Auf Wiedersehen Germany!

As promised, the blog post I wrote on the plane coming home from Germany!

Leaving Fussen turned out to be a bigger production than we thought. We made it safely back to the train station where we were able to return the bikes and obtain our luggage from the lockers. We then boarded the 1st of 4 trains to get us to Heidelberg for the evening. I know that I mentioned that we were traveling with all of our luggage but I should probably note here what exactly we were traveling with. Basically, we each had at least 2 bags. Jon had a shoulder bag, a rolling garment bag, and a small roller bag. Jeralin had a purse, a rolling briefcase, and a large roller bag. Aaron had his trusty Swiss Gear backpack and a rolling garment bag (by the way, the handle partially broke before we boarded the train to Fussen from Munich—a slight inconvenience for traveling train to train) and I had my big Longchamp bag and our big orange roller bag. For anyone who has traveled on trains in Europe, you can imagine the task we had before us, getting our luggage off and on quickly and with crowds of people. Also, we boarded our first train for Heidelberg at 4pm, what appeared to be a “rush hour” time for students and business people traveling home.
Anyway, we got on the first train just fine and put our luggage up on the overhead racks because we had about an hour on this particular train. As we were getting off the train, Jeralin missed the last step and landed on her ankle..tearing her jeans and skinning up her knee and everything. We also had to get from track 4 to track 2 in a matter of minutes to catch our next train. Needless to say, we missed our train and were now left at a pretty suburban looking station with no information booth or any rail employee to be found.

Thankfully, Jon got to talking to a local who told us that we were in luck and another train was going the direction we needed to go in the next 20 minutes.

At that moment, I was really thankful to be traveling with this group because no one freaked out and everyone remained really calm, flexible, and optimistic. We boarded the next train and then slowly found our way to the right trains to get us to Heidelberg by about 10:15pm. We caught a cab to our hotel but when we arrived, all the lights were out. We were able to figure out enough of the sign in German on the front door to realize that the reception desk at the hotel closed at 10pm. Whoops. Once again, everyone remained calm and we began to look for other options. Finally, a hotel/restaurant said that they had room for us and Jon had negotiated them down to a good price for 3 rooms. The staff was very sweet and we were just happy to get to bed after a long day of traveling (and bike riding, and hiking uphill in the snow!)

Our hotel

The square right outside our Heidelberg hotel
In the morning, we had complimentary breakfast at our hotel. Our hotel was in a great location in Heidelberg because we were right in the heart of the old town and essentially, at the foot of the famous castle. We spent the morning checking out the bridge and parts of the town.






We just couldn't resist taking advantage of this beautiful opportunity...


We ate a traditional Heidelberger from a bakery that had one in the window and it was too tempting to pass up.


We walked up to the castle and enjoyed the views from there as well.




We ended up walking the main part of the town-a super long street chock full of stores and restaurants.

Aaron had a craving for pizza so we had sat at the bar and enjoyed lunch at Gino’s pizza. With full tummies, we continued to check out the area and we happened upon a store called Baren-Trecht which we had heard about from 2of our Pepperdine undergraduate friends who mentioned it when they came over for dinner to tell us about Germany. John and Jeff both studied in Heidelberg through the Pepperdine study abroad program. They went on and on about the gummies at the Baren-Trecht, specifically the “non-gelatin” variety. We were thrilled to find the store sort of by accident and it pretty much lived up to its expectations, Aaron and I being the sugar fiends we are and all. After a bit more walking, we decided that we ought to head to Frankfurt so that we would have time to get in and find our hotel and get settled.

The train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt Am Main was only about an hour. The train was very crowded so we split up and Aaron and I ended up in a little pod on the train with a French mom and her 2 kids. It was fun to listen to them speak French and at one point, I helped the little girl put her shoes on since her mom had her hands full with the baby. The little girl told me in French that she could put her own shoes on because “she was 4”. As we got off the train, we all marveled at how Europeans make it work traveling by train with all their bags, children, etc. We arrived at the huge Frankfurt main rail station and grabbed a cab that brought us to the hotel. We were happy to see that our hotel was located in the middle of the commercial area and we were walking distance to a huge shopping area and lots of restaurants. In fact, underneath our hotel was a store called Rossman which was essentially, a little Walgreens/CVS type store. We settled into our respective rooms and took a break before meeting up for dinner. I have to say that it was nice to finally know that we would be in this one hotel for a few days after all our traveling! For dinner that night, we decided to go to this restaurant that was maybe only a block or half a block from our hotel. It was located in what we found out later was an old guard station. The ambiance was lovely and we all enjoyed really good meals by candlelight. The boys started working on Wednesday night for the competition and so I had time to email, take care of some stuff at work, and just enjoy a little bit of a slower evening since Aaron went down to Jon’s room to work.

On Thursday morning, we all met up for complimentary breakfast at the hotel. The boys had a long morning of working ahead of them and so Jeralin and I got moving to see where the competition would be held and what was nearby. As luck would have it (not really-- Patty Hayes, who did all the travel arrangements for us totally gets the credit for this) you could see the competition site from our hotel. Also, we noticed that there were 2 starbucks nearby and a few sandwich places that we could definitely run and get something on the lunch breaks if we needed to. I think there was so much comfort in knowing that our hotel was so close by as well, in case Aaron or Jon forgot anything. For the rest of the morning, Jeralin and I spent a little time shopping in Frankfurt. We got some great deals on shoes and clothes before we were able to meet up with the boys for their lunch break. We all had a great lunch at a restaurant right outside of the competition site called Bull and Bear. The competition site was actually a large building that also contained the Frankfurt stock exchange—thus, the bull and bear. Lunch was good and then we headed back to the hotel so the boys could get back to work before we had to check them into the competition later that evening. As they worked, Jeralin and I did some shopping for things they might need during the competition like water, Kleenex, snacks, umbrellas, etc. At 5pm, we headed to the competition site for check in and the welcome reception.

So..a little info about this competition:
This competition was called the FID Moot Court Competition which stands for Frankfurt Direct Investment. Last year was the first year of the competition and it was held in Boston. One of our professors at Pepperdine is one of the founders of the competition which is how Pepperdine got involved. Last year, our team lost in the finals so, at least since it’s birth in 2008, Pepperdine has a history of doing well in this competition. It is like a moot court competition that Aaron has participated in the US, but it is an arbitration so there are 2 teams: claimant and respondent. The boys were given their problem during the summer and they had to research and write briefs for both sides. The oral part of the competition is performed in front of a tribunal of arbitrators, usually 3 who ask you questions and ultimately decide who wins or loses, claimant or respondent, based on their respective presentations. A lot of the scoring is based on your knowledge of the case law and facts, but also, equally important is the way that you present your arguments and how persuasive you are in your presentation. A few other things that make this competition different is that the founders want to keep the identity of the schools a secret. This is not that effective in the sense that once a team opens their mouths, you can guess where they are from, seeing as though this is an INTERNATIONAL competition. Also, the competitors remain seated when they give their arguments, which is different than the requirement that you stand at a podium for other moot court competitions.

Back to the check in and reception…after we checked the boys in, we sat through the team briefing where the coordinators explained the rules and some information about the competition. We learned that there were 19 teams total, representing countries all over the world including the U.S., Australia, Asia, and Europe. The teams would do 6 preliminary rounds, each lasting 90 minutes—4 rounds on Friday (9-10:30, 11-12:30, 2-3:30, and 4-5:30) and 2 rounds on Saturday morning before the first cut was made on Saturday at lunch. This would be cut to 4 teams making up the semi final round and then finally, the last round would be the final round on Saturday afternoon before the reception and awards dinner Saturday night, closing out this year’s competition. So, it was going to be a long day but I think that the boys were excited to just get it started. Before the briefing started, Jon headed back to the hotel to work on his argument for the next day. Aaron stayed with Jeralin and I through the briefing and then he left a few minutes into the reception. I was able to work the room with Jeralin because I was given a packet from the organizers with a name tag as well! My name tag read that I was there on behalf of Pepperdine, the 2010 FDI Moot Host. I was quite surprised to receive a formal name tag but it was nice to be able to represent Pepperdine. Jeralin and I mingled and realized how hard it is to make small talk with people when you are unable to ask them where they are from! Somehow we managed to do just fine and we ate a few hor d’oeurves and then stopped and got some pretzels to bring to the boys for a little break. Side note: the pretzels were my favorite thing in Germany to eat, hands down. They were so good and so cheap! I could have eaten them for every meal, seriously! It’s funny, they do lots of things with them here. Some bakeries use them like bagels and slice them open and use them as sandwich bread, essentially. Some pretzels are seeded with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. On our walk to the castle in Fussen, we saw pretzels that were dipped in chocolate and some that had apples baked into them. And last but not least, they are usually just salted and “plain” but SO deliciously simple. I digress! The boys ended up working a bit longer and then we all hit the hay to get ready for the big day on Thursday.

On Friday morning, the boys began competing at 9am.


They were up against a team from NYU but it was hard to tell since all of the students on the team were LLM students and were from all over the world. In round 2, the opposing team was definitely an American team. Lunch was offered by the competition but the boys wanted to get out in the fresh air for a bit so we took advantage of an open air market and Jon, Aaron, and Jeralin had brats in buns and apple wine.


I was going to eat lunch at the competition but there wasn’t any left when we got back so I went back outside for a starbucks and—you guessed it—a pretzel. The afternoon rounds went well, also. In round 3, the boys faced a team from China and round 4 was actually a BYE round so the boys did their presentation but we were done in half an hour since there was no team to respond. At the end of Friday, we were all happy with their performances so far. They were consistently strong and they got really great remarks from all of the arbitrators. We were all definitely beyond impressed with the international teams ability to argue in English, that’s for sure! After the BYE round, we headed back to the hotel so the guys could drop off their binders and then we headed to the reception, which was about a 10 minute walk. We managed to squeeze in a pretzel run before we left though!

The reception was a great opportunity for us to meet some of the other competitors and to talk to some of the arbitrators that the guys had on panel earlier that day. After we had sufficiently mingled, we headed back to the hotel and stopped and had dinner at a restaurant called Maredo. It looked really promising from the outside because it had steaks and fajitas, but as we sat down and looked over the menu, we realized we were at a German Sizzler, complete with salad bar. Oh well! It was a fun evening and we were happy to have a sit down dinner together for the last time on this trip.


The boys didn’t work too much on Friday night, thankfully. On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and headed back to the competition site. The room assignments were given and we headed to our room for the 2 last preliminary rounds. The boys first went against a team from Argentina and then the last round was against a Russian or Eastern European team. They were both very, very good teams and we really all got nervous in our own ways about whether we would make the semi final cut. As we headed into the common room to wait for the announcement, the first 2 names went up and I started to get really sad that we hadn’t made it because there were only 2 names left! Out of 17! 13 of which we hadn’t even seen compete! Fortunately, the boys team name “Lauterpacht” came up as the 3rd name to compete in the semi finals. Next, the boys had to participate in a coin toss that would determine if they were going to argue claimant or respondent. We were hoping that they would get claimant as that was proving to be a stronger side for them, but they got respondent. They had about half an hour to began preparing.
The semi final round was a little shaky. They guys were really great, definitely, but the panel of arbitrators didn’t really seem to understand the arguments that any of the competitors were trying to make. The boys went up against another Russian/Eastern European team who definitely knew their stuff. After the round, we all really didn’t know what was going to happen. Of course, we were hoping for the best and we were all just so happy that the boys had made it that far. After what seemed like a long wait, we found out that the decisions were split but..the boys had advanced and would be competing in the final round in about 15 minutes!

Again, they flipped a coin and got the claimant side (Thanks, God!)

They were going up a team called “Bustamante” who, as it was revealed, was from the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. The room was packed and you could feel the nerves in the air…or maybe it was just mine, haha. I was relieved (and so proud) to see the boys sitting in their seats, praying together. As the panel was introduced and as the boys gave their presentations, they really did an awesome job. They were both so composed and so in control of the situation. They didn’t look like they were overwhelmed and they didn’t sound nervous or unsure. We could not have asked for a stronger, more capable team to represent Pepperdine (not that I’m biased, seriously!). After the round was over, we headed back to the hotel and then jumped in a cab to head to the awards reception and dinner. (Like how we walked to the reception the night before but with FINALISTS amongst us, we felt like it was okay to take a cab?) The reception was lovely because the boys were practically celebrities. People kept coming up to them and congratulating them. They were so modest and humble despite people telling them that they should expect to win. We chatted with various people and then they began to give out awards.

They first recognized all of the schools and then the top 10 oralists of the competition were recognized. Proudly, BOTH Jon and Aaron accepted best oralist awards! Finally, the big moment arrived and by a unanimous vote, team Lauterpacht was named the winner! The boys went up to accept the award and get their photo taken and it was just a really proud and happy moment.


We then had dinner and headed back to the hotel. Yes, we all celebrated with SLEEP, haha!

This morning (I am writing this on the plane from Frankfurt to Calgary and I’ll post it at the next opportunity), we got up and met in the lobby at 8 as we discussed last night. After about 10 minutes and no sign of Jon or Jeralin, Aaron and I heard a man asking the concierge what time it was. Turns out, today was daylight savings time in Germany! Jon and Jeralin were using their cell phones as alarm clocks which turned back the time automatically. Aaron and I headed back up to the room to nap a bit and met them again at the “new 8”. We were hoping to have a nice breakfast around town but as is usually the case, Frankfurt was pretty dead on Sunday morning. We did have a chance to walk over to the older part of town which was just lovely.





As we headed back to the hotel, another surprise, the Frankfurt marathon was taking place right outside our hotel! We watched the runners come by (we were at the 7km mark) and it was a fun atmosphere to witness.

We got our things together and took the subway to the airport because the place where we would normally get a taxi was blocked off due to the race. We got to the airport, checked in our luggage, and now we are headed home. It has truly been a wonderful week—lots of fun playtime and lots of successful worktime. I couldn’t be any more proud of Aaron and Jon—not just for winning, but for their humility and their grace throughout the competition. I know that spirit in them will continue back at school even though everyone is VERY excited (as we are aware via email) to welcome them home. We are so grateful to the school for this generous opportunity and I think we are all humbled by the amount of trust Pepperdine has in all of us to go on this kind of adventure!

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:21-24