Long Lost and Forgotten Post, but Now Found

Along with participating on this blog and posting about my adventures, I also have a personal blog. There I usually tell more personal stories and post more pictures I know my mom and her friends would enjoy seeing. Although, I do tend to write about similar things and even sometimes copy and paste to this blog, I'm not sure how this post didn't make it to the Biosciences page, or a revised version of it. Therefore, I've decided to share it with you now. This was written the week of spring break (März 12-20), so it's been a little while. But it has some good stories as I also recap to times before Spring break. This is strictly copy and paste with now revision from blog to blog, but I thought it was a solid post I just forgot to share. Enjoy :)

Hallo Leute, 

Hallo auf Italien! I'm currently traveling the countryside of Italy heading to Florence! I had a little spare time that I'm sure I should spend reading physiology, but I'd rather write. And although it may seem like my time here in Germany is a complete vacation, I promise it's not. Spring break was a most definitely needed time away from my home away from home. For me now, staying in a hotel means spending an infinite amount of time in the shower. (I've been looking forward to taking a long shower since I've gotten to Bonn.) If I haven't mentioned this previously, it's expensive to heat water in Germany, so my host family suggests showers less than 10 minutes. It took a little while for me to get used to this, but I've come accustomed. It makes sense to me though. Germany is quite conservative, so it makes sense that not only do we recycle everything (plastic of any kind, wrappers, cartons, paper, bottles of any kind, glass, aluminum, and organics) but we continue be conservative in everything we do (heating rooms, using water, etc...). Anyways, upon arriving to the hotel in Venice, there was a huge bathtub in our room and the excitement expressed between Lauren and I was indescribable. Both of us took bubble baths both nights. I suppose what they say is true, you don't know what you have until you don't anymore. I'm not saying that living in America is such a luxury, I've come to realize there are pros and cons to both countries and cultures and what you prefer just happens to make the country seem a bit more appealing to you. I haven't picked a favorite yet in case you were wondering. 

So, let's travel back in time for a little bit. The last thing I talked about was shadowing at a teaching hospital in Bonn on Wednesday, February 24th. Since then of course I've done a lot, but I'll hit they highlights. My fingers don't type as quick as my mind tells the story. That weekend I traveled to Maastricht. It's an older and smaller city in the Netherlands. It's full of Dutch culture and so many old and traditional Dutch style buildings. It's beautiful. I went into a building that looked completely like a church on the outside but upon walking inside, it was a bookstore and a library. The ceilings and windows still represented a church and it was quite spacious, but it was no longer used as a church. It was really neat and my friend told me that there are many buildings like that around Maastricht that used to be churches but used as something different now. It was really interesting. 

So Maastricht is gorgeous and food and drinks are pretty darn great too. Not that I really detest any food or alcoholic beverage... But of course, I have a story that goes along with my trip to Maastricht. Actually, this experience was when I was on my way home to Bonn. But I'll get you up to speed so you can maybe grasp the story better. On my way to Maastricht, being on the student/European traveler budget, I took the cheaper option to get to Maastricht which was a 7 euro bus from Bonn to Aachen and then a 6 euro bus from Aachen to Maastricht. Pretty cheap, and it was decently fast. But, on my way back I left later in the evening so I took the bus from Maastricht to Aachen and then a train from Aachen to Bonn. So things started off well, I made it to Aachen Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) easily. I had a little trouble getting on the next train home so I had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Okay, no big deal. I get a snack, time passes and I hop on my train to Köln (switching trains on the way is usually cheaper). So I find a seat and start studying for a lab test I have the next day. It hasn't even been 5 minutes and the conductor comes across the intercom and talks for a really long time. Did I mention it was all in German? At bigger train stations they'll usually repeat themselves in English, but Aachen isn't very large. Also, if it's a pretty important message, they repeat it in English as well. So naturally, I was a bit confused given that German is not a language I am fluent in and of course with my luck, nothing was repeated in English. But I knew for sure something was happening because all of the old people around me were fussing. A few minutes later, we stopped at a different train station, somewhere I wasn't too familiar with and everyone started getting off the train. So I assumed that it'd be a good idea to follow along. This time, being a follower worked out well for me. I discovered that something was wrong the train schedule and we had to switch trains in order for the train we were previously on, to go to it's next destination. It took me awhile, but kein problem, I made it to the next train and we headed onwards. 

So here I am, on train number 2. I'm back to hanging out, minding my own business, studying a little more and then some commotion starts going on behind me. It doesn't take much for me to get distracted, so here I am being nosey, trying to figure out what was going on. There was lots of yelling in German and a little bit in French. (As you may know, two language I'm not very familiar with.) But I could definitely pick up on some hostile vibes. I turned around, as did the people around me, and there was a guy pinned against the train window getting handcuffed. There was more yelling and now I was picking up on some not so nice German words. It was interesting. It was clear that this guy was in trouble, and he was mad, and definitely didn't expect this situation. So from what I gathered with my German language skills and the lady next to me was that he was not from Germany, he was from Belgium and he was using false identifications. And I'm assuming the German that arrested him and escorted him off the train was undercover. This may or may not have been a serious undercover case, I'm not sure and I'm not too sure I want to know. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. 

So of course, after this incident, I had to switch trains again and then proceeded on to Köln and finally to Bonn-Bad Godesberg. This may sound a bit scary but it wasn't. I look at it as a learning experience:

1) Never falsely identify yourself 

2) Only take trains if you're looking for an adventure or have time to kill

3) Learning bad words in German can be beneficial in some situations 

So that's that. What a train ride. But no worries, I made it home safely and in decent amount of time. Kein problem! 

So next story: I went to a European soccer game! After living with boys for some time in college, I've become a much bigger fan of sports than I was before. So naturally,  I got a little too excited for the Leverkusen game. I had face paint and I mentally prepared myself for the experience with a beer. Leverkusen was ranked 6 at the and the opposing team (who I don't remember the name of, probably because of the excessive beer drinking (kidding Mom), but they were definitely green) was ranked 13. Long story short, I was disappointed and raised my voice a couple of times due to losing the game 3-1. It sucked, but it was an awesome experience. Since then I've been looking into getting tickets to another game. Hopefully Dortmund. Like I said, being on the college student/European traveler budget adds hinderance to certain things.   

OK -- that's the highlights and this is getting a little long, so I'll continue on in another blog post. 

Bis später,

S