Tuesday was pretty awesome. We got up early to go on a cruise down the Rhine River. That was so nice. It was great to just be able to sit there, relax and enjoy the scenery and the company. Then we got out at this little town to eat lunch before we hiked up this hill to take a tour of a medieval castle that was apparently the only that wasn’t ever conquered. It really hurt having to walk around on all of those uneven rocks. I don’t think I enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I otherwise would have if I hadn’t been so focused on trying not to cry. Then they took us to a wine tasting. It was really nice but I felt pretty awkward and out of place at the same time. Simple country girl at a wine tasting in this really nice place. It really hit me then that I’m a long way from Bandera, Texas.
I got up a bit early on Wednesday morning to hobble my way to the AIB so I could go to a doctors appointment for my feet. The doctor didn’t really do a whole lot for me. He just gave me a prescription for some high dose ibuprofen and told me to stay off my feet. It was kind of an odd experience. The doctor acted like he didn’t want to touch me at all and he would only really talk to the student worker that came with me to translate, even if he was saying something in English to me directly. I am now taking about 2,400 mg of ibuprofen a day to keep the pain level down to bearable. I can’t believe I actually hurt myself. I can go jumping down waterfalls down the side of a mountain and only get a few bruises and scratches. I run around like an idiot at a soccer game and I rupture the bursae in my heels. Congratulations to me.
In the afternoon, we went to the Hause de Geschichte (German recent history museum). It covered pretty much everything from 1945 to present day. It was pretty cool for me to see something like that because in all the history classes I ever took all through middle and high school we were doing good if we made it past 1900 by the end of the year, so actually getting to learn about recent history is a new experience for me. Then class was cancelled after our tour so I had a chance to go get my hellish pain meds and then I just went back to my host family’s and tried to spend the night relaxing.
Thursday, I got up early again because I wanted to try and mail a box home to my mom before class started but the DHL didn’t open until I already had to be at the AIB for class. Dr. Wasser talked about the Nazi trials after the war and then we all went to the hauptbahnhof to catch a train to Cologne. We ended up heading to Cologne a bit earlier than was planned so we could meet up with our guide (who actually showed up this time) and go on our rooftop tour of the Cologne Cathedral. It was rainy and dreary which made the tour of this gothic church so much cooler than it would have been already and we got to see the gargoyles at work.
Then we got to go to the zoo. They were having an animal body worlds exhibit going on so we got to see that which was pretty awesome. I’ve always been a fan of going to the zoo anyways but it was extra nice to be able to at least see animals. I feel so animal deprived. Having to walk around definitely wasn’t fun but it was better than having to be carted around in a wheelchair. Nils offered to push me around but I felt pathetic and like a huge burden on everyone enough as it was so I just sucked it up as best I could. Which, in retrospect, probably wasn’t the smartest thing I could have done but my normal stubbornness was well at work at the time.
Then we made our way back to Bonn, I got my box mailed, and I spent the rest of the night enjoying my last night in Bonn and packing until I had to be at the train station on Friday morning so we could all get to Munich and start our weekend there.
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