By the time I left the Frankfurt airport I had already encountered so many things that I had never experienced before. For example, the paper towels at the airport were ...strange. I guess you could call them reused? I forgot to take a pic but the dispenser looked something like this:
Looks normal, right? Until you realize the bottom feeds back into the dispenser! Where does it go?? I'll never know..
My host mom is the best. She is so sweet and really makes sure that I am comfortable (and NEVER hungry). On the first day when I first found out that my "host family" consisted of just a host mom, I was a little nervous that I would get lonely without any kids my age around. But I quickly began to socialize, and now I have 24 amazing new friends.
Commute into town was a nightmare to learn, but luckily I haven't made any huge mistakes yet except I did miss one train (we'll get to that soon). Besides that it has been fairly easy to adjust. I am learning a litttttttle bit a of German which is interesting because sometimes I walk around the town practicing the things I have learned. I'm sure I sound insane saying things like "Was ist das? Das ist eine Katze!" (What is this? This is a cat!).
Thursday was a holiday which some friends and I spent hiking in Königswinter. The hike was SO steep; probably the steepest hike of my life. The only reason I didn't turn around and give up was because nobody else was, and I didn't want to suffer the embarrassment (LOL). Here are some pictures from that adventure:
This past weekend was one I'll never forget. Nine of the people in the program, including I, went to Amsterdam. It was the most foreign experience I've ever had. First of all, as I addressed earlier, we missed our train connection in Köln because we were on the wrong platform. While we were frustrated at first, we decided to really take the time to enjoy Köln. We grabbed some Kölsch beer (which is a local beer in the Köln-Bonn area), and we enjoyed the weather. The best part about this plot twist was that we had the chance to see the Köln Dom (Cologne Cathedral) which was absolutely breathtaking. It has so much history and is absolutely stunning, so it turned out to be a blessing that we missed our train. I'll insert a sub-par picture here but it won't tell you anything about how big it is; it's something you have to see in person.
So we eventually got back on another train and headed to Amsterdam that same night. We hung out, ate dinner, explored the Red Light District, and went to bed. The following day we had an interesting time trying to navigate the beautiful city on bicycles. We took many scenic detours, none of them intentional, but nonetheless it was an excellent time. We bought some fries with mayonnaise, which, in America, is something I wouldn't even give my worst enemy, but in Amsterdam the mayo was verrry tasty and sweet. The fries were delectable as well; 10/10 would recommend Amsterdam food. But before this turns into a food blog, I'll just sum up the rest of our Saturday night by saying that we enjoyed our night in Amsterdam so much that before we knew it it was 4:00 AM and the sun was nearly rising!
Now I am really hoping the rest of the trip does not go as fast as this first week, and I'm looking forward to my travels to Vienna and Prague this week! But for now I must pack... Auf Wiedersehen!!
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