Biosciences Bonn: No Ragrets

So much studying; so little sleep. After I got back from Budapest, I slept/pulled all nighters at the AIB for 3 nights until I was done with all of my exams! I honestly can’t believe I did that haha. It was was crazy. I left the building 3 times that entire week. I even washed my hair in the bathroom sink one of the nights; I know, it’s ratchet af. This last week of school was full of L’s. No matter how much I studied, every exam proved to be extremely difficult. Honestly, it was quite demoralizing. Especially after last week, I now seriously questioned the purpose of working hard, but I kept grinding. My last exam was for differential equations on Thursday night. We opened the test booklet, and as usual, every snickered a little bit because of the fact that nothing on the exam was even remotely similar to what we had been taught in class before. 20 minutes into the exam, I started feeling drowsy; I reached down and cranked out an energy drink in order to stay awake. The next thing I knew, I heard Maggie yell my name out loud and everyone laughing. I guess I had fallen asleep after all! It was somewhat embarrassing, but I don’t blame anyone for laughing. I would’ve laughed at myself too! Most importantly though, thank you classmates for waking me up!! Afterwards, we stayed a little longer at the AIB to work on the take home portion of the differential equations exam; we left around midnight to get some sleep. FINALLY! I never would have imagined myself to look forward to sleep as much as I did. I slept like a baby until my alarm woke me up at 7:30AM. Today, we had a group excursion to Remagen to visit the Peace Museum at the Bridge of Remagen. The tram actually broke down on our way to the Hauptbahnhof…just like the first day. Things are coming full circle! Mr. Kürten was our tour guide at the museum; he had served at the bridge during WWII! He was a lovely tour guide, and his experiences were just so interesting to listen to. Afterwards, we strolled along the Rhine and relaxed. Remagen was another little, beautiful German town. I could’ve sat there and watched the boats cruise by on the Rhine all day. Later that night, Kyle, Raju, and I ate at an Indian restaurant (Raju was very happy); surprisingly, it was very good, almost better than the Indian food I get back in Texas!! I wish we had found this place earlier in the semester. We ended our Friday at N8schicht, our favorite club! It was Latin night, and it was FUN! We partied on all night until about 3 in the morning; I mean, why not? We just finished finals and hell week! Afterwards, we stopped by one of our classmate’s apartment before heading home; the only problem was, the key to door wasn’t in her pocket anymore. At some point in the night, she had lost it. We thought maybe she had lost it in the club or maybe it was still inside of the apartment sitting in the keyhole. In either case, she wasn’t able to get in. CRAP. We stood there for about 30 minutes trying to recall where the key might be. One of our great friends (and TA), Nathan, disappeared for about 15 minutes. The next thing I knew, the door to the apartment opened and out he came! We found out that he had hopped several fences, roofs, and backyards; sure enough though, he made it to our friend’s apartment and opened the door for us! Nathan, we love you! We woke up the next morning around 10 and headed over to the Hauptbahnhof. The feeling of “I’m gonna miss Bonn so much” was really starting to hit; we only had 5 more days in Europe! We bussed over to one of the theaters in Bonn to watch the Loyola Marymount University theater students’ performance! There were several times during the semester that World War III almost erupted between Texas A&M and Loyola Marymount, but at the end of it all, they had been rehearsing all semester! It would have been terrible for them to have no audience to perform for. Plus, I enjoy plays and musicals! The show was titled “Virago Alala,” and it was about women of masculine strength and spirit all over the world who are each given the choice of accepting a life of pain and suffering for the greater good to save others, help the weak, freeing the oppressed, etc. The LMU students did a great job! The singing was on point, and all of the choreography/acting in the play was not easy to master either! Kudos! Afterwards, we had an AIB Farewell Party at the old AIB building. It was another bittersweet time. I talked to many of the students that I had met over the course of the semester; some of them, I might never see again because of the fact that they attended another school such as LMU or Penn State. We ended the party with a little karaoke of classic songs sung by the LMU students and finished the night once again at N8schicht! No crazy roof climbing, fence hopping stories tonight! We got back to the apartment around 6:30AM? We slept until about noon before getting up and starting the next day. A few days ago, I remembered that we had never gone back to visit Daniela Arleff, the Germany lady that we had met in one of the German restaurants in Münsterplatz one of the Sundays earlier in the semester. I felt that it was only right for us to find her one last time before we left Germany. She had told us that she always had lunch in that exact restaurant every single Sunday, so we knew exactly where to find her (at least we hoped she would be there). There was actually a flea market in Münsterplatz that weekend, so the entire square was filled with vendors and customers. The restaurant was just as busy, so Kyle and I walked around it slowly, looking around to see if we could see Daniela. She wasn’t having lunch outside (the weather was really nice that day), so we wandered inside the restaurant hoping to see her. We saw a lady that could have been her, but she had sunglasses on, so we weren’t 100% sure if it was her. However, when we passed her, Kyle saw her purse (a very uniquely designed one) and knew that it was Daniela! We spoke to her for a little bit, trying to tell her all of our wild adventures that we had been on this semester. She was very interested, but from what I could see, she was more impressed with the fact that we actually came back to see her before finally leaving Europe. She said that she would never forget this moment and that she was so happy to have been able to see us one more time! Afterwards, we met up with Amran and took a train over to Cologne to attend the boat party that we had gotten tickets for. The theme for the boat party was “Tanz in den Mai,” which means “Dance into May.” This was going to be a great time and a great way to have one last hurrah in Germany! We needed to get on the boat before 7:30 because that was when we had read that the boat would depart, so we had planned on meeting Nathan and Kenneth in Cologne and hopping on board together. However, they said that the boat departed at 10:30 that night; in either case, we decided just to get on the boat anyways since we hadn’t planned to do anything else in Cologne; there weren’t many teenagers/young adults on the boat. Instead, most people were in their early to late 30s! BUT, the music was great, and it was a nice environment to be in. We explored the boat a little bit. All of a sudden, the boat departed. This was terrible! Kenneth and Nathan weren’t even on yet. I texted Nathan immediately, and they said that they would just hang around and party in Cologne instead of the boat party and meet up with us afterwards. UGH! This didn’t go as planned at all!! Once the boat started moving though, the music played even louder and people started dancing; we joined in and had a good time. Every time the boat passed under a bridge, the DJ would turn the music up and fog up the dance floor. The boat returned to the dock around midnight. Nathan and Kenneth said that they would hang around Cologne for a couple more hours before heading back and that we should go on without them. We failed to make it to the correct platform for the train several times. We ended up having to wait for about another hour for the next train, so we decided to get a snack and chill at McDonald’s while we waited. There was actually a famous European celebrity in line. I had on idea who he was, but everyone else seemed to be trying to get photos with him! I wish I had decided to get a photo with him just for the heck of it! We made sure to get to the correct platform at least 20 minutes before the departure time this time around. The train arrived, and all of a sudden, I hear Amran yell “DUDE. THAT’S NATHAN AND KENNETH!” Then, he sprints along the train to catch up to the front of it. I don’t know why, but Kyle and I followed him to chase the train; it definitely wasn’t the safest thing to do at all because at certain points, I was tiptoeing less than a foot away from the train! Amran caught up to the front and tapped the window to get Nathan and Kenneth’s attention. He got their attention successfully, but he also got the attention of one of the train conductors. She came out and lectured Amran about how unsafe it was for him to be running alongside the train, which she was very right about. He apologized, and we got on the train. We got back to Bonn and called it a night. That next morning (Monday), I started packing and trying to stuff everything in my 3 suitcases (yeah, I know..why so many suitcases right??). I got everything to fit into the suitcase and zipped it shut. Kyle and I met up with everyone else at the AIB; they were either working on their blog posts or finishing up the enmodes booklet for one of their classes. Kyle and I decided to get some pöm doner for the last time (I KNOW!! SO SAD!) before leaving Bonn, and of course, what’s a meal without gelato??! We went ahead and got some spaghetti eis! SUPER LECKER LECKER LECKER! Kyle and I were extremely stuffed at this point, but we decided to go and see if the currywurst stand was open today. Luckily for our stomachs and unluckily for our taste buds, the currywurst stand wasn’t open *cries a little* because of the fact that it was Labor Day. I went to Starbucks for the first time this entire semester and got the infamous pink drink. I have no idea what it was or what was in it. All I know is that it was diabetes in a grande-sized cup! We watched the “sneak preview” that Woki, the movie theater in Bonn, had every Monday. Essentially, a film that will be released in about two weeks will be shown! We were hoping to see Wonder Woman or Pirates of the Caribbean; it ended up being Before I Fall, which was a movie that had released back in March. Afterwards, we headed home. I sort of, kind of, did pull an all-nighter to watch the Houston Rockets WRECKKK SHOP against the San Antonio Spurs! Game 1 goes to the Rockets! Okay. Last day in Germany!! We had one last group excursion today. We visited the Marksburg Castle in the German town of Braubach; it was one of Dr. Wasser’s favorite castles of all times. He knew every twist and turn of the castle haha! We had lunch in that town (Braubach) and embarked on a Rheincruise afterwards! The Rheincruise lasted 3 hours; there wasn’t too much to do, but it was a nice way to end our semester abroad. We landed in wine-tasted that night. I guess it really is coming full circle! Our first and last group activity abroad was wine-tasting!! We danced and sang a little bit on the way back to Bonn, but soon enough, everyone passed out. I remember waking up at the Hofgarten parking lot. We all got off, and everyone just started staying bye to one another. It was such an abrupt goodbye! *cries a lot bit!!* It was truly the end of the semester. Saying goodbye to all of the great friends that I’ve made over the course of this semester was difficult, but as my good friend Raju said, “It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later!” Kyle and I stayed up all night until 4, which was when our taxi came to bring us to the Hofgarten. We said our farewells to Brungsgasse 16, and our taxi took us to the bus. We all fell at some point on the ride; when we woke up, we had arrived at the Frankfurt Airport. Several hours later, we were on the United Airlines airplane and headed back to Texas. 10.5 hours and 4 movies later (Hacksaw Ridge, Passengers, Manchester by the Sea, and Why Him?), we arrived in Houston. I said thank you to the flight attendants (I KNOW! WE WERE BACK IN THE LAND OF “THANK YOU”), and the next thing I know, Houston humidity cut right through my pants and hit my legs. JOY! We picked up our luggages and made our way to the exit; I thought to myself “Maybe I should record my exit from the terminal in case my parents did something for me”…and then I thought to myself “nah, they’re not THAT extra.” WELP. My mom was holding a piece of cardboard, 5 feet across, that said “Welcome Home Kendrick!!!” with 2 of my Instagram photos and 1 of a Snapchat selfie with my favorite filter of all time! I was wrong. I guess they are extra, but I love my parents for that! I guess it’s where I get it from hahaa! Europe, it’s been fun, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.

^^^true story

R.I.P.

Remagen, Germany

workin' on them dance moves for N8schicht

I'm gonna miss this so much.

LMU Theater Performance

Much love to this group of people!

Silly picture time!

AIB Farewell Party

Daniela Arleff, the nicest Germany lady! I'm so glad you asked to speak w/ us 3 months ago while we were sitting at this cafe. What a sentimental time to be able to find you again today!