So apparently this blog is not from Ankara to Berlin, but also Munich too!
A year ago I applied for the Fulbright scholarship on a very grey day in Berlin with lots of help from lovely professors at Whittier and magically around the end of February I got an email saying I got it!
The Fulbright is an enormous organization with many different types of scholarship programs, but the one I'm a part of is the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA). As an ETA I am assigned to a German high school (also known as a Gymnasium, don't worry there'll be more on the complicated German school system later) and I help the English teachers with lessons. I'm supposed to teach about 12 hours a week.
The best part is you get asked early on to choose three different Bundeslander (German states) and then maybe you'll get placed one. I choose Berlin, Bavaria, and Baden-Wurttenburg because I'm crazy haha. I obviously lived in Berlin all last year, but I'd never really spent any time in Bavaria or Baden-Wurttenburg. I was mostly afraid of getting placed in a very sterile, cold, sad West German small town so I went for the places I thought I might get medium sized town like Nuremburg, Freiburg or Augsburg. Most people get placed in the middle of nowhere and I was really ready for that and actually surprised when the letter came and I got Munich!
Munich is the real opposite of Berlin. Berlin is alternative diverse, dirty, and a gigantic college campus full of people looking for a good time. Munich... is not. Haha Munich is known for being extremely rich, clean, conservative, and safe. Munich is also part of Bavaria which is best explained as the Texas of Germany. Bavaria is extremely regionally proud and was once a powerful kingdom. Last year there was a book by a Bavarian author that claimed Bavaria could be it's own country. Bavaria also has it's own regional dress, aka the dirndls and lederhosen best known by Americans as the outfits people wear to Oktoberfest. I also have a theory that Germans are known to be embarrassed to be German, a fact that is easily explained by their role in WW2, but Bavarians are not embarrassed to be German. I would argue that one of the many reasons other Germans hate Bavarians is because they're some of the only people proud and unembarrassed to be German. Just a thought.
Anyways I've been in Munich a month now and I'm working on loving it. It was extremely weird at first to be in a German city that I didn't know at all! I've been in Berlin for a year and feel comfortable functioning (for the most part) in German, but in Munich I was really another world. The U bahns were different, the streets were different, the apartments were nicer. Everything was so weird! But not in a bad way, I'm making an effort to get to know Munich and try all the little things there are to do here. There are tons of places to visit around Munich and many cool museums to explore.
My school has been awesome. I'm actually at two schools, but my main school is in a 100 year old building right in the center of Munich. I have an advisor who is just the best. She's been teaching and living in Munich for 30 years. She has been wonderful and so helpful. I've already had dinner with her twice and we made applesauce together last week. She also has a daughter, named Cristina too ha, and she's hooked me up with her so I won't feel so lonely in Munich. Also I'm borrowing her daughter's old bike so I'll have a new way to explore the city.
The other teachers have also been so nice and welcoming. Tomorrow we're going on a 'wandertag' where every class goes on a field trip, usually hiking, with their homeroom class. I also went to the teacher's day at Oktoberfest last Wednesday which was hilarious because all the teachers came to school in their dirndls and lederhosen and we walked to the Wiesn, where Oktoberfest takes place. I haven't taught so many classes because I'm just supposed to be observing but it'll come soon enough. So far I'm just soaking up the Bavarian-ness of everything in Munich. More to come later!
