It’s been one crazy first week here in Bonn. I had a very
long and sleepless plane ride to Frankfurt, luckily there were TV monitors that
played our choice of movies, and also showed the world cup and Wimbledon. After
what seemed like an endless plane ride, we finally arrived in Frankfurt. At the
airport, we got our luggage and hopped on a bus for our final stretch to Bonn.
Very shortly after our arrival in Bonn, my host dad picked me up. I quickly
learned he spoke very little English, which was a little scary, and awkward, at
first. He drove me across the beautiful Rhine River where my new home would be.
I forced myself to stay awake the whole day thinking it would somehow cure my
jetlag, I learned how wrong I was when I was staring at my ceiling trying to
sleep at 4am the next night.
On our
second day in Bonn we were supposed to meet at Bonn Hauptbahnhoff (central
station). My host family showed me where to get on the bus and where to get off
the bus right next to the station. So I was just supposed to get on the bus by
the house and get off the buss at Houptbahnhoff, easy enough right? I left an
hour early just to give myself a little extra time. I got on the bus by my host
home and asked the driver if it went to “the train station” just to make sure,
he said yes so I got on the bus feeling a little better. After riding around on
the wrong side of the river for a half hour, I realized I was on the wrong bus.
At this point I started freaking out because I’m lost in a foreign country with
no phone and can’t communicate with anyone, so I got off the bus. After walking
around in the middle of nowhere like a chicken with my head cut off, I got back
on the same bus going back where I came from, and got off at a stop that had
the correct bus number on it. At this point I’m feeling a lot better as I get
on the correct bus, unfortunately I didn’t realize I was going the wrong way.
After about an hour and a half of riding busses, I finally made it to the right
side of the river, and got off at the wrong stop. After playing a very
interesting game of charades with the workers in the McDonalds, who spoke no
English, I found out how to get to the train station. I made it to the train
station an hour late to find that everyone had already left. Luckily, I found
an AIB worker who got me a taxi to get to the AIB. It was quite an adventure,
and fortunately, I have not gotten lost since then.
My first
week in Germany has been amazing. I’ve had such a great time hanging out with
friends at the beer gardens along the Rhine, and walking around the town trying
the great food. Yesterday we went to Cologne. One of my favorite parts of this
week was walking out of the Cologne central station and seeing the monumental
cologne cathedral, I can see why it took 632 years to build. I can’t wait to go
on the rooftop on Thursday. The only complaint I have about Germany is that
they have no air conditioning, it was in the mid 90’s this week and it felt a
lot hotter indoors.
My classes
have been very interesting so far. In Deutsch it seems like we’ve been learning
the language pretty well, but for some reason every time I try to order in
German, I get laughed at. I’ve found the History of Medicine class to be very
interesting. We learned about how healthcare in the US differs from other
developed countries, and how it could improve. I enjoyed learning about the
earliest forms of medicine this afternoon. Being pre-pharmacy, I found it
interesting that they had “poop pharmacies.”
It’s been a
great first week in Germany, and I can’t wait to visit Salzburg, Vienna, and
Prague soon.
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