Woch Zwei: Mayschoss // Rheinaue // Aachen

Week 1


The Hosts
One week in and it still does not feel like I am studying abroad yet. I moved in with the my host family, the Ahr's, and they are wonderful. The house has Mandy, Wolly, and their kids, Romello and Leon. Josch is their oldest, but he lives in Berlin so Mitchell and I have not met him. They are wonderful, however Mitchell can speak a lot of German so most of the conversations are in German, so I have a lot to learn. Most of the time I just sit and listen and try to catch words that I may know. I am excited to live with them and learn from them in the next months.

Mayschoss
The first full day in Germany we went to a winery for a wine tasting and tour in Mayschoss. The vineyard was very pretty even though it is in the middle of the winter. It was immensely foggy and it was really hard to see how expansive the area was, but from what you could see it was really neat. The wine there was very good even though I normally do not favor wine. It was nice to see the social aspects of drinking in this new society.

Rheinaue
The next day we went to the Rheinaue, which is a state park in Bonn that lays along the River Rhine. This park reminded me of how Texas geography can be tragic. The park was beautiful and green with hills, creeks, bridges, and a garden. Here we got to meet some others from the other schools that are in the AiB and we were all matched up with them in groups to complete a scavenger hunt. I really enjoyed meeting the new people and exploring the park. The Japanese garden was marvelous and peaceful. In the middle was a huge koi pond with the walkways circling it with many trees and bushes all around. It was very aesthetically pleasing.

Aachen
We woke up at 6 to get the Aachen, Germany in the morning to meet with Enmodes, a company that we are doing a project with. We toured a cathedral and found some really cool stuff around in the city. A lot of cities have an older, more medieval vibe to them. When we finally got back, Mitchell and I did not have class so we were able to go to our host father's birthday party. It was fun to meet all the family and friends of our hosts. And finally, we learned that all of our host brothers make music and we heard Romello play a track and I was about to look it up, until he told us that he made it. Our host family is the best. Einundsechzig!