Goals Achieved! Reise-Reflexionen von Iain

During this two week exposure in the cities of Deutschland, I have learned an exorbitant amount of new vocabulary to utilize in conversation, along with how Germans write different from how they talk. At the beginning of this trip, I set off with three goals which I can state I successfully achieved. For starters, the new vocabulary that I have picked while on the trip has been quite extensive, giving me the ability to know more of my surroundings and advertisements on the street. I have also succeeded on this specific goal as I have successfully purchased delicacies without the use of speaking in English. I have also been able to travel through nearly every city without the need of speaking English and have tackled each city starting with Munich where myself and two classmates used street signs to travel throughout the city at night. Understanding how the train systems worked was always a bear, yet figuring that system out and figuring out where the stops were from people in the cities became easier as the trip moved along. My final goal, in truth the first one I accomplished, came at great cost - purchasing Lederhosen and understanding their history in Southern Germany. From this I learned of the traditions and origins from farmers reaching the upper elite as formal attire creating events such as the infamous Oktoberfest. The J-Term has been an eye-opening experience into the German world and going on this trip aided with my listening and reading skills in German as a whole.