Goodbye Blog Mit Käse

Sitting here in my apartment on the night before going back home has got me thinking. Thinking about all the fun I've had this semester, all the friends I've made and thinking about all the things I'll miss about Bonn and being abroad in general. My blogs are lagging a little bit so I am going to catch that up before continuing. 

After Aachen, we had some classes and then finals, which went alright. We also attended a play put on by the LMU theater students which was interesting, but I’m not a play fan so it was eh. The next day, bright and early in the morning we had our Rhein Cruise (which was actually a rafting trip) with the Viz kids from A&M. Before we started rafting however, we went to the Hildegard von Bingen museum and learned about the woman who had visions from God and used plants to cure diseases. Us Biosciences people also had to research a plant and what it was used for and what Hildegard used it for and gave a small presentation in the Hildegarten (haha) next to the museum. After a lunch that was so heavy it could sink a raft, we began our water journey. 

This leads to the buoy incident—which isn't supposed to be spoken of, but I have to let my avid readers know the truth. The raft I was on had Dr. Wasser at the helm, and Kristin manning the demanding position of DJ and ‘designated selfie taker’. Our boat struggled to properly propel itself, due to a combination of inept rowers and helmsman. However, after a while we got the hang of it, and just as we were getting into a groove, a buoy appeared on the horizon. We were directly on course for the aforementioned buoy and understandably wanted to avoid crashing into it. We (the rowers) desperately (and uselessly) tried to turn the vessel, Dr. Wasser tried to steer us away and told the left rowers to row harder—even though he meant the right rowers—and Kristin sat in the middle just yelling until the inevitable impact. After all of our lives flashed before us, and a dull 'thunk', it was all over and we had all survived. The rest of the rafting was uneventful other than the inefficient snakelike movement of our vessel, which exhausted our group unlike the other groups, who wisely used the current to help them. 

The next day of ‘Kristin’s Fat Camp^TM’ involved a bike ride to a city (Remagen) that was about 20 km away. The bike ride was very fun, and once we got to the picturesque city we had a tour of the Peace Museum. We then returned to Bonn and went to the old AIB for the Farewell Party, which was very fun. All of the students from the various programs, and most of the host families attended, and this is when it started to hit me that we were actually going home. Each program gave a small speech about their experiences in Bonn, and seeing everyone laughing and having such a good time made me really happy, and really sad at the same time, because I knew this was the last time we were all going to be together. That night was also Rhein in Flammen, which is a fireworks show. After staying at the old AIB for a while, we ended up walking about an huor to the place where the Rehien in Flammen party was and just sat on the grass and enjoyed the firewokrs. It seemed like the city of Bonn was giving us a goodbye party as well which made it an amazing experience.

Now that I'm all caught up, I can continue my deep thoughts regarding leaving Germany. This semester has been the best time of my life, and I have mixed feelings about leaving. On one side, I am very excited to see my family and friends, not having to pay for water, and just being home, but on the other, Bonn had started to feel like a home to me and I am going to miss so many things about it. I'm going to miss my host family and Kristin and Dr. Wasser and the AIB and tram 61. I’m going to miss actually I’m not going to miss the expert agility and skill required to use the shelf toilet. I'm going to miss saying tchüss and entshuldigung. I’m going to miss the closeness of all the other countries to Germany, because in the US you can’t just hop on a train and get to a different country in a few hours (sometimes you can’t even get to a different state). I’m going to miss eating copious amounts of croissants from the ubiquitous bakeries, eating mayo on fries and not getting weird looks, happy hour falafel, and Haribo. Most of all I’m going to just miss walking around Bonn with my friends, just getting lunch or going to the Altstadt, because over the past 4 months Bonn became my home.