Week 13: It's London Bruv

     I spent less time in Bonn this week than I did in France or London. I felt like I hardly had any time to recover from one trip before we were off on our next adventure. We're trying to squeeze as much into the time we have left as possible. That's probably why I got sick again; It's chronic exhaustion at this point. Sorry I got you sick again too Erin:/. 

    The small amount of time we did spend in Bonn was filled with catching up on class work and trying to do more on our project. We have so much left to figure out before we are ready to present to enmodes. It's hard to find precedent for our idea and the research is slow going. We also never signed the NDA so we don't have access to some of the information that would be helpful to properly calculate numbers. We'll manage though.

    London was absolutely incredible. I loved just walking the streets of the city and being able to understand the language was nice after being places where I had no clue what was going on around me. Once Erin, Kass, and I got to London our first stop was to get some classic fish and chips. We had a pretty good meal but we all just about had a heart attack when we got the bill back. We knew that it would be expensive in London but we didn't realize it would cost us almost $30 a piece for some fried fish. We also made sure to try the Indian food in the city and were not disappointed. Also made a stop at Wingstop because why not. We saw so many landmarks in the city and were so impressed with the efficiency of the London underground. The city is so expensive but I could imagine myself living there.

    I wanted to ride on one of the double-decker buses at least once so Erin and Kass were nice enough to indulge my whim when we left the pub we had watched a soccer game at. Overall, London has been one of my favorite places that we have visited. 10/10 would go back. 

Week 13

 This week went by fairly quickly! Amanda and I started the week off eating at Lighthouse Cafe! I got to try their dark chocolate, almond oatmeal and it was phenomenal. On Tuesday, we had class and I love the lectures we are doing in 427 right now. I think the reproductive system is one of the most interesting units in the class. On Wednesday we had a German quiz that I felt so unprepared for, but it went fairly well! On Thursday we had our informal Enmodes presentation. I was not ready for the presentation, and I felt like you could tell. This Enmodes project is becoming even more stressful as the program is nearing the end and I am not prepared for this stress level. After our presentations, Amanda and I headed home to pack for London!! Our flight out on Friday was at 8 am, so we packed and then headed to bed. Friday morning, I was so antsy and ready to get going. The Cologne airport is so nice and it is actually pretty efficient, so we got through security really well, the plane was on time, and everything was going smoothly. Once we arrived in London, Heathrow was massive, or at least felt massive. The public transportation there was SO nice, but they definitely take advantage of needing the transportation. Amanda and I paid $50 each for a ticket to our hotel... Once we got to our hotel, we relaxed for a bit and then headed to this brunch place. They had the best gluten free pancakes that I have ever had. They also had loaded tater-tots, and they were phenomenal as well. After we ate breakfast, we just had a chill day around London. We went shopping, got some coffee, and we ended up walking by this little place called "Donut Time"!  They had gluten free donuts, and I was able to get two to try. One of them was the "Megan Foxx" and the other was the "David Beckham". Both of them were really good, and they were so sweet. Once we got tired, we headed back to the hotel and ordered Wingstop for dinner. This was a taste of home, which was so nice. We spent the rest of the night eating Wingstop and watching Bridgerton. The next morning, we slept in, and then headed on about our day. We went to Waterstones book store, and spent quite a bit of time inside. The store was five stories, I could have spent days inside. One memory of this store that I will cherish forever, is that I was looking at a book when an author came up, found her book, and just whipped out a sharpie to sign it, put it back, and then just left. It was the most amazing thing, and obviously I picked up her book to see what it was about. I wish I was into the genre that she wrote, but sadly I wasn't so I out it back and went on about the store. After looking through the store, I found one of my favorite series and they were in the UK editions. I wanted to cry ˙◠˙ I have never seen prettier editions of books, and I wanted to take them all home. After the bookstores, we headed to this Tortilla restaurant for lunch. They had gluten free tacos, they were good, but after a while they just did not sit well. We then headed to this bakery on the outer side of London, and I regret it. The pastries were rough, not very good at all. Somehow, we ended up in the River Oaks of London, and actually found some very expensive stores. We even tried on some dresses that were over 600 pounds. After looking at these shops, we headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour, made a reservation to eat at this restaurant called "The Alchemist" and then we headed to the London Bridge to see it at sunset! The bridge was pretty packed, but it was still beautiful to see. When we got to the restaurant, it was so cool! Music was pretty loud, and you had to be 18 to go in which was crazy to me. Once we were sat, we ordered these drinks. Mine they literally lit on fire and then added something to it to make it produce like a fog, and Amanda's was the same without the fire. They even had gluten free fried chicken, and whew it was so amazing. Amanda and I literally thought they lied about it being gluten free because it was so good, genuinely thought I was going to be so sick. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and just watched Bridgerton for the rest of the night. For our last day in London, we went to Nandos for lunch! The workers were so nice and were very knowledgeable on Celiac, I felt very comfortable eating there. After Nandos, we headed to this place called ChocoMelt, and they had the BEST chocolate covered strawberries. They were so good, and they weren't really too expensive. After this, we headed back to our hotel and grabbed our things to head to the airport. Getting through security was easy, and we just relaxed at a cafe until we got hungry and went to this restaurant for dinner. It was not good, do not recommend. After this, we boarded the plane, made it to Cologne quickly, and then just headed home. On Monday, we slept in and then just had dinner with our host dad at this Greek restaurant. The food was amazing, and speaking with our host dad is so much fun. The only thing I hate is that I talk too fast for him to understand me, and even when I slow down it still is too fast. So I've kind of just stayed quiet most of the time, which is fine, but also I feel bad. We got gelato after dinner and then we just headed home. 

London felt like home but 10x better. The food, the people, and just the vibe of the place was amazing. I loved every minute of it, and if we could have stayed longer, I would have and never would have left. This program is just flying by and now we only have three weeks until we are home ◡̈ 

Week 12- Beane, Colmar, Paris, Nice, Monaco, Antibes

 This week was our second (and last) big excursion. It was really fun to travel with everyone again. I think out of the three places we went all together, Colmar was my favorite. It was a really cute small town that we had the afternoon to wander around in. Even though Paris was not at the top of my list, I still really liked it and even enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think we were all a little worried about the amount of trash and riots going on but that was never an issue. The main thing that made me really like Pairs was getting to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went up as little groups but ended up seeing each other at the top which was really funny.

After the group trip, we went to Nice. We stayed there for 3 nights but took day trips to Monaco and Antibes on Saturday and Sunday. All of the places were drastically different in their cultures. It was interesting getting to see all of the rich people and cars in Monaco compared to the regular ole towns just a 20 minute train ride away. Either way, all the places we went that weekend were warm and had a beach so all my boxes were checked. 

0.5 or 1-L?!

         This weekend I ended up going to Munich with Senor Estes and Senor Joaquin. It was crappy not because Munich is a bad city, but because my lucky self was sick the entire time. Luckily it wasn’t COVID according to 3 self-tests which got me to go considering I had spent a ton of money on this trip. The trip to Munich was pretty nice since we missed the connection in Koln and had to get on another train that was delayed for about an hour. At the end of the day though, we got to Munich at around 2 am so it wasn’t horrible. On the other hand, we did get to see the German police in action for the first time this entire trip. The second we stepped off the train and started walking out, we heard a ton of commotion outside and noticed a group of people surrounding a group of cops who were detaining a man who seemed very pissed off about getting detained. The funny thing is that the more he yelled and resisted, the more the cops wanted to body slam him into the wall, which funny enough, they did. First time I have seen a cop body slam a suspect in person and it was hilarious. Once we got to the hotel, we were out immediately and decided that we would meet up the next morning at around 10 to see the city.

              The following morning, we stopped at Rewe for some breakfast which was lowkey good and then we headed out into the mysterious city of beer and bread. We first went to the marketplace which surprisingly was packed and selling beer at 10:30 in the morning, my kind of place. Once we did some exploring there, we ended up heading for the gardens, where Matt wanted to eat at the center of it. Of course, I agreed since I am not one to turn down the opportunity to drink beer and eat, even when I’m dying of some random infection. The beer selection consisted of two sizes, a 0.5- and 1-liter beer, so Matt took a 1 L and Jackson, and I went for a 0.5 mostly considering the fact that I felt horrid but not bad enough to not drink a beer. This decision would turn out to be a horrid decision since I felt worse after drinking the beer. We ate and walked around some more and ended up heading back into the hotel to chill until we wanted some dinner at the Paulner München Bauhaus. The dinner was great, and Jackson was told to try some actual Bavarian food next time we ate there which was hilarious. Ended the night with some Powerade and some blue mountain state with the boys, great show.

              Ended the next day with seeing what we had missed the past day and got to sit in the Olympic pool building which helped with breathing and brought back some nice memories of my high school competitive nature. Watched some BMS before heading back to the train station. However, Jackson got an email telling us that our train was canceled. The second we got this, we packed everything up and ran to the station to try to get on another train. Luckily, when we got there, there was a train that was leaving in 3 min that would drop us off in Siegburg 3 hours before our original train would drop us off in Bad Godesberg. Greatest save ever. We arrived in Siegburg at around 11 pm and ran into Peyton and Amanda which was a hell of a coincidence. Headed back home and passed out sleeping in till 1 pm, the first time I had slept past 10 am since getting here.

              For the most part, this weekend was fun and it would’ve been a lot better if I had not been sick, but I am glad that I got to see Munich and that Jackson and Matt were homies and got me some medicine and food when I felt like shit. BMS was a fun throwback to when I didn’t care about anything and I am genuinely surprised that the show hasn’t been canceled by everyone in todays society. Not looking forward to the upcoming exams and need to see whether I want to go to Amsterdam or stay in and do some studying.

Week 13!!!

 This week started with a day off from school which was nice. Peyton and I went to Lighthouse Cafe (our favorite) and did homework for a while. After we went to REWE to get some groceries. On Tuesday, we were back in school. I had 4 classes, so it was a long day. Our Enmodes project started to really get into action, so I got very stressed out this day. On Wednesday, I had some classes along with a German quiz. On Thursday, I got to school at 7AM to take my differential equations test. I think it went well besides the fact that I was tired during the exam. After that, we had a company call with Enmodes where we did an informal presentation. We finished that early so Erin and I worked on some calculations for our device. It was very frustrating. After that, I did some homework and then headed home. I packed for my London trip and straightened my hair; it was the first time I had straightened my hair in Europe! On Friday, Peyton and I left our house at 5:30 to head to Köln Airport. We got lucky because our bags were definitely oversized but Eurowings did not charge us extra. I fell asleep on the flight before we even took off. We landed in London and took a train and then a tram to our hotel. We settled for a bit and then headed to brunch. We got some amazing brunch food and then started wandering Piccadilly Circus. We did some shopping which was super fun. At around 5, Peyton and I went back to the hotel to watch Bridgerton and order in our dinner. We were exhausted and realized it was because we walked 10 miles in 5 hours! We had a fun night in and then went to sleep. On Saturday, we slept in until 10AM, which was so needed. We got ready and then went to Costa Coffee for breakfast. After that, we walked to a few bookstores and spent a while in there. The second Waterstone bookstore we went into was 5 stories! After that, we went to a place called Tortilla that reminded me of Chipotle. It was so good and it was very nice to eat some flavors from home that I have been missing. After this, we headed to an outer part of London to go to a gluten-free bakery. On the way, we stopped at Black Sheep Coffee which ended up being the best coffee I have ever had. We got to a very rich part of London which was fun to see. We saw some very high-end stores including Love Shack Fancy. The bakery ended up being terrible but luckily we saw many things around it that we would not have seen had we not gone over there. We headed back to our hotel for a bit and then walked to the Tower Bridge during sunset. It was so pretty. We then took the tram to our dinner restaurant. We went to a place called The Alchemist, which ended up being more of a bar than a restaurant, but it was still good. The drinks were very elaborate and entertaining and the food was just as good. It was about 10:30 when we left so we headed back to the hotel. We tried to watch an episode of Bridgeton but ended up being too tired because we walked 13 miles! On Sunday, we woke up to the church bells of St. Paul’s church celebrating Easter. We walked to a Black Sheep Coffee that was near us for breakfast. Then we headed back near Piccadilly Circus. We went to Nando’s and it was so good, I was glad Peyton was able to eat there. We also bought our postcards of course. After lunch, we went to a place called Cocomelt; it was like a dessert place. We had the best chocolate-covered strawberries ever, I wish I could have them again. After this, we decided to start heading to the airport. We went to our hotel to grab our things and got to the airport about 2 hours later. I’ve heard terrible things about Heathrow, but we actually had a really good experience. Now we are on the way home and should be at our house by 23:00. I am so thankful for this weekend, it was so much fun and a great last trip. I know we are so close to going home, but we have a lot of things to do before then, including a lot of tests and the Enmodes project. I am definitely stressed about it, but trying to not be dreadful about the days to come just because they will be hard. 

München

    Easter weekend every price of travel was inflated. Because of the timing of the trip I didn't want to break the bank but I wanted to utilize the 3 day weekend. So München. Where the beer is only sold in half liters and full liters. It was a bit cold while we were there so experiencing a Biergarten wasn't the same as in the summer months, but it was lovely. I enjoyed the energy in the air.

Wk 11; Back to Bonn

week 11

After spending an entire week in Spain, I was looking forward to getting back to my regular routine once I got back to Bonn. 

At this point in my study abroad experience in Bonn, I have been able to locate my preferred locations throughout the city. On a typical day, I get up, have breakfast, and then begin making my way to Konrad-adenauer-Platz to board tram 66 and make my way to the Aib. There is nothing unusual about this week, as usual go to school and after school go studyin front of the Rhine or go to the library at the University of Bonn. My weekend, on the other hand, turned out to be quite interesting because I chose to spend it in London💂💃 with my friend Claudia, who had been in Spain for the previous week. We went to see some of the sights that London had to offer. 

During my time there, I went to the Elizabeth tower, the National Museum, the London Eye, and China Town in London, the Buckingham palace, etc...  It was unquestionably an experience, and I cherished each and every one of the moments that made up my time there. 💙💂

(I thought it would be nice to add my bereals hehe) don't forget to add me (@celewele)😏😉