week 3
Maybe not quite
as long as the last one, but still. Here we go.
So like I said,
we got back from Prague pretty late, but (because we’re amazing) we decided a
few weeks back that, even though it was a three-day weekend, we would return on
Sunday night. That being said, I didn’t emerge from my room until 12pm. The
weather was gorgeous and I had a super delicious lunch with Maike and Noura
before heading to Starbucks in town to meet up with Alana, Hailey, Gabe,
Carter, and Kathryn. We didn’t get much work done, but we had a good time and
managed to do some planning for our weekend. (I’ve noticed that we never get
much work done when we’re around each other.) We headed back to our host homes
for dinner around 5. Dinner was super delicious as usual but didn’t last nearly
as long as it did on other nights (as in not lasting until 10pm) so I ended up
heading to my room around 8pm and I’m gonna be honest, I was SO BORED. I thrive
off business, which is why this trip is perfect, so for me to have that much
alone time was pretty much an existential nightmare. I ended up doing a myriad
of things—listening to music, pestering Carter, watching Netflix—and not
getting any work done for my paper that was due on Saturday night. Safe to say,
the night was uneventful and so we proceed to Tuesday.
Tuesday was a
little rough. I ended up going to bed later than I wanted to (but what’s new,
right?), and we had class basically from 8:45am-5pm. We started off the day
with what we found out to be our last German lesson with Hilde. It really was a
pity we couldn’t have anymore lessons with her. She’s a wonderful person and
probably one of the most interactive teachers I’ve ever had. For our last
lesson, we went over the family again, learned about some verb conjugations
(the difference between to go by vehicle or to go by walk), and how to ask
somebody on a date (thanks Hilde). We had a small break after German before NOM
commenced. This lecture we learned about the acoustical properties of sound
spaces, and I really enjoyed it. More on this later, but this class might be
one of the most interesting I’ve ever taken. Next, we had a lunch break where
we went to an Asian restaurant that served some really delicious ramen. Carter
was a party pooper and didn’t join us and it’s always a little weird when we’re
missing someone. We headed back for a two hour, 45 minute HOM lecture about
healthcare. For someone who doesn’t know much about healthcare, the lecture was
pretty interesting even though some things went over my head. I find it very
intriguing how every country seems to have such different yet similar systems,
and the soon-to-be engineer in me really wants to sit down, get all the facts,
and come up with my own healthcare system. Will that actually happen? Probably
not. After HOM, we headed back to our homes for dinner. My evening on this
night was better than Monday night in that I wasn’t nearly as bored, but I
still didn’t get enough work done to justify the less than preferred hours of
sleep I got. I’m quite comfortable in my host home now and really enjoy spending
time with Noura and Maike. We always find something to talk about, whether it’s
my latest adventure or the differences between German or English culture or
what Noura’s plans are for the night.
On Wednesday, I
got up at a pretty decent time actually for our next HOM lecture before our
daytrip to Cologne. During this lecture, we learned about sauna and what it
means to the German and Finish peoples. I thought it was some pretty neat
information and a surprisingly large part of their culture, and it made me VERY
excited for Norderney. After class, Alana, Gabe, Hailey, Kathryn, and I (no
Carter again, boo Carter) went to a tearoom to have some lunch. I had this very
delicious pasta that reminded me a lot of a caccio e pepe pasta that my dad
makes (but not as good of course). We finished a pretty delicious, but slightly
expensive, lunch and headed to Bonn Hbf to meet the rest of the group. After a
quick train ride, we made it to Cologne where you literally step outside of Hbf
and BAM there’s the cathedral, looming in all its gothic glory over the locals
and tourists. The cathedral is something that I’ve been wanting to see and it
did not disappoint. The second thing I noticed when I got off the train was how
windy it was; the headband I was wearing literally got blown off my head. We
stood outside of the cathedral and Dr. Wasser told us a little bit of the
history of the church and the story of Ursula and her 11,000 virgins before
heading inside. The interior was fascinating to look at, especially with the
NOM lecture that we just had. I’m not gonna lie, while one part of me was
attempting to focus on the history Dr. Wasser was telling us, another (arguably
larger) part was analyzing the acoustics of the cathedral and talking with
Prof. Waltz. I’m going to reiterate again—and not for the last time—that I’m
really enjoying the NOM class and I found it really cool to be able to know why
you’re hearing what you’re hearing in a certain space. There’s so much more to
it than I ever imagined and really cared to think about, honestly, and I love
that. It’s something that took me by surprise with how much goes into it (I’m
so ignorant sometimes it kills me) and I just want to know more. Anyway, we
went from the cathedral to a Roman ruins and artifacts museum. It’s funny
because I’ve seen all of these Roman ruins that I almost become desensitized to
just how amazing they were. Like, oh you could engineer and make really cool
things with limited technology and communication? Mediocre at best. I found a
bust of Iulia Domna who was the wife of Emperor Septimus Severus. She lived
from 170 AD-217 AD and she held a good amount of power as empress. She loved
philosophy and promoted it within Rome, as well as funded restorations of the aedes
Vestae, which includes the Temple of Vesta and the Atrium of the Vestal Virgins.
Not so fun fact: she had two sons, Geta and Caracalla who never got along.
After Caracalla had Geta murdered, Iulia committed suicide. And on that dark
note we continue.
Thursday was our
daytrip to Koblenz. We all woke up on the early side and met up at the old AIB,
where we took a bus to Koblenz. We arrived in a pretty decent amount of time
and immediately headed to tour the theatre. The theatre was not quite what I
was expecting, but still a good experience. Our tour guide was young, lively,
and knowledgeable and I enjoyed hearing what she had to say. She told us some
information about the exterior of the theatre and then took us inside. We
started in the theatre itself, where we could see that most of the decorative
details (curtains, embellishments, etc) were simply painted on, which was
pretty bad for the acoustics. I kind of noticed that the whole space was not
exactly ideal for acoustics. The tour guide led us onto the stage where Prof. Waltz
actually sang some opera for us (we later learned it was the first time he
performed in 10 years!!!!!!! His siblings were not happy they missed it), then
through backstage, and onward through the hair and makeup studio, the woodshop,
the attic, and the prop production. I did theatre in high school for a couple
of years, so it was really cool to be at an actual legitimate theatre and see
where everything goes down. I wish I could’ve seen it in action a little more.
We finished the tour, thanked our guide, and headed to eat, because even though
it was only around 11, we were starving (this is what happens when you eat
breakfast super early). We found a restaurant right on the Rhine, and I had a
chicken sandwich of sorts, followed by a crepe. Our lunch break was actually
quite long, so a couple people went to go get gelato, while Kathryn, Gabe, and
I stayed back to finish our desserts at the restaurant. The three of us ended
up just hanging out close to the Rhine, took some fun pictures, and ended up
missing the meeting time, but it didn’t matter because we were actually closer
to the gondolas than the rest of the group. Next on the list was the tour of
the fortress. We all piled into two different gondolas that took us over the
Rhine and basically up a mountain. I really loved the gondola ride and
hopefully got some really cool video. It was quite the view, with the Rhine on
either side and approaching basically a mountain. We met our tour guide and
took a little stroll around the fortress, learning about its history and of
course, taking pictures of the postcard view. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up
taking the gondola back down the mountain, as our bus driver picked us up
basically right outside. After a bit of a lengthy bus ride, we made it back to
Bonn and went home. Once again, I tried working on my paper with some success
and ended up getting nowhere near as much sleep as I was hoping for.
On Friday, we
had our predeparture meeting for Norderney bright and early at 8:30am. To say
it got me excited for our excursion was an understatement. Afterward, we had a
NOM lecture, interesting as always, where we learned about the anatomy of the
ear and why we hear what we hear. I really, really enjoyed it. I’m gonna
reiterate, this is probably one of the most interesting classes I’ve taken, and
Prof. Waltz even said he knew of some research labs that I’m for sure going to
have to look into. Anyway, we finished up class and I got a quick lunch with
Carter and Gabe before splitting off from everyone to go home (they had to go
the train station to figure out Paris logistics). My time at my host home was
interesting. I knew that I needed to get my paper done, and yet ended up being
three hours slipped by with me trying to be productive, but to no avail. I’ll
never understand where the time goes. However, I knew I had to get my paper
done before Henning’s concert (unfortunately, grades trump German indie punk
music festival) as well as pack for Brussels (our train was leaving at 7am and
we were meeting at 6:45am). Eventually, I made significant progress and was
pretty pleased with my work—not my best, but IMHO, good quality. It came to be
evening time, and Carter, Kathryn, Hailey, and I started getting prepped to
leave for the music festival. Long story short, Hailey and I ended up leaving a
little later than Carter and Kathryn, who met up with Prof. Waltz. Long story
short x2, I completely misread my bus schedule (whoops), and Hailey and I got
to the subway approximately 1 minute before it left. To give you an idea of how
close we were cutting it, Henning’s set started at around 10:15, we were
leaving the festival on the first train out at 11:30, and if we had missed that
first subway, we would’ve gotten there around 10:30…and it would’ve been all my
fault. BUT, we managed as we tend to do in those sorts of situations and got
there in great time. Funnily enough, we ended up getting there in a lot less
time than Carter and Kathryn for how much later we left after them, since they
missed their train. Anyway, from the very moment we walked in, you could tell
we stuck out like sore thumb. For starters, everyone—EVERYONE—was wearing black
and denim, and Prof. Waltz was in a bright orange rain jacket (which was
actually very useful in making him super visible). It also seemed like everyone
knew all the words to every song. I think I maybe recognized one of them? We
had a great time, Carter especially. We were headbanging and bopping around and
Sarah even got on the shoulders of a random man. It was pretty legit to see
Henning totally in his element. Unfortunately, there were only two busses
leaving from where we were (which was approximately an hour from Bonn), one at
11:30pm, the other at 2:00am, and with our early train to Brussels, we opted
for the 11:30pm and missed the grand finale/after party. After a train and a
bus ride, we made it back to Bonn around 1 or 2am, which I of course thought
was the perfect time to finish and submit my paper (which ended up being just
fine), before packing and going to bed. Again super late. Only to wake up
really early. Are you sensing a trend. Good.
After a
three-hour “sleep” (I’ve literally taken naps longer) I somehow managed to get
myself to the train station. Man, I was dead inside. Actually, we (Carter,
Gabe, Kathryn, Hailey, Alana, Dae, Drake, Emily, and I) all were. Totally worth
it. I did sleep some on the train, which is something I am almost never able to
do, so when we got to Brussels around 10am, I felt a little better. We headed
to our Airbnb, which was a little confusing to find, but made it inside. This
one was a little more on the ratchet side, but on a trip like this, it’s just
another character-builder. We headed into town, where the first thing on the
list was food. We were all starving, and the going gets rough when people start
getting hangry. We found a restaurant, where after a pretty good main course of
a baguette, we moved onto the main attraction: the waffles. Each of us got a
waffle and oh man it was glorious. The chocolate sauce alone was rich and
decadent and combined with the waffle, made the dessert top notch. It was
exactly what we were looking for. We decided to do a little bit of exploring
and walked by some pretty neat looking buildings whose names I have no idea and
ended up in a park. I took some pretty rad pictures if I do say so myself and
we even found this really cool drink stand with two guys performing a pretty
good cover of Isn’t She Lovely. We ended up finding a really nice patch of
grass in the middle of the park and, after taking a multitude of pictures, put
on some chill music and hung out/napped for a couple hours. It was glorious.
Afterward, we headed back into the busier parts of town, took even more
pictures of scenic views, and got some pretty good French fries with a “Brazil”
sauce. I’m sure it was totally authentic. Then, we walked around for a bit
before finding a chocolate shop, where the guy at the front was giving free
samples (and actually gave me two, so that was pretty neat) that totally worked
and I ended up walking away with a little goody bag for myself. We proceeded
onward and came to the Grand Place, which was pretty…grand. (I actually really
liked it quite a bit. The buildings surrounding all sides of the square were
marvelously and intricately decorated with stone and gold.) More walking
happened, we stumbled upon the Manneken Pis which was actually pretty funny
looking. I believe it was after this that we began our search for a place for
dinner, and although it took us awhile, we found a pretty nice upscale bar type
place where we all had itty bitty dinners due to the profound amount of
snacking during the day, had some deep talks that carried over into the night,
and finally went to bed.
Our final day in
Brussels consisted of basically what we did on the first day: walk around, eat,
and lay in a park. It started off at a breakfast place with possibly the
sweetest old man I have ever met. He was very kind to us especially, and the
breakfast just so happened to be reasonably priced, well portioned, and
delicious—especially the hot chocolate. Let me tell you about this hot
chocolate. Best I’ve had in my life. Literal molten chocolate gold. Amazing.
Truly amazing. After our carb-loading breakfast, we decided to walk around some
more. I wanted to see the Catholic cathedral there so I dragged everyone there
(by their own free will of course), and we actually stumbled upon the end of
Mass. Being Catholic, I thought it was super cool. Being American, I didn’t
understand a damn thing. Regardless, the organ sounded amazing, and this was
magnified even more so thanks to what I’ve learned in NOM. We then ventured to
find a large, famous park in Brussels. Although the patch of grass we settled
in was not as nice as the one the day before, I of course passed out anyway for
a solid amount of time after exploring. Then. THEN. We went to get French
fries, and wow probably some of the best fries I’ve ever had in my life. I
don’t even know how to describe them, except perfectly crispy and straight off
the fryer or oven or pan or whatever sorcery they use to cook them. They even
had—dare I say—that distinct smell (is it grease? Is it salt? Is it clogged
arteries?) that the best fast food restaurant fries have, but the taste was
elevated. Complimented by the garlic aioli sauce (which was also divine), I
felt supremely alive. Shortly after my cosmic experience, we headed back to the
main part of town where I bought yet another sweatshirt (whoops. Not sorry.)
and some more chocolate (whoops. Not sorry. x2). Afterward, we had some time to
kill before our train so we decided to head back to the restaurant from the
previous night for some drinks. While there, Alana mentioned that she wanted to
do some more shopping, so we all ventured back into town. A few went back to
certain stores, while myself and others went to get one last Belgian waffle.
Emily and I shared one with speculos and strawberries, and yet again Brussels
did not disappoint. What a euphoric experience. Anyway, all of a sudden we were
in a time crunch. Our train was leaving at 6:25pm, it was 5:48pm, and we were
twelve minutes away from the station. Stress levels were definitely rising
among the group, but I wasn’t worried. We made it to the train station with
ample buffer time and found our train on the departures board, only to find
“***” where our platform number should have been. Feeling a little sketched
out, we went to our platform, hoping for good news, but we were not so lucky.
Our train, which would have gotten us back to our host homes probably before
10pm, had been cancelled. Lol what. Background info: We HAD to make it to Bonn
that night. The next day we had to be at the train station at 6:20am to leave
for Norderney, so we couldn’t take an overnight train. We had to make it back
to our host homes somehow to prepare and pack a week’s worth of clothes for
Norderney and the following weekend. Even so, while I was a little peeved, I
wasn’t super stressed about it. I had an idea it would all work out somehow.
Plus, when you’re surrounded by people this great, you realize you’ll manage.
So we proceeded to wait in a really long line, only for the official guy to
tell us that we would have to take a train from Brussels to Liege, a bus from
Liege to Aachen, and a train from Aachen to Cologne (and then we’d have to find
our way from Cologne to Bonn). Okay. So. A slight change in plans, but this
really was our only option. Resigned to our fate of little to no sleep, we
boarded the train to Liege. About an hour later, we got off the train at one of
the Liege stops, exited the platform, and headed down to where we saw some
busses. Carter and I, being intelligent folk, decided to head inside the train
station to get some information straight to try to avoid us flailing around
trying to figure out which bus was ours in time. We go up to the counter, where
we explain our situation to the woman behind the desk. She tells us, “Oh, you
got off at the wrong stop.” (!!!!!!) I ask her what we do, and she says to get
on the Thalys train (super fast, reservation compulsory) to Cologne. My mind
starts racing because obviously this is SO much better than our original plan,
but we also had seven more people. She says it’s no problem (phew) and I ask
her, “When did you say the train leaves?” and this woman, calm as all get out,
says, “Three minutes.” Almost immediately, the adrenaline kicks in. Carter and
I look at each other, he tells me to run and grab everyone else while he gets
the boarding passes, and I sprint out of there. I exit the train station,
frantically searching for the group, finding nothing, until I hear “Jules!” I
spot them, wave at them hurriedly to follow me, and run back inside. I head
back to the information desk (what could’ve been a costly mistake in hindsight)
to grab Carter, but he’s already running towards us, and the lady behind the
counter is yelling at us to run to platform 2. We all race through the station
and bound up the stairs, where the whooshing of the train arriving just about
gives me a heart attack, and finally make it onto the Thalys train. It. was.
nuts. As I said before, Thalys trains are reservation compulsory, so even
though we were on the train, we had no seats. Half of us went to the luggage
cart, while Dae, Gabe, Emily, and I sat on the ground in between cars. We even
made friend with a German girl who had basically gone through the same thing as
us. I was so, so, so relieved we were on this train. I couldn’t stop laughing
and smiling for what seemed like a solid fifteen minutes. We made it back to
Cologne in one hour (wow!), but of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing from
there. I’m still not sure on the details, but the train from Cologne to Bonn
was delayed by an hour, so we hopped on another train whose final destination
was Koblenz, but Bonn was a stop on the way. Unfortunately, it seemed like
everybody and their mother had the same idea as us, so we all ended up getting
split up, and Kathryn, Emily, and I stood almost too close for comfort in the
aisle for the 40 minute ride. Talk about a fun time. Even so, we made it back
to Bonn much earlier than we would have otherwise, but with packing and
showering, I didn’t end up going to sleep until 1:00am. And so the trend
continues.
This week was on
the more chill side but still incredible as always. I really enjoyed Brussels.
After all, we pretty much only ate, walked, and lounged around. That seemed to
be the overall feel of Brussels: there aren’t any huge tourist attractions, so
our weekend was much more about the time we spent with each other soaking up
the city, rather than focusing on going from one thing to the next. It was much
more chill than our other city adventures and a really great predecessor to
Norderney, the greatest of them all. More on that later.
So, I lied. This
is definitely a lengthy post. You made it though, and I’m proud of you. We can
be friends.
JMD
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