Getting to Germany was an adventure. On the 30th of July, my family went to Chicago to catch a baseball game. The Cubs played the Giants in an exciting game ending in a walk-off home run. The Cubs looked pretty bad in the first inning with several miscues and an error resulting in a run. It was 1-0 until the bottom of the ninth with Brian Wilson trying to close out a save. But Carlos Pena’s hit saved the day by hitting a home run. It was 1-1, and the game went into extra innings. However, in the 13th inning the Cubs pulled it out with a pinch hit home run. That home run was very clutch and exciting. The next day we went to the Art Institute of Chicago which showcased many artists such as Van Gogh, Guaguin and Monet. I felt like I was reliving Faris Bueller’s day off. After the museum, I rode the subway back to O’Hare, and my parents let me go. My mom was especially disappointed in seeing me go. She kept looking back at me and I finally waved good bye. I arrived two hours at the gate before the plane took off. When I got on the plane, I was pretty excited that I had two extra seats beside me. However, a mom was sitting behind me and requested that her kids sit next to me. It wasn’t too bad because the kids were about my age. In fact, one of the kids was taking a study abroad trip in Germany from Ohio State. In fact, he was reading the same book, A Concise History of Germany. We talked for a quite a while on plane. Before I knew it we were landing in London. I wished him goodbye and I went into the London airport. I had missed my flight from London to Frankfurt, but luckily there was another flight an hour later. However, I had to call Dr. Wasser to tell him I was going to be late. This posed a problem. I needed to call him without a phone. I had to find a pay phone. I used my credit card, but I wasn’t able to get through. Next, I converted twenty dollars to British Pounds at a conversion desk. I was then able to call him and alert him. After calling the program coordinator, I went to go eat breakfast. I went over to a restaurant and had eggs and ham. When I first ordered at the bar, I couldn’t understand the waiter very well. I had never realized how differently British people talk. American English turns out to be much different than British English. They use toilet instead of restroom. The accent was more than I had imagined as well. The breakfast was pretty good and then I headed off to the plane.
Landing in Frankfurt was quite smooth. Now it was much different for me than England. I couldn’t understand anything on the walls or people. I found my AIB host and found the other students. The first thing I tried to buy was beer. However, I actually bought Vitamaltz. When I sat down with my classmates, I took a drink. I didn’t quite taste right. And then someone pointed out it was alcohol free. No wonder it tasted kind of funky and weird. When everyone finally arrived at the airport, we took a two hour bus ride to Bonn. It was interested looking out into Germany. For the most part, there was green everywhere. There weren’t any mountains but rolling hills. Obviously everything was in German which I knew could be hard getting used to. We arrived at AIB and I was ready to meet my host family.
Meeting my host family was pretty exciting when we got to AIB. I felt nervous and excited by meeting my first German family. I was rooming with Drew. I only stayed a few minutes because our host family mom was already there. Our car was pretty small, but larger by European standards. My mom introduced herself to us. She was about forty five or so. She was blonde and is very German. Anyways, we got in her car. As we drove to our host family’s house, I really noticed how different the German roads and environment is. For instance, split seconds before the light turns green, the yellow light lights up with the red light on. It is almost like a queue to the driver to get prepared for an upcoming green light. Overall, the street signs are different, but can be figured out fairly easily. Yes, I am a little daring, but I feel like I could drive in the smaller cities in Germany and get around. There are more bicycles here, but this is the land of a Euro 1.5 per liter of gasoline. That is a pretty expensive tank of gas! As we kept driving, Drew and I have a conversation with our host mother. We talked about the differences between the United States and Germany as well as the street signs. I noticed the architecture is definitely different than the US. There are not as many strip malls, no Wal-Marts, but little “mom and pop” shops. The homes here I believe are cinder block and concrete. The houses do not have wooden side panels or brick outsides. They are more square and straight up and down than the US. There are fewer lawns, but front yards filled with many plants. The streets are narrower. Cars typically park with two wheels up on the curb. As we pulled up to the house, I notice it looked the same as it did in Google maps. I was still a little timid because I had to make a good first impression. Drew and I were in a foreign country, living with someone we don’t know. Yes that might have sounded a little scary, but trust me, it wasn’t that bad. Anyways, we walked into the house. (There wasn’t a doorknob. Only a place to put the key. You have to unlock the door and then push it. It locks automatically). I had my two bags because the airline lost my other bag. When I first walked in the front of the house, the stairs were immediately in front of us. We walked up the stairs to the second floor and she showed us our bedrooms. Mine was on the first left. The room was an average bedroom. However, there was no closet. There was a table, nightstand, and a couple of drawers. Drew’s room was filled with Lord of the Rings posters. After we got situated in our rooms, she decided to take us to Drakenfels. As we drove there, the scenery was nice. Everything was green with tall trees and full plants. Since it was a Friday afternoon, not too many people were out. Drachenfels was on the outskirt of town. Drew, Elizabeth, and our host mom started hiking up the large hill. It was not a mountain (maybe by German standards). It was pretty with green trees all around us. There was a bier garden about halfway up. Up along the side of the hill, there was a train one could take, but we chose not to take it. It was a long climb and Elizabeth was definitely feeling it. It was funny though because she was complained in German, but I knew that she was getting tired. We finally reached the top and saw the old ruins of the castle. It was part of a side as well as some parts of the wall. The wall had openings presumably to look out if enemies were coming up the side of the mountain or across the river. The view from the top was spectacular as it was overlooking the city of Bonn. It seemed like the perfect spot to put a castle. The city is situated on the Rhine River with both sides populated. After spending about five minutes at the top, we walked down a little bit. Elizabeth pointed out a box with nothing in it. Apparently, the Drackenfels dragon was gone because of the construction.
By the time we got back to the house, Drew and I were getting pretty tired. I had been up since 9 o’clock Friday central time, and had had only four hours of sleep in between. I was feeling okay because I was about to eat our first German meal. I believe it was schnitzel. After the meal, I went to my bedroom. I found it interesting that there are no sheets in my bed. There was only a comforter.
The next morning we woke up pretty late. Our host mom and Elizabeth took us to town and to the Haus der Geschichet. (Museum of the Federal Republic of Germany). We first went to the square and city center where everything seems to happen. The Bonn cathedral was in the center. It was a very magnificent structure that cannot be found in United States. It was also interesting to see two martyrs heads outside. Later, we walked over to Beethoven’s place of birth. This was a small house in the city center. Bonn has taken pride in claiming this famous musician by placing a large statue of him in the center of the square. Beethoven grew up and was born in Bonn. I thought it was interesting to see how many American stores I recognized. Pizza Hut, McDonalds, H&M (actually German, but they have them in US) and TK Maxx (instead of TJ Maxx). The rest of the stores were primarily German. We got some gelato after that. Gelato is kind of an ice cream but is smoother. I got a strawberry flavor. I didn’t know exactly what it was because the labels were written in German. We then had to drop off Elizabeth, so we drove back to the house to drop her off. After that, we drove back to the museum. We only had an hour to visit the museum so we decided to look at the Post WWII part. I found this interesting because I was in a German museum learning about a war they started and lost. In the museum, our host mom explained to us(very little of the information was in English) that Germany was led by a bad group of people at that time. There was a Holocaust part with pictures from the concentration camps along with a scrolling list of all the Jews that had died. We also saw an exhibit where the Red Cross was trying to help people find loved ones after war. I also learned the amount of destruction that Germany undertook during WWII. 90% of Cologne’s buildings were destroyed. The Germans had to ration food, and work to rebuild the city. In fact, the university gave free tuition in return for labor from the students. In between class, a student might help rebuild a building. There was a significant exhibit about the Berlin Airlift. Americans were praised by the Germans for their aid and support during this time. The food was labeled as American food and written in English. Other exhibits included popular culture (very similar to the US) and a jukebox. The jukebox had many American singers. The museum closed at six o’clock as we were promptly kicked out of the museum. The museum staff wanted to leave by six and no later. We left the museum and drove home. After eating with our host family, Drew
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