Week one down!

I haven't had the best experience with airlines and trains so far and I don't think it's going to end anytime soon. My plane flying into Charlotte North Carolina was overbooked so the first flight of my trip was already off to a stressful start. Luckily a couple overheard me on the phone and gave me their seat so I was able to make it to Germany! On the flight to Germany, I got sat to two guys also from TAMU who were studying architecture in Bonn. Once we landed it still took me a second to feel as if I was actually in Germany but once the airport announcements came on it was pretty obvious they weren't speaking English. Our group soon met up and we headed to our bus for the ride to Bonn. I took a huge nap on the bus and in little, to no time we were there! I was so excited but at the same time so jetlagged. Soon I met Maria, my host mom, and she took me to her quiet town of Roisdorf. It's one of the smaller suburbs outside of Bonn and has the most beautiful pathways. The first night we discussed all sorts of topics and even took a 30-minute walk around the countryside. The first few days in Germany we got to finally take some classes and learn all about the program we would be embarking on. The classes have been very interesting and I have loved learning how all the information we have been learning can be applied to real life scenarios or how medicine in the past has influenced modern things to this day. Dr. Wasser gave us his Hero's Journey speech and ever since I have joked that I have reached the point where I was at my lowest of low with using the transportation system, but I've managed to survive everything so far. We got to go explore Bonn the first few days and walked everywhere, and when I saw everywhere I mean everywhere. My steps this week averaged above 15,000 steps every day and it probably will remain that way the rest of the trip. We began our week with a tour of the History of Germany Museum, where we learned all about the background of Germany in order to learn why and how modern Germany has developed. After the tour, a few of us went to the Beer Garden on the Rhine and got to enjoy the sunny weather that day. It seems to me that Bonn weather changes constantly, even more so than Texas. Every day Maria has been the kindest host mom and has made me breakfast with my favorite fruits, coffee, and German bread. Thursday was a public holiday called Ascension Day so I was able to meet her daughter Rebekka and her sister in law, her husband and their son, Thio. Both Rebekka and Tilo are 23 and 24 so it was really interesting to talk to them about their experiences in university and the differences between how they grew up versus my upbringing. We all went on a tour hour walk at a park next to the Rhine where we saw all sorts of animals from a Nurtia to cottontail rabbits to all sorts of birds. After dinner the whole family ended up discussing all sorts of things, from how children shouldn’t play with technology super young, to how they start dinner with a saying versus a toast, to even how they think it is weird that my dogs slept in the same bed as me. I’ve learned so much already and it has only been the first week. Every place I’ve gone I’ve tried asking as many questions as possible because I think the history behind every building is so interesting. I have always enjoyed history and to be in front of the places in real life that people talk about is unbelievable. 

This weekend a couple of us decided to go to Amsterdam and wow what a city. Starting off strong my tram didn’t show up and I ended up sprinting from my tram to the train. When I got there the door literally closed in my face but the girl inside and I were able to pull the door open and I hopped on. The train there was pretty fine and then they told us we needed to move cars because our train was splitting in half, so then our whole group ended up running from the back of the train to the front. Once we made it into Amsterdam we checked into our Airbnb where we were left with stroopwaffles as a gift from the owner. We then met up with everyone else and walked around town for a bit. The next day we went and got pancakes but instead of regular pancakes, you could put all sorts of food on top. We then went on a canal cruise where we all got pretty sunburned since there were no clouds in sight. During the cruise, we learned that there are about 8 million bikes in the city, which we should have rented at the beginning in order to save our feet from all the blisters. After the canal cruise, we went walking around and got to see parliament buildings, statues, and cathedrals. We then went to the flower market where we got to see hundreds of tulips. We then headed to the Heineken experience where we met up with a few more people and had the best of time, besides the annoying Bachelor parties, we learned the history of Heineken, how they brew their beer, how they became international and then we were taught how to properly pour and drink a beer. Afterward, we got dinner and headed back into the city to explore. Sunday we got ready for the day and went to the Van Gogh Museum. The paintings were smaller than I had imagined but it was so interesting to look super close and see every brushstroke made in real life. Furthermore, the progression of Van Gogh’s mental state over the course of his lifetime was very apparent in how he painted and the way his brush strokes moved. After a long weekend, we all met up at the train station where we successfully got on our first train without a problem. Fast forward to the next station, we find out our train has been canceled. Of course, our whole group has no idea what to do and none of the workers spoke English very well so with Dr. Wasser’s help we decided to train hop all the way to Bonn. I ended up getting home at 12:45 in the morning but I was more than happy to be back. So far I have loved every moment, except the trains and trams, but otherwise, the people are all super friendly and the culture is evident everywhere we go.