211 Test and Cologne

Week 12

This week was slightly less chaotic and stressful than the one before it. First, it was a shorter week because we got the Monday off . Also, the homework died down a little bit. Instead, the majority of my academic time was spent preparing for the 211 test. On Wednesday I took the test and I think I did well, knock on wood. This time around, I'm more caught up on my blogging so I haven't received the test grades back by the time I am writing this blog. That's a strange thing to celebrate but I will anyways.

Also, we took an excursion to Bingen. Here we visited the Hildegard von Bingen museum. This was pretty cool because I had previously done research on here while in high school. If I remember right, I even had to dress up like her for a school day, so it was cool to visit her hometown. The museum and history of her life and mission was interesting. She was a very strong-willed, determined woman who created a life that she believed in and enjoyed within the frame of her culture and expectations. One thing that remained with me from the experience was the moment she created her own convent. She and the other nuns were going to leave, an action that would be highly disadvantageous for the presiding monk of the monastery. So Hildegard said that it was God's will and left. This strong action made me wonder how much of the decisions she said were "God's will" or "visions from God" were her imparting her incredible knowledge upon the world. However, she was a strong believer so I guess it could be argued that her knowledge derived from God so anything she knew and believed and learned were all derivatives of God's knowledge, so her sharing it in fact imparted God's knowledge upon the world. It was an interesting thought exercise for me.

Illnesses have been running wild here and so many people are going to the doctor. Joseph got sick and went to the hospital. We found out he has appendicitis and had surgery to remove it. Also, Jack has been sick with different things that he has been going to the doctor for. I hope everyone remains healthy from here out; this is such an amazing experience to study abroad and we have only a limited time left. It would be a shame to miss any of it with sickness.

For my weekend travels, my friends and I decided we were a little bit tired of traveling in cars and trains so much and staying in places for such little time. So we stayed near Bonn by going up to Cologne, biking along the Rhine and visiting the Chocolate Museum. I had an amazing time biking. I realized that I really miss just biking and exploring. I want to do more of this back home. It was a wonderful sunny day to explore the paths along the Rhine. My favorite thing at the Chocolate Museum, I got to see how the chocolate is made in the factories. I got to see how the machines are created to ensure precision of wrapping and quality. I couldn't help but flash back to the freshmen marble project when I saw that a color sensor was being used to detect the small black rectangle at the edge of a wrapper to know when to cut the paper strip of wrappers. The system ran so efficiently and effectively. I enjoyed watching it and trying to figure out the technical aspect being it. I guess I am destined to work in a mechanical engineering aspect.

The following day was one of the first warm sunny days that I spent in Bonn, so Camella and I met some friends at the Hofgarten. We intended to have a picnic, but the stores were closed because it was Sunday. We made do with a burger from Uniburger and some Dominos to pass the time. I loved just being out in the sun and enjoying the warmth after the long winter. The grass field was packed with people who had similar ideas. There was even a huge swing, about 20 feet tall that adults were playing with. They would get enough momentum going to loop all the way around the top of the arc. I was impressed just watching them. I am loving the warmer weather!!