The German Experience

The day started at 7:25 AM in Atlanta, Georgia. Thao and I were sharing a hotel room and were awakened by Shanti calling our hotel room. We got ready and met Alfredo Chan-Law in the lobby of our hotel to eat breakfast before heading to Emory University for a campus tour.

Our campus tour started at 9:00 AM and we were first greeted by Timothy Fields who introduced us to Emory University by showing us a short video that depicted student life and activities on campus during the year. Afterwards, we went over the application process, what they looked for in incoming students, and information about majors and classes at Emory University. In 2014, there were 17,822 applications to Emory University and 26.8% were admitted. 

Emory University

Emory University

Emory University

Dooley the Skeleton

Delicious

After the first hour in a room listening to information about the university, the whole group was split up into smaller groups to tour the actual campus. Our tour guide was Kari Burdzinski and she was great. She toured us past a beautiful, large library that looked amazing as well as through the dining hall and dorm rooms. The library is called MARBL, or Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. The campus at Emory University is really pretty and green, which is a bit different from what I’m used to in the Bay Area because of the drought we’ve been in for many years. I am a fan of the coastal California weather though, because in Atlanta it was well into the 90s and humid.

Our tour guide introduced us to the official mascot, Swoop the eagle, as well as the unofficial mascot Dooley who is a skeleton. The hour went by quickly, and we soon finished and were driven back to our hotel to pack and check out.

After checking out, we were driven back to the airport to catch our flight to Washington, D.C. While our first flight from San Francisco to Atlanta was five hours, our second flight was a measly two hours which was a welcome relief. When we arrived in D.C., it was raining and warm which I actually enjoyed a lot. I had forgotten how nice rain is!

After we were shuttled to our hotel, we were all waiting in the lobby while Alfredo checked us in. A very kind hotel employee pointed out to us that there was free ice cream that we could have and all of us jumped at the chance. That ice cream was probably one of the highlights of the afternoon! 

We all settled into our hotel rooms and met back downstairs for dinner. At first we couldn't decide where to go, then we decided to go to Old Europe, a German restaurant a few blocks away. Little did we know this would be one of our best decisions ever. 

We walked into the small restaurant and we were greeted with live German music played by adults in full German outfits. We were delighted and kind of surprised at first, for sure! After we had been seated for a few minutes three men stood up and began dancing which was surprising and awesome. They were doing ninja kicks and jumps and it was amazing even though it only lasted about three minutes.

After all that excitement, we finally settled down to order dinner. I ordered a Zwiebelsteak which was sauteed sirloin steak with roasted onions and gravy, with potatoes and a salad. It was so good and I couldn't eat it all, so Thao helped me out. The meat was tender rand delicious and I was so full afterwards. 

Old Europe was a great experience and I would definitely come back. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was great as well. Today was definitely an exhausting but fabulous day.