We made it!

After tomorrow we as a group will have finished our first week of classes here in Germany!  In such a short period of time it feels like so much has already happened.  Our trip to Europe felt like it would never end but now that we are here it seems like time is flying by.  The first night with my host family they welcomed me and my roommate to Germany and told us that we were now a part of their family.  From the very start they treated us like family and I feel extremely lucky to have such a loving host family.  After being welcomed to Germany I promptly went to bed to prepare for our first official day in Bonn.  After our orientation a group of students and I went and had lunch.  This was our first time interacting with the people in Bonn and as such I was slightly nervous.  We had one German class under our belts so we did not have a lot to go with at this point.  In the end though we managed to order and get our food successfully.

The first meal I ordered in Europe was currywurst.  I was slightly skeptical about ordering German sausage with some sort of curry component, but in the end I decided I would give it a shot since I love curry.  It ended up being delicious and I was very happy with my first food selection in Europe.  After lunch we went back to AIB where we then got a tour of Bonn from Henning.  Bonn is truly a beautiful city but as we were going along on our tour I could not help but feel overwhelmed.  It seemed like I would not actually retain where anything was.  After our first day in Bonn I was exhausted so I went back home and had dinner with my host family then promptly went to bed.  Our first day of classes started as a bit of a cluster...  Dae and I got on our bus to go to class and everything was going fine until our bus turned and started going away from AIB.  We had falsely assumed that the bus would continue down the road and get us closer to AIB.  By the time we realized the bus was not going back towards AIB we were pretty far so we ended up having to rush to class.  Once we were in class tho everything was fine.  After my first day of classes I do have to say that I am a little stressed about the school aspect of this trip but I know that I just put in the effort everything will be fine.  After classes we had a long gap period and then the AIB BBQ.  The AIB BBQ was a great way to socialize with not only the students in my own program but also students who in other programs who are currently in Bonn.  I met multiple people the night of the BBQ that were in different programs and am actually planning on meeting up with them as the trip progresses.  The day after the BBQ was a free day so a group of us decided to go to the Seven Hills region to visit Schloss Drachenburg (Dragon Castle).  

After hiking up what seemed to be a completely vertical path we made it to the top and found an amazing view awaiting us.  The castle itself was lavish and exciting but the view of the surrounding area is what really captivated me.  Being able to experience Germany on such a beautiful day made this day a success.  I was able to bond with the other students on the program and experience Germany in an extremely fulfilling way.  As I approach the weekend and a trip to Munich I am becoming overwhelmed with planning future weekend trips and trying to focus on school.  I know that as the trip progresses though there are only more amazing things to come.