The Real Work Begins

For my first month here, everytime I skyped with my parents, my mom jokingly said, "When are you going to start learning something? We're not paying for you to just explore Europe and go hiking!" Well mom, it's started.

I've now sucessfully completed two weeks of class. The JYM classes aren't too bad. "My Advanced German Language" class is a helpful review. "Studying at German Universities" is redundant (big surprise here!), but it only meets 4 times. "Germany: 1945-present" fascinates me. We're discussing post-war Germany right now. The Germans had some tough stuff to deal with!

Then I have three classes at LMU, the university of Munich. "Introduction to Marine Biology" seems pretty good, even if the professor's German is quite fast. The "Biodiversity" class's format differs from any science class in the States. We read a scientific article, someone does a presentation on it and the topic, and then a second person leads a critical discussion of the article and topic.

Finally, I have "Evolutionary Genetics." The subject is more interesting than I thought it would be. And, the class is in English. The professors conduct all classes for LMU's new masters program 100% in English. It can be a bit frustrating to be hearing so much English throughout the day at the Biocenter, but I'm honestly not so upset about this. 

Learning scientific vocabulary in German for two classes will be tough enough this semester!