Week 1 in the books.

I'll let you in on a little passage I wrote in my journal as it finally hit that I was sitting on my first international flight shortly after my parents dropped me off at the Toronto airport just a couple hours from our house in Michigan: "I would correlate my feelings right now to what it must be like when you're in the air about to sky dive with the only option being to jump."  If that doesn't let in on how truly nervous I was, I don't know what does.  Yikes, that is hard to admit.  I don't know, the thought of it just scared, shocked, and excited me all at once.  But then, right as I put my journal back in my backpack and sat back in my seat, I was urged to pull it back out to write this: "Overwhelmed with calmness."  ...if that even makes sense I guess.  But that was exactly what I felt.  

Now to all of the fun stuff.  Let me just try to give you a brief overview of the best week of my life.  And it's only the beginning.

Okay, SO, after getting lost in the Frankfurt airport, experiencing my first trouble with the language barrier, and finally hearing the correct pronunciation of my German last name, "Reis" (somehow over the years it's been changed to being pronounced as "Reese" instead of "Rice"), I was finally ready to take off on the bus that would take me, along with the rest of the program students, to meet our host families.  Lucky enough for my friend Cassidy and me, we ended up with the sweetest, retired couple.  From the first night here, I could tell we got some good ones.  They set up reclining chairs for us in their garden of a backyard, our first drinks in the house were alcoholic, and they forced us to take seconds at dinner (along with thirds, fourths, and honestly even fifths).  Both of them speak English very well and are so kind to us - telling us stories, giving us advice, and preparing us for our stay in Bonn.  After a long day of travel, it was bed time for this girl.

The next morning, I wake up in a panic running to the little mirror in my room to check to see if I still have teeth.  I did, thankfully, and it was just a dream.  As I googled the meaning behind this dream (like any normal person would), I found a list of possibilities: life changes, signs of personal expansion, times of renewal and rebirth, and feelings of sexual repression (?? - I think we can cross this one off the list).  Overall, I'd say that was pretty accurate.

So far, I've experienced more than I ever imagined I would and learned an incomprehensible amount in just a few days - from my professors (Wasser and Henning - you guys are amazing), from my peers, from my experiences, and from being an ocean away from my home country.  I have now seen my first castle, had my first German beer, learned my first bit of German, sat through my first medicine-based classes, conversed with my host family, hopped on a few trains with my eurail pass, experienced Bonn nightlife (thank you Untergrund), had my first fresh market fruit, eaten gelato on the massive Bonn University lawn, seen the most joyous dancing to live jazz music in the town square, and so much more.  Seven of us even spent our first weekend together in SWITZERLAND.  I will hands down say that is the most beautiful place I have ever seen (yet I still have many full weekends of travel ahead!!).  And all with people that made it the unbelievably special time that it was.  We've experienced some struggles together that include figuring out foreign bus schedules along with 10-hour night trains that lead to one person not making it off the train... but it's all just part of the learning curve (it is only the first week after all).

After all of this, one of the biggest things that has stuck in my mind has been the conversation our Switzerland group had with an elderly man (88 years young) as we stood high in the alps together, overlooking Interlaken, Switzerland.  Besides having incredible stories describing his move from Greece to the U.S., the love he had for his wife, his travel experiences, and his children, he was simply and incredibly inspiring.  And though we talked for some time, his largest point was, "There will be moments you experience on this trip that will spark a change in you forever."  And after all of his wisdom, how could I doubt him for a second.  People like that whom make you feel so brave and special and ready to take on the world are truly incredible.

So, after this first remarkable week, I have one word to describe the feeling I didn't know I was searching for: inspired.



-Kylie Reis

Our amazing kayak adventure.

Views of Interlaken.

Of course my Aggie Ring.