Maymester 2018 Stops 3 and 4: Murren and Grindelwald
Hello again! Before beginning, if you have not yet read my previous posts on the Maymester program I was able to be a part of, be sure to check those out for more information on what a Maymester is and what brought me on this trip.
After Monte Verita, our exploration of culture and idealism continued into the Swiss alps in the small towns of Murren and Grindelwald. Here, we spent most of our days hiking around the Alps, with lectures from our professor interspersed. Highlights include seeing waterfalls and meadows, trekking through a hailstorm, and stumbling upon a local restaurant at the top of a mountain where we all got apple cider and enjoyed the view. In our class sessions, we learned primarily about romantic poets including Byron, Shelley and Keats. Additionally, we were able to share some of our own writings that we had created over the duration of the trip with our group.
Being in these small towns also afforded our class with the opportunity to get to know each other, as well as our professor, on a more personal level. Hiking 8 miles in a day will do that! I really appreciated the learning opportunities I had in the Alps, as well as the opportunity to connect with the nature around me and seize the chance to unleash my creativity through writing. This creative energy stuck with me throughout the rest of the trip, and definitely removed some of my writer’s block.
We spent a little over a week in Murren and Grindelwald before traveling to Zurich. But I’ll save that for another blog post! In the meantime, if you have any questions about Maymesters or life at Vanderbilt, feel free to email me at alex.rains@vanderbilt.edu.
