From Somewhere in Austria

Today is day number nine and we’re all on board the DB headed for Vienna! I’ve been exhausting my brain recalling all of the adventures I’ve been a part of in the short nine days that I’ve been abroad.  It feels like a month ago that I was hugging my parents and waving goodbye through the security windows.  It’s been amazing to my expectations exceeded every day , and to be constantly immersed in a culture different from my own. It’s physically tiring always learning and absorbing the culture around me, as well as trekking from the Biomechanics and Orthopedics Research lab at the University to the top of the Cologne Cathedral to Neuschwanstein to Vienna, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world…or a lifetime supply of eggs Benedict.

My host family has been one of my favorite aspects of the program because it amazes me to watch how similar and how different a family unit operates half way around the world. The family is something so expected, simple, and universally common but it’s also beautifully intricate and put together so uniquely in a way that gives each family a rhythm all their own. The Wolfe family is hard working, efficient, fairly quiet due to the language barrier (though we are both trying with German and English to meet in the middle!), and extremely loyal and loving. They are wonderful hosts to Alexis and me and they are thankful to us for sharing our culture and our language with their twelve year old twins, Sarah and Philippe.

I love getting to know Bonn and being able to be familiar with it after walking the city enough and enjoying its unique features like the Oxford phone booth, the Italian coffee cart, The Quiet Man’s Irish Pub, and the bakery next to the Hauptbonhof with the legendary chocolate muffins! I feel so blessed to get to spend enough time there to feel a connection to it when I leave.  As for the nine other crazy kids whom I get to spend the next 4 weeks with, I love you guys! Little did I know nine days ago that Meredith is a Bavarian diva and just how serious Alexis is about leather jackets? Mario makes us look cool when we run into Spaniards in Neuschwanstein, Morgan and Michelle are angels with cappuccinos and chocolate croissants, and Katherine has an algorithm of some sort for picking the best spot on the train, and Caleb makes a sassy face every once in a while that has now been coined “the Caleb face”. Last but not least, Mikaela has the fiercest eyebrows of all of us hands down,  and Jooyeon can get confrontational when we need her to. We’re nearing Vienna and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for this week of the program!