Hello everyone! Well, since I am now in the field trip portion of my study abroad program, Internet varies by location, so I am afraid I will not be able to blog as frequently or in as much detail, but I will do my best to share all of my fun adventures across South-Eastern Europe!
On Tuesday morning in Munich we had an appointment near the German Museum at the EU Commission office. I really enjoyed this appointment because we spoke with a media liaison from the EU to the Region of Bavaria. From a journalist's perspective, I enjoyed hearing about he PR side of dealing with educating people on European politics. This job is challenging because it involves delicately balancing the wishes of Bavaria with the supranational authority and politics.
After lunch we took a charter bus to Garmisch Partenkirchen in southern Bavaria which is an old U.S. military base retreat town with a gorgeous view of the lower Alps. We went to the George C. Marshall Center for European and Eurasian Security where we had a presentation on EU security and the role of foreign policies in the future. It was a high security location since it is where the current operations in Libya are being ran from. It is considered U.S. soil though, so we had to go through basically border security to get in, but our bus driver didn't comply with the requests to open the cargo areas... For other later incompetence, J-Rob demanded a new driver. But, the center was really awesome and provided a wonderful view of the landscape as well as insight into security and foreign affairs. General Patreaus sent through there too at some time.
After spending the night in Garmisch, we took our bus to Austria. On the way we stopped at the Obersalzberg and had a personal tour of the former Nazi headquarters and the documentation center there.
We arrived in Vienna last night and had a wonderful dinner at a tavern where we had a buffet style group dinner and met some other American students from Indiana. This morning we had two wonderful appointments at the Vienna EU Commission office with former Austrian Ambassador to the EU who negotiated Austria's entrance into the EU and with a professor who explained the founding of the EU and beginning of integration.
After a delicious lunch at Yamm!, an all natural organic restaurant where us girls had a Austrian grown lunch, we are about to leave for a city tour! Despite the rain, it should be super fun :) It thankfully isn't too cold here, and I really enjoy this city and it's friendliness. It is much more comfortable feeling than Munich!
I'll try to write more soon :)
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