Sunday, January 31, 2016

A Not Very Average, Average Week

This week followed a weekend in Amsterdam, and this weekend was spent in Bonn, so things are very humdrum. Outside of going to the Cöln Cathedral, which was breathtaking, this week was a very average week. It was spent going to and from classes, eating, sleeping and doing homework. These things are like any other week of the school year. Yet, everything is so not average. Things are completely different.

When I wake up I ride the bus into a completely foreign city (although it is becoming familiar). I take classes in a small classroom of 20 or less students. I go to eat and I am faced with odd foods and cooks/cashiers who do not speak my language. I either get by with rudimentary German or they get the clue from my blank stare and respond in English if they can. When I am not in class or eating, I walk around a town with buildings older than the existence of my country. There are bakeries on every corner, and somehow people are not fat. I swear the German people have some secret that allows them to eat copious amounts of bread without gaining weight. When I am done in the city I take the bus back to a home that is not my own. I eat dinner with a family of strangers who have been nice enough to let me stay in their house. They feed me great food, but it is all very different than what I would eat at home. In many ways it is better, but sometimes I yearn for the comfort of familiar foods. Maybe this will soon change and the things here will become familiar.

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