Every Time I Use Google the Results are in German and I am Disconcerted

If you thought the students of Texas A&M University had finally escaped the wrath of the southern sun, you would be wrong. Since I last posted, we have experience temperatures close to 90°F. While this doesn’t seem nearly as hot as Texas, most buildings here lack the savior of the western frontier: air conditioning. Fortunately, it is cooler today after last night's rain.

One of the canals we toured

Last weekend, I went to Amsterdam with a some of the other students. We started our trip with a relaxing canal tour through the city and learned about some of the architecture of the houses. Afterwards, we walked through my favorite place on the trip, the flower market. Here you could buy everything from seeds to tulip buds to venus fly traps to wooden clogs as well as tons of different types of flowers. Later that day, we went on a tour of the original Heineken brewery. The tour was interesting in both the history of the beer and the multiple bachelor parties that were having a little too much fun. Overall, the weekend in Amsterdam was fun. I even came back with some souvenirs like crazy socks for my collection and a sunburn.

The flower market

Over the past week, we have had a few German lessons. Hilde, our instructor is very nice and makes learning a new language enjoyable. The lessons were a little intimidating at first as she walked around the room asking us questions in German, but we soon realized the atmosphere was lighthearted. So far, we have learned how to greet people, count, describe weather, and name colors. The most confusing part of the German lesson is telling time. In German, instead of saying it is 9:35, Germans say “fünf minuten nach halb zehn” which means “five minutes after the half hour before ten”.

View from the top of the fort

We haven’t spent much time in the classroom this past week since we’ve been visiting other cities. On Monday, we visited an opera house and a fort in Koblenz. The opera house we toured was over two hundred years old and still in use to this day. To get to the fort, we took a gondola over the Rhine and got to see the entire city.

Cologne Cathedral

On Wednesday, we visited Cologne. The walking tour was very hot, but the tour guide’s wit and sassy remarks made it entertaining. The most impressive landmark in Cologne is the cathedral. It was started in 1248 and stands a hundred and fifty-seven meters tall. This cathedral was so massive that my phone camera can't even capture its scale.

Since coming to Bonn, I’ve realized how lucky I am to be living with Familie Schuck. It only takes twenty minutes to walk from class, seven to the central station, and six to the Haribo store, which I plan on returning to soon. Another benefit is the great leg exercise I have when getting to my room. I live on the top floor of the house and from basement to roof, there are about eight flights of stairs and around a hundred steps. Good thing we didn’t climb the cathedral in Cologne because it it has five times as many steps!

Our group has been pretty busy this past week and I am so excited that we will soon be relaxing on Norderney. Can’t wait!

Confession time: Dr. Wasser has reference The Da Vinci Code several times, especially during our lecture on da Vinci. Every time he mentions it, I nod as if I know what happens in the movie, but I’ve never seen it.