First from the Fatherland!

So far, the trip has been pretty awesome. The plane trip seemed like 4 years, but the sunrise we saw while coming down into Frankfurt was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Once we met Nils, our program coordinator, at the airport, we took a bus to Bonn. Hardly any of us were able to sleep on the flight (I think I got a total of 20 minutes), so needless to say, we were all pretty wiped when we got to Bonn. We were also hungry. And so began our first advenure into the city of Bonn.

I'm sure it was mentioned at some point during our orientation meetings, but it slipped my memory that Germany has many subways and that many people use the subways to get around town in the same way that Americans use cars to get around town. I've ridden subways before, but the experience still felt new to me, seeing as it was in a different country, the announcements were in German, and our only instructions were "Go to the fifth stop and there will be food."

It was sweet though. The subways are so integrated with the city, and the stations are even hangouts for the skater kids. Once we got off at the fifth station, we wandered for a bit before coming to a Mexican restaurant, which was, ironically, where I had my first authentic German beer. I asked the waiter what dark beers they had and he immediately pointed to the 'Weizen,' so I ordered it. It was the darkest beer I had ever seen, served in a 0,5 liter glass with a huge head on top. It was the most delicious beer I have ever tasted, and also probably the smoothest. I was sold. German beer truly does live up to its hype.

Later that night, we had dinner at one of the biergartens in Germany where I tried Jagerschnitzel for the first time, and had 3 more beers that were similar to the weizen, as well as a delicious baked apple dessert.

Today we had a guided historic tour of Bonn, where we saw the Rhine, the huge church in the middle of the city (which was very impressive), ruins of a Roman dwelling, and learned more about the history of Bonn. After lunch, we did a guided tour at a museum for the history of Germany. Even though this tour covered a lot of WWII history, which I was familiar with, I found it fascinating to hear the story from the German perspective, how Germany was in ruins after the war, and how the country began to rebuild itself. After the tour, Dr. Wasser lectured to us about eugenics and euthanasia during the Nazi period, which I found to be a dark but still interesting topic. After that was ice skating, which was also interesting because it was outdoor, and the music being played was almost all American (YMCA, Soul Sista, Ke$ha, etc.).

This blog wouldn't be worth too much if I didn't mention the things that have surprised me here so far. First of all, the roads are way skinnier than American roads. the bus ride to Bonn was a little scary because I felt like our bus was too wide for the lanes. Second, if a traffic light turns green and there are still people crossing the street, German drivers do NOT wait for them to finish crossing! They step on the pedal and honk, which as it turns out, is very effective. Third, I didn't realize that fashion was such a big thing in Germany. Clothing and accessory stores are everywhere, and even the guys are decked out in trendy-looking hats and scarves. Another surprising thing is the amount of people that smoke. It seems that everyone we pass on the streets is holding a cigarette. I also didn't expect the old and new architecture styles to be so seamlessly integrated throughout the city.

Well, that was report number one. More to come later, but I need to get some sleep. If our luck holds, we'll get to see an operation tomorrow.