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.
No comments:
Post a Comment