Day in the Life

Most days you will leave the guest house at about 7:30 AM. On weekdays, class begins promptly at 8:30 AM, so it’s important to be up early enough to get dressed, to head over to the dining hall for some German-style breakfast, and to get going to the U-Bahn station just up the street. The U-Bahn is fast and clean, but the language institute is on the other side of the city, so the journey still takes about half an hour. Once we’re off the U-Bahn, you still have to transfer to the regional S-Bahn for two quick stops to Rosenheimer Platz. From there it’s just a quick walk to the Goethe Institute and the start of your morning language classes.

The intensive German-language classes begin at 8:30 AM every weekday and run for about 4 hours—until 12:45 PM. Don’t worry, though, because the classes have frequent breaks, and there’s even a small café on the second floor where you can buy coffee, Bavarian pretzels, and other fun snacks.

Depending on your learning level, the German-language classes generally include a good mix of learning grammar, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Be prepared to work on all of them!

It’s not necessarily the case that your classmates will be in the same language class as you are! Everyone on the trip is placed individually, and there are other international students of all ages at the Goethe Institute taking the same classes as you are! For example, on our trip we met students from France, the United Kingdom, Italy, various parts of Switzerland, and Turkey.

After the language classes are over, you have an extended break for lunch before returning for either a site visit or a culture class led by a Pitt German faculty member. The culture class is made up entirely of other people on the trip, so you can take a break from the intense language-learning you’ve been doing all morning.

Homework is assigned in the language class each day and varies among the different instructors, but generally the homework is intended to help reinforce what you learned that day and won’t, in any case that we noticed, take very long to complete. If you have trouble finishing the homework, the teacher is likely more than happy to help. In the culture class, there are assigned readings and the occasional homework assignment intended to be used as a springboard for discussion in class the following afternoon.

For lunch you would typically pack something that you’ve bought at ALDI, Edeka, or another grocery store and prepared in the kitchenette beforehand, or you have the option of going out and finding something delicious to eat from the city’s many bakeries, cafes, and döner places. The Goethe Institute is just a few minutes from the city center, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding something good to eat!

During the week, dinner is provided by the guest house where you’ll be staying and typically offers both a meat and a vegetarian option with varying sides. On the weekends, you have the option of preparing something at home or going out into the city to eat.

On weekends you’ll either have an extended site visit or a designated free day. Site visits over the weekends are typically long day trips where you may still have to get up early, but the benefits are huge. Some examples of places we went on day trips include Schloss Neuschwanstein, the Austrian city of Salzburg, and Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Otherwise, you’re welcome to use your free weekend day however you like, so long as you’ve finished whatever homework you had!

The busiest days are typically the day trips, because they often involve a lot of traveling and sometimes mean you’re getting up pretty early that day. Other busy days include weekdays with site visits where you still have to go to class in the morning, followed by an extended site visit to somewhere like the NS-Dokumentationszentrum. On these days you can expect to get home around dinner time or otherwise in the evening, with a little bit of time in the late evening to get caught up or head out for groceries if needed.