erste Schritte

Hallo!
     I have spent two weeks in Germany now, and I must say I'm having the time of my life. Given that as a kid my grandparents brought me Germany to see family and to learn more about the world it really just isn't the same as coming to live here on my own. Thankfully during my stay here in Bonn I will be living with my host family, the Steinfelder's. Living with a host family has been a great experience so far. By living and eating with them I have gotten a different perspective from the one I have grown up with in Texas, and generally a better understanding of how non Americans view the world and how my view of the world isn't the only way. Something that has also come from talking to my host family and from traveling around town during the day, is a better understanding of how to speak and understand German. The rate at which I've been learning German has been a pleasant surprise and I can now can almost always understand the basics of what is being said either to me or to others. Replying is coming slower but with enough practice I hope by the end of the trip I will be able to keep a conversation going only in German to anyone. Food in Germany has been amazing so far, ranging from Döner to Pfannkuchen or the multitude of different pastries and breads you can find in the local bakeries.

     As far as what I have done in my two weeks here in Bonn, well where to start. Apart from visiting different parts of Bonn and getting to explore much of the city center with my class mates. The first trip we took as a group was to the Mayscoß vineyard where we walked to the top of the hill to drink wine in the ruins of a small medieval castle, and later had a tour of the wine cellars in the valley (with a few more glasses of wine).
     Then at the end of the week we visited Aachen where we started our design project which I am very exited about, and then visited Charlemagne's cathedral which was beautiful.

As well as visiting the Gestapo museum and learning more about the ugly side during WW2. One thing I'm a bit surprised and glad to see is a collective effort to acknowledge what happened during WW2 and realize that it was a poor time for Germany and its actions, and not claim that its the past and they should move on, but to sort of embrace it and move towards a world where things like that are never going to happen again.
     I also visited my family here in Germany for the weekend which was great as it had been a long time since I had seen some of them.
     Upon my return and when classes started again I was presently reminded that it wasn't only a trip abroad, but a study abroad (aw). Even though classes were a little heavy the second week they all covered subjects I was happy to be in (except Diff-EQ) so they flew by, but I quickly realized how much of my time I was active during the day, when I was getting up early and getting home, eating, and then doing a little homework before bed.

     During this busy week we also had the chance to visit Köln and tour a little around the city, the highlight being the Köln cathedral which we had a tour up and around the top of the cathedral, where the view was amazing, despite the foggy day.

     Overall so far this trip has been so much fun, and I feel like I'm actively learning all of the time from when I wake in the morning to when I head to bed at night. Next week we are visting a couple museums locally and then to top it all off I'm heading to München on the weekend (I'm sad Bayern München has an away game), and then Wien shortly after. I'll catch up to you later, tschüss