Week 2-Birkenstocks fun

Our second week of the program went faster than the first, which I did not think was possible. It has been a whirlwind of a week, but I have loved every second of it! This past week I found a great coffee shop to study in and got Birkenstock’s for 40 euro. The Birkenstock’s event is a great story. On Saturday, after studying all day for Genetics and Physiology, Masha and I decided to take the train to go to the Birkenstock outlet an hour before it closed, which was not the best idea ever, but turned out great. Finding the train to take to Bad Honnef was easy and only took us 30 minutes to get across the Rhine to get there. Once we got there, neither of us had service to figure out how to get to Birkenstock besides a screenshot Masha had taken of directions to the store before we left. We decided the best plan of action was to start walking down the road and use our offline map. Birkenstock’s looked really far, but we decided to keep trekking there. Eventually we made it and had 10 minutes to pick out shoes before they closed. Thankfully I found a pair and our 1 mile (we tracked the distance once we had service again) run was worth it. I have enjoyed spending time here in Germany with friends and going on fun adventures just like this. 

For academics, I found it difficult to study for all my classes while trying to travel and get to know my host family and fellow students on the program. This is making me focus on time management skills that I am very thankful to be learning. I know that this is helping me prepare for my future once I start PA school and have to manage my time very wisely.

Let It Snow!

1/31/19

Another week of classes down, and I am excited for the three-day weekend. Classes have gotten started for real, and my first assignments and readings were due this week. German is getting slightly easier, but I need to put more effort into learning the language. My hope is to be conversational by the end of the semester, and the sooner I start putting in daily practice, the more improvement I will see. Physiology is probably my favorite class at the moment, and since I took A&P 1 and 2 my senior year as dual credit, I already have a good foundation for the class. Dr. Fajt arrived in Germany this week, and it was nice to meet our professor and have our first in-person classes. Exams seem a long way away, but I know the weeks are going by quickly, especially with the abundance of traveling approaching, so I need to be studying as I go.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the beautiful sight of snow falling. I did not expect it to last or stick to the ground based on what I have been told about the weather in the area, but to my surprise, it has not stopped snowing since yesterday, and a solid five or six inches of fresh powder has covered the city. Bonn has been transformed into a beautiful winter city, and while it has made the public transportation even more frustrating, we have enjoyed it. Yesterday after class, a lot of us students went for a snowball fight in the Hofgarten. Afterwards, we built an enormous snowman taller than myself. It was a great way to end the day, and I am a little disappointed to be leaving Bonn for Berlin this weekend, because I would like to stay and enjoy this winter treat.

week 2

21/01

It feels so weird to be back in school mode! We had our first project meeting and got assigned initial teams. I’m not allowed to share much about the details due to a nondisclosure agreement, but I am already so confident that my team is going to kill it. 

Today, I also found a flight for 40 dollars roundtrip to Milan in a few weeks, and it was too good of a deal not to buy. I have never had an interest in going to Milan before, but after doing some research, I’ve finding that it is a very cool city. I have had no luck yet finding tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, but I am planning on literally scouring the internet until I find one!

22/01

            Today, we visited Cologne, which is a 30 minute train ride from Bonn. We went on an hour and a half walking tour around the city, which I have to admit is my favorite thing to do in windy below 0°C weather! After lunch and cappuccinos, we headed to a museum called the EL-DE-Haus, which used to be the old Gestapo headquarters. Underground, there was an interrogation prison, but we learned that it was actually used for torturing people who opposed Hitler. It was so heartbreaking to read stories and see the original writings on the wall of the prison cells of people who had been tortured or executed. 

After the museum, we headed over to the Cologne cathedral, which was one of the most impressive cathedrals I have ever seen. I thought it was cool that it is the second tallest church in the world- its construction began in 670 and ended in the 19^thcentury and still was built according to its original design plan. We had the opportunity to go all the way up to the tall towers and were able to get an incredible view, which was SO worth almost getting hypothermia. So far, I’ve been loving everything about the cathedrals we’ve visited so far- the Gothic architecture, the rich history, the holy relics, the pure beauty of it! 

23/02-25/02

As the semester goes on, I’m sure most days will not have that much variation between them (and I won’t have as much time to write) so I figured that it would be okay if I combined a few days for these posts!

One thing I’ve been struggling with since I’ve gotten to Germany is my skin. It is so cold here that my face gets really chapped. Another struggle I’ve been having is staying focused on my schoolwork because I always get the urge to start planning a weekend trip. There are just so many cool places in and near Germany and I want to be able to do it all! I really have to remind myself of my priorities because it is STUDY abroad, after all.

Speaking of class, we did “qigong,” in my History of Medicine class, which is a bunch of different physical and breathing exercises. I’ve never done anything like it before, but I really enjoyed finding my ~chi~. 

02/26-02/27

This weekend was mainly spent getting ahead in school. I went to a coffee shop and caught up on some readings and did background research on different aspects of ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) for my team’s first project meeting. Once I could no longer take it, I took an excursion to the Birkenstock outlet, which was amazing, besides the fact that I got lost on the way there and only had 15 minutes to look around before it closed. I will definitely be making my way back asap so I can stock(get it) up. 

Saturday evening, I went out on the town again to experience some more Bonn *nightlife*.  I’ve made an appearance at karaoke night at this underground bar for the past two weeks, which has been quite a blast. Germans really seem to like songs from the 2000’s about teen angst and “Country Roads” by John Denver. Speaking of bier, I have also been enjoying kolsh and different local brews. Once it warms up, I am excited to hang out in biergartens since they’re all closed right now.

Also, on a very important note, my host mom is seriously the best. She has been taking such good care of me, and especially my stomach. I feel so at home here in big part due to her! I am the first student she’s ever taken in, but she’s completely killing it. Overall, I am still so in love with being here. I feel so grateful and overwhelmed every day when I realize that this gets to be my reality.

Missing blue skies

Today it was in the 30s and sleeting but when I FaceTimed my friend, it was sunny and 70s in ATX. I am so jealous but thankfully I am getting used to the cold. It was our second week here in Germany and our first week of classes. I started my intermediate German class and was super excited to be learning new things instead of having review! My host mom and I speak more German to each other now. I was sad I missed her due to her job but she left me delicious food so all is forgiven. I am settling in and am starting to be more comfortable around the house. I have been playing a bit of piano and doing things I've been wanting to do. Unfortunately I am getting worse at public transportation. I forgot to look at the direction of the bus and was late to class. But I hope after this week I will improve and that's all I can ask for. Pharmacology starts up next week which is exciting and our other classes have been going smoothly. History of medicine is my favorite class! So interesting. Mats is making our intercultural lectures fun and informative. The Enmodes project I can tell will be kicking into gear soon. We missed the WOKI sneak preview so we'll have to try next time but other than that we had a good week and ended early on Friday. Which helped because I travelled!

Ana asked if I wanted to go to Maastricht so I decided to be spontaneous and go with a group of our friends. The Netherlands was beautiful and even though it was raining more, it was a little warmer. We took a bus and got even better at the different types of transport here while answering some personal questions to get closer. The bus driver actually complained to us that he was having to speak English in Germany and that we needed to speak German; he was very rude and it was an odd but enlightening experience to be an outsider. Once we got there we had an amazing 3 course meal for 20 Euros along the main square. That night we window shopped and discussed what we saw in the abstract sculptures before heading to the hostel. We checked for bed bugs! It was actually a nice place and had a salsa night Friday. The next day we explored the city and got the best fries to enjoy while we admired 3 wonderful cathedrals. After, we went to a cathedral turned bookstore and I purchased some books to get back into reading which I've meant to do for a while. Then we went to the natural history museum which was very cool and we learned more about the history of Maastricht but I found myself comparing it to the one in NY...Since we were tired we headed back to the hostel for a game of pool before napping but I ended up cracking my book instead. After enjoying amazing pizza across the river we did some more sightseeing before heading back for bed. People came and went from our room so we had to adjust to hostel life. In the morning we had amazing waffles from PNKY and got to experience the difference in service between the cultures. In America, they are more accommodating so they'll get better tips. We walked to Fort Sint Pieter and explored the old limestone caves that they turned into a tourist attraction by drawing on the walls. Everything is Europe has so much history, you can't go wrong doing anything. We even experienced total blackness for a bit to see what it'd be like without lights. Then we went back to go home and had to get ready to go back to the normal flow. It's been fun and I can't wait until next weekend!

Week zwei

     This week we started up all of our classes. I was ready to get back into the swing of things and I am happy to say that I have been loving all of the classes I’m taking so far. I feel like I’ve found such a good rhythm of life in Bonn. Public transportation has gotten a lot easier thankfully. This past week we also had our first intercultural workshop. I really enjoyed it. We were split into groups and given instructions on how to play a card game without speaking to each other, but we didn’t know that each group had different instructions. The winners of each group had to rotate to a different group. It was so interesting to see how everyone responded to this. I was very confused at first and even found myself getting frustrated. It was such a good representation of how people from different cultures are thrown into new situations and have to find a way to adapt. I have found myself having to adapt in many ways since I’ve come to Germany. For example, a lot of places won’t accept credit cards, I also have to make sure I’m not talking too load on the bus and other public places, and I have to be comfortable sometimes ordering at a restaurant where they do not speak English. 

     As far as my personal travel time this weekend I had the opportunity to go to Maastricht, Netherlands. It was such a fun time. I was definitely nervous to take my first weekend trip to another country but everything went very smoothly. The city was beautiful and I really appreciated having everything walking distance because public transportation is a bit intimidating for me. We walked around so much; on the second day we did almost 9 miles. We saw churches, went to a history museum, and went on an underground tour of caves below the city. Other than the gloomy weather, I thoroughly enjoyed the city. After the two and a half days I was really tired so I hope that I have enough energy to make it through the whole semester! Next week I’m headed to ROMA and I can’t wait. We have a three day weekend so I took the opportunity to travel somewhere a bit further. Can’t wait to keep exploring! 

...but I can live like one!

German life... has a lot of small differences, but I am getting used to them. The food (and the beer) is always good. I air dried an entire laundry for the first time in my life. I can't say it's my personal preference but I suppose I'm saving the Earth little by little right? I'll keep telling myself that and feel better about my air dried clothes... haha! We also get the wonderful opportunity to save the world by commuting every day, every where! I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but my commute to school is roughly 45m-1h from the front door of my house to the school. It's really not bad but it feels like I spend a lot of my time on that bus... If I ever commute again, it will definitely be a shorter route.

It has been super cold since we arrived, and I have been lucky enough to get to experience the Apotheke (apothecary/pharmacy) because of it! Experiencing the healthcare system has been an interesting so far... it took me 2 or 3 tries to get successfully get a decongestant. I also had a doctor's appointment and it seemed like both the physician and the pharmacist were mostly treating the illness rather than me, the patient, as a whole. I think I might finally be getting some relief after someone in my group gave me some DayQuil (shoutout to Katarina!). But on the plus side of super cold weather, I can now say I've walked to/from school in the snow (uphill both ways of course)!

Personal travel plans really went underway this week as I started to plan my weekend trips. Feb 1-3 is a long weekend, so I booked a roundtrip flight to Madrid (for only about 60€). Then we have a group trip to Vienna from Feb. 5-8. From here, a few girls and I are headed to Budapest from Feb. 8-10 since we're already off to the East a bit. Aaaaand in the middle of all this, we are missing a Genetics test on Feb 6. So the not so fun part is that I am spending this week studying every day to prepare for the exam when we get back. I'm a little worried about 11 days of extreme travel before an exam... but it is the first one, so I think it'll all work out. Fingers crossed. Pray for me. Send good vibes. Do what you do.

Tonight a few of us are going to the Preview - a showing of a movie that has yet to be released in theaters. I'm super excited because we don't have anything like this in the States! Unless of course you're special/famous enough to go to a movie premier... which I will never be. So I gotta take advantage of the chances that I have while here!

Ok, well I wrote this blog during Genetics class and it is ending now, so this post is ending too! Tschuss!

Ich spreche Deutsch.... no, Dutch... no, Hollandish... no, Netherlans?

This past week was challenging. The engineering curriculum is strenuous and demanding- which I am used to, but it’s more difficult here because all classes are back to back. In College Station, I had longer breaks, could move around, have some time to rest and then go back to class. Here, I am cooped up and absorbing a lot of information each day. When we play, we play hard and often, but we work hard, too. It’s also difficult because in College Station, I am surrounded with people who are struggling just as much as me. So, my stressful schedule seems normal. Here, it’s very clear that the engineers and people with evening classes are struggling more with homework and can’t afford too much playtime. It also makes sense since most BIMS students are seniors, so their hard classes are mostly done while the sophomore BMEN students are just now entering the difficult subjects. Germany is not the best place for this transition.

But, I’m thankful for the weekends. This past weekend, I made it to Maastricht with Madyson, Ana, Josh, and Sebastian via Flixbus. I stayed in a hostel for the first time (not my favorite thing, but they had a cool lounge area). I’m glad my first experience in a hostel was with friends and not by myself. I now know what to expect for when I do solo travelling. I spent FAR too much on drinks and food- I hope that is not a trend that I keep for the rest of this semester. They speak a lot of English there, and the language is less similar to German than I would imagine.

I believe classes will start to get very difficult- but I also believe that having a community to study and work with will encourage me. I’m slowly feeling more comfortable with being myself. Hopefully that happens with the entire group.

We went to Cologne this week- which I plan to go to again. The church was beautiful, but I truly am getting a bit tired of churches. I must have seen at least 30 in the past month. The intercultural workshop was interesting and clever. I am glad to have German class and I’m learning much more about grammar than I ever could on my own- but I do think I would learn more vocabulary on my own. History of Medicine and Physiology are great. The other classes… well, I will just have to work on my focus and patience. :)

1/27/19

Two weeks down! This was our first full week of classes, and it was nice to get an idea of what the rest of the semester will look like. The first few History of Medicine lectures were very interesting, and I am very excited for the class. Physiology will also be an enjoyable experience, although the first lab was rough; but with more laptops and experience, they will run more smoothly as the semester progresses. German has continued to be very challenging for me. I find it very difficult to remember the words, but I think with some more effort and study time devoted to it, I will see more progress in that area. I would very much like to be able to hold a basic conversation in German by the end of the semester (or fluent, but I am keeping my goals realistic). I am especially excited for pharmacology this next week, as Dr. Fajt will be joining us in Germany and really starting the course material on Tuesday. Our first meeting wetted my interest in the subject, and I look forward to the rest of the class.

This weekend, I adventured to the Netherlands with four other students from the program. We spent Friday night to Sunday afternoon in Maastricht, the southernmost city of the low-lying country. It was our first travel experience on our own, but the short two-hour bus ride and hostel accommodations made it an easy trip to plan. We enjoyed Belgian-style waffles, the best French fries of my life from a restaurant called Reitz, and several restaurants in the main squares of Maastricht. There was also an abundance of interesting and historical architecture, both in the residential areas as well as the churches and fortresses of the city. We also visited a natural history museum, and we enjoyed a tour of the limestone mining tunnels that stretch under the city. Touring the tunnels was one of my favorite experiences. Decorated with artwork from the twentieth century, the tunnels have existed for hundreds of years as limestone mines. Throughout their history, they have been used as safehouses for the citizens of Maastricht during war as well as a smuggling system for goods and people during the world wars. Many Jews escaped through the tunnels to Belgium to flee the Nazis during the second world war.

All in all, it was a very good week. I am continuing to get to know my host family and fellow students, but I have realized that the time is flying by and will not slow down for anyone. I am more determined to make the most of my time here and continue having once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Hug me, I'm freezing

On Tuesday, we went to Cologne! We took the train from Bonn to Cologne and I was shocked at how close the two cities are! After twenty minutes on the Deutsche Bahn, we entered Cologne and made our way through Cologne Central Station (which resembles an airport with its shops and food court) to the fresh air.

As soon as I walked outside, the site of the Cologne Cathedral greeted me. It's official name is the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter but everyone in Cologne simply calls it the Dom (German word for Cathedral). It is so tall and looks like something straight  of a movie with its ornate windows, towering steeples, and  small and large figures of apostles, saints and angles lining the walls and doorways.

We continued our day with a walking tour that had many interesting stops including an ancient Roman wall in a parking garage, lunch in a warm restaurant, and a tour of a Gestapo museum. After this, we once again made our way to the Dom.

Our tour guide met us  at the main entrance and took us around to an elevator on the side of the church. Now, this elevator is not part of the church structure. It is part of the ever present scaffolding around one part of the church or another. You see, the Dom is not complete and there is a saying in Cologne that says when people stop working on the Dom it will be the end of the world. It certainly seems so.  The workers are constantly repairing or replacing older parts of the building and move from one section to another. The building is immense and this fact only becomes more apparent when you go up and realize how large the things that looked tiny from the ground really are.

The tour was incredible. Complete with shaking elevators and swaying scaffolds (totally safe of course. It just made the experience a bit more memorable), bells, a Prussian eagle, five foot wrenches, and incredible views of inside and outside of the church. For me it was like something out of a dream. I felt like I was with Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre-Dame as we passed gargoyles, walked through attics filled with treasures, looked down at altars and pews from indoor balconies, gazed at stain glass windows, and stood by the steeples of this magnificent cathedral. 

Now, on to the reason why I titled this piece "Hug me, I'm freezing."  It was a particularly cold day (at least for a Texan) with temperatures in the 20s.  Every place we went was amazing but I was very cold and was kicking myself for not wearing another layer. But, thankfully, I had amazing friends who hugged or huddled with me to keep me warm. Thanks y'all! Next time, I will definitely wear another layer.

The second post

ZWEI baby. Week number two was greater than great. During this week, I felt more settled down than before and this was comforting. I was able to find a gym near the AIB building and sign up for a membership. It’s nothing extravagant but it has what I need, and for a cheaper price than I would be paying back in Texas, so I am happy with it. Plus, they gave me a water bottle when registering. I was actually about to purchase a bottle at the store so I’m glad I didn’t (because then I would have two bottles and, well, I don’t need that many). Things at home are the same- Ina and the boys are doing their thing. For a while I wasn’t eating as much as I would like to, but I conveyed this to Ina and she purchased more food. The other night, she was sleeping on the couch (per usual) but she was snoring quite loud- it was funny. It seems that they are all very comfortable with me being in the house which in turn comforts me.

On the other hand, school is picking up a bit more. The history of medicine lectures are very interesting and very in depth- much more than I expected honestly. We had one pharmacology class and it was much, much, much less intimidating than we all expected. At the same time, none of us (5) really know what to expect. We will meet three times this next week so I’m interested to see how it goes. I mean this all in a positive manner though, I’m very much hoping to learn a lot in that class. Finally, physiology. So far, this class has been very much review. However, I am very pleased to experience this content in a “review” manner rather than a “I should remember this but forgot it” manner. I’m excited to move forward in the material for this course.

The enomdes project is really the only aspect of this semester that stresses me. I don’t doubt my creativity, but I feel it is limited in my by knowledge in the field. While actively reading papers to fix this, I hope I can learn enough in time to make the meaningful contributions I know I am capable of.

Lastly, I should mention the spontaneous trip I embarked on to Maastricht. It was very fun. I'll include a couple of pictures since they're worth a thousand words and all. 

Been a tough week, but in Germany it's fun!

This week has been full of homework and long school days, and the week to come will be just as challenging. However, These trials are met with a large reward at the end of the week. For example, my reward for enduring one full week here in Bonn was an awesome trip to Cologne. It was simply breathtaking how such a beautiful city can be so close to where we're staying. The cathedral in Cologne was absolutely magnificent. The sheer size of it was incredible, I think that may have been one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen. In fact, I'm certain that it is the most amazing building I have ever seen. Unfortunately after our sweet trip to Cologne I had to attend my differential equations class. I really like my professor, but math is so hard to absorb after such a long day of fun. The following days of school were long. Pretty much a 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. day every day. I actually feel like I have more homework here in Germany than I did in College Station. I had homework in nearly every class. When I told my host family that I would be studying over the weekend, they were shocked! I guess their previous students didn't work as hard. That's okay though. I have a couple of sayings that justify the work I put into things. I always say "Hard work beats talent." and "If you put good in, then you'll get good out". I'm no stranger to hard work, but I think I need to be a little more efficient in my work. Aside from school, life around Bonn is interesting. I am constantly taking in my surroundings and observing people and how they behave. Also, I think some of the employees at Dean & David are getting to know me. They're very friendly and always help me if I don't understand things. They even ask me how to say words in English. I learned that a grill in English is the same as in German. To end, I'll include some pictures of Cologne! Oh, and this weekend I'm gonna be traveling to Rome!

Week 2: Ramping up

So, like I wrote in my blog last week, Ryan and I stayed with a different host family this past week. It was a very different experience. We wore shoes indoors. On the night we got there, we had dinner with one of their children and their family (who was hosting Sebastian at their house). And like I noted a week ago too, they have a dryer. I tried to wash all of my clothes last night but didn’t realize the washing machine was much smaller than the kind I am used to in america (also the settings aren’t in English) so I only managed half of the clothes I wanted to wash. In fact, it was a struggle even washing those clothes because it took three attempts to get the washing machine to work. Eventually, Ryan figured out that the issue was that the water valve wasn’t open (whoops) so it wasn’t getting water into the the machine. At that point, it had gotten to be pretty late so I decided against doing a second load after in favor of getting some more sleep. That didn't happen either and I ended up not sleeping until 4 am for… reasons I still don’t know). Today (Sunday), we moved our stuff back into our original host house.

On Tuesday, we visited Cologne with the program. First thing you notice coming off of that train is the immense structure very nearby: the cathedral. After a tour of the town where we learned about the history of the town and various excavational findings made due to rebuilding after WWII, we climbed the cathedral fairly high up while learning about the very long history of its construction. I am pretty sure we did other stuff which I am currently forgetting but I’m tired and it was a while ago (aka more than 1-2 days) so my memory isn’t perfect.

Yesterday (Saturday), Ryan, Ryan, and I went to Cologne again on our own to check out some of the things we missed in the program. When we got on the train, we had our tickets checked (first time this has happened to me) and found out we were on the wrong type of train. Right destination, wrong pay grade. It did seem like a really nice train. Anyway, we got off and first saw the lock bridge and walked a long, perusing the many, many locks attached. There were some with huge locks that were in the shape of a heart or an animal. After that, we went to the Ludwig museum and saw a lot of different types of art, including a collection of Picassos. After that we went to the chocolate museum and ate small samples of chocolate as we toured, which was pretty sweet (pun intended). For lunch, we went to the Fruh Brewery and had a kolsch beer with the food. Once we were done, we headed back (this time on the right train) and I was exhausted.

Classes are finally starting to get under way and homework is beginning to pile up. I’ve been able to get it done on time for the most part (I did one of my German worksheets on the bus and walk to class one morning) but I can already see how balancing work and travel/relaxation can get to be a pain. Maybe this will force me to improve my terrible time-management skills. Maybe. We’ll see.

Tschüss

Ich Lerne (Week 2)

This week for me was all about learning how I'm going to balance my classes with our excursions and my own travels. Everyone has settled into class, which means all of the assignments are due and the first round of exams is just beyond the horizon. My schedule here is a lot different from what it was in College Station. It's mainly because we've had back-to-back classes until 1600 or 1700 most days, but that looks like it'll be changing in the coming weeks- at least for BIMS students. At this point, though, I've gotten more use to the long days. They're hard but they make me more productive, so I don't have as much to study or work on when I go home in the evenings. So, even though things calm down for me these next few weeks, I'll probably still stay at AIB just to work. I've discovered that I'm more productive there than I am at home, where I just want to watch Netflix or kill time on my phone. Which is why just yesterday, I went into town to study at AIB instead of staying at home. Today I didn't go out because my host family has Sunday brunches with everyone, including oma and the brother and sister who don't live at home anymore. We didn't finish until around 1300 and I wasn't really feeling up to the 30-minute trip into town after a big meal.

So far, my favorite class is History of Medicine in Europe. Of course, I kind of predicted it would be because I've always loved history and it's the course for which we have our excursions. It's also the course that includes our German lessons, which I really enjoy. But the lectures we've had this past week for the history course were incredibly interesting and I can't wait to learn more about the development of medicine here. Things have advanced so far from the days when medicine was tied irrevocably to spiritual and religious practices. Anyway, when it comes to German, I am constantly astounded by the differences in the language's structure and use. For example, this week, we learned how to talk about the time and it was super weird. Germans apparently like to talk about anything within the ten minutes before and after the half-hour by referencing the half-hour, not the current or next hour. That means that 1025 is "five before half to 1100" and 1340 is "ten after half to 1400." And pretty much everything after 20 minutes references the next hour, not the current one. So not only do I have to learn the German words, but I also have to remember the typical German structure for referring to time. It's all pretty confusing. And I honestly think my limited knowledge of Spanish is messing with me. I keep trying to make the "h" sound when I see a "j," instead of the "y" sound I know it has to be. And irregular conjugations in German affect different pronouns than in Spanish, which confuses me sometimes. I like learning German and I enjoy the class but, overall, I'm just a mess.

Besides classes, we went on our excursion to Cologne, or Köln for the Germans, and had a great time freezing to death. That day I was, without a doubt, the coldest I have ever been since coming to Germany. My toes and fingers started to hurt after about 20 minutes outside and the first thing we did was go on a 1.5-hour walking tour of central Cologne. The town is super cute and the cathedral was breathtaking, but it was so cold! After lunch, we all visited the EL-DE Haus for a guided tour. During the Third Reich, the building was used as the headquarters of the Gestapo and it was later made into a museum. We saw the prison in the basement, which was surreal. Most of the walls still had the writing of those imprisoned there, who were from a lot of different countries. And the rooms were so small, it's hard to imagine how 20-30 people could even fit in them, which apparently was what happened. That part of the trip was interesting but, overall, pretty melancholic.

To have us leave on a high note, the next planned event was a tour of the cathedral. Before lunch, we had stopped in for a few minutes because we had some time but now we would be going up and walking around about half of the cathedral, including outside. It amazes me how people could build such structures so long ago, with very basic technology. I also can't really fathom the over 600 years that it took to build the cathedral. Apparently, the building started in 1248 and engineers were working continuously for 200 years before there was a 400-year-long break in construction due to lack of funds and diminished enthusiasm for the project. Work didn't start again until 1842, in part because of the Gothic Revival associated with the Romanticism of the times. What's kind of crazy, to me, is that the funds at this point were mostly crowd-sourced. I don't think that there are many causes nowadays that could get the same level of support. It was from a local population too! Pretty much every charity that exists today can and does get support from around the globe and still can't completely rectify whatever injustice they're trying to address. Although, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised after people donated so much money to that GoFundMe page to help A&M pay for the fines after the LSU game- even though A&M is a for-profit institution that takes tons of students' money already.

Anyway, our guide took us up in a tiny, dodgy work elevator before she led us along the inside of the cathedral. After that, we headed outside on a narrow walkway and, in the end, up into a bell tower. The cathedral was absolutely breathtaking, especially when we went to the top of the building. But really, everything about the cathedral blew my mind, from how long it took to build, to the sheer size of it, to the beauty I saw in it and from it. It's actually kind of funny because I can still hardly believe it was real. Especially when we first got into town; we just turned a corner and there it was: this giant, amazing building taking up almost my entire line of sight. None of the pictures I took can really capture the full effect of the view or what I felt being there. I'll just include a few photos below and leave it at that for now. Some of the photos are from my fellow students because my phone spazzed-out and died from how cold it was. I felt like my fingers were going to fall off, so I wasn't surprised my phone couldn't handle the temperature.