I am Lexine Smith

As a delightful birthday present, Lexie gave me her Phantasialand ticket (bless your face Lexie you're the best), so I went on the Sunday after my birthday with Izzie. The only catch was, on the ticket I had to sign as Lexine Smith to get in. I actually brought a notebook for the train ride so I could practice signing her name like she had before on the ticket, but as it turned out the gate ticket checker lady just glanced at the ticket and did not seem to care that the signatures slightly different (I mean I practiced the signature really hard there wasn't really much of a difference CIA hit me up). We were just worried they might check IDs but they weren't so we were fine.

Phantasialand was rad. Sad news though, my childhood invincibility is gone and ya girl gets motion sick a lot easier now. This means that I needed a hot minute between each roller coaster, and I couldn't do any of the rides that were just based on spinning, which was okay because not a lot of rides involved spinning. I know we talked about why you got motion sick a lot easier when you're older in physiology class, but I couldn't remember what exactly the reason was, though I am pretty sure it involves the little chicken nugget dudes in your inner ear (don't remember what they are called either, but Alexa called them the chicken nuggets so that's what I am going with).

Best part of the day was CHURROOOOOOS. I ate really bad that day. I started off in the morning doing good, eating a banana, a croissant, and orange juice for breakfast. It all went downhill from there however. Themepark meals consisted of churros covered in chocolate (which I did not consider proper churros because they didn't put any sugar or cinnamon on them, the heathens), chicken nuggets, and then more churros (no chocolate so they would actually put cinnamon and sugar on them).

The park itself was really fun. It was kind of like a tiny Disney World. It was a great and really fun day, and the last ride we rode on our way out of the park was the double decker merry-go-round, a great and traditional way to end the day. My day of being Lexine Smith, casual park goer, was over, and I returned to Bonn as Brynn Henry, professional bump on a log, ready for the Rhine cruise the next day.



Bonus: I googled "chicken nuggets of the ear" to see if the answer would come up but what popped up instead was a song called "chicken nugget ear rape" and I am slightly terrified

Double Bonus: THE LITTLE CHICKEN NUGGET IS CALLED THE AMPULLA

http://www.austincc.edu/apreview/PhysText/PNSafferentpt2.html

LOOK AT IT (if the picture actually works with Blogger)

I am content now byeeeee

another bleh week

AAAALLLLL THE EXAAAMSSSS

Started off with the phys lab final (lol) which none of us really took serious because it was worth so little of our final grade. I tried though, I took most of the time allotted to try and figure out the questions, but not being able to perform the actual labs like we would back in College Station makes learning the information hard.

Next up was the phys test #3. I didn't travel during the weekend to study and I had been studying since the week before, so I went into the test feeling pretty prepared. As it turned out, all my preparing paid off, and I got my best grade yet on any phys test, which I really needed.

We couldn't really prepare for the phys final besides looking over the old exams and 3 hours was all we got for that. The final was a walk in the park though because if you could remember the past test questions, you were golden. So once that final was out of the way, all that was left was just to sit back and enjoy the rest of the time we had left in Germany. 

Hiking rather than running

The day of the Bonn marathon, Shannon, Austen, and I went hiking. I personally would rather do anything than run, and since I really like hiking (especially if it's to a castle) we decided to go to Burg Eltz.

The hike to the castle was beautiful. We walked beside a stream for a long while, and there were cool caves and views along the way. Before we went into the castle, we climbed a hill right next to it so we could eat lunch with a great view of the valley and castle. It was very peaceful up there, and we made a lot of lizard friends. The castle was placed in a spectacular location with a great views of the surrounding hillside. The castle grounds themselves were also unique, being built into the hill it was perched upon. After our tour of the castle, we decided to treat ourselves and get some cake. Yes this glorious castle had cake, reasonably priced cake might I add. The cake was amazing and the balcony we sat on gave us another great view. After all our cake, we headed back to the train station. However, the path we took did not take us back the way we intended, so the train station we wound up at was not the same we got off at. Because of this, we had an hour to kill in a random little village, so we found a playground and acted like children on the swings and seesaws for a little bit. Eventually, the train came and we made it back to Bonn.

The end :)

the bleh week

Aka Enmodes. Everyday.

By the middle of the week, we had done so much on our project we began to start nitpicking details. I only wish we had been given more instruction during the entire week, rather than just the end. The day before the Enmodes presentation was a very frustrating day for many of us, because it was only then we were told we had to fix major things in our presentation. Oh well.

Therefore, we spent a long Thursday night editing and memorizing our presentations. For Fridaaaaaaay which as it turned out the presentation wasn't as scary as we all thought it would be. One of the Enmodes guy even showed up in a t-shirt. It was funny cause after we had successfully presented and were at lunch, pretty much everyone was tuckered out and Dr. Wasser actually fell asleep at the table.

Bright side of the week was all the cherry blossoms bloomed, and they were all very pretty and I wished I would have taken a blossom to keep.

Meh.

GHAN(A) to Africa || May 8, 2018

May 2... Still...

So yeah, I've arrived. As I was about to get off the plane I realized that I was never given any customs forms to fill out, so I had to ask for them as I passed the flight attendants at the front. And then on the bus shuttle a lady chastised me (but in a way meant to be helpful) and told me I should've filled them out already. My bad. I passed through everything no problem and met Keegan outside. And thus began the adventure! He tried to order an Uber but they kept cancelling on him so he gave in and we took a taxi. First off, what a fun riding experience. Lots of honking, the seat belts didn't work, overall 10/10. We dropped off my stuff at his friend's (for context, I had a medium sized suitcase, a kinda big luggage backpack, and a small duffel bag, all full to the brim with crap. I pulled out my smaller school backpack from my big travel one and turned to leave and Keegan goes "That's it? That's all you're taking for a week? I'm impressed." and that made me feel really accomplished) then hopped back in the taxi to get to the hostel. When we arrived there were some police officers outside who decided to conduct a search. Well, they searched Keegan's stuff. The others tried flirting with me. Yikes. And once they determined Keegan was good to go (aka we were good to go), the taxi driver overcharged us--even though they'd haggled and agreed on a price before we even got in the taxi in the first place. Oh well. Time for bed cause we're getting up bright and early in five hours, updates to come!

May 4

I just read over what I wrote the night I arrived and I must say I've learned a lot since, even though it's only been a couple of days.

• the taxis NEVER have seat belts, in fact you're lucky if your door works well enough that you can open it yourself instead of the driver finagling with it
• they're really big on greetings and in smaller villages everyone seems to know everyone, so there's lots of saying hello to the people you pass on your way
• give and receive things with your right hand only--this also applies to waving hello which is hard for a lefty like me
• there are lots of police checkpoints along the roads--usually the driver just has to show some papers but if we're searched it's safe to assume they're going to flirt with me
• transportation is big on trust--trust the vehicle not to break down, trust the driver not to crash
• driving is really chaotic (seriously, is this GTA?) but there's a method to the madness and since they ALL drive crazily, they're careful enough and expect the incoming traffic to be crazy as well
• the roads are shit, hence (some of) the crazy driving--all the drivers try their best to avoid potholes, only sometimes there are so many that you can't avoid them altogether, just try to find the path with the least (even if this is on the opposite side of the road)
• generally people are very reliable and give good directions and tips, but may overcharge if they can get away with it
• Ghanaians get up EARLY. Too early. And so do roosters. Obnoxiously loud roosters.
• they pretty much have all of the technology that we have, just old versions
• they patch things up well, very innovative

So what have I been up to? Lots of traveling around--hours upon hours of tro, taxi, and moto rides, and I'm currently on a ferry. But all the rides come with something to see. A view of the city markets, rural villages, beautiful tropical scenery, or the mountains arising over it all. From Accra we made our way to Keegan's friend's site. It took quite a long time and we made a pit stop along the way to find one of Keegan's student's Dad and get the kid's insurance card from him. This took a lot of rerouting and reminded me of a quest on a video game, but thanks to our trusty moto guide, it was relatively easy. Speaking of our moto guide (and by moto I mean motorcycle taxi) it was a complete blast riding with him. He took us around to the house and the drive was so so pretty. Honestly it rivaled riding around São Miguel Island it was that beautiful, only the ride was SO much more peasant than the ATVs we had in Portugal. Faster, less bumpy, and tons more trust in my driver (sorry guys). Ghana 1, Portugal 0.

Also, short story time! So as we were on the road yesterday the police stopped us and decided to search. The officer was mostly looking through the things of the man who'd been sitting behind me but eventually made his way over to Keegan and I in the front. He asked us to get out, only we couldn't open the door, and get this! The driver decided to walk off a few yards and have a nice little pee break. So we had to wait for him to finish up before he could come over and open the door for us. But once we got out they didn't even search any of our things, just asked us some questions. Eventually things led to--

Police Officer: You're not married?

Keegan: She's 19!

Police Officer: *small pause of silence*

Police Officer: Welcome to Africa

And that was the end of it, we got back in and continued on.

Once we got to Trek's (that's Keegan's friend) we took a casual stroll into Togo and picked up some bananas before returning back to his house and settling in. He had a projector that he'd brought from home, so we watched movies all night. Three of 'em. Oh and he made us tacos! Yum!

In the morning we went for a little hike. Here I am, in my jeans, in the hot humid Texas-y grossness, hiking. But it was still enjoyable and the pants really paid off cause the trails weren't completely cleared and we had to push our way through the plants. We didn't go too far but even so it was really tiring, so when we got back to the house I cranked up the fan and sat under it to recuperate while the boys played some arcade game.

Since then not much has happened, we're currently trying to make our way to Keegan's village and we're about halfway along on the journey so it's just been lots of travel again. Lots of travel, and lots of waiting to travel. For example we waited on this ferry to leave for like an hour after we got on, which was after an hour of waiting for it to arrive because there aren't really solid time tables here. And whenever we get a tro or taxi we wait for it to be full of passengers before it'll leave because you pay by person here.

May 6

So my flight out got cancelled. That was a pleasant surprise. I was supposed to leave tomorrow night, but I was rescheduled to one two days later. Which would work, but since Keegan's classes start up again, that would mean I'd be spending at least an entire day here alone. Which I'm sure would be fine, but freaks me out a little. So I spent around an hour on the phone last night trying to reschedule my reschedule. I had successfully avoided any bug bites until last night (you have to be outside to get service), so if I happen to come down with malaria or some other bug-transmitted disease I officially blame TAP Portugal and Expedia. But back to the point, I got the matter settled and now I'll be leaving two days from now, which is only one day later than I'd scheduled originally.

Yesterday Keegan took me on a tour of the village in the morning and then we spent most of the day inside his house because even though it's hot inside, it's still better than being out in the sun. His life here during school breaks is pretty mundane, especially since he has no electricity. Make food, wash dishes. Listen to podcasts. Read. Nap. Repeat. Eventually I busted out the cards and we played some games and in the afternoon we went into the town nearby to look for a seamstress and some fabric. We didn't find either. But we did go to get food at a stand run by one of the other teachers at Keegan's school. He was pretty cool and I enjoyed listening to them talk. Plus his food--absolutely delicious. Once we got back into town we also received some food from one of the women here that likes to cook for Keegan every so often. It was a potato dish and also quite good. And then came my favorite part of the night--class! Keegan teaches some of the kids extra at night so I got to sit in as they learned how to work some ratio problems. (Ex: There are 80 pupils in a school. The ratio of boys to girls is 3:5. How many girls are there?) They were pretty rowdy and had a lot of personality which might get a little annoying when you're teaching but I thought it was a rather fun time. After that came the flight fiasco and a really rushed shower because it started thunderstorming and I was not in the mood for electrocution.

I slept most of the day away today, did some laundry (I officially hate washing things by hand and I suck at it too), fetched some water (more accurately watched Keegan fetch water), caught up on the video I've been making, and had a good brother sister life chat. Nothing too eventful today, but I quite like how peaceful everything is here. Everyone's doing their own thing, whatever needs to be done with no complaints or hesitation.

May 7

We woke up at 4 today. FOUR. And we still didn't make it to Accra until around 12:30. Today was probably the worst day of travel yet--the cars are always packed. And hot. And stuffy. Oh don't forget dusty! One time there was such a large pothole that the bounce it caused made me slam my head into the ceiling of the tro. Oh and I fell into a river. That was fun. So keep in mind I was also sitting in my wet jeans and soggy tennis shoes for most of the journey.

Once we made it to town we got food (yay for jollof--it's simple yet so so yummy) and went to the Peace Corps office so Keegan could pick up some things my mom had sent. We spent a few hours there enjoying the AC, functioning toilets, and the board game Sequence. Keegan said it wasn't strategy based enough for him so he didn't like it, but I think he was just being a sore loser cause I beat him 3-0.

May 8

Last night Keegan and I went out, first for a drink--at which point I almost sat on a preying mantis and my life flashed before my eyes--and then to a casino! I'd never actually been to a casino before so I was maybe more excited about gambling some money away than a teenage girl ought to be, but that's beside the point. I started off with slots and lost ten cedis in the blink of an eye (but to put it in perspective that's roughly 2 usd so no real harm done). And then it was time to get serious. Roulette! We both started out with 60 cedis. Keegan had a really good winning streak but slowly lost everything he'd managed to win, so he tapped out when he broke even. Around this time I was on top of the world, raking in money and I'd almost tripled my money. But as they must, the tides turned and I started losing again. I decided to call it quits when I got back down to double what I came in with, so all in all I think we had quite a successful night.

We returned to the hostel and I popped into the shower (finally washing off all that river water) and then when I came back into my room one of the ladies asked me something. Except, I didn't realize she was talking to me and I couldn't understand what she was saying because of the accent. She got a little huffy with me and eventually I figured out that she was asking "are you done bathing" at which point I gave a panicked yes and she went to take her own shower.

And as if I wasn't a mess already, I was trying to open a bag of water inside a tro by biting off the corner (yeah, that's how water works here) and I spilt it all over my lap. As well as the lady next to me. My badddd. She gave me a wicked side eye as I apologized profusely but hey, it was valid.

So yeah, now that my failures of the day are out of the way, Keegan and I had waakye for breakfast and then went to the main market in Accra this morning and it was just... Overwhelming. So many people selling so many things in such confined spaces. It wasn't for me. Especially because a few guys grabbed my arm as I passed trying to get my attention and that didn't settle well with me. Once we left, we tried to take a tour of the castle at the edge of the city, but it seems they're not doing those anymore and the place had a really intense security setup so it seems it's been repurposed somehow. Next up? The mall! 

At the mall we went to Woodin (aka the fancy schmancy fabric store) and I finally found some I liked! Wahoo! We bought that and made a lap around the rest of the building (they had a Payless?? And an Accra monopoly game which reminded me how much I really wanted to buy the Bonn version but thank goodness I didn't because I do NOT have room for that in my luggage) before heading to get a taxi to pick up my stuff and go to the airport. At security my stuff got searched again, what's new. It's because I had an (empty) water bottle in there, so once he found that he put everything back and let me pass. Oh also, the lady who checked my bags was super duper nice! She asked me if I wanted window or aisle and then said proudly "I gave you the best seat, you'll see!" How sweet! In other news the dude at the coffee place insisted they have no wifi (even though I found the network AND Keegan's friend told me about it when we got my stuff from her place) so looks like I'm just out of luck until I land in Lisbon tomorrow morning. Which is fine except I never cancelled or changed my hostel reservation and I was supposed to check in there about... 8 hours ago? Whoops.

So yeah, to sum it all up I'm really happy I came. Keegan's village lifestyle isn't exactly a good fit for me because even though the village itself came with a real sense of community and family that I loved, the standard of living is just too far from what I'm used to. But the more urbanized cities didn't seem so bad. Will I come back? Join the peace corps myself? Mmm probably not. But I'm glad that I got a small window into what it is like and got to spend a few days with Keegan as well. I feel like we haven't really sat down and talked to each other for years, first off because I'm just not a talker, but also because no one really does that when they're younger and once I'd reached late high school/college he was off and traveling the world so there was never much time. But I think we both share a similar taste for adventure so I completely understand. If you're reading this I love you bunches!

Random takeaways:

• Storms come out of NOWHERE and disappear just as quickly
• Carrying things on your head is a lost art form in the first world and honestly looks so so convenient
• If you ever need a confidence boost, just go to Ghana. Seriously I've gotten so many compliments it's insane. Granted it's just cause I'm white, but hey, they think I'm pretty even when I'm drenched in sweat and covered in dirt which is fine by me
• Fanyogo. Is. The. BEST. Seriously, I motion that we bring it to the states asap I'm sure it would sell super well.

Final Week, Finals Week || May 2, 2018

Welcome to finals week! Well, the end of finals week. Four tests in and I still have one more to take the day before the program ends. Yippee.

Now that school is winding down, thus begins the process of packing and the realization that the end of my time here is just around the corner. Cheers to the last time I grab a scoop of gelato during a break between classes, cheers to my last game of ping pong at the AIB, and cheers to seeing the beauty of the Rhine twice a day. Cheers to the Blossom graffiti (yeah, the powerpuff girl) along the bus route, cheers to Gilgen's bakery, and cheers to Bonn Cen-tral Sta-tion. Cheers to Haribo, Beethoven, and the cherry blossoms that are already fading. Cheers to Friedensplatz, my favorite four cheese pizza, and all the butterkeks a girl can eat. Cheers to Pützchen Kloster, the long walk from it, and the funky curtains in my bedroom. Cheers to Bonn, my host family, and my life in Germany. There are so so many more to cheers to, but this will suffice for now. I may not have experienced the last of all of these things just yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't coming. Which isn't all bad because I've found myself appreciating every little thing I do here more and more in the meantime.

April 27

Class excursion to Remagen. We took a train most of the way there then walked the rest along the Rhine. The weather was nice and the river beautiful, as always. Once we made it to the site of the bridge of remagen (no longer there as it was destroyed) we took a tour of the Friedensmuseum, or peace museum. It was nice but nothing special. Following the museum we had a group lunch, complete with gelato, then headed back to Bonn. All in all I wasn't a huge fan of the excursion and at this point I'm so continually exhausted that I would've actually preferred just staying at home and sleeping all day. 

Once I got back home, I packed up some of my things (so far all of my shoes and miscellaneous items/souvenirs are ready to go and filling one half of my suitcase) in the hour or so of time we had, then the whole family headed to AIB for the farewell party. The food was good, the band was good, and I really really enjoyed looking at everything the visualization kids had put together over the course of the semester. I think the best part of the night for me though was Madeline. "Lexie! Drink more beer! / Here, I'll get you another one. / Why haven't you finished that yet?" Or maybe Mitchell on stage while the band sang Love Shack. Both were pretty solid entertainment. After we left AIB a big group of us went to Tacos and then to N8 to finish out the night.

April 28

Today Renate and Uwe took us to visit her cousin. She didn't speak much English so there was a pretty big communication barrier, especially because our german knowledge is also very minimal. But we got to see the beautiful paintings she makes and her garden was absolutely spectacular. And large! They also gave us both a necklace to keep as a sort of memento of our time in Germany. After we left, we stopped for a rather large bowl of gelato before Ibk and I headed back to Bonn to meet up with Corey and do some gift shopping. I wasn't all that successful and still haven't gotten things for most of the people I was wanting to, but I did end up with "die coolste Anti-Langeweile-Schnur" aka the coolest anti boredom cord and boy it did not disappoint. Viel spaß indeed! Corey came back home with us for dinner, but on the way we decided to pop in for our last pommes döner at the usual spot behind the wall. Boy oh boy, I'm going to miss the Döner. And that wall. And Bonn. And the Rhine. And Germany. And Europe. HELP I want to stay forever!

April 29

Ibk and my's adventure around the neighborhood.

April 30

Rhine Cruise and the most fun final exam in the history of final exams.

May 1

Today was a good last day. Well, most of it was. I went to bed around three and then woke up around seven to continue studying. Yes, I leave tomorrow and still had a final today. I should've just slept a normal amount of time, though, because the studying I managed to get done was completely inconsequential when I was handed the exam. It sucked. But once that was over I was finally able to ENJOY Bonn to the fullest. For less than a day... Oh well. After the exam and exit interview, Ibk and I headed to Izzie's for lunch. It was nice to meet her host family after all this time and they were super sweet. And the food was sehr lecker which is always a plus. After that Ibk ran home while Iz and I went back into town to look around the flea market. I'd gone through part of it already on Saturday, so I already had something in mind that I wanted to purchase. It's a small art piece that depicts one of the most iconic bits of Bonn (to me at least)--the wall!! It's part of an old castle/fortification gate, but I just call it the wall. It makes me feel at home and every time I look at the painting I'll be able to picture the yummy döner that lies just behind it! After the flea market we went to Hofgarten for a little picnic/hangout with a lot of the others. I had to say my goodbyes to Izzie and Mitchell at this point and it just made it even more clear to me how completely NOT OKAY I'm going to be when I say the rest of my goodbyes tomorrow. CAN'T WE ALL JUST STAY FOREVER?

Ibk and I headed home around 7, had dinner, and headed downstairs to finish up our packing. I didn't actually finish until around 1:15 am, but we did take a break in the middle to have a glass of wine and chat with our host parents before we said our good nights and goodbyes. Once I'd finally finished up packing, I lugged my stuff up the stairs (how I'm going to get all of that around with me for a month is beyond me) and returned back down to start cleaning. I started with the toilet and sink, swept the bathroom floor, and then moved on to my room. The ultimate challenge: how to vacuum up all of the hair you've shed over the past four months without a working vacuum. Challenge... accepted? Basically I used the hand broom and scrubbed my way across my entire floor, creating hairballs then tossing them into the trash. It turned out to be quite the arm workout but hey, it worked! Ish. It's now 2:30 and all there's left to do is take out the literal mountain of trash we've accumulated in the hallway and hop in the taxi that comes in an hour. 

May 2

I felt it was only right to end the Germany blogs where I started them, so here I am at the airport, just outside of my gate, and ready for my newest adventure. Unlike a lot of the others, I still have an entire month of travel ahead of me. First stop? Accra, Ghana. You'll have to stay tuned to know what else I'll be up to, but for now I'm visiting my brother Keegan as he is serving in the Peace Corps. I'll only be there for around 6 days and I don't have many expectations as to what we'll be doing, but this is going to be a week unlike any other thus far--and you can bet your butt I am PUMPED.

But to catch you up on the events of the day so far, not too much has happened. Just a lot of airport waiting and chats with the others to kill the time. We arrived at FRA this morning around 6 or so, and my flight wasn't until 11:40 so I had plenty of time to spare. When we first arrived I said my goodbyes to Ibk because she had an early flight and then joined Alexa, Lois, and Corey in the main entrance hall. We ended up standing there a while before settling on a plan of action, but I didn't mind because watching the departure board change all at once was truly mesmerizing. Eventually we took the sky tram over to terminal two (with all of our luggage--rip to Lois) to hang out with Darby, Camella, and Deanna. After an hour or so, Lois and I returned to terminal 1 while the rest headed on through security. Eventually I started making my way to Gate A (via sky tram) when out pops Nicky! What a crazy coincidence that we were both there at the exact same time. We went through security together, or should I say we tried to go through security together. We were both stopped and our bags searched. I even got pulled into a separate room and tested for explosive materials. Andddd the test came back positive which was just dandy. So they brought in an armed officer, and when I say armed I don't mean a little pistol, it was a full rifle type thing (I don't know guns, my bad). He went through my passport, I'm pretty sure he looked at every single stamp and visa I had in there, while the original lady that had pulled me in checked through my bags. And then I hear "Oh it's just candy," I look over and she pulls out the bag I'd gotten at the Haribo store a couple days before. I'd completely forgotten it was in there! She did the residue test once again and it came back negative, so the officer pronounced "Alles Klar" and I was on my happy little way. They didn't even throw out the haribo! After that I waited for Nicky to pack up her stuff again (her lady had legitimately gone through her things), we went on to buy some snacks and a phone cord for myself (I left mine in Bonn :/ ) before settling in for a chat. I caught her up on some things and she did the same and I realized I'm really going to miss our chats over the next month. We talked about this earlier, but we both think it's kind of weird that we became as good of friends as we did. Our friend groups don't hang out at all and we don't have classes together either, so I felt like we truly had to foster our friendship rather than us just being forced together. And yeah, we're not BEST friends, but it's nice to have someone you can have a little distance with but then always come back together as if nothing's changed.

WOW Switzerland || April 22, 2018

After a, shall we say, less than ideal yet also somewhat necessary Friday at AIB, I headed home to pack for my last weekend of travel--WOW Switzerland! Mind you, this was also the weekend before several of our exams and finals, and our scores well reflected our hard work and dedication to our studies over this trip--picture us pouring over my textbook on the train and quizzing each other as we climbed up mountains. Hah, yeah, that's not what happened. Dedication to studies? Maybe it's more accurate to say that our scores well reflected the lack thereof. (Whoops?! Pro tip for prospective students: don't travel the weekend before finals. It's a trap! Also, don't lie to yourself--you will NOT be studying on the train. You will be sleeping.)

Once I was packed and ready, I decided to take a nap before we left. Ibk woke me up twice, first to say "hey our train was delayed thirty minutes, I'll wake you up again when it's actually time to leave" and second "we need to go NOW or we'll miss the last bus for an hour." So I popped up, grabbed my stuff and headed to meet the others at Hauptbahnhof. There were several bad omens on this journey for us all. First, Ibk and I bought some lunchmeat, cheese, and bread for everyone along with a few snacks for ourselves just before we had come home, but halfway to the bus stop she realized we'd left them. It was too late to turn back and we ended up running to the bus as it was. Second, as we walked up to the station, Mitchell joined us, but Corey didn't. Which is very odd because they are also roommates and usually pop up together. It turns out Corey hadn't woken up when Mitchell told him to get up. Not the first time, the second, or the third. So Mitchell left without him and saw him running up to the tram just as the doors were closing. Corey then took a different tram about halfway to the station and had to run the rest of the way. And of course, the most classic issue there is, passports. Pro tip: you need them when you travel between countries. Usually. Ibk and I completely spaced and didn't have ours the whole weekend, but we never got checked so thankfully it wasn't a big deal.

So here we all are, boarding our first night train of the trip around 12:40 am. And thus the decision was made! Sleep >> Studying. We had two train changes throughout the night and arrived in Lucerne about 8 hours later. With a strong need to pee. But here's the problem with European bathrooms: they make you pay! Unless of course you can crawl through the luggage slot like yours truly. And once I went through, the others all followed. Free to pee! Free to pee! (Anyone get that reference?)

Then off we went to our hostel, a 40 minute walk to the outskirts of Lucerne. And from there a 5 minute walk, sans luggage, to our challenge of the day: Mount Pilatus. I don't think I can express well enough how absolutely beautiful the hike was. We started off going up along lush green meadows, some with flowers and some without, but all equally as serene. Untilllll heat of the sun caught up with us girls and we ended up just pushing ourselves forward and stopping at every source of shade we could find to take a break. I could tell the boys weren't too keen on waiting up for us, but they did which I appreciated. Eventually we made it to a rest stop with a big playground area where we used the restroom and filled up on water. This also happened to be a stop on the cable car route, so the group split. Us girls rode up one stop, grabbed some popsicles, trespassed on a ropes course, and enjoyed our lunch (in my case some pastries I picked up in the morning) with a view while we waited for the boys to catch up. It really didn't take them long to get there at all, but while we were waiting we spotted the next thing we wanted to do: Giant. Slide. More accurately a toboggan? I'm not really sure but it was a blast. And once you've gone down, they hook up your sled to a mechanised pulley which drags you back up so you don't even have to walk! Highly recommend, but make sure you don't follow Ibk down cause she's a slowpoke!

We took the cable car up one more stop to the top of the mountain (again, without the boys) and my oh my what a view. There was snow everywhere, yet it wasn't cold at all, up until we started messing around and throwing the white fluff at each other. After many a photo at the peak, we explored the caves underneath. They weren't too exciting except that I slipped (but didn't actually fall!) more than a couple times and I got a photo that potentially has the boys climbing up a slightly lower part of the mountain. You can't really see them in it but I thought it was funny that I happened to take those photos right as they were climbing there, even though we had no idea where they were at the time.

We took the cable car back down one stop then hiked the rest of the way down, walked past our hostel to get things to make dinner, then finally returned and settled in. The boys had missed the cable car we took and it was the last of the day, so they were forced to hike the entire way down. It seems they had quite the adventure--losing the path, sledding down the snowy areas (sans sled), accumulating quite a few scrapes and bruises--and they didn't end up arriving back until after we had all showered, cooked, and eaten our portion of dinner. 

The next day (Happy Birthday to Ibk!) was more of a city day. We took the bus into town and got off at the train station, then found a nice spot to sit and relax by the river. We took pictures with and on the oldest covered bridge in the Europe, climbed up a few watch towers along the old city wall, had a foot race, and wandered around back to the river. Next, we rented a paddle boat for two hours and set adrift! The setting was stunning, complete with a mountain background against the blue of the lake, which was picturesque in and of itself with the swans and sailboats roaming around at will. We had a really great time on the water just hanging out, listening to music, and enjoying the green screen backdrops we were looking at. Next up was more wandering, a hunt for an ATM, gelato, and dinner. Somewhere in there we also picked up our luggage, so our next stop was the train station for our overnight back to Bonn. And here is where we should have been responsible students, but once again, sleeping >> studying and we'll just leave it at that.

Random things:

- bed bug scare

- tried out some vlogging but 99% sure I’ll never be using that footage for anything, nevertheless it was fun to do in the moment

- Switzerland is expensive, be prepared to spend more than you thought if you’re planning a visit

Raphael to the RAS-Q || April 12, 2018

Welcome to Enmodes Week. We had classes sprinkled in throughout the week but generally no homework to work on, just lots and lots of working on Enmodes. And lots and lots of ping pong. Seriously, ping pong may just be the best stress relief in the world.

If I haven't said in the blogs already, Enmodes is the company we've been working for all semester. They're a biomedical device company but I can't say much about what we were working on all this time because we signed a nondisclosure. My group (Team Raphael) was relatively well prepared for our presentation going into the week so although we did do quite a bit of work, I never had to do anything outside of the time blocked off for us at school, so this week was actually a really nice break work wise. That being said, it was still rather stressful because I absolutely hate presentations. I always get frazzled and trip over my words and just knowing that is what trips me up in the first place. We spent much of Wednesday and Thursday solidifying what we were going to say in our presentation though, so overall I was ready when Friday came along. And once it was all said and done, I think we all left with a heightened sense of pride. We spent all semester developing something and we finally were able to present all of the work we'd put in and get some good positive feedback on our ideas as well as our efforts. Plus, it was a relief to not have to worry about it anymore.

Other events of the week (although now that I look at it, I think many of these occurred a different week, not quite sure, whoops!)

• Rooftop adventures and Mean Girls (I get it! I get it!)
• Gals night ft pfannkucken and cookies. And vines. THESE ARE MY CHANCLAS
• Another transportation strike??
• Trying out the game in the haribo store (and sucking at it)
• Registration for the fall semester

Big Event + Bonn Marathon || April 19, 2018

Despite the upcoming International Big Event we were all participating in on Saturday, Friday was Nicky’s birthday. We had to go out! First stop was Tacos, which is basically our go to at this point, and following that we went to Carpe Noctem aka Mistake. That club was trash. I’m pretty happy I wasn’t trolling for guys at all because the place was full of creeps, and judging from some of the ones the other girls encountered, also assholes. The music was also pretty lame and to top it off, Alwin was puked on! 10/10 would NOT recommend. I got mayyyybe two hours of sleep that night, then woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed (not) and ready for some good ol’ selfless service.

My group went to Haus am Redoutenpark, a retirement home in Bad Godesberg. There, I met a couple of other girls who are also from A&M (sorry to say I’ve forgotten one of their names, so I will say neither) and we worked as a trio on various tasks around the garden area. We arranged flower boxes, watered lots of plants, washed off some deck furniture, and chucked a fair amount of wood about, uh, 3 yards across a pathway. Why? I’m not so sure, but we did it! Some of the other people in out group spent the time staining chairs, and Corey and Mitchell suited up to use the power washers. When we had all finished up our work, they provided us a barbecue lunch and afterward Mitchell surprised me with his piano skills. When we got back, Corey and I went to find Ibk around the cherry blossoms, but our attempt was a failure as she’d already left and gone home. Oh well. We caught the bus back and ate dinner, then I gave them a proper movie-cation and started up 10 Things I Hate About You. Needless to say, they both enjoyed. 

I woke up around 10 so I could accompany Ibk to Old AIB before her leg of the relay. We had to get off of the bus early and walk across the river since the bridge was part of the marathon route, and as chance would have it, we spotted Dr. Wasser running! Our team was off to a great start. Also, shout out to Los Beuelos for being awesome and pumping up the runners with their drums and high spirit. We made it to Old AIB a little later than intended, but Ibk still had plenty of time to get grab her number and get ready and seeing as I was running the last leg, it didn’t matter much to me. I sat around AIB for a couple of hours resting and chatting with the others until it was finally starting to near my running time and we headed to the transfer point. And there, I waited. And waited. One by one, the area cleared out and pretty soon it was just Alexa and I left. Waiting. The guys running the water stand started to pack up, and called out to ask if we wanted any first. No thanks, I don’t need any water. Im just sitting here, waiting. And waiting. And then, there’s Izzie! She’s rounding the corner! Time to GOOOO! And then I was running. Basically by myself, occasionally passing up some of the full marathon stragglers as I went. Maybe around fifteen minutes in I was settled into a running mood and I switched off my music in favour of an audiobook. Music is good to stay pumped short term, but as I told Darby earlier in the day, for something so long I have to be invested in what I'm listening to to distract me from the pain of my reality. And so I was listening. And running, and jogging, and slowly bouncing along. And then I’d hit a patch of support and I was running! And jogging. And slowly bouncing along. And then I’d pass a banana stand (pre-opened!) and that gave me a good chuckle, and I was running! I didn’t come out of it with the most impressive time, but I’m really proud of myself because I never stopped to walk throughout the whole 7.6 miles of my leg. Izzie and Ibk joined me towards the very end of the route and ran with me across the finish line. We got our team medals (they spell out B-O-N-N, how cute is that??) and went to see Alexa and her team finish as well. Once we’d all crossed we went in search of the celebratory alkoholfrei Bier, grabbed some free pasta along with it, then returned to AIB. I hung out there for a little bit before grabbing some gelato with a few of the others and catching the bus back home.

School the following week was much of the same—lots of class, lots of ping pong. But one thing that has changed is how much time we spend outside. Now that it's become warmer and all of the flowers are blooming, the atmosphere everywhere in Bonn just seems so cheerful! All the restaurants put out their outside seating and biergartens next to the Rhine are a really beautiful hangout spot. It's nearly impossible not to be happy just walking around outside in the sun (which we've all missed dearly) so we’ve begun to really take advantage of it. Also, whether it be down cherry blossom street or just walking around Bonn in general, I really can’t get enough of the trees! They’re just so beautiful and make it feel homey.

The Wombats + Phantasialand (aka the weekend of my dreams) || April 9, 2018

The day had finally come. Remember how I'd said I'd bought tickets to the Wombats concert before I'd even come to Germany? THE DAY HAD FINALLY COME.

So a little background for those of you who don't know of the Wombats at all, they're an alternative band and they became my favorite shortly after my friend introduced me to them during math junior year of high school (shoutout to Thomas, you're the best). So I've been listening to them for a while and I'm quite attached to them, especially because they were the first band I ever saw in concert (and they were absolutely amazing). That was near the end of 2016 and I've been going to as many concerts as I can ever since because they showed me how much fun they can be. I even already have plans to road trip to a show in Arizona this summer to go see them again, even though they're just the opener. So yeah, to say I was excited was an understatement.

Izzie and I headed to Köln early again, but this time around noon because I was determined that we be early to this concert. I finally had my first Primark experience (years of watching British youtubers left me with the need to see it for myself) and we met Austin there. After that we walked around a flea market and some other places before stopping for the most delicious treat I didn't even know existed: poutin. Seriously, I'd eat that every day if I could. And then it was time to head to the concert! We got in line outside just before they let us head in, so soon we had to say goodbye to Izzie (she didn't actually have a ticket at this point, Austin had bought the last one before they sold out, but she was going to wait outside and see if she could find one to buy off of someone) and inside we went. Austin and I got separated for a little bit because there was a small debacle surrounding my mobile ticket, but after I headed down to coat check and the restroom and returned back to the main floor, I found him pretty easily. We sat down for a while on the edge of the people already gathered but eventually I decided to stand up and edge my way up toward the front. I did pretty well too--second row!! The first opener played and they were alright but I was getting impatient. But then I hear behind me a familiar voice and out pops Izzie holding a ticket with a rather triumphant smile on her face. Just in time for the second opener. I was very disappointed when they came out to say the least because I was expecting the Wombats, but they were actually quite good (The Magic Gang, I believe) and I was pleasantly surprised. But on to the good stuff--

The set list:
Cheetah Tongue
Give me a Try
1996
Kill the Director
Black Flamingo
White Eyes
Techno Fan
Emoticons
Lemon to a Knife Fight
I Don't Know Why I Like You
Pink Lemonade
Jump Into the Fog
Moving to New York
Lethal Combination
Let's Dance to Joy Division
Turn
Tokyo (Vampires & Werewolves)
Greek Tragedy

At this point I know (and love) all of their songs, so I think I'd be super duper excited about any setlist they decided to put together, but still, I was super duper excited about the set list. Every new song brought wave of recognition and with it a feeling of pure joy. Concerts are great in general, but I think we can all agree it's a better experience listening to songs you know and can sing along to. And I knew them all. And I sang to them all. It was maybe the happiest I've ever been, especially after a group of girls left the front row and we snagged their spots. So there I was, in the FRONT ROW, the only thing between me and the music and the people making it was a yard of empty space, and I was having an absolute BLAST.

Unfortunately, the music had to come to an end eventually but the excitement didn't end there. Izzie managed to get me the only set list we saw them give out after the concert and boy oh boy, I had hearts in my eyes. I stopped at the merch table and got a shirt (it says EU Tour on the back, how could I not?) then we met up with other Austen and Jack outside the venue and headed home.

BUT THE EXCITEMENT DIDN'T END THERE!!

First off there was a little surprise waiting for me at home and then second we spent the next day at Phantasialand! THREE CHEERS FOR AMUSEMENT PARKS!!!

It took Izzie and I about an hour to get there (and we ran into a palace on the way!) and then, the real fun began. We made our way through almost all of the park and definitely hit all of the best rides in the process.

Here were my favs:

• Taron — MULTI. LAUNCH. COASTER. Need I say more?

• Black Mamba

• Colorado Adventure

• Mystery Castle — I don't want to spoil the surprise in case anyone who reads this ends up going, but let's just say it was quite the surprise. A mystery indeed.

Even though we'd come for the coasters, it was also really nice just to have a day with Izzie. She's one of the best friends I've made on this trip and I honestly don't know what I'd have done without her. It's kind of funny that we became friends because we're so so different from each other. She's high energy and is fully capable of chatting your ear off whereas I'm usually much more reserved. Yet, we work super well together. I think it's because we can have really great chats and joke around with each other and have fun a lot of the time, but also she can tell when I need my own space and she's fine just existing with me. Both of us in the same space, but no need to talk about what's going on or what we're thinking or what we're doing. Just existing. A lot of people find mutual silence uncomfortable and don't really seem to understand, let alone want it, but I think it forms a really close bond.

Walk the Moon + Bingen || April 6, 2018

On Monday night I went to my second concert of the semester, my first concert of the week. We went to Köln a little early and grabbed a drink and food at Sausalitos then headed off to the concert. We got there in time to catch only the last song of Flor's (the opener) set, which was kind of sad because I missed the one song I really wanted to hear. But all was well because there was more music to come. When we'd first arrived it seemed there was no hope of us even being able to see the stage, but since the ladies room happened to be up front and Shannon needed to go, we had the proper motivation to shove through the crowd and we ended up with a pretty good view. Walk the Moon put on a great show and even though I didn't know every song, I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

Highlights:

• Flor's lead singer Zach was quirky and awkward and super adorable--I had to resist the urge to engulf him in a permanent hug
• I'd forgotten that Walk the Moon sang Anna Sun but that may've been my favorite of the night 

After the concert we all managed to get a set list, and since I'd seen one of the one's for flor just sitting on the ground, I had both! Zach came out shortly after Walk the Moon ended so it was quite easy to get ourselves an autograph as well as a little chat with him. Walk the Moon, however, were a different story. We had to wait outside the venue, and wait and wait, even though most of the crew people packing up had told us it was unlikely they were going to come out. Izzie and I were ready to leave, but Shannon was adamant we stay. So we waited and passed the time chatting with/annoying the crew. Oh and there was this one guy that came over and tried to flirt with Shannon with his broken English. She wasn't really having it but it did lead to this quote which I found quite amusing:

Rando: So you are all from America?

Shannon: Yes

Rando (to me): Oh, you look like China.

How does one even respond to that?

But anyway, most of the band did eventually come out so we talked with all of them and got signatures as well. Then we headed off to the train station. There we ran into one of the girls we kind of met earlier on at the concert. It turned out Elena lived in Bonn as well, so I sat with her on the way back.

School started back up on Tuesday, except we didn't actually have class, we had an excursion to Bingen. There we learned about Hildegard, one of the most influential women in early medicine. They had a lot of small models of the building in different stages and if you can't tell by now I absolutely love buildings and bridges and models of buildings and anything architecture related so I was oohing and ahhing at them when Darby said she could see me being one of those grandmas with a little model village in my house when I'm older. The idea had never struck me but I am SO IN. 

There were also some really nice sketches and paintings in the museum towards the back that I really liked, but they weren't exactly what we were there to see and I think I'm one of very few people who actually looked at them. When we left the building we went out in the garden for scavenger hunt of sorts and a lesson on medicinal plants which I thought was fun. It did take quite a while though and poor Nick was stressing about being late for our lunch reservation and he was trying to rush Dr. Wasser along to no avail. After lunch we headed back to Bonn, had our evening math web stream, and got back into the swing of things school wise. I got another wave of homesickness over this week, but it was the last of the semester so all in all I think I did pretty well on that front.