Biosciences Bonn: {Bonn}ding Time

WELP! I’ve been in Bonn 4 days now, but it’s truly felt like a couple of weeks. I haven’t actually caught up on sleep yet..mainly because my roommate, Kyle, and I have been out the past couple of nights until 3-4 in the morning. Nightlife in Bonn is pretty interesting..for one, McDonalds (ß what ya gotta do during the night when Whataburger isn’t an option) is NOT 24/7; 2 of the 3 McDonalds closed at 8:30 PM (ARE YOU EVEN MCDONALDS IF YOU’RE NOT OPEN EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY?!). BUT, a redeeming quality is that they do serve curly fries, which is just YUM! There are numerous clubs/pubs/bars open every night in Bonn, so there is always something to do at night, but what doesn’t work at night is the tram station, so Kyle and I have walked at least 2-3 miles each night to get back to the crib. JOY J but it’s alright because Kyle and I got to know each other better and have more {Bonn}ding time! On a side note, we haven’t been able to access the wifi from our beds, so we have literally stood outside of the AIB or outside of the apartment every night for about an hour probing through social media and keeping up with family/friends back in the US. The wifi struggle is too real, but we got it to work tonight…..so fingers crossed that it stays that way so that we don’t have to hang out in the streets for an hour every night haha! On Friday, we met up with the Penn St. students and went to Mayschoβ-Altenahr to weinprobe (German for wine taste), which was a first time experience for me, and I had a great time there. Without a doubt, the bus ride back to Bonn was definitely louder than the ride to the winery. The next day, we prepared a skit in about 30 minutes for the other study abroad students and the host families. We were also able to meet a couple of the students from the other colleges, and they all seemed like great people. Hopefully, we’ll see them around some more! Later that night, I tried my first German beer; I’m not too much of a beer lover, but what I can say is that German beers definitely taste loads better than American beers. Today, we went and explored Bonn some more; we went to Castle Godesburg, which was something nice to see because there aren’t any castles back at home. Last eventful thing of the weekend! We stopped by a popular bar in Friedensplatsz (German for Peace Plaza), Brauhaus Bönnsch, for lunch today; the first thing the waitress asked us was what we would like to drink, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary. I told her wasser (water in German), and she seemed to understand; although, she did give me quite an odd expression…..perhaps it was my current inability to speak proper (or any) German! The next thing she asked was “with or without gas?” I was caught quite off-guard, and at first, I thought I heard her say glass instead of gas. So, here I am thinking to myself glass or no glass…..? Glass would mean that it was “new/clean” water, and no glass would mean that it was tap water. OH. And this whole time, the other 7 students that were with me at lunch were as confused as I was but urging me to make a decision because it didn’t really matter if it was glass or without glass. Well, a few minutes later, I made the decision to go with glass and everyone else decided to tell the waitress “same” in an attempt to speed things up. After she left our table, we laughed about how long I took, and we all wondered why she would ask us if we wanted glass. Well, one of the other students said “maybe she meant gas, and they’ll personally add that to it,” and we all had a good laugh about that one. However, after about 10 seconds…..we all looked at each other and instantly shared the same exact thoughts. SHE MEANT TO SAY GAS, AND BY GAS, SHE MEANT SPARKLING WATER (which is what the entirety of Bonn drinks as a substitute for regular water). My friend and I immediately ran to the waitress only to find that she already popped the caps off of the 5 glasses of sparkling water….still we decided to tell her that we actually wanted it without gas. She was quite furious; we felt really bad about it, but I guess from now on, we’ll know what gas is. In the few days that I’ve been in Bonn so far, I have learned a tremendous amount about living abroad as well as the German cultures. I’m currently planning an excursion over to Belgium after we go to Aachen this Freitag, and I’m debating between either Bruges or Brussels…..decisions decisions. Once that’s figured out, I hope to figure out the rest of my semester in terms of excursions so that I can go to London, Barcelona, and many others before my time in Germany comes to an end.