Week Five

I actually haven't been doing much this week outside of studying, working out, and sleeping. So most of this is just filler quality stuff. My Host mom took me to an old town in Linz. The town was preserved to model old style cities. It had an out of season glass workshop and a torture chamber that I didn't get to see. But the handmade glass items were incredible and incredibly overpriced.

On the other hand, these Family dinners are getting a lot weirder. In the past week I've eaten, sour cherries with mandarine and poppy seed cake, chicken hearts, cold fish, chicken sausages, and apple salad with out any leafy greens.
On the bright side they're low calorie healthy meals, in the sense that I won't consume any calories if I don't eat it. Even the desserts are healthy, which I find both refreshing and suspicious.

But i've finally have my hiking intensive spring break planned out, and much of the stress is gone or at least put off until the next deadline. I'm super pumped for Karneval. In general I love dressing up, and Halloween should come more than once a year. This is the best thing ever. Unfortunately I don't think I can do four days of social interaction. I struggle to do four minutes of social interaction. Maybe with the help of liquid courage I'll get through it.

On the home front, my Real parents pretend they don't miss me and have been sending me remodeling ideas for my room. I don't buy it, because I'm the only person who refills the toilet paper.

So Far So Good -- Week 5

 

It’s hard to believe that a month has already flown by so quickly. Before coming on the trip, I knew I would have a good time but these past few weeks have exceeded my expectations. I’ve become very appreciative of the opportunities back home and the things I’ve gotten to experience so far in Europe. Over the weekend a few of us went to visit the Dachau concentration camp and it was such an eye-opening experience. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps created during the Holocaust. The word "Dachau" evoked so much fear and terror in so many people across Europe. Actually seeing the gas chambers and poison showers where Jews, homosexuals, anti-Hitler individuals, and so many other groups were murdered less than 100 years ago is an experience everyone should have at least once. Although I don’t want the trip to go by too fast, I’m very excited to see what the next few weeks have in store.

Week 5

This was one of the more stressful weeks I have had so far. From waking up early to go to Bayer on Wednesday, to having two lab papers due and a physiology test on Friday, it was a busy week. It started out with a holiday as well. We celebrated Galentine's Day on Valentine's Day, which was fun. The next day, we went to Bayer. They had a lot of interactive science displays that were interesting to see. After the physiology test, Sarahi and I went to Luxembourg. It is a small country, but it was really cool. I couldn't tell what languages everyone spoke, because some signs were in German but the majority of people there spoke to us in French. For food, we went to Pizza Hut and a Mexican restaurant. (Is it really a Mexican restaurant if they speak French and don't serve queso?) They greeted us by saying "Bonjour!" and when we got our food they told us "Bon appétit!". I've never been to France (yet), so I though this was really cool. The city itself was beautiful. There were a lot of parks and trees. Most of the tourist spots were further away from the main part of town, so we didn't really go out and see them. We just stayed in the city center and walked around and went shopping. I was really excited to go to Sephora because I don't think they exist in Germany. We bought some face masks and de-stressed. Everything went really well with the trip.

Week 4

This week, I went to my first soccer game! Or "fußball", as it is called here. It was really fun. Some of us bought matching scarves and ate McDonald's before the game. Once inside, it was exciting to be part of the crowd and experience a soccer game for the first time. I wasn't quite sure which team was which in the beginning, but I got excited when the rest of the crowd cheered. Leverkusen beat Frankfurt, and the score was 3-0. By the end of the game, it was raining. We did get on the right train and got home safely, so it was a successful trip. Although I didn't really understand everything that was going on, it was still really exciting to be there and I am glad I went. I didn't go anywhere else that weekend, I just stayed home and finished some school work. Classes have been interesting so far. We learned about the history of anesthetics in pharmacology and are learning about the cardiovascular system in physiology. Overall, it was a good week.

Leverkusen vs Frankfurt

Week 5

Well, the last week has been relatively uneventful, and that's totally okay. I spent most of my time catching up on school and preparing for a physiology exam on Friday. Which luckily I feel that I did very well on! Other than that I've been laying low, trying to save money and energy. Coming up very soon is Karneval, followed almost immediately by our Paris excursion and then spring break. So right now is kind of the calm before the storm. My mother is coming in from Virginia and will be spending the majority of Karneval here, it ought to be an interesting time for sure. I've completely booked my spring break which is very exciting. I'm spending two full days in both Copenhagen, Denmark and Oslo, Norway. I'm planning to make it a Viking history oriented visit, so I'm super excited for that opportunity. For Karneval I'll be borrowing one or more costumes from my host family. As of now I'm leaning towards a full bunny suit but we'll just have to see what I'm feeling in the moment. I'm excited to see what comes of Karneval weekend!

Week 5

SCHOOL:
The test last week was alright. Im not gonna say how I think I did bc you know nicole. I need to do a lot of work this week so to get done before carnival. So of course I watched 3 hours of netflix. Typical. I have to make a website using HTML this week and it has to be for my "potential employer" so I had to update my resume last night which always sucks. wow that was a proper run on sentence.

PERSONAL LYFE:
Ireland was cool. really cool. One of my favorite european countries now for sure. I am really glad that I did the cliffs of Moher. Galway was much better than dublin in my mind. But dublin was still fun to go out in for sure.  I am excited for Karnival this weekend. I am planning to hang out with my german friends some.

Week 5

I felt that I already live in Germany for a long time, even though this is just fifth week. I was checking my schedule book. I just realized that we only have 8 weeks left without including the Paris excursion and Spring Break. Time is flying.  : (

This week was busy too. It was pretty full of study and homework. Beside study, we went to Bayer on Wednesday. I love this excursion and I got to know what Bayer want to do. I understood what are their desires to the people, to the society, and to the world. I also saw some of new and advanced technology in Bayer.

On Thursday, I went to my friend’s house for the home meeting. I really enjoyed the meeting. We sang the hymns, read the bible, and enjoyed the great meals. I did not any plan for the weekend, so my host parents invited to go for a walking. We had totally around 4kilo meters walking. Then we walked across the long bridge. The bridge is high as 100 meters and long as 360 meters. I am not fearing of heights, but I still felt a little scared when I was at the middle of the bridge. Haha. Next, we visited a volcano center. I learned something about the volcano history in Europe.