This past
week has seen my German improve substantially, and seen me participate in far
more social activities than I would ordinarily. A testament to this is that I
have yet to find time to play any games or watch Netflix since I have been
here. My time has been so thoroughly taken up with schoolwork and social
activities. I think I get along rather well with the rest of the biosciences
group, despite the occasional issues caused by our age gap. It would be nice to
find more opportunities to get to know the students from the other programs as
well but we’re all so busy it doesn’t seem likely.
This past weekend we went to
Brussels, Belgium. I’ve discovered that how well we seem to get along with each
other can be somewhat of a problem, as our groups tend to wind up being far too
large to coordinate effectively. I think this may improve down the road as the
others become more comfortable with travel and branch out to doing what they
want to do as individuals. Brussels itself was impressive however and well worth
another visit at some point down the road. Maybe during a time of the year when
the weather is better. I think the best things about Brussels was the
architecture of the grand place square, and the food. The waffles were
incredible, the “frites” great, and my first Trappist Ale a worthwhile
experience.
Something else worth mentioning
were the Cathedrals of both Aachen and Cologne. I’d seen the outside of the
Aachen cathedral before, but it was an entirely different experience on the
inside. I’d really missed out by not going inside on my last trip to Aachen. The
Cologne Cathedral was also incredible but far more so on the outside in my opinion.
Going up to the bell tower was also an incredible experience. I’m glad I was able
to push past my fear of heights and get all the way through that. I was heavily
tempted to hop off the tour when Nicky did, but I stuck it out and I’m glad I did.
I like that the program includes things like this because I know from personal
experience with travel that I miss out on these sorts of things when I organize
my own travel. There is no way I would have even considered going up in the Cologne
cathedral and I entirely missed out on seeing the most impressive aspects of
the Aachen cathedral when left to my own devices.e
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