Last Thursday we went to the Hildegard von Bingen Museum and on the Rhein cruise. At the museum I liked seeing the pictures of Hildegard's visions because their was so much symbolism. It was kind of interesting that they're not even sure what all of it means. Also I really liked seeing the old medical instruments like the iron scalpels and probes, and the garden with the medical herbs.
The cruise was very nice and despite the somewhat rainy weather, we got to see a lot of the riverside including the castles that popped up nearly every 500 meters.
Once we got to the end of our cruise we got to see the ruins of the Rheinfels castle. It was so much fun to ramble around the ruins, climbing up stony hills and venturing into dark tunnels. I'm pretty sure we all felt like little kids on a jungle gym, and I know I could easily have spent another hour or more there, but sadly we had to head back to Bonn to hopefully be home in time for dinner.
On Saturday was the soccer match, Cologne vs. Stuttgart, which was a lot of fun. We got really into the spirit of it, and several of us bought scarves to support the Cologne team. These scarves came in handy when the crowd sang the team song before the match. Everyone was holding their scarves up in the air so of course we joined in, and then to my surprise partway through the song everyone doubled their scarf and held the ends in one hand, and began swinging it around above their head almost exactly as we swing our towels at A&M football games. It was really funny how similar the whole atmosphere felt to being at a football game in Kyle Field, but we also were reminded a little of the Quidditch World Cup in the fourth Harry Potter book. I don't typically think of myself as a sport person, but if I had a sport it would be soccer. No offense to American football, but there is a lot less standing around and a lot more running in soccer, which in my opinion makes it more exciting. I was slightly disappointed by the fact that the game ended in a tie, but it was still a lot of fun.
On Sunday was the half marathon, or for some really dedicated people, the marathon. I was somewhat nervous after last weekend when I went running with Kathryn and Andrea for about 11 miles and we had a really rough time of it. I wasn't sure I could make 13 miles if I couldn't even handle 11, but we got there bright and early and the excitement of race day and the track-meet-like atmosphere made up for my poor running skills. We nervously lined up at the start line and set off, and I immediately turned on my motivational music since I'm not hard core enough to run without music. Although it was the longest I had ever run at one time, and my energy would come and go, I made it without too much difficulty and even had a better time than I had expected, though still not a time to rival anyone of any athletic ability. After the race I felt so sore and tired, but also satisfied that I had finished, and back at the old AIB some of the girls from LMU had prepared a veritable feast of which I ravenously partook. When I felt up to moving again, I made my way home, where I promptly fell asleep for about four hours. I was really impressed with Candy because she ran a whole marathon, and I know how exhausting only a half is, so to me she has superhuman strength and endurance. All in all a very nice weekend and prelude to the stressful pre-final week to come.
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