Snow in April, Champagne in Aachen

Week 14

               This past Saturday, I met up with a friend in Cologne that I’ve been planning to see since November. He is a fellow Terry Scholar that graduated from Texas State and worked as a sound engineer. He got his Master’s in Germany after working for a few years and ended up meeting his wife here on a Flixbus to Vienna for an acoustics conference- so he ended up staying here, marrying her, and moving to Cologne. I asked about what he does now, which is much more about gardening and environmental awareness. We talked about my Terry experience and just got to know each other a bit in Café Nale.

               As we were talking, it started to snow outside. I was in awe, because it was sunny out and definitely not cold enough for water to freeze. It was at least 44 degrees F. My friend told me that in Germany, they say “Der April macht, was er will”: April does what it wants.

               I left Cologne with Kevin, went shopping at Lush and Sephora, and went to Starbucks to write in my journal until it closed and I went to AIB and drank some wine with Lindsay and Kevin.

               Sunday, I spent all day at home, and the rest of this week has been full of nothing but enmodes.

                After normal class Monday morning, we delved straight into perfecting our project. Tuesday and Wednesday were the same. After staying at AIB until 1 AM multiple times, everyone was exhausted. Though, the Ethiopian food on Wednesday was a great pick-me-up. I also finished my Paris book while laying in the biergarten with Adriana during Tuesday's lunch break- which was another highlight of the week.

All I had for the presentation was the intro, but I felt nervous because I was the opening face of the group and it was important that I effectively sold our idea. I had to convey as much confidence as possible- which has been hard for me ever since I started college. Public speaking did not used to shake me so much, but I was having trouble stuttering and remembering my points. After enough practice, recording myself while alone and reciting the intro to others while doing something casual, like playing volleyball, I had it down pretty well. Even with such a straightforward task, I was proud of my slide- it was simple, fitting, and effective. I had found the perfect images and my speech was smooth and convincing. When I said it to Wasser, my team was impressed since it was also the first time they had heard it. I don’t know why it gave me so much joy, but their enthusiasm made me sure of myself.

I went home Wednesday night and didn’t finish showering until halb drei, but I still wanted to straighten my hair. I had a goal that I would straighten my hair at least once this semester, and now was the time to do it. I ended up going to bed at nearly 4 am.

The presentation went perfectly. I was so proud of my group and had so much fun working with them, and the champagne was a pleasant surprise. With the conclusion of the project, the nearness of the end of the semester seemed all the more real.

We engineers ended our day after Math class with a beer in the garden next door. It was only the second time all semester where only engineers were hanging out together- outside of doing homework! We had a blast, and we ended our night only to prepare for our Easter trips the next day.