Heidelberg Trip

 I fell in love with this town! My first adventure started on the train on the way to Heidelberg. I sat across from a lady, and she seemed to be a teacher because she was grading print essays. Halfway through the ride she looked at me and asked me in Spanish: “Are you from Colombia?” And I replied: “Yes, how did you know?” And she replied: “Because of your Totto brand suitcase, only Colombians have those suitcases!” From there we started a very interesting conversation. She told me that her husband is Colombian, and that they are planning to travel to Colombia for their next vacation. Talk to her about a little bit of everything but especially about her experience in Colombia. She loved living in Colombia, and if the situation in Russia Ukraine worsens, she and her husband plan to take refuge in Colombia. I loved listening to her speak in Spanish because she had a German-Colombian accent, the curious thing is that her husband still finds it very difficult to speak in German and she prefers to speak to him in Spanish. She was super fun and now we are planning to meet up in Bonn to eat Colombian food prepared by her and her husband.

When we arrived in Heidelberg, we left our bags in the attic we rented, and walked around the city, the riverside, and around the castle. When we were walking through the castle gardens, we wondered how people would have felt living in such a big place and with traditional dresses of the time referring our ideas to the Cinderella movie. Although the last few days were gray and rainy in Bonn, the weather this weekend was perfect sunny and cloudless! 

The next day we toured the castle inside and it turned out that it was a museum of the history of pharmacies in Germany. Throughout the tour we saw the different scenarios, instruments and species used by the first pharmacists in history. To be honest, we remembered Dr. Wasser throughout the tour because most of the information presented in the museum had not already been taught by him in our History of Medicine class. The view from the castle's balconies was beautiful and you could see the whole town from there. Afterwards we tried to visit some museums but we couldn't get in because we needed to have a reservation. So we decided to go explore some ruins on top of the mountain on the other side of the river. The ride was super tough because the trail was super steep but along the way the view was beautiful and we finally reached a natural theater made of rocks. Afterwards, we ate lunch in a restaurant near the theater watching the sunset from the top of the mountain. Going down the mountain was quite an adventure because the sun had already set and we were a bit far away, so we went down as fast as we could but unfortunately that hurt our feet because many times we couldn't see where we were stepping and we tripped over the rocks in the path. When we reached the edge of the river, we had the opportunity to see the illuminated castle and the reflection of the lights of the houses on the river at night. It was very romantic! Afterwards we went to rest and the next day we returned to Bonn.

First Enmodes Meeting - February 18th

During this week, we had our first meeting with Enmodes to present our first ideas for the design of the ECMO device. It was super interesting to hear the points of view of all the teams since we all agreed on several things, but in other aspects we presented different ideas. Also, we had the opportunity to ask multiple questions about important aspects in the design, use and operation of the device to understand important aspects that must be considered when working on our designs. I feel that this meeting helped us focus our ideas on more concrete designs to work on for the next few weeks.

Pharmacology Workshop - February 11th

During this week, Dr. Fajt prepared a workshop where we were able to learn the relationship between the best-selling drugs on the market compared to the most frequent diseases in the world. It was interesting o see how the results did not agree because of the demand of patients who require the drugs for chronic diseases compared to very expensive drugs that are not frequently purchased. Likewise, we learned how to perform searches using Google Scholar, PubMed and NCBI and filter the results to find more precise results according to the required specifications. These tools help us save time and energy while researching articles relevant to our college assignments.

Week 6, Trier aka Karl Marx's hometown

 Week six out of sixteen! And wow time is going by fast! This was one of my favorite weekends but first I will talk about my week. Monday was Valentines day. I wore a red sweater to celebrate. I found out from my host family that Germans do not really celebrate Valentines day in the same way that Americans do. It is not as big of a deal here. I did however go to a flower market and buy myself a bouquet of white flowers. I have really been enjoying these flowers. However, I did not get to celebrate Valentines day since we had our first exam the next day. This brings me to Tuesday. My first BMEN 211 exam. The exam went pretty well. I was, however, extremely stressed for this exam. That evening, we had Galentines. It was very fun. We got hair tinsel from Jules and glitter from Avery. Wednesday, we had our zoom meeting with Endmodes. The meeting went well and they gave us some very good feedback. After, Avery, Isabelle, and I went to a café. I studied for a bit and then went home and napped. Thursday came around and it was quite rough. My chronic procrastination caught up to me. I crammed in a bunch of my SolidWorks assignment. I did finish most of it and then barely had to do any of it Friday which was very nice. On Friday, I finished up the assignment and then after school we were off to Trier.

The Trier trip was full of fun and chaos. To start off on Friday, we got on the train fine. We then accidentally got off one train stop too soon. We had a 20 minute transfer time though and it was a 10 minute walk to the next station so we walked over and made it to our next train. Then on our next train, a tree fell on the tracks and caused us to have 45 minutes worth of delays. This however, was not even the end of it. The public transportation system is not as good in Trier so our best option was a 25 minute walk to our hotel. After making the trek over, we had to do an online check-in. This was more chaotic than the train ride. We could not figure out why it would not upload the picture until we realized that only one of the two required pictures had to be in jpg form. I made the realization that this is why it was not accepting the iphone picture as that would have been in heic. We sat on a bench outside of a holiday inn express and switched over the picture format and were finally able to get the code to access our hotel. Once we got in, with all of our delays, it was 11:30 at night and we did not have any food options near by. We then ordered some dominos online but after 45 minutes, came to the conclusion, it would not be arriving. This had us change routes and find a pizza place called Pizza Town Trier. We ordered two pizzas, a salami and a Hawaiian. It was the best Hawaiian pizza I have ever had.

On Saturday, we woke up and started walking over to the city center. While the lack of transportation was annoying, at least we saved money on transportation. The first thing we saw was the ruins of a Roman bridge. It was huge! It was amazing to stand and look at. After, we headed over tp see the Karl Marx statue since we were in his home town. Next, we headed over to a café that was in a historical building. The building was built during the times were you could not have an entrance on the street so the original door is up higher and would have been accessed via a ladder. After this, we went to check out the church. The church had three different parts that had been built at different parts added together. We went in at a perfect time to see the painted glass being lit up by the sun. It was breathtaking. After, we strolled through a park with Greek statues. They had a lot of the mythological statues. They were quite cool to see. We then headed over the the ruins of a Roman bath house. Outside of the entrance, there was a replica of the foot of the statue of emperor Constantine. It was huge, as tall as me. I then spent the best three euros of this entire trip. We walked in and could see some tunneling below the grass. Immediately, we tried to figure out if there was a way to go down and once we found it, we all got so giddy. We ran around the tunnels exploring them and they were so amazing. We saw the areas of how they created heated pools which is so cool to think that they had the technology to do so. We then came back above and looked at all of the above ground things and just could see how advanced they really were. Avery even shed a tear with how amazed she was. This was one of the highlights of my entire trip. After this, we went and found a burger place to eat at. I tried a big burger, which the waiter judged me for and argued with me for not wanting cheese but that's fine. It was good. It had sauerkraut on it. I had to eat it with a fork and knife but that is how the Germans eat them anyways. After this, I found my normal shampoo and conditioner! Very exciting. We then headed over to Karl Marx's childhood home which was cool to explore. We then walked around town some more and stopped at Coyote Café for some frozen margaritas. They gave us paper straws, per usual, but these literally do not work with frozen drinks. This pushed me to my breaking point and I ordered some metal straws off of amazon. I cannot stand the paper straws. I absolutely hate them. We then headed home and ordered more of the pizza from the night before because it was so good!

Sunday, we woke up early and headed to the train. I got home, started a load of laundry and took a 2.5 hour nap. Then I started some homework, did another load of laundry and watched some Boba Fett. I decided to take the day chill because I needed it and mental health always comes first. This upcoming week I have two tests on Thursday so that will be very stressful. I am very much not looking forward to that.

Two Weeks in Bonn

 After an eventful couple of weeks traveling, I decided to stay in Bonn and relax for a few weekends. The school load has definitely picked up and being able to go about my studies with a peace of mind was well worth it. I had also missed the quality time that I get to spend with my family on weekends, nothing will beat the Saturday/Sunday brunch that sends you into a nice afternoon nap. The weather over the past two weeks has been surprisingly nice, I've seen more sunshine during this time than all of my previous time here in Bonn combined. That being said, there was rain all weekend and there is a storm just now beginning as I sit here and write this. I can't believe February is already close to being over, and looking at what all I have planned in the coming months gives me the feeling that this semester will be over before I know it. I have really enjoyed having the normal feel of a school routine along with the work we have been doing for Enmodes. Last Wednesday we had our first meeting since our initial meeting in Aachen, and I thought it went very well. We got some much needed direction and I was proud with how the group presented and articulated the information that we have been gathering. I can't wait for Spring Break and to visit more of Germany, outside of Munich my plans are open at the moment. Hopefully after that I'll have more of an exciting blog post!

More Chaos In My Travels

 The thing about traveling with me is there will never be a dull moment. I don't know if I attract chaotic energy from the universe but things don't always go smoothly, however, they do end up working out in the end. This past week/weekend was one of those times. 

After a weekend of staying home in Bonn I became stir-crazy and decided to travel the next weekend. The only problem is that I have a test tomorrow and traveling this weekend was probably not the *wisest* move, but hey, I'm here for the experience. I booked a train to Trier for me, Emily, and Isabelle for Friday night. Once Friday came around there was a huge wind storm that had been wreaking havoc for about a week and I worried it would affect our train ride. Well... at our first stop of the journey we accidentally got off on the wrong train station and then had to book it all the way through town to the next train station we were supposed to be at while the gale force winds tried to knock us down. Luckily we had 20 minutes between stops but it was still a trek. Once we got there we realized it was a splitting train. One half would go to Frankfurt and the other, Trier, except for the life of us we could not figure out what side went where and had two minutes to decide. For the longest time we didn't even know if it was our train because the name didn't match up. The good news is we guessed right and ended up on the correct side and a nice man helped us along the way. However!!! Along this train ride a tree fell in the middle of the tracks which caused a huge delay in our time. By the time we got to Trier it was 9:30 pm. We figured most restaurants would be closed so we got provisions at a store nearby. Then we started our 23 minute walk to our hotel through a sketchy part of town. When outside our warehouse looking hotel we couldn't tell where it was located, only one door was the entrance. We soon realized it needed a code to get in and didn't have an actual front desk worker like I thought. So I checked the email and realized I had to fill out an entire check in form. After multiple attempts at trying to submit it, mind you we were outside in the windy cold with only 9% battery left, we realized one of the documents I had to upload needed to be a jpeg and not whatever the iPhone saves it as. So I had to pull out my iPad, open two apps, convert the file, save it, and airdrop it to Emily so she could upload it on her phone since she now had the login. It finally worked and we got in the hotel room after 30 minutes of panicking. 

The next day was much more calm. We explored the Porta Nigra, drank coffee in a historical building, saw a giant church that the Emperor Constantine had built that was blended in 4 different styles later on, got to see Roman bathhouse ruins where Isabelle and I had a moment of near tears from thinking about lost history and how advanced parts of antiquity were. Then we ended up at the Karl Marx house because Trier was his hometown, and ended the day at a random restaurant/bar situation where we attempted to drink frozen margaritas out of paper straws. It did not go well. In total it was a fun day trip with some bumps along the way but it all worked out. I still have this physiology exam tomorrow that I have no studied for enough so thats a bit of a point of concern but whatever. I also realize I haven't discussed much of my Berlin trip from a couple of weeks ago but maybe when I have time to reminisce I can make a good story out of it. 

Soundtrack of the week: Virginia (Wind In The Night) by The Head And The Heart

Keep it Cool,

Avery 

Daniel In Berlin

 How do I describe Berlin? The Austin of Germany with a lot of dark history...

Berlin was amazing, it was so different compared to all the other cities I have visited so far. We were in Berlin for 4 days and got to see so much. You can't really generalize Berlin, it has so many different aspects, and it's a little "weird" like Austin, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's a huge melting pot for all kinds of people and races, they had really good food and a somewhat decent nightlife (as good as nightlife can get with covid). Right off the bat, our tour guide begins to talk about how berlin is one of the lgbt+ capitals of the world, and you can definitely see that from the get-go, it's so amazing that this recently heavily oppressed country that was once killing people for being who they are able to move on from that and be one of the most liberated and freeing capitals of the world, everyone is who they want to truly be in Berlin. Berlin is also filled with a lot of dark history and we got to see a glimpse of that with all the museum's visits, I personally enjoyed the Jewish museum the most learning about a brief history of Jewish life in our world. My favorite part of this excursion was dinner at Dr.Wasser's friend's restaurant. The owners were kind enough to rent out the restaurant for us and provide us dinner and wine, buffet style. I really enjoyed everyone eating together, that was the first time that everyone in our program, faculty, and students all came together to enjoy a meal. The food was also fantastic, I have never had Mediterranean food but it was amazing.

January Recap

 So we have been here for about a month and I already feel like a different person. It's crazy what living on the other side of the world does to you. In the first month of being here, I have already started to become very fond of the place and the people I have met. My favorite part of being here so far is definitely nature. I'm a big hiker, and I love taking my puppy on hikes with me to different places and seeing the beautiful landscapes of the area. My host family lives about 2 minutes from an entrance to the kottenforest and the trails are so beautiful. One day I plan on coming back and bringing my dog Sirius along to go hiking with him to all my favorite spots in Bonn so far. I haven't started to get homesick at this point yet but I do miss my dog dearly, that's what has been the hardest for me so far about being over here. As of right now, the school hasn't been too tough yet, and we have tarted our enmodes project, next week we are going to berlin so I look forward to that.

Week 5: Rugen over the weekend

From Berlin, Daniel, Camryn, Jules, and I traveled to Rugen, a small island off the Baltic Sea. We celebrated Jules' 20th birthday by wearing little party hats all day and Daniel cooking a nice, homemade birthday dinner. Rugen is a small, quaint island town with the locals walking their dogs through the neighborhood and on the beach. We went to the beach in the freezing cold and I filled a little jar with sand, sea shells, and sea water for a little keepsake. We grocery shopped for the weekend, since eating out  on Sunday would not be an option. We hiked to the Chalk Cliffs in Jasmund National Park and it was stunning. We watched a mudslide happen right in front of us, and if we hadn't stopped to take pictures just before that, we would've been swimming in the ocean. After a leisurely hike along the cliffs and beach, we saw lighthouses and the fisherman's village. The island of Rugen was one of my favorite places I have been to in Germany. I did not know how geographically diverse this country is and I love it even more, the longer I am here. After a long week of traveling from Berlin to Rugen, I settled back into routine in Bonn and started focusing on school. 

Week 5, Staying in Bonn

This week I stayed in Bonn all week. I finally caught up on some much needed rest. I did not expect that all of the weekend travelling and the excursion would leave me as exhausted as it did but by the time I got back from Berlin/ Rostock, I was absolutely exhausted. This week, school also picked up a lot more which also left me a lot more tired. This left me very thankfully that I spent the entire weekend in Bonn.

On Monday, we travelled back from Rostock. It was a long day of travelling full of train rides. I spent seven hours on the train. On Tuesday, I was back to school. It was a long day at school after all of the travelling but I opted to go home to watch the math lecture instead of staying at school to do it. Wednesday we had our first pharmacology workshop. I found this very interesting as I want to go into PA school. I think that the settings we turned on will be very helpful for finding research papers. On Thursday, we had our second pharmacology workshop. It was very interesting to break down the paper with another student and see how we differed on our views on how well we felt the paper was written. On Friday, we had another full day of classes, but after class, I went to a coffee shop that was very cute with some of the girls on the trip. We sadly could not do any work though because they would not allow us to pull out our laptops. On Saturday, I spent the day catching up on some much needed rest. I took three different naps but my body was really needing it. I also started studying for my first exam. On Sunday, I took a nice walk along the Rhine which was very nice. I then met up with Isabelle at the University library but we could not figure out the entrance and realized that we did not have the Wi-Fi password so we found a Café instead. We studied for our upcoming exam and I then went home and studied some more.

Having a week of no travelling was refreshing. I challenged myself to take pictures of things I found pretty in Bonn and appreciate the city every day. I got to see a beautiful sunset one evening and really enjoyed my walk along the Rhine. Even as I type this looking out of my window, I really appreciate the natural beauty Germany has and the architecture around the city. I hope to have more relaxing weekends as I go along the trip.

A sunny weekend

 I decided to stay home this weekend to rest, do chores, and catch up on work. I thought it would be relaxing but these past few days made me stir-crazy. I didn't even get to do my laundry so I couldn't really say what I was able to accomplish this weekend. One small joy out of staying home while everyone else went away was that it was sunny all weekend. The sun caused me to wake up super early every morning but maybe that was for the best. My host family lets us eat with them on the weekends even though we are independent home stay, which I really appreciate. So I got to eat good meals and not worry too much about where my net meal will come from. Though despite this, I still ended up spending over an hour in the store searching for sour cream and tortilla chips. My host family's second eldest son came to visit so I got to meet and talk to him. It was really interesting watching the whole family dynamic change and light up because he was there. The family spoke a lot in German, which I could pick up a little bit of, but it was mainly interesting to look at their faces and hear their tone change when talking to one another. On Sunday I went on a small hike with my host mom who took me up to the Dragon's Castle. It was a short hike but very beautiful at the top. I believe it was somewhere in the seven hills. Once at the top you could order food and drinks and there was a small gift shop. It was a beautiful day so I can only imagine what it looks like in the summer time. 

-Avery 

First Big Trip! Week 4

I was very excited for Berlin, and the city sure exceeded my expectations. The first day we went on a very intensive walking tour. I saw original parts of the wall, murals and Jewish monuments, famous buildings such as the Reichstag and the Bradenburg gate, and ended the day with some amazing Mediterranean food! The second day we visited Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp just outside of Berlin. And then we went to the Pergamonmuseum. Thursday was the most action packed day, we went to three museums all back-to-back. We visited the Body Worlds exhibition, the Jewish Museum, and The Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. My last day I was completely on my own, and I had a blast. I went and walked through the Charité, one of Europes largest university hospitals. I then went to the Topography of Terror, the location of the old Gestapo headquarters, and the site with the remains from the first original wall that was put up. After that I went to the east side gallery, a long stretch of the Berlin Wall with murals and artwork. 

Right away I was so amazed at the size and beauty of the city. It had the big city feel yet It was still clean and not too packed. The long history of the city was so apparent, stretch’s of the wall were sprinkled over the town, murals were on every corner, and there were massive government buildings always in sight. It was very interesting to learn about the wall and how the city is still healing. The diversity and mix of ethnicity was very enjoyable to observe. The West and East sides were so clearly distinct, and each so beautiful in their own way.  Sachsenhausen was very hard to visit, even after all this time you could still sense the agony and horror that occurred there. That along with the Jewish museum and murals were big perspective builders, and I’m very grateful that I got to witness them. All of the museums were very different and all interesting to say the least. The Pergamon was by far my favorite. It consisted of some Middle-East history, Roman and Greek exhibits, and a whole floor dedicated to Islamic art. I know there’s still so much to see in Berlin and I’m already excited to go back.  

As awe-struck as I was about Berlin, I think Hamburg is the coolest city I’ve ever seen. I only spent two days in the city, but It felt like I was there for a week! I was able to stay with my host dads sister and nephew, and I spent the majority of the weekend with the nephew. This was so cool to me as I got a very authentic view of the city and people. Saturday I spent a majority of the day on my own, and walked all throughout the city. I really enjoyed being on my own and just following whatever caught my eye. Sunday I woke up early and visited the famous fish market, had some delicious Turkish Seafood for lunch, and strolled through some of the city that I hadn’t seen the day before.

The architecture and organization of the Hamburg was amazing, and every block was completely different. There were long stretches of parks and gardens that reminded me of Central Park. Then there were older more classic areas that had a big British feel to It. There were high-end strips, and one block over there would be very old industrial buildings. The best part was the rivers and canals that were intertwined and all throughout the city. And with all of this amazing sight-seeing, I was able to have amazing seafood for every meal of the day!😋

Berlin, Week 4!

 

On Tuesday we went on a walking tour of Berlin where I learned that my jacket is not, in fact, waterproof.  We walked by the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and through museum island. My sweater was quite damp underneath my jacket, but I enjoyed the walk through the city so I didn’t mind too much. After the walking tour, we ate at a Mediterranean restaurant called Merhaba. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in the month that I’ve been in Germany, and I ate several full plates of food.

My favorite part of the Berlin trip was definitely exploring Museum Island and using the museum pass we got. The Pergamon is probably one of my favorite museums I’ve ever been to. I loved seeing the reconstructed ancient buildings and walking around them. We also went to the Neues museum, which was particularly interesting for me because they had quite a large Egyptian collection. I really enjoy ancient Egyptian history, and we spent almost three hours in that museum. We then proceeded to speed run the Alte Nationalgalerie, because we went in with only one hour left before closing. It was beautiful inside, not just because of the art, but because of the rooms themselves. I have never been so sad to leave a museum before, and I really wish I could have seen the whole thing.

After leaving the museum, we went to a Mexican restaurant, which was actually much better than I was expecting. But after realizing that we had to catch a train, we ate very fast, and had to sprint through Berlin HBF to make our train to Rostock. Definitely the most stressful, and the most tiring part of our trip, but we made it to our platform on time so it was worth it.

Stuttgart 1/28/2022

We took a train to Stuttgart on Friday afternoon, and as soon as we arrived we decided to go to a museum in the old Castle. On our way into the Museum, we let Nate interact with the man checking for our vaccination cards. They suddenly both switched from speaking German to speaking Spanish and had a very nice conversation concerning baseball and Alex Rodriguez. We were unfortunately denied entry into said castle museum because “they were closed,” even though there were definitely still a lot of people present and there was an hour left before their official closing time. A lot of very nicely dressed women were in attendance, so I think it’s safe to say we were slightly underdressed for the occasion.

On Saturday morning, we hiked through The Black Forest. I think we walked around ten miles on the hike, and most of it was uphill so if I’m not really fit by the end of this trip I must be hiking wrong. I fell in the mud within the first five minutes, and got dirt all over my knees. But the whole forest was very pretty, and my favorite parts were when we would walk off of the paved road and just explore. I don’t hike often so it was slightly difficult to keep up with the others who were quite literally racing up the hills. Hiking was much better in actual tennis shoes than my platform Docs. I highly recommend wearing the correct shoes for hiking. We also went to the Porsche Museum, admittedly slightly against my will because I am not usually very interested in cars, but I ended up really enjoying it and reading about all the different cars. Another thing we learned is that we really need to make dinner reservations from now on. We tried going to several restaurants that all turned us away because we didn’t make a reservation in advance. We ended up at a sushi restaurant on a one hour time limit, which was very good, but also slightly chaotic because we all felt like we had to rush to eat our food.

Week 4 Berlin Study Tour

After a long day of classes on Monday, we packed our bags and headed out to Berlin for the week. I was very excited to visit this city after hearing it’s the New York City of Germany. I ate some of the best food I’ve had since being in Germany at Berlin Burrito, Merhaba Mediterranean, and Alt-Berliner Wirtshaus for traditional German food. I enjoyed the walking tour while fighting the rain and wind to see some of the most historical parts of Berlin. Special shoutout to Nate and Isabelle for our Charlottenburg Palace adventure. My favorite museum was the Old National Gallery with some of the biggest, most detailed paintings I have ever seen. Berlin was a beautiful city and I hope to come back one day.

Don't Wear Docs in Berlin

 I have returned a weary traveller, and in that weariness I learned two days ago that I have an exam today in my Genetics class. I have never been surprised by a test before and now have to scramble in my physical and mental recovery to cram for this test so I don't fail. 

Anywho, a few days ago I returned from Hamburg, and before that, Berlin. It's been a long week full of big cities. I was so excited to go back to Berlin and it did not disappoint. In total I think I saw 7 museums, which is a new record for me in the course of 3 days. After the first though there was a slight problem. And that was the fact that my feet felt like I was walking on sharp rocks and had skin falling off my ankles. I only brought my docs because no other shoes would fit in the bag. To be able to keep up with the 8+ miles we were walking every day I had to buy new tennis shoes. The pain slowly alleviated after that, but I was so mad at myself for taking away the fun and beauty of the city due to the pain I felt when walking. At least I know for next time. 

Hamburg was an interesting city but not my favorite. I couldn't figure out the layout and the main parts were very spread out and not entirely intriguing. This could be a harsh critique but it needed to happen at some point since I've loved everywhere else I've been to. We shopped around and went to a smaller neighborhood called Karoviertel which was a cool street to be on to find vintage pieces and eclectic art. We were supposed to wake up at 5 am the next morning to go to the Fish Market, but our sleep was so good after a week of traveling and walking that we ended up waking up at 9 am and catching our train an hour later. I had all Monday to recharge and do chores which has been a long time coming. I think I will just rest this week. 

-Avery 

Germany Blog 4

 I had so much fun this week in Berlin and then traveling with my friends to Rugen. I have realized that traveling is a whole ordeal. You really need to plan each day with all the activities and be ready for that plan to fall apart immediately. Rugen was so beautiful, I really want to go back to explore the whole island. Our hike through the national park was one best hikes I've ever had, I took about a billion photos. If I could do it again, I would make sure not to stay up till 3 am a single night. I feel like for the sake of everyone I'm traveling with, I need at least 7 hours of sleep each night. I'm pretty sure I unwillingly stayed up until 3 am each night of this week. I'm hoping this next week will provide a nice rest.

Every street in Berlin has a story to tell!

Since we arrived, Berlin welcomed us with the typical cold and rainy German weather. We did the city tour in the rain, and although it wasn't that comfortable, we got to know the most symbolic places in Berlin in just one afternoon. The next day we visited the concentration center of "Sachsenhausen" where we had the opportunity to learn more about the living conditions of Jewish prisoners while they were imprisoned in these places. The experience of being in these places makes me feel a bit sad and sometimes speechless. As we walked, I thought "I am walking where they walked and maybe where many of them also died". Also, I believe that this experience teaches us to value other people regardless of the sociocultural differences that may exist. On the other hand, the museums were one of the most fun parts since we learned about the history, culture, and art of various countries by crossing the different exhibition halls of each museum. Not to mention that on our last day in Berlin, we decided to visit as many museums as possible to take advantage of the ticket we had purchased to visit the different museums on the Museum Island. At night, we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant, but when I asked the waiter if he spoke Spanish, he replied: "No, we only speak German or English!" Although this disappointed me a bit, I can't deny that the music in the place was not bad at all because it reminded me of Colombia, and the food was delicious. The next day, we visited “Body Worlds” and my favorite exhibit was the skeleton holding a phone in his hand. This is a clear example of today's society and the bad posture that we are acquiring by using the phone excessively, but unfortunately, we depend on it to do many things. Afterwards, we went to the museum of musical instruments, and it was wonderful to hear the melodies of each instrument. To end the day, I decided to visit the congregation of my Church (Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International - CGMJCI) in Berlin. When I arrived at the congregation I felt at home. It was a beautiful experience because I enjoyed the teaching, and at the end, I was able to greet my brothers of the faith who live in Berlin and share with them the fulfillment of the promises of our God in our lives. On the way back to the hotel, I did not imagine that I would meet the whole group! It was very crazy but fun. Although we couldn't get into the karaoke place, we weren't short of adventures. Emily, Avery and I needed to go to the bathroom, and we decided to go to one that was a little far from the train station, when we received a call that the train was leaving in 7 min, we ran as fast as possible, but what I most remember is that I didn't know whether to run faster or laugh nervously, especially since we were running in the rain. The important thing is that we arrive at the station on time. On our last day in Berlin, we took the opportunity to visit all the representative places that we needed to know, and at night, we went to a pizzeria with a delicious menu and each pizza we ordered had a unique flavor. My experience in Berlin was very fun. I think that Berlin is a city full of so much history that there is not enough time to visit all the places and learn more about it.

Third Week in Bonn - January 30th

After several gray days in Bonn, the sun is finally out again! So, I decided to go for a walk along the Rhine River and visit Bonn's "Japanischer Garten". It is a very beautiful place because it is surrounded by stones, and in the center, it has a small lake where the children could get close to see the different colored fish. My experience in this place was asking a lady if she could take a picture of me. She didn't speak English but through small words and hand signs we were able to understand each other, and I really liked the photos I took, so it was worth asking! After my long walk on the Rhine, I tried to complete my challenge of walking all the way back home, but I couldn't! When I was walking back, a strong and cold breeze started that made me consider my challenge several times, but I preferred to save my energy for the great adventure that would await me in Berlin.

Second Week in Bonn - January 23rd

The last few weeks have been quite interesting in the way that we are not only traveling and seeing new places, but we are also working to complete our classes successfully. The first days were a bit difficult for me since the time change was very hard, and I had never felt as sleepy as in my first days of class, but after the first week everything felt much better. On our visit to Cologne, we took a tour of the city, and my favorite quote from the tour guide was “People were digging up the earth to build new buildings and by accident they came across old walls built by the Romans many years ago”. I love knowing that every historical building in the city was found by accident! Also, we went to a house built by the Nazis where they imprisoned Jewish people, and I think what struck me the most about this place were the small cells that were in the basement and the handwriting of the people who remained there. This experience made me feel very sad, because these places reflect the cruel reality that those Jews lived during this time including the great effort that each of them made to survive. Finally, we took a tour of the Cologne Cathedral, and I can say that my favorite part was the beautiful view of the entire city at night. It was interesting to go through the small passageways to get from one side to the other inside and outside the cathedral. After a great adventure, it is best to come home to eat a hot dinner!

Week 4, Rostock!

It is hard to believe that I flew to Germany one month ago today. This also means that I have spent one quarter of my time here and man it is going by fast. After the Berlin excursion, I headed off to Rostock with Isabelle and Nate. We arrived Friday night around midnight to our Airbnb and the town was very empty and dark. Although I could not see much at the time, I could still tell that I would really enjoy the town. The next morning, we had a sunny day which was nice and amazing. This was something we had rarely had in Berlin. We headed to a bakery for breakfast and I enjoyed a nice glazed berliner and a croissant. I tried speaking in German and the lady immediately switched to English as she could tell that my German was no good. After this, we headed over to the beach area where we found a board walk with a view of the two lighthouses. We also went out and touched the Baltic Sea. We then headed out by train to Schwerin by train. Once we arrived, we had some sushi and then headed to the castle. It was my first castle to see and man it was amazing. I loved seeing it and walking around the grounds. We had a bit of rain while we were walking around but I did not mind it too much as we were getting to see an amazing castle. Following this, we headed on a train to Wismar and stopped for dinner. I had some Hamburg style schnitzel that was very delicious. After, we headed back to Rostock.

Sunday brought along with it rainy weather but we had decided previously that we were going to have a more relaxed day since we had been travelling almost non-stop for a week and a half. We woke up later and enjoyed a relaxed breakfast at a bakery on the coast. There were actually some birds that were flying around in the bakery. After, we took a short walk on the beach but it was raining on us so we ended up getting soaked. This caused us to go back to our place and change pants as all of ours were wet. After, we went to the canal area were fish boats were docked and Isabelle and I enjoyed some fish and chips that we brought back to the Airbnb to get out of the rain. After, we headed to a coffee shop were I got a warm drink and some waffle strips that were sehr gut. We then headed back to the Airbnb and worked on some BMEN 211 homework before ordering some pizza for takeout. We ended up having some extra which worked out great for the train ride today. After, me and Nate took a night time walk on the beach and checked out some more of the homes. I really enjoy all of the German architecture. I then went back home and worked on more homework and some blog posts.

Today has consisted of getting on a train and now just riding on it. We will have seven hour journey back to Bonn so it is very nice that we have today off. I have really enjoyed this past week getting to go to Berlin and Rostock. It has been way more exhausting than I would have thought however with all of this travelling. Next weekend, I plan to only stay in Bonn and maybe do a short half day trip to a bordering city. I also have my first exam coming up the week after next so I think my school dynamic will start to change. I am also interested to see how this week will be with how tired I am but I also feel like I have a lot of school work that I have to do. Thankfully, it did work out nice that school did get cancelled for college station last Thursday so I only have one math lecture to catch up on now. I think that is funny how that worked out!

Week 4, Berlin Excursion!

This past week was different than the past three as we had our Berlin excursion. Monday started out normal with a regular school day except that I had to go home and pack up for a week. It was an odd experience packing since I really do not have much more than a weeks worth of clothes to begin with so packing was really just choosing a few items to leave behind which is opposite of a normal packing experience.

To start off the Berlin excursion, we met at 6:30 am at Bonn hbf. I tried to grab two berliners on my war but ended up with three as I accidentally said "drei" instead of "zwei" but I made it through the entire interaction in German. We had about a 4.5 hour train ride which I did some homework on. After, we checked into the hotel, which had fun leopard print carpet and made our way out to lunch. I went out with Katie, Tati, and Camryn to a restaurant called Berlin Burrito. It reminded me of burrito places back home which was amazing. I finally got some spice in Germany which I loved. After, we met at the hotel with our tour guide to have a walking tour of the city. It was cold and raining almost the entire time which made the tour hard but not un-enjoyable. I really enjoyed getting to see the memorials around town and see where the wall had once stood, and pieces of the wall itself. After the tour, we went to a group dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant where we had a buffet. It was honestly some of the best food that I have had while I have been in Germany. After, we headed back to the hotel. A group of us then went to a bar called Tramps for just a little bit but I was exhausted and did not want to stay long. The bar was actually a gay bar which was a little different and a new experience.

On Wednesday, we started our day off by going to Sachsenhausen. This was a concentration camp located just outside of Berlin. I had been to Germany before but never to a concentration camp and it was always something that I wanted to be able to experience. The weather was on and off raining which made me contemplate how I had never really grasped the idea of how much worse the weather conditions would have made these camps for these prisoners. I also did not know that the Soviet Union used the camp as a prison camp as their own. After the tour of Sachsenhausen, we decided as a group to go to the Pergamon museum. On the way, we got to see the TV tower with sun on it making the iconic cross. I loved going through this museum and seeing the amazing architecture and sculptures from the ancient Romans and Mesopotamians. The upstairs section with historical Islamic was also very intriguing. After this, I headed back to the hotel and then to a Mexican restaurant with Tati and Avery. The restaurant was named "Vamos!" I enjoyed a very delicious burrito and finally had a margarita while in Germany and it was very good as I did not have high hoped for it. I called it a night early this night and went to bed to prepare for the next day.

On Thursday, we started our day off at the body works museum. This was one of my favorite museums as it was so cool to see everything. I loved seeing how long the digestive tract is and just so many parts of that museum. I want to try and find more body works museums in the states. After, we went to the Jewish museum. We got the opportunity to go into the holocaust tower which was a chilling experience. The acute angled corner was harrowing to walk into and then look up at the light. It was an experience that gave me chills. The rest of the museum was very interesting and I learned a lot about the Jewish culture in general. I found this even more interesting since I really have no knowledge about the faith and culture even though I have family that was Jewish through my bloodline, including in Germany during the Nazi period. It really made me think a lot during all of our experiences. After this, we went to Potsdamer Platz for lunch. Me and Daniel went to go get Italian food although no one else wanted to enjoy it with us. He got lasagna and I got pasta. We had extra time so we walked around the Mall of Berlin. This mall was massive and absolutely beautiful. I really enjoyed spending time going around it. After this, we headed off to the musical instrument museum. In the window of the museum, there was a Bari Sax so I knew from the start that I would like the museum. In the front, they had seven different saxophones for me to geek out to: two types of sopranos, an alto, tenor, bari, contrabass, and a subcontrabass saxophone which I had never seen the subcontrabass in person. The other instruments around the museum were also very cool. I really enjoyed the organs as standing right with it as they were being played was aweing. The coolest in my opinion was the wurlitzer. The amount of noises and different sounds that it could play were mind blowing. After this, we headed back to the mall where Avery got a new pair of shoes and I bought a new sweater. I then headed back with Avery and we got some burgers with Bridget. After, the entire group tried to go to a karaoke place but we were not allowed in without a COVID test. Me, Avery, and Tati really needed to pee though so we searched around for a public bathroom and finally found one. We used it and then started speed walking back to the station to make sure to catch the train when we heard a noise on the road and looked over to see a motorcycle crash. We all stopped dead in our tracks and my instincts wanted to run out and help the person but I am not certified to help anyone in Germany and do not know how the good Samaritan laws work in Germany so we all looked at each other and ran the rest of the way to the station. We then went to a bar that had sand on the floor where I got one drink and went home before most of the group but I wanted to shower and get some sleep.

Friday, the last day in Berlin, and the most chaotic. We originally were supposed to tour the natural history museum but that did not work out as we did not have a reservation so we went on a walking tour of the area. We then tried to go to a hospital ground to have a walking tour of that but they also rejected us due to COVID. We then split off from the group as the excursion was officially over and we went to a burger place in central station that had birch trees everywhere. I got some really good lemonade. After, we decided to head to the Neuse museum. I really wanted to go to see the bust of Nefertiti. This entire museum was so cool to see all of the Egyptian sculptures and items. I ended up enjoying the museum way more than I thought that I would. After, we went to the Alte National Gallery which had some amazing pieces of art in it. We were sadly rushed as we came close to closing time but I really enjoyed seeing the art work. We then went to Primark as we had to buy some towels and blankets for the Airbnb we were staying at in Rostock as they did not supply them. After this, the chaos of dinner started. We originally wanted to go to a hot pot place to eat but they did not have a reservation time available until after our train would be leaving in 1.5 hours. We then tried a place down the street and they also did not have any space. This lead us to riding the train one stop and eating at Vamos! We ate our food as fast as we could, enjoyed a margarita and got to the trams to make our way back to Berlin hbf. The fastest route left us with 6 minutes of arriving at the station and needing to get on the train. The biggest problem was that we had to get our luggage also. We ended up having to run through the station just to make it down to our platform. We actually made it on time and found out when we got down that the train was delayed by five minutes, but had it not, we still should have made it. It really was quite a chaotic 5 minutes of my life.

Overall, I really enjoyed Berlin and I am very excited to go back in the spring with my family! I already have a few things I want to do that we didn't get to do on this excursion and some places I want to bring them back to.

Germany Blog 3

 I have been having a lot of fun with my host family! I feel like German is a lot harder to learn than I was expecting. My host sisters only speak German, and I thought I would be able to pick up on a lot a phrases, but it's been pretty difficult. So far, what I have learned is: 

Eichhörnchen: Squirrel

- my host sisters spent maybe an hour trying to teach me and Camryn this. Antonia is really strict about the correct pronunciation! They picked up on "squirrel" really fast though.

Pusten: blow

- Emilia taught me this when we were drink some HOT hot chocolate (schokolade). I really enjoy when I can figure out a German word from a 5 year old.

Nochmal: again

- I learned this when I showed my host sisters a video of a little German boy excited over playing Fortnite and they wanted me to play it again.

I have learned a few other words, but these are my favorite memories so far.

Germany Blog 2

 So far, I've really been enjoying our classes! I like knowing everyone in our class, and feeling comfortable with asking questions. I'm worried about the exams though! I'm scared they're not going to feel as simple as the lectures. I have been loving getting to sleep in  and go to school late, but the sun sets so early that it's already dark by the time I get home. That makes me feel like I don't really have that much time to explore any of the shops around Bonn, or the movies or anything.

Pre-Berlin Thoughts

 Welcome back.

This week has been chaotic and I have had one day of rest, if you can even call it that, between my weekend travel and this excursion to Berlin. Last week started with a full four days of classes of which I have no memory of learning anything because half the time I don’t know what’s going on, I just show up. I’m sure my parents would love to hear that but let’s just blame it on the senioritis. Last week began with me falling down two flights of stairs at my house which is mainly four stories of a spiraling staircase. I did not realize I would gain that much speed, it sounded very violent. Not violent enough, however, because my host mom came out of her room 5 minutes later peaking around the corner as I lay at the foot of the stairs face up just trying to pinpoint all the places I hurt on my body. Within the next 15 minutes my roommate, Camryn almost got hit by a bike. You could say it was an eventful Monday morning. 

BIMS students got Friday off from school so Bridget and I packed our bags and headed out to Heidelberg. The next day we woke up and went to a café to have brunch. The waitstaff was very friendly and I had the biggest and most decorative piece of avocado toast I've ever had in my life. I ordered a hot chocolate, or a coffee with chocolate in it, I never know over here. It was bitter so I mustered up the courage to ask the waiter for sugar to which he replied increduously “is it not already sweet enough??” I said “not for me it isn’t” and he retorted, “it’s 74% chocolate…” This interaction led me to realize I may have a problem. 

We then walked through the old town cobblestoned streets on our way up to the castle. Fear shone in my eyes as we looked up at a steep hill full of stairs and I don’t know why I thought there was an easier way. We eventually made it to the top which was well worth the tremendous pain and suffering, and were in awe at the ruins in front of us. There weren’t many activities to do, as we found throughout the trip due to it being ‘off-season.’ I tried mulled wine and walked around the property which was a highlight of the trip. We then got on a railway up the side of the mountain that took us to the highest peak and back down to the city below. Once at the bottom we walked around more and went to find museums at the university Platz. This is where my stupidity comes in. While outside the university, Bridget and I notice red candles, mourning flowers, and other items taking up a large part of the stairs to the school. We look at each other and wonder what happened for that to be there, was it a Holocaust remembrance, was it a cultural thing? Then it hit us. This was the town and university where a student had shot four students and killed one just four days before. A weird sensation of realization and horror washed over me as I remembered our carefree day in a city that had just occurred as a very saddening event happen so recently. We moved on from the place and carried on elsewhere. 

The next day we caught a train to Cochem to see another castle, this one from around the year 1000. This is where the trip turned into a scene from the Twilight Zone. We showed up and all was well, we hadn’t eaten much because we were planning to eat a big dinner and save our money throughout the day. This panned out to be a very poor idea. The entire city was steep hills of cobblestone so we got our fair share of exercise. Bridget and I pretended we were storming the castle and wanted to see if it was impractical and if we would be shot down on our way up. The conclusion was that we would not have even made it up past the bottom of the hill. The castle was amazing and the entire tour was in German but we got an English translation so things worked out fine. The tour was about 30 minutes, so once we got kicked to the curb we were at a loss for what to do as we had the whole day ahead of us. We walked back into town looking for shops and snacks. We soon realized that even though it was Saturday, almost everything was closed. We ended up in a small underground restaurant/wine room where we were ignored for 15 minutes, even as we came in the door, so much so that we wondered if we had turned invisible. We each had one glass of wine that was about $4 each. Due to us not having had food all day, we left slightly intoxicated. We really needed food by this point and so we found another place, but the food turned out to be a small cheese the size of a Babybel and one skinny link of sausage for the both of us. Therefore, we had a glass of mulled wine to fill us up a little. Let’s say the hills were much more fun to walk up after that. 

By the time we went out to look for food that night, everything was either closed or required reservations. After an hour things were looking meek. We finally stumbled upon a pizza place where Bridget began the anger stage of being in another country as she protested the high prices and $7 water. On our way back to our room we saw a bright light and a loud explosion. We both kept walking towards it then hid behind a wall. My heart was racing so fast because my first thought was “are we being shot at?” but I knew that was irrational and not what a gun sounded like. I was afraid to walk past the arched walkway where it happened in because I didn’t want a firework to go off under me without my knowing. Nothing happened after that but it gave me a bit of a jolt. 

The next day, Sunday, the town was again empty and we headed back to Bonn. One full class on Monday and now here we are on a train to Berlin for the week. I have no idea how we are supposed to manage school and grad school applications and organizations on top of this but somehow it will be done. 

Tschüss,

Avery 

Soundtrack for this week: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 23

Week 2

 Week two was very fun. School has just officially started and getting to know everyone has been a blast. The first week was very chill with school, mostly just us getting situated and we had a couple introductory lectures. We went to Aachen last Friday and they had the best pizza I've tasted in Germany so far. It was only 4 euros and it was creating your own. This week school has begun to pick up a bit but I still don't know how tough this semester will be. Tuesday we went to Cologne and saw the all-mighty cathedral. It was beautiful and amazing and being able to go to the top was life-changing. Walking through the city was very cool as well and I'm excited to go back soon. From what I've heard from other people my age who live in Bonn they always tell me to go to cologne. There's not much for young adults to do in Bonn and all the fun stuff is in cologne so I definitely will be planning a trip there soon. German classes have started and I'm excited to learn because the language barrier has been rough for me over here. Well, that's all for this week, I'm still getting situated so I don't have much to say yet but I know there will many adventures soon.

Week 3 Recap

 I have settled into more of routine with school and thankfully classes have not been too hard (yet). I like being busy here and always doing something different each day like trying the crepes, going to a coffee stand for German class, and meeting the owner of Rednib Bonner Streetwear who worked with AiB and A&M. He asked if there’s still Whataburger in College Station which made us laugh. Over the weekend, Daniel, Cameron, and I ate all you can eat steak, got lost a few too many times, and really enjoyed the museum tours with audio listening. I am looking forward to Berlin this week and seeing the history of the area.

Week 2 Recap

 I really enjoy the smaller classes here with our program, more than I thought I would. It feels more like a meaningful lecture when Dr. Wasser makes direct eye contact with you to follow along with what he is saying. I also love that part of classes is getting to go on “Study Tours”. We went to Cologne for the day and my favorite parts were the guided tours and going up the Cathedral. I have been grocery shopping more often and getting less items, but the fresh fruits and veggies are worth it. Over the weekend, Camryn, Daniel, and I went to back to Cologne for the nightlife and Münster the next day. We went to the zoo and I really enjoyed it. My favorite was the penguins! We tried a Mexican food restaurant that wasn’t too bad and met up with friends at their Airbnb before taking the night train back to Bonn. It was surprisingly a smooth ride and I was able to sleep the whole way back. I am looking forward to more weekend trips!