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