Tales from a Midnight Blogger

So, I think the events of today call for a pretty epic blog post. First of all, I got up early to run three miles as part of training for the half marathon that is looming in the not-so-distant future. I found my way out fairly easily; it was on the way back when I ran into trouble. Unfortunately I did not pay very good attention and missed a turn, so I ended up running about one mile extra as I jogged around my neighborhood, trying to remember how to get back to the street I live on. I finally found my way back by following the bus route.

A short while later, I was with five others on our way to Köln, in which we had an awesome time. We saw the cathedral and climbed up 533 steps, which was tiring but completely worth it to see the view. We collectively took approximately 1000 pictures of the cathedral.

Then we just had a good time, exploring the city. Again, it was on the way back that we ran into trouble. Since Chibuzo was there, we should have expected some bad luck with trains, but we were woefully unprepared for the fact that when a train says it goes to Bonn, it might not be a part of Bonn that we recognize. Luckily some members of the group are less inclined to panic and despair than others, and we were able to hop on a tram that took us exactly where we needed to go. Thus ends the adventures for the day. Or so I thought.

Little did I know that when I got home, during dinner my host mom would invite me to watch a movie, auf Deutsch, with my host sisters while she went to a play, in order to improve my German skills. We decided on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (or Pirates of the Caribbean: Fremde Gezeiten). When their mother left, I was shown a whole new side of my host sisters, Janika (13) and Malin (11), including, but not limited to: Malin stealing Janika's banana and pretending it was a telephone (an endeavor in which I was enlisted to help when Janika attacked Malin in order to get it back); singing “We Are the Champions” together; excessive screaming on the part of Malin and barking on the part of the dogs; and not a little bit of insanity. Finally we settled down to watch the movie, which I actually understood a lot of (although that may have been more from body language than my increasing mastery of the German language), but I am still confused on some of the finer points (having never actually seen that particular movie in English before). Well, at least I got some practice in.