Week 2

Week two is officially complete. It doesn't feel like I've only been in Germany for two weeks. It's starting to feel more familiar with each passing day. Classes are still going well and I am still exploring Europe. We went to Cologne on Tuesday as a group. We toured the city and even got to climb to the top of the cathedral! It is a nice city with a very rich history (and I will have to go back soon to see the chocolate museum).

Cologne HBF from the roof of the cathedral

This weekend, we went to Amsterdam. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. The architecture and canal systems are beautiful, but the culture is very different from what I am used to. I did not know much about Amsterdam before I went, so I didn't really know what to expect. There were some ups and downs, but we still had fun. I went on a canal boat tour, which was a cool way to see the city. I also visited the Anne Frank house, which was a very moving experience. I even found a cat museum, filled with paintings of cats, along with a few real cats. We had some issues with trains and lodging, but it worked out in the end. (Just a bit more difficult than what we had anticipated...)

Amsterdam from the canal boat tour

One highlight of the trip: the museum cats

Matured 5 Years in 3 Days

Week 2 in Bonn was INSANE! The trip to Cologne last Tuesday was a great way to start the week. I had been told the cathedral there, the Kölner Dom, was huge but when I saw the spires stretching into the sky from the ceiling of the train station, I literally let out a gasp. It blew my mind that such a masterpiece actually existed and that people long ago were able to actually construct a gigantic structure like that without the aid of modern tools. The ingenuity and skill is remarkable. I’ve had the great pleasure of being able to see the Great Wall of China and stand on it but this cathedral comes in as a close second of great structures I’ve seen in person. The tour of the roof of the cathedral was also unbelievable. I get a little freaked out about heights associated with buildings but the tour was well worth the nervousness. The views were amazing and being able to hear the construction history from the tour guide while walking on the roof was so great. That tour is definitely one of the top five moments of this study abroad program so far.

The tour at the House of History on Thursday was also pretty magical. Learning more about the country I’ll be in for the next 3 months is pretty important to me and afterwards I felt like I had a better understanding of Germany and its people. I do want to go back to the museum though because there was just so much stuff that I didn’t get to look at close enough. 

 I thought the week had been pretty eventful and was looking forward to a fun weekend in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam had other plans…….

The Airbnb we had booked ended up being a scam. So our group of 10 was essentially homeless in Amsterdam on Friday night. We headed to a McDonald’s to use their Wi-Fi to start searching for hostels or hotels with rooms available for that night. We finally found a hostel that had enough room for all of us but it was only for that night. At that point we just needed shelter because I really believed we’d end up sleeping at McDonald’s, the 10 of us taking shifts to watch all of our things and order food every 2 hours so that we wouldn’t get kicked out. It was a huge relief to have a place to stay for the night but I personally never felt scared or angry or sad. I was just accepting of the situation and really not fazed at all. The other members of the group for the most part felt the same way. I’m really proud of all of us because everyone kept their heads! We didn’t turn on each other and no one was the weak link. We all worked together to figure out a way out of our unfortunate situation while still laughing about the situation. We joked about committing a minor crime like jaywalking so that we could be arrested and stay the night in jail if we didn’t find any housing. Once we got settled into the hostel the rest of the night was a blast. Luckily another hotel with room for the 10 of us on Saturday night was found which was a HUGE relief. Saturday was full of new sights and experiences which cumulated in a fantastic fun-filled Saturday night.  On Sunday several of us went to the Anne Frank house which was a sobering experience. Rest of the day was spent roaming around the city and we left to the train station a couple hours early to get some homework done before our train left. Unfortunately we only made it to the first exchange point when we got into another mess. The train we were supposed to get on was canceled due to a tragic incident and all other trains intended for the next exchange point were canceled as well. We got a new itinerary which set our arrival in Bonn about 2 hours later than the original time. It was definitely a long journey but the people with me made it so much better. When we finally got to Bonn I was surprised to feel that feeling you get when you finally get home after being away for a period of time. I’ve only been in Bonn for about 2 weeks but it already feels like my home away from home.

The Amsterdam trip presented a lot of obstacles but I’m glad it did because I learned more about myself in how I handle complicated situations and learned a lot about the others based off of how they handled the hurdles thrown our way. But I’d really prefer it if none of that ever happened again.

One of the happier moments in Amsterdam!

               

LIFE!

Well, week 2 has flown by here in Germany, things have taken an interesting turn! Haha, for starters I can say I have some real friends now and we have a little bit of bonding under our belt, needless to say after going through three days worth of mishaps!

But on another note, So far I have been to Heidelberg, Koln, and Amsterdam, all of which were beautiful but for different reasons!

Heidelberg: This place was gorgeous! It was also very relaxing, in Heidelberg, we got to see the castle and the pharmacy museum, both of which were very cool! Me and couple of friends even played in the snow, it was the type of vacation you almost dream of haha, when you're a broke college student with dreams. This trip was almost perfect, aside from a supermarket fiasco, but at least i'm a queen now (insider). This trip was almost stress free, but boy did it get us ready for Amsterdam! That is a-whole-nother story!

Koln: In Koln I faced my fears, like really! I climbed to the top of the cathedral JUST or pictures, but they were worth it! If you know me, then you know I absolutely despise heights! After the first elevator ride, I was speechless, and mortified, but happy and excited and thrilled all at the same damn time, haha please don't ask. Even had to hold a couple of hands along the way, just kidding! But look at that view, isn't it AMAZING?!?! PS: the fear was totally worth it, ironically when it was time to go down I wasn't ready to leave!










Amsterdam: LMFAO, well uummmmm Amsterdam was Amsterdam, enough said. Details yet to come, its still too soon! I'm pretty sure we all know the story by now, all I have to say is it was FULL of firsts for me! What happens in Amsterdam stays there, or we can pretend it did anyways.

This is literally how I feel in reference to this weekend! This was a story for the books man!

Amsterdam!

Every week here seems to be full of new surprises, mostly good, some less than ideal.

Once classes on Friday ended, we rushed over to the train station and got on our way to Amsterdam. But we had no idea what we were headed for.

The Central Station

Not too long after arrival, we were trying to check into our penthouse that had been booked. Unfortunately, we ended up being scammed, that room didn't exist. At first we were a bit distraught at what to do, but McDonalds saved the day. A few Big Macs and McFlurrys later and we had found ourselves a hostel. It wasn't pretty, but it was a place to stay that had clean sheets (I hope.) 

Once the initial housing situation got taken care of, it was time for fun. I have decided that if a college town were to be blown up in size, it would be Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a 24/7 party. Along with that the buildings and canals were breathtaking. I got to do a canal cruise and got some gluten free pancakes during the day which was wonderful. The only real downside to Amsterdam is that my wallet is crying, it's not a cheap place. But it was so worth it. Amsterdam, you were great, I'll be back.

Week 2

We are 18(ish) days into this program and classes are really starting to pick up now. I can now introduce myself in German and order a meal, which are probably the two most important things that I would need at this point. I have found that there are some similarities between German and Spanish, so that has made the class a bit easier for me and hopefully I can eventually be trilingual.

One of the entrances to the Cologne Cathedral

COLOGNE There is SO much to see in Germany and I love that it can be just a 20 minute train ride away. On Tuesday we visited Cologne and it was amazing from the moment we left the train station. I found it so fascinating that the city was literally built on top of the roman ruins since they were not able to knock them down. There are layers of history all over Germany. The cathedral was incredible to say the least. There was so much detail on every inch of every corner that it could take people years to truly understand how meticulously constructed this cathedral was.

We also signed up for Big Event this week, which is super exciting since it is the largest International Big Event that there is. It's one thing to experience Big Event in College Station, but to participate in a different city, or even continent, and give back to a different community is beyond words. This is one of the events that I am looking forward to the most. For some reason, I also signed myself up to run the Bonn Marathon when I haven't even ran in years. I guess I was under the impression that it would be a quarter of a half marathon, but instead I could be out there walking for five to seven miles in the cold. It seems pretty intimidating at this point, but it will be for a very good cause and maybe we will get to see more of Bon than we wouldn't have without participating. It's been a good influence on me so far since I've made myself walk extra blocks here and there in order to "prepare" for it.

Some people still live in boat houses that have been around
since the housing crisis after WW2

AMSTERDAM This past weekend we visited Amsterdam was definitely a test for me. It was our first international travel on this trip and it will definitely be one that I will never forget. It started off incredibly stressful because the ten of us did not know if we were going to find a place to stay at for the night. Thankfully, we found a hostel to stay at even though it was super sketchy and I would never want to go back to it ever again. I got to see a lot of the city and completely forgot that marijuana was legal there so it was weird to see a bunch of people with it. We took a boat tour of the city and it was awkward because the couple on the recording of the tour kept arguing with each other and we had to listen to that for 75 minutes. We also went to a cat museum so if you're ever in Amsterdam and feel like looking at pictures of cats and maybe petting one, I would recommend going there. Also, coming back was complete hell. Never book a train that has three or more changes. We had to change five times and like three of the times we only had four minutes to run 100-200 meters. It was great training for the marathon, but I would rather not have to have gone through that or gotten home at 2 am. Clare and I had so much bad luck that the subway that was supposed to take us home never came and we had to take a taxi home.



We go to Vienna tomorrow and then Prague this weekend and I am really hoping that nothing goes wrong.

Week 2

Student Prison

This week has been a very eventful one. It started on Saturday January 21 when we went to Heidelberg. We had a very early morning of getting to the train station and actually making it to our train. We all slept on the trip there and it wasn't until the trip back that we realized we missed a beautiful landscape of mountains, vineyards, and castles. Once in Heidelberg, we immediately began exploring the city and seeing the sights. We started with viewing the student prison, where students who misbehaved would be kept by the university many years ago. It was very interesting because all of the walls were covered in paint and drawings.

View from Philosopher's Walk

After the student prison, we went and visited the castle. It was so amazing with beautiful views of the city and also a great pharmacy museum. We spent a lot of time here admiring the views and taking pictures of the castle itself and the city down below. It had great views of the cathedrals and the river and was absolutely beautiful. After the castle, we went to Philosopher's Walk. The term "walk" was a blatant lie because this was a 45 minute hike uphill on a bumpy cobblestone pathway. With nearly 20 breaks and lots of complaining, I finally made it to the top. While it was an awful experience and would probably never do it again, I have to say it was nice because we got to the top right at sunset and got amazing pictures.

Cologne Cathedral

After Heidelberg we came back to Bonn for an interesting week. While it mostly consisted of classes, we did get to take a day trip to Cologne to see some beautiful sights and explore the city. We started with a walking tour of the city and saw all sorts of historical sights and beautiful buildings. Afterwards, we got to go inside of the cathedral and listen/participate in the 12:00 service. Although I am not actually catholic, it was very interesting to be there and hear the German service and listen to the organ. We went to lunch afterwards and had an awesome lunch that consisted of sausages, cabbage, and fried potatoes. It was delicious and I ate the whole plate without looking back. We finished the day with a rooftop tour of the cathedral. I was dreading the stairs but luckily for us, we were able to use the construction. The views from the top were amazing and we even got to see the inside of the cathedral from up high which was really nice. 

I also signed up for a 10k this week. More on that later. 

Amsterdam.

Amsterdam… One day I’ll look back on my trip to Amsterdam as a funny story to tell my grandma when she asks how my trip went, but that day is very, very, very far away. In hindsight, I learned a lot of valuable lessons this weekend:

•  If it seems to good to be true, there’s a 99.9999% chance it probably is – We used a very popular traveling app to book a penthouse for ten people to stay. The pictures looked amazing, it had enough space for everyone to feel comfortable, it had a perfect location. Basically, it was too good to be true. Turns out the guy who sold us the penthouse was a scammer. He posted a false ad, the building didn’t exist, and the company we used couldn’t even find the account order. Luckily, we were able to find a hostel for us to sleep in that fits all ten of us.

• When people say everything in Amsterdam is legal, they aren’t emphasizing -- Coming into this trip I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and Amsterdam definitely catapulted me 100 miles out of my comfort zone. All I have to say about Amsterdam is that everyone should experience it at least once in their life. It’s a sight to see and it’s important to keep an open-mind while walking down the Red Light District.

• Anne Frank is “da bomb” – I was fortunate enough to visit the Anne Frank museum. I’m not really a museum type of person, but the Anne Frank museum was incredible. You feel so many different emotions walking through a house where people used to live in constant fear of death and being forced to live in the shadows of life. It’s hard not to feel a sense of appreciation for the life you have regardless of all the bad things that may sometimes happen.

• Never ever book connecting trains 2 minutes apart – All I have to say about this is: We were supposed to get back to Bonn by 10 pm…. I didn’t end up getting back to my house until 1:00 a.m. So the moral of the story: pay the extra 30 bucks to get a nonstop train.

• All and all, Amsterdam is a pretty cool town – I probably would never live in Amsterdam, but it was a cool place to visit. The canals are pretty, especially at night, and there were so many different cultures there.

Germany Week 2

Man oh man has the time here in Germany flown by. We are technically starting our third week here, but I wanted to tell you about my experiences from my second week in Germany. First off I went to Heidelberg, Germany with a group of friends. This trip was so beautiful and was a very relaxing get away. We got to explore the Heidelberg castle, which was covered in snow at the time and absolutely gorgeous. After Heidelberg it was back to Bonn for school. School began to pick up, which was an adjustment since before this week I did not feel that I was actually going to school. I love the German class because I feel like I am actually learning quite a lot of German and hopefully will know a lot by the end of this trip. We also went to Cologne on an excursion this week and this was by far my favorite part of the trip so far. I loved the cathedral it was truly breathtaking, maybe it was breathtaking because of the stairs you had to climb to get to the top or because of it's true beauty. On Thursday we were able to attend a museum here in Bonn where I learned a ton about German history, which I found extremely awesome. Now to the weekend story. This weekend we went to Amsterdam. This was an experience to say the least. We booked an air bnb that turned out to be a scam, so here we were Friday night sitting at the McDonalds not knowing where we were going to stay for the night. We eventually found a hostel that had enough room for all of us to stay, but only for one night. For Saturday we found a different hotel so it all eventually ended up working out. I can honestly say I am so proud of our group. No one snapped or got angry at the situation at hand we all acted calmly and found accommodations during a stressful situation. I am also proud that no one had a complete meltdown on the way back to Bonn as our trains got cancelled and rerouted since the train we were suppose to be on hit an individual. I can honestly say just in this week I have grown so much. I am so proud of the fact that in these stressful situations I am able to overcome the problem calmly and to the best of my ability.

Getting used to the German Lifestyle

This post is about a week late but I am going to be talking about my first few days in Bonn and getting used to the change in lifestyle. First things first, I am happy to say that I have an awesome host family. My host dad Mario, and my host mom Christina, are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Their daughter Yolanda is a year younger than me and she is super cool and down to earth. They have been housing exchange students since 1994, aka they're one of the longest participating families at the AIB. Also living in the house is my Travis, a visualization major also from A&M. A regular day in the house typically consists of me grabbing an apple for breakfast before school (some of the best/freshest apples I've ever indulged in) and returning home to dinner already made. We sometimes eat dinner as a family however sometimes its hard to accommodate everybody's schedule since there are so many people living in the house. Once dinner is over, we normally watch a movie in the living room together but its always in German so I kind of just stare at the screen and pretend to know what's going on. Although everything for the most part is going well, I will say that I was told to limit my "shower time" which is a little bit of an adjustment.. I normally take 20 minute showers or so but apparently thats too long here (something about the steam causing mold to grow).

So far, I've really come to like Bonn.. A LOT. The city is just the right size and has the perfect tourist:locals ratio. It is so awesome living in such a modern city that also dates back hundreds of years to where you can still see the history throughout the streets. I will admit however that it is a little frustrating at times living so far out of town because all of my peers can go out at night to have a drink or two but for me, I have to wait for the train which comes once every hour after 8 pm. Having to use the train as my main form of transportation has been an adjustment as well because I no longer have a car to get me to and from wherever I want, whenever I want. On a positive note, having to depend of the train kind of "trains" me (see what I did there) to be on time and forces me to manage my time in the morning more efficiently.

One of my favorite discoveries so far has to be Pommdönner... Its a turkish dish consisting of fries and shaved beef and I like to put chile sauce on top to make it a little spicy. I had it three days in a row thats how much I like it. Another favorite that my mom told me to try was currywurst. I had this for the first time from a food cart outside and that was also super good. The German's love their meat and potatoes and thats definitely my cup of tea. Anyways, thats it for now, stay tuned as I continue to blog about my european adventures >:)

Week 2

This weekend we traveled to Heidelberg Germany. It was our first time to travel through Europe and plan everything for ourselves.  By the end we learned a lot about the dos and don'ts of travelling. We left for Heidelberg at 7:15 AM and learned that travelling in the early morning is hard. We arrived in Heidelberg around 9 AM and began our adventure.

We started with a tour of the student prison. There is a university in Heidelberg that back in the day had the ability to imprison its students for up to 6 months for breaking school rules. We were surprised to see how nice the prison really was. It was comparable to a college dorm room. We also learned that many of the students made it a goal to stay in the prison at least once before graduation.

Next we went to the largest attraction in Heidelberg, the castle. We rode a small train up to the top of the hill where the castle was. We accidentally missed the stop for the castle (even though it had a drawing of the castle and was called castle exit...) and ended up at the top of the hill. Luckily at the top we found lots of snow and spent a while playing in it and taking pictures before going back down to the castle. The castle was impressive but it was more ruins and less castle than we were expecting but it had a really good view of the city. We also discovered that the world's largest barrel was in part of the castle. Next to the barrel, which was about three stories tall, was a wine bar. My friend and I asked the woman at the bar if any of the wines were from the barrel and she just laughed at us and said they don't actually use the barrel.

World's largest barrel

Heidelberg Castle

View from the Castle

Our next stop brings me to the most important lesson I learned this weekend; carefully read the reviews on Trip Advisor before going somewhere. We decided to go and explore a hiking trail called Philosopher's Way because it was listed as the third best thing to do while in Heidelberg. Going into this I was under the impression that this was a park and fun nature walk. In reality it was an extremely steep, narrow cobble stone path of never-ending switchbacks up the side of a hill.  I actually thought I might just die on this hike. According to the reviews online the trail is "a little steep" and requires "average fitness." I guess I am below average fitness? Because this hike was pretty miserable. Me and my other friend struggled together up the hill as our more physically fit friends raced ahead. We had to take multiple breaks on our way and questioned many times who the hell said this was one of the best parts of Heidelberg? I mean seriously we needed a better warning about the intensity of this hike than " a little steep" and "average fitness" required. We passed one couple sitting on a bench halfway up and drinking wine while admiring the view. I think this is the only way I would recommend this attraction to anyone else. We are still extremely confused how this torture is considered one of the best things to do in Heidelberg, although I will admit the views at the top ALMOST made it worth is. (although we had basically the same view from the castle which required no hiking to get to)


As our first experience travelling on our own through Europe, I would say it was pretty successful. There was only one minor injury and if we lost anyone we found them after a couple of minutes of searching. In the end we all made it back to Bonn in one piece and had lots of stories to share.

Amsterdam!!!

This weekend Austin, Christine, Nicole and I all went to Amsterdam and had some very fun/interesting situations. To start it all, Austin and I took a bus there and were going to get to Amsterdam later than Christine and Nicole. When our bus was about an two hours away Christine and Nicole sent us a text saying that our AirBnb was super sketchy and we needed to find a new hotel ASAP. At that moment we are all freaking out and pissed because we have to spend more money to buy a hotel. Luckily Nicole found us a hotel in a better and safer area. It was a more expensive but definitely worth it. To get around town we rode in a canal and we went to quite a few museums. Body worlds was a museum about anatomy and ways to keep your body healthy. There was a torture museum that showed forms of punishment in the old times. My absolute favorite was that Anne Frank museum. We spend hours in there reading everything word for word. I HIGHLY recommend that everyone go to that museum if they ever get the chance. So many emotions are created while being in that house. I loved everything about Amsterdam, except maybe the strange pop up urinals all over the place. I will most definitely be returning to Amsterdam in the future.

Week 2

This week was pretty busy week for me. I think it was busy for other students too. There were new knowledge had been taught, the new place had been visited, and the interesting museum had been toured. The whole week filled with homework, study, occasional trip, and museum. Although it is tried week, it still was an enrich and substantial week.

I like the class “History of Medicine”. It gave me so much different and new experiences. For now, it is my favorite class. Because we are enable to travel various places or museums to learn about the medicine, knowledge and culture in Europe by experience. We would be able to learn the medicine more depth by immersive environment. In class of this week, we learned something about medicine that related to the Egyptian and Greek forms. I felt so curious when I first heard about it from class. Köln is an old, nice traditional town. I like it so much. We had a tour in the city after we got there. And we had a tour in Köln Cathedral and watched the view of Köln city on the upper part of the building. We also learned the history of Cathedral.

Honestly, German is little bit hard for me. It kinds like when I started to learn English when first been in U.S. New language is always a challenge for me, but I like to overcome it. My host mom and dad are my home German class teacher. They taught me German and try to speak German with me everyday. I also asked questions and help when I stuck on something. There is big thing, German food. I do not really like bread before, but I started to eat the bread everyday. My host mom is a great great chief. She tried different styles of dinner every night. I love to eat dinner with them. We usually chat, watch news on the TV, and play the games with twin girls from our neighorhood.