Unlike the struggles of the first week, week two went quite smoothly. On Monday, we travelled down to Koblenz and toured its Theatre. I was a dancer for 15 years but have only been backstage in smaller auditoriums. Seeing a professional theatre and all of it’s components— where they build the sets, where they paint the sets, where they make the costumes, where they rehearse— was right up my alley, and I enjoyed it very much. After the theatre tour, we took a gondola up to a fortress. This fortress contains a room that has perfect acoustics which we were going to make noises in to apply what we have been learning in Neurophysiology of Music. Unfortunately, staff was setting up for a party, and we were unable to experience it. A bit of a disappointment because how many times will I be able to experience a room with perfect sound?
On Tuesday, we had classes all morning then in the afternoon, a couple of my peers and I hiked up to the Drachenfels Castle and further up to some ruins. It was a short hike, but it was pretty challenging. The first mile was a solid incline of 90°. I don’t know what the incline actually was, but it was steep. The view from the top was breathtaking tough!
On Wednesday, we travelled to Cologne and took a guided tour of the city. The cathedral was unlike anything I had ever seen before. You could stare at it for months and find a new detail every time. For lunch we ate at a brewery and got a huge platter of meat. It was gone in 15 minutes.
Thursday and Friday were spent in the classroom learning about forms of medicine during World War II and Nazi Germany and also learning about the health benefits and history of saunas.
I opted out of traveling for the weekend so I could spend a little time with my host mom and her family. We ate breakfast and dinner together each day, and I got to learn more about their lives and their culture while teaching them a little about America. They took me to the Haribo store, I got to go shopping with my host’s granddaughter, and they drove me down the countryside of Germany to vineyards. I ended up getting car sick from the winding roads of the country side, oops. To end the day, we went to a hot air balloon festival where balloonists put on a choreographed show with the furnaces in their balloons. I had never seen a hot air balloon before and let me just tell you, they are massive. On Sunday, we went to the movie theater and saw the new Elton John movie, Rocket Man. Barbecuing was the perfect end to the weekend with the family, and I was so glad I stayed and spent time with them.
Week 3 is now starting as I am sitting on a train on my way to Norderney. I can already tell this week is going to be interesting because I left a test I am supposed to turn in at home. Soooo we’ll see how this goes, I’ll keep you updated. Tschüss for now!
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