Deutschland Never Disappoints

This week was a wild one, including the end of enmodes but not really, and a long Easter trip all over Germany. It was basically hell week for enmodes, because all of the groups had to finalize their projects and presentations for Aachen on Thursday. But, Monday only had a normal meeting. Instead, a lot of our time on Monday was taken up by the Alexander Technique. From what I gathered out of the 3 hour workshop, the Alexander Technique is just being able to recognize how your body is positioned, and then being able to relax it. It was supposed to help us present better for the big presentation to enmodes, but to me personally it was just a fun activity to do with everyone whether it helped us or not. Tuesday and Wednesday were the actual enmodes hell days, and all day we worked on the project and all night we worked on the presentation. We were fed both nights, but that only slightly helped the fact that we were there until 12 and 2 respectively. We got Ethiopian food on Wednesday, which was good, but I hate way too much of it and it did not agree with me for the rest of the night. Both nights, it felt like we were at AIB much longer than necessary, but come Thursday, we were confident in our projects and were comfortable presenting them. That day, we dressed in our business casual, and again hopped on the bus to Aachen. Dr. Wasser started, the three teams followed, and questions were last. At the end we enjoyed some champagne, but I didn't feel as relieved as I thought I would. There is still the DHF and booklet to finish, but those won't take near as long. Most likely, I was just too tired from the 4 hours of sleep I got to care about finishing. It was a good time nonetheless, and outside of math class that night, Easter weekend had officially started.

For Easter, I decided to hit three different cities in Germany: Munster, Dresden, and Berlin. My host family had recommended Munster to me, so I wanted to check it out. Most everyone was going to Berlin for the whole weekend, so I took on Muster by myself. I enjoyed traveling on my own, because I could go my own pace, the weather was beautiful, and the city was quiet. I got to see a few wonderful churches, the state museum of art, and the Aasee. The Aasee is a man made lake in Munster, and it's open for the public to come and relax in the grass, or hop in a small boat to ride around in. Again, the weather was perfect, and it was a very relaxing day and one of my favorite trips so far. But, being there alone made me wish I was fluent in German. That was all day Friday, and I arrived in Berlin at my 42 person hostel room that night. Saturday, some of my friends and I hit up a couple museums on Museum Island, including the Pergamon and the Altes Museum. I got there a little before them, so before the museums I also climbed to the top of the Berlin Cathedral. The inside of the cathedral was beautiful and gave me Pantheon vibes, and the view at the top was wonderful too. It was no Sacre Coeur, but it was cool to see the top of Berlin. After the museums I tried to kill time while the others climbed the cathedral as well, but I ended up just walking in a circle and getting my water bottle kicked around by a toddler. But after they got done, we hopped on a tram going east, and walked along the East Side Gallery. We were planning on meeting some other friends at a Korean restaurant, and the gallery took us straight there. Along the way however, we stopped at a little opening in the wall where these two guys were holding a mini concert on the river. We grabbed some beers nearby, and sat and listened and watched the sunset for a little bit. The restaurant was a little small for the number of people we had, but we managed to cut the line and secure a big table. There aren't a lot of Korean places back home so this was a treat, and it was so good. The next morning I left early for Dresden, where I was meeting a friend. It was another quiet and relaxing day, especially since it was Easter Sunday. My mother would've liked if I had gone to church, but we forgot about that. We did however, manage to hit all the best parts of Dresden, and ended up with time to kill. We got to watch the sunset at a castle with some beers, before grabbing some quick Indian food on the way to our bus to Berlin. On Monday, I had an early ish departure, so I was on my own again. I got one last breakfast at the Heart of Gold, and made my way out to see some last second sights before my 9 hour bus ride back to Bonn. I managed to see the Berlin wall memorial, as well as the Brandenburg gate, which was literally just so I could take a picture.

I slept surprisingly little on the ride back to Bonn, and when I got home I went straight to sleep. It had been a long and amazing weekend. It was my last big trip of the semester, and while that in itself is hard to think about, I know I made the most of this trip.