History and Culture Lessons In and Out of the Classroom - Week 2

Bonn, Germany

January 22 - 28

I have one word that pretty much sums up most of this week. That word is, school. This week has been completely filled with school, school, and more school. Plus the occasional field trip, but still, lots of school. Homework, quizzes, and classes galore, but what can one expect when you "study" abroad. There actually has to be some studying involved with the abroad part of this program. My lessons include German, circuits and signals (the official bane of my existence), human physiology, history of medicine, device design, and differential equations. As of now, I would have to say that history of medicine is my favorite. This is an interactive class where we are able to travel to several different places to learn about the culture and history of medicine in Europe through experience. I've learned some interesting facts about medicine and have so far studied the Egyptian and Greek forms of medicine, all of which is extremely fascinating to me. My second favorite class is German. I'm not very good at speaking the language but I enjoy trying to figure it out and learning new words. This week we learned food and how to tell time. I don't know why the Germans make telling time so difficult but they do. Not to mention, the way they pronounce their numbers seems so backwards to me. I talked to my host brother and he even agreed with me. Example, thirty-six would be said sechsunddreissig or six and thirty. We also learned conjugations and different phrases we could use while making small talk with people. A good example of this would be Entschuldigung or excuse me (which gets used pretty often by myself), and Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch or I speak a little German. Both are very helpful in the real world.

This week I finally had a genuine German meal for dinner, curtesy of my host mother. Do I remember what it was called, no, but I can describe the components. There was some meat cooked and marinated in some kind of sauce where you added raisins to it while it cooked. To accompany the protein was red cabbage (a German staple), and these sticky potato balls. All of it was extremely good. The cabbage took some getting used to, but when you put the sauce from the meat on it, the sauce cut through the bitter harsh taste that is cabbage.

Dinner is always an experience. There are nights I don't get home till ten in the evening (because of the math class I am taking which we stream live from A&M) and have to eat the leftovers by myself, and there are other nights where I am present for dinner. Let me tell you, the true family dynamics come out at the dinner table. Everyone is poking fun of everyone and the facial expressions this family makes at one another are priceless. I love every minute of it. The only issue is, everyone typically speaks in German so the language barrier makes things slightly difficult, but I've learned that by watching everyone's body language and facial expressions, you can usually tell what is happening. I'm also able to pick up on some of the basic words which helps give be context clues as to what everyone is talking about. There is the occasional time where the family will translate something they have said into English, usually when there's a joke or when they want me to solve a dilemma they seem to have gotten themselves into. It's all good fun, especially when they are trying to translate a word into English and then they describe it for me so I can tell them the word they are looking for, expect that's the thing, most of the time I can't even being to figure out what they are describing. The family dynamics remind me a lot of my family. Everyone is extremely sarcastic and you have to have thick skin. Let's just say the homestay family pairing gods knew what they were doing here because I most definitely got paired with the right family.

I think I have adjusted to my new life quite nicely. Everything is slowly becoming routine, except for the times of my classes (that's always fun). You never really know what class you're going to have when. It's always a surprise that keeps me on your toes. I feel like I have been here forever and its only been about two and half weeks. The cold weather is still brutal but there hasn't been any snow lately and it has started to warm up to where it is now 44 degrees Fahrenheit during the day sometimes. The nights are still below freezing though. It's always nice to hear my host mom come in from putting the leftovers outside saying, "it's -7 degrees Celsius," and the she finishes her statement with a whole body shake and a noise one makes when they are cold and they try to shake it away. That always makes me laugh.

I'm super excited for next week! We are traveling to Vienna for school and then after fours days there, a group of people and myself are going to travel to Prague for the weekend. That's all next weeks fun, so I will stick with this week and tell you about the field trips I got to go.

Köln, Germany

January 24th

Köln Cathedral.

One of the field trips was to Köln which is 20 minutes away, by train, from Bonn. While we were there, we took a walking tour of the city, ate some delicious food, toured a museum, and got to go on a roof top tour of the Köln Cathedral or Dom. I learned the history of Köln and the history behind some of the buildings that make up Köln will also learning the history of their Cathedral which was beyond breathtaking. It took over 300 years to build the whole thing, which originally started as a Roman Cathedral. From there, the Germans took the Roman foundations and built on top of it creating the colossal masterpiece that is present today. The style of the Cathedral is French gothic (my personal favorite type of architect), and the attention to detail is incredible. During our trip to Köln, we had a group lunch at restaurant, that I forget the name of, where I ordered a bratwurst. It was beyond delicious. The bratwurst was served with potato slices and you guessed it, cabbage. This time it was green cabbage and didn't have as pungent of a taste. Once lunch was over I found a bakery and got 2 Berliners which are pastries that resemble an American jelly filled donut but they are better. I don't like jelly filled donuts but I enjoyed the Berliners. Köln was a nice place to visit and since it was super close, I think I will try to travel back there at some point.

Köln from the sky.

Haus der Geschichte, Bonn

January 26th

We also traveled to  the Haus der Geschichte translates to House of History otherwise known as the history museum of Bonn. This museum contained artifacts from the Roman error to replicas of famous space artifacts. The museum's exhibits were designed to tell a chronological story starting from the time of Hitler and his regime to the present day. Our professor gave the tour since he believed that the actual tour guides didn't do the museum justice. He talked to us about World War II and how one couldn't simply learn about Bonn without learning about the dark past that shaped the country of Germany into what it is today. He was correct and I enjoyed the tour he gave us. All the facts he could remember astounds me and I liked how he tied different pieces together, staying true to one central theme the whole time. He didn't talk about everything that was in the museum otherwise I'm pretty sure we'd still be there if he did, but he did cover what he believed to be the important facts. I was amazed that there is that much history contained within the city I am calling home for four months. The only issue I had with our excursion was the fact that I had classes afterward but hey, you play a little, to learn a little. Small price to pay if you ask me.