. I'm reminded of that everywhere but every time I walk in a new, small town, I think of what it was like during that time. Were the people there fearful or did they believe in the "New Germany." Just some light things to contemplate on a ride home. 

-Avery