Arthur Laffer: German Exchange

Arthur Laffer: German Exchange

Wiesbaden, Germany

On June 10th, I left with the other German exchange students to Germany, arriving there the next day in the Frankfurt airport. My first family, the Frickes, greeted me at the airport and drove me to there house. Right after I had put all of my luggage away in my room, we headed out onto the Rhine.

Rhine River

Wiesbaden is a wonderful city with its beautiful parks and architecture and its amazing history. I went into Wiesbaden many times with Helena, my host sister, and a group of the other exchange students. We walked around the city passing places like the cathedral, Kurpark, the casino, and the amphitheater.

Casino

All of the Tennessee exchange students at the Humboldt school went on a school trip both to Frankfurt and Ruedesheim. Herr Jungjohann walked us around the Frankfurt, describing the places we were seeing such as the old and new central banks and Main tower, which had an amazing view of Frankfurt's skyline. In Ruedesheim, we traveled up to the Germania statue, which was amazing and had a great view of the Rhein and the German countryside.

When my family went on a vacation to France for the 4-day holiday, I stayed with another family across the Rhine in Mainz. They were extremely nice and hospitable and made my stay as pleasant as possible. They constantly had family and friends over whom I could talk to about anything from my family life to how the Bayerish speak differently. I went with my host family's two daughters and a bunch of their friends into Mainz for a day. We walked around passing the cathedral, the Rhein, and the Center of Finance. The city was amazing and it was a great way for me to learn a lot both about Mainz and German culture.

Munich, Germany

Munich was a great experience. The state of Bayern was the richest in Germany, which explains why all of the buildings were huge. The state Agricultural building was larger than the capitol building in Hessen, the state Wiesbaden is in. The food in Munich was fantastic. Herr Dougherty took us to eat at the Haufbrauhaus, where we ate Schweinhaexe, a signature dish in Munich. We set our meeting place to be Marienplatz at the Rathaus, which was a beautiful building.

We went to BMW World, Olympic Park, and Allianz Arena all in one day. They were all amazing. It was so much fun to see all of the cars in BMW World like the BMW i8 and the BMW M4 Coupe. Olympic Park was beautiful. The facilities and park itself were amazing to look at and walk through. There was one hill that we walked up to, that had an brilliant view of the city.

We all went into the city to explore soon after and saw the Isar, the parliament building, the library at Munich's University, and some street art. We also took a day to see Dachau, which was really interesting to learn about and see. The things we learned about that the Germans and prisoners did in 

Dachau was unsettling yet interesting.

Vienna, Austria

 Vienna had to be my favorite part of the trip. The city was beautiful and all of the buildings were gradiose. The food was amazing as well as the architecture. We ate many signature dishes in Vienna such as Sachertorte and Kaesekrainers. We visited many landmarks such as the Summer and Winter palaces, the Vienna library, multiple gardens, the Leopold Museum, the Sisi Museum, the Rathaus, and the mumok. These places were full of history that we were able to learn about and see for ourselves, which was a great learning experience.

I'd like to deeply thank the Wilson family for providing the opportunity both to attend Middlebury's Summer Language Academy and to travel to Germany and Austria. It has helped me to greatly improve my capabilities in both the German language and culture.