year two is underway

Hey all! I just finished doing the reading for my White Collar Crime class. Usually the first thing people say after I tell them the title of the class is, "Is it a class on how to commit white collar crimes?" I'm sorry to say that it is not. In fact, our Professor specifically said yesterday that it was not a "how-to" class. Darn it. The first lecture was interesting nonetheless. 

As you can tell I've survived my first couple days of class. I've had classes for three different subjects so far (4 if you count my German language class) and they all seem interesting. One thing has been standing out as different from my law classes at Iowa; the mood in the classroom is pretty relaxed. At Iowa the professors might call on us at any moment and grill us in front of the class about the reading assignment. It creates this constant tension in the classroom (who knew that fear was a useful learning tool?). The professors here have been really friendly and haven't been calling on people randomly (let's hope that trend continues). If I remember what they said during orientation correctly, there are students from 29 different countries studying at Bucerius this fall. Apparently Bucerius doesn't want any of the international students to return to their home universities emotionally scarred. We like emotional scarring in Iowa; it builds character.

Brenda is in NYC at the moment on one of her several-day study trips. She seems to be having a great time taking lessons and meeting up with friends. She comes back to Hamburg on Monday.

 Hamburg's City Hall (aka Rathaus)

One of the many canals in Hamburg.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our friend Florian is in Copenhagen this season. Florian told me that it was just a Katzensprung (cat jump) from Hamburg to Copenhagen and that I needed to visit him. Well, next week I'm making the jump, and Brenda is going to fly up from Frankfurt to join us (it's technically like two cat jumps from there).  Brenda and I are both really looking forward to the trip.

I think I will call it a night and do a little cat jump into bed. That sounds dangerous actually. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!