Farewell Passau

Well, I must first apologize for a long absence. I intended to wrap up Passau before moving on to Munich, but internet complications prevented this from happening. Oh well, I will now share the events of the last three days in Passau (Wednesday-Friday).


On Wednesday, we had three lectures and a lot of rain to fight as we walked across town to the university. The morning began with Dr. Robertson (now affectionately known as J-Rob) giving the group a lecture on Europe from an American perspective. His presentation used many charts and graphs that helped explain the U.S. to the German students as we discussed the importance of Europe to the U.S. and some issues of foreign policy. In the afternoon we had two presentations. One from Dr. Christian Dolle who is actually a very young professor at Passau. We actually had met him already on our pub crawl the week before. He lectured on the political cultures of Europe and the U.S. and the issues each culture is facing. The last lecture of Wednesday was a student presentation on developing or not developing a "European Identity". The presentation posed many challenging questions on how far to integrate the EU and in what ways. For the last half of the presentation all of us students and J-Rob participated in a mock EU Parliament/Commission meeting on the issue of integration. We were paired up and given different countries whose interests we were speaking for. Clara and I were the Netherlands and against further integration mostly, although we are seeking some unity on international affairs issues. The activity required us to lobby our fellow representatives to support our programs of integration or no further integration. It was a really fun way to apply the things we have been learning. 

That night after class, we all went back to our hotel in the nasty weather. Unfortunately our trip to the Oberhaus (the castle above Passau) and the beer garden had to be cancelled. But, instead we went to a Bavarian restaurant close to our hotel and sat in a cave-like area that was really cool. Clara and I shared another delicious schnitzel and some kous-kous with zuchini.

On Thursday, we began another rainy morning with a lecture from Dr. Pfluger, an economist. Though I am personally not into economics, I found his presentation on Europe and the U.S. in the global economy quite eye-opening. After lunch in the mensa, Bianca, Isabell, Marshall, Zach, and four of us girls all went to the Post Bank and then up to Diwan again for some dessert and coffee! It was quite delicious :) In class that afternoon, we had a lecture from Dr. Stahl on U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration from a European perspective. I honestly was a little antsy about what this lecture would entail, but I really like how Dr. Stahl went about his presentation and learned a lot from it. He compared policies on major issues across the Bush Administration, Obama Administration, and the EU. In the end he concluded that Obama hadn't changed much if anything at all and also that Obama lacks direction in his foreign policy. There was a lively discussion afterwards, and J-Rob had several great points to interject. We finished off the afternoon with a lecture from European Studies professor Dr. Kamm who spoke to us on the special relationship between the U.S. and the UK. His lecture was very funny and informative from a historian and cultural studies perspective. I learned several things about the deep historical connection between the U.S. and Britain. I enjoyed his incorporation of movie clips and photos.

That evening, we went as a group out for some Doner (that Turkish sandwich thing) after class. Then some of us went to the organ concert at St. Stephen's cathedral. The concert was absolutely beautiful. It just gives me goose-bumps to hear the organ playing sometimes :) After the concert, most everyone went on a scavenger hunt around Passau, but in the interest of packing, I went back to our hotel with Rylea  to get things taken care of. We ended up taking a break for some coffee and tieramissu though :)

Friday morning it was gross and raining again, but we still had "dress like a Passau law student day". The law students here in Passau have a unique, preppy, formal style of dressing that is highly identifiable. A lot of us joined the trend on the last day! Our last lecture in Passau was given by a highly intelligent but really goofy man who works with German foreign policy in Berlin named D.r. Braml. I really enjoyed his open presentation style and how he used the chalk board over a power-point. He told a few funny jokes as he went along and discussed the importance and issues surrounding NATO.

After our law student picture and lunch in the mensa, we split up for the afternoon before the farewell BBQ. Andi and I got to experience the joys of the German postal system to mail home extra warm weather clothes we aren't wearing. Then Marshall, Shazeb, Ben, and I went up to the OBerhaus while it stopped raining briefly. However, it was slightly disappointing since the inside had been converted to museum.

That evening, we had a fantastic "pot-luck"ish BBQ dinner at a pub called Blue Notes. Afterwards, we all hung out as a group enjoying our last few moments together. The food was absolutely delicious, and teaching the Germans how to do yells and the war hymn brought us all closer together as members of the Aggie family.

Saturday morning, we boarded our charter bus and headed to Munich!


That's all for now; I'll write about Munich soon!