A few days from week 1

Day two

I woke up around 9 am after a good night sleep accompanied by a few James Bond films. I am glad I brought movies because I still have yet to find a TV in the house (or know enough German to find it entertaining.) Everyone is still asleep because they partied all night at the graduation thing. I decided to get a shower and walk around town to figure things out. The internet not working well also prompted this decision. I walked down to the Munster (church) which is from roman times, I can’t think of which century but it is about 1000 years old and pre gothic. From the church I walked the market square which was completely empty because it is Sunday and Germans think it is odd to go out. Around 12 I got a call to meet Hilda who is a very very nice and funny German woman. She has short hair and is about as tall as Abigail. Hilda is a host mother who also teaches us some german. Her and a few of the girls on my trip were walking around town and found me. From the market center we got a tour of town from Hilda. We saw places to eat and drink, stopped by a carnival, and saw the theater. For lunch I had my first real German food, currywurst. It is a brautwurst covered in curry ketchup served with fries. It was good, but not good for my health. Our group then stopped by a culture festival which was very funny. We watch a lady teach Zumba as if it was something worth of noting. She tried to say that this was a new American dance/workout, I could really understand because it was all in german. There were funny looking people trying to do zumba including an old man which was extremely funny. I got home around dinner time. After dinner I called it a night and went to bed.

Day three (Monday july 4)

I woke up around 730 and got breakfast, it was an omelet with toast served by my host mother. I was impressed that they have an espresso machine in the house so I can pull espresso shots whenever I want to, so awesome! I had my host mother show me how to get to AIB, the academy for international studies. We road our bikes form the house to school. I was a little late because the trains that run behind the house blocked the road for about 5-10 minutes. Once at AIB I couldn’t figure out how to open the door, once I figured how to buzz in I sat down for my first day. We got a historical city walk first thing. We saw the Munster, the old roman church. We also saw the old city walls and defenses. The university here is spread out through the town and is made up of old “castles”. It is more or less very very large houses from the 1800’s spread around town. We then later learned german and more history about germany. After class we all met up at a Biergarten for drinks and to socialize with each other. The local brew in Bonn is one of the best beers I have had, very refreshing full flavored and not hoppy. As we were leaving the biergarten I ran into an Englishman who is an expat teaching at UT. We talked about Texas and US beer for a little bit until he wished us a happy fourth (the only person to do so). From here four of us went out to a bar called Painless. Painless is an irish pub which speaks amazing English and has drink specials. The four of us that went were Drew, Travis, Samantha, and myself. We had a good time once we got to the bar. Finding the bar was another story, Drew wanted to lead because he thought he remembered how to get to the bar but instead lead us down a dark and scary alleyway. Besides the wrong turn the night was very enjoyable. I ended up getting home around 1:30 am.

Day four, July 5th

Today we attended classes around 930 am. We talked about cultural differences and why our cultures act the way they do. We also had another crash course in German from Hilda. Half of the group decided to a burger place called something like Frittebus. The served one of the best burgers I have ever had, extremely juicy topped with cheese, bacon, lettuce and ketchup. It is weird eating out here because they serve you 0.3L of water, coke, beer, etc and you don’t get refills. After lunch we went to a zoological museum in Bonn where we saw many different types of birds and animals. The tour guide was a PhD student who spoke awesome English and lead the tour better than I could have but still apologized for his “bad” English. Once I got home at 5 pm I decided to go for a run. I ran around 7 miles before I decided I needed to head home for dinner. I ran a random route through town and made a loop which included about 3 miles of the Rhine river. The weather here allows one to run for a very long period of time before becoming tired. It is cool and moist so one doesn’t get thirsty. I then had dinner around 8pm with my host family and the mothers Sister/Husband from Czech Republic. Dinner was a good roast beef with some biscuit like potatoes and a fruit sorbet with whipped cream and fruit. It was very tasty. I talked to the brother in law for a long time over a Pilsner Uquell. He was very nice as we shared different things about our countries. He told me how the system works in Czech and Germany/Europe.

Thursday July 6th

We woke up very early to catch the 6:45 train to Hannover which is in northern germany. This was the start to our first 5 day excursion. It was hard to pack enough for 5 days but I managed to do it with my nice hiking backpack. I am super glad I brought it instead of a smaller school backpack. Once in Hannover we went to the store and stocked up on drinks and food for the night. After unpacking we left for the hospital where we got to talk to a nephrologist about EHEC, the bacterium that has cause several deaths in Germany before we came over. From the hospital we went to see the axolotl lab where they are doing research on how to regrow limbs on humans. The axolotls are small salamanders which live in water. Once the lady started talking about them on a powerpoint I couldn’t help but to fall asleep from all of the traveling/lack of sleep due to staying up late. We also saw how they are doing research with spiders to create a new type of mesh patch for hernias. Later that night we decided to get pizza for dinner and stay in. We had a party in our hotel room while watching the US women in the world cup. The US played Sweden and lost 2-1. We had fun even though we lost, we stayed up till 2 am drinking and having a good time with each other. It was a funny sight to Niles seeing 7-8 american college kids party in a small hotel suite. (the room was a single bedroom attached to a double by a door, each person had their own bed, but the shower and bathroom was shared) Although niles thought it was funny to party like this he joined in the fun anyway.