Munich: The Biergarten of Law

Hello all!

Just got back to Prague after going on what was supposed to be a short, two-day trip. More on that later. Prague is absolutely amazing and looks very fairytale-esque. It's one the of the few cities that wasn't completely demolished during WWII. The prices are good and the people are... interesting. It seems like the words "customer service" don't exist here. Probably a holdover from Communism. Our waitress at one restaurant literally vetoed our order:

Us: "Goulash and a side of fries please."
Waitress: "No, you can't get fries with the goulash. You must get dumplings."
Us: "But it says 'Choose any side' on the menu..."
Waitress: "You cannot get fries. It's just not right."

She later ssssshhh-ed a table for being too loud. Nice

Then, we travelled about 3 hours south of Prague to an adorable little Czech town called Cesky Krumlov. If I can recommend any place for anyone to travel it would definitely be this town. It's basically a slow moving S-shaped river that curls around this old castle. All the shops, restaurants, pubs, and hotels are nestled within the castle walls. We were only meant to stay two days, but we literally could. not. leave.

Also, there's the center of the castle, where a large moat surrounds the garden grounds. Inside the moat are two large bears, apparently the pride and joy of this town. They were adorable!

We stayed at an amazing hostel (Hostel 99), met so many nice people (mostly Aussies), and the best part of the trip was the river pub crawl. As one person put it, "It's literally drinking on a raft." They drop you off at the river side, and a slow-moving river takes you downstream. Along the way there are little places to stop for food and drink. Needless to say, we were soaked by the end of the trip. One girl managed to capsize a local guy's raft, spilling all his stuff down the river. Great times.

Well, back to Munich tomorrow to catch my flight to Portland. I will try and get one more post in before I leave. This has been such an amazing trip, but I am excited to get home too. I desperately need some good Mexican food!

Cheers!!

Hey there all! Sorry I have been a delinquent blogger. Time flies when you are travelling and studying!

I have posted new pictures, although they seem to be in a strange order, i.e. mixed in with the old ones somehow. Enjoy!

Well, our class is finally winding down to a close. We had a review session this morning and we will have our final on Wednesday. No one seems particularly worried about it though, seeing as summer study abroad classes are known for being less demanding than traditional law classes. I am amazed though how much material we have covered in this short time. As our Professor Ochoa says, "we have been drinking from a firehose." Wish me luck though!

As you can tell from the pictures, I finally made it out to Dachau. It was a day trip I knew I had to make, but also one that I did not particularly look forward to taking. The museum and tour of the grounds was really informative, but ultimately depressing. Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany. Apparently, the government at the time bragged that it was "Jew Free" for a number of years, but toward the end of WWII, the camp became more diverse. Also, though Dachau had a gas chamber, evidentally, it was never really used. All in all, a sight I'm glad I saw, but something I don't want to see again.

Also, birthday festivities occurred since my last post. Ailee and I made a few small appetizers (deviled eggs, crackers, cheese, homemade potato salad, etc), and had most of my classmates over along with some random people we've met in Munich. There is a great concrete ping pong table right outside our apartment and we were able to use this for some beer pong. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, it involves dividing into teams, and attempting to throw a ping pong ball in the other team's cups before they throw theirs in yours. Quite fun!! Then, we all went out for some pizza, and ended the night at Nachtgalerie, a nearby discotec. I had a really nice time, and was gratfeul to have people to spend the day with, although I did miss all my pals at home!!

For the past few days, Ailee's friend Nick has been staying with us. He is from the UK and went to Oxford law, so we have been having some enjoyable conversations re: comparing English and American law. The systems are actually really similar though, and we've even read some of the same cases! Also, I've been learning some great English slang.

Finally, on Saturday we visited the Nymphenburger Palace, which is only a few miles outside Munich. It's apparently the location where the King spent his summer months. The weather was in poor form though and it was absolutely pouring rain, so it was hard to enjoy the palace grounds. I got some nice shots of the interior of the "Palace of Beauties" as they called it.

Well, I reckon that is all for now! I leave Munich on the 25th of July, and am traveling on to Prague, Czech Republic for a week, then home to Portland before school starts. I'll keep you updated!!!

Hugs!!!

Guten Tag!

Well, it's been another crazy week here. Hope everyone at home is doing well!

After being here a good two weeks, Ailee and I figured we should put an end to our ignorance regarding Munich's history and culture, so we went on a "free" tour. I put free in quotes because the tour guide mentioned several times during the tour that she works exclusively for tips. Anyhow, it was a great tour - definitely work the 2 euro I opted to pay. We got a view of many places I had already been, but learned so much. Along the way, we saw a couple historic churches, Mozart's old apartment, the Hofbrauhaus, some WWII sites, some sort of palace... Sadly, as soon as I heard the facts, I promptly forgot them, so don't expect any real expertise when I get home!!

Also, we visited the Olympic Park here. The weather held for us, and we got a nice walk around the grounds and even a little tan. Please check out the pictures!

During the school week our class went for a tour of the BMW factory, followed by a visit to the BMW legal headquarters. There, we got an introduction to BMW's maintenance/litigation of its trademarks domestically and abroad. Surprisingly, the BMW trademark includes more than the white, black and blue circle. They also maintain all MINI trademarks, Rolls Royce, Triumph cars, but not the bikes, as well as all their slogans. An interesting thing about the Europeans is that they also grant legal protection for designs. This area would theoretically exist somewhere between trademark and patent law I guess. The attorney there showed us a current BMW design case involving a Chinese car that looked EXACTLY like the BMW X5. It will be interesting to see the outcome.

The actual factory tour itself was very cool. The tour walked you through the production of a BMW sedan and wagon (the only two models made in Munich, I believe). I was amazed at the quantity and quality of the KUKA brand robots they had working there. Seriously, the place looked like the scene of the seemingly imminent robot revolution. Watch out! Sadly, I did not leave BMW with a free car as I fully expected to...

The following night Ailee and I managed to herd a group of my classmates to a "pub quiz" as they are called here. Basically, it was an Irish pub, where you formed a team of 8 or fewer and answered trivia questions. The winning teams get good, cold, hard cash euros! We did great!! If by "great" you mean we got second-to-last place. The questions were extremely difficult, as the lady reading the questions had a thick German accent, and many of the questions surrounded European geography or German politics. As such, Angela Merkel was our default answer to many German political questions.

For the 4th of July, we joined an ex-pat group at a biergarten, which turned out to be the "American Democrats in Munich," a group of Americans who work and live in Munich, but still vote in the States. An amazing jazz band played through the whole day, and we enjoyed sunshine, good beer, good conversation, and AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE!! Whoooo!

As the day was winding down, our friend Ali, who speaks German fluently and is in my class, heard about a nearby church social. We went to check it out. There were 200+ people drinking beer (at church!!), grilling brots, and watching a MASSIVE bonfire. Check out the photos! It was quite a sight, and was probably the closest thing we would come to 4th of July fireworks in Munich.

That's about all for now. I'm hoping to go to Dachau this week to see the scene of the former WWII concentration camp. Also, the class will be visiting the European Patent Office on Thursday. More then!

Hugs!!