My first mountain and my first MOUNTAIN

It’s only my third day out here, I don’t know.

Why is the German language so intimidating? After
hours of flying,

no sleep, and a lot of confusion, all I wanted
was something familiar.

After like a minute of searching through the airport,
I found the promised land;

a Mcdonald’s (there’s apparently a Mcdonald’s
every couple blocks here).

I make it to the front of the line and I glance at
the menu and nothing, nothing

happened in my head. I could see pictures but the
words next to the pictures

made no sense whatsoever. So many letters and so
many consonants, I was

beyond overwhelmed. I walk up to the counter and
unconfidently said “chicken please” in

the most defeated voice possible.

This experience accurately sums up my entire first
week in Germany.

My next adventure was meeting my host family.
The literal second I stepped of the bus in

Bonn, a nice women came up to me and said
“Bryan and Chandler?” and for

some reason, when I’m nervous, I forget
how to formulate words or even think.

I’m pretty sure I responded “no” in that moment
even though she explicitly asked for me.

My mind couldn’t function, I was so overwhelmed.
From then on, I saw so many

new places, met so many new people, and was
exposed to so much rich culture.

I excitedly told my host mom that the mountains
 that surrounded Bonn were my first mountains to 
ever see in my life, she laughed in my face. Apparently, 
these were merely hills although they were far bigger than 
anything I had ever seen in College Station. 

This week scared me at first, but eventually, inspired
me to take advantage

of this once in a lifetime opportunity. On Friday,
I literally bought a train

ticket to leave to Switzerland later that night.
Before that day, I had never

even thought about Switzerland, like I couldn’t
even try to describe to

someone what it looked like because I straight up
didn’t know.

That rash decision had the sweetest outcome.
I got on a night train, fell asleep, and

woke up in some sort of euphoric paradise. I saw
MOUNTAINS and snow for

the first time. I saw the bluest water I could ever imagine.
I was convinced

that my sleep on the train had caused me to transcend
into some perfect dimension.

Here, listening to the sounds of the cowbells while
kayaking on the bluest lake

in between two mountains, I was truly happy.