Day 5 - German Students Visit

Blumen im Schlossgarden.

Our day started out with a talk by Nina Kolybashkina on Civil Society and Foreign Aid. Despite us all being sleep deprived and sick and achy, we loved the interactive talk and continued our discussions afterward. After lunch we broke off into small groups again and got lots of work done, since tonight some of it is actually due.

At 5 PM we met a bunch of Austrian students from near Universities. We all “adopted” a bunch of them and took them into our respective groups from our projects and talked about America and how it is perceived in the rest of the world, specifically from their point of view.

We did tell them to be completely honest, and despite knowing what Europe thinks of the U.S. and despite being a German living in the U.S., in a way it hurt and it was hard to listen to. I guess it is very different from knowing it subconsciously all the time and actually confronting it in another person. It was an amazing conversation though, and we talked about many other things such as a difference in legal systems (lack of a jury and no case law), the media portrayal of America and 9/11 and about the film industry.

At 7 PM we listened to Michael Daxner give a talk on Afghanistan. He has traveled extensively and just like Jan, the German intern at the seminar, predicted, he was quite amazing and knowledgable, just like this morning when we sat with him for breakfast and he explained along with Rheinhold how German grammar is actually much easier than English grammar and how there happen to be many more words in the English language than in German. It's been an honor and a treat to be around such intelligent and "vielseitige" people!

Pretty much everyone went out last night with the Germans while I stayed in, so I can't much talk about what they did. It's still early and I haven't even seen too many people. Lectures start in about 50 minutes.

It's about that time during our trip where we all realize that it's coming to an end. We really only have tomorrow left. It's a bit sad, but it's also exciting to realize how close we've come together in just a bunch of days. Most everyone has been so nice and real and stimulating to talk to. I must admit that I didn't think that Salzburg would do this to me. And it's not even over yet.