I've Been in Germany for a Month and I Haven't Even Noticed - Week 5

Bonn, Germany

February 13th - 19th

Another week of pure school. School, school, and more school. The amount of work I have to do is ridiculous. My host mom looks at me like I'm crazy when she sees me always doing homework at the dinner table because my room is a trap. There's a nice comfy bed in there that calls and beckons me toward it. I have officially made the table my new designated homework space, when the family isn't eating of course. And it's nice because there's a lot that goes on downstairs and the noises I hear actually help me to focus. Anyway, school is taking over my life and these next two weeks are going to be torture but it's all worth it because in two weeks time, I get to go to France for a week and then it's Spring Beak after that!!! So excited!!!!

I still can't fully grasp the fact that a month and a week has gone by since I've been in Germany. There are so many feelings and thoughts that flood my mind when I think about it: 1.) I feel like I've been here forever, 2.) I still don't know the language and that was made apparent to me this weekend, and 3.) I really like it here and don't think I ever want to go back home. Maybe I'll consider pursuing medical school here in Germany. All I have to do is become fluent enough in the language...

Leverkusen, Germany

February 15th

All of us at Bayer.

We got to go to Bayer this week and learn all about the company and what they do. We didn't see the actual company buildings but instead saw the building that is open to the public. It's hard to describe but I will attempt at it. The building is designed so that Bayer is able to promote their company with tours for the public along with promoting their drive to try and expose children to science and engineering at a younger age.  This is done by allowing the kinds to come to this building and go into a special lab with their teachers and preform a science experiment as a field trip. The building also has a series of interactive exhibits that the kids, or all of my classmates and I, can enjoy and learn from. It was very interesting to say the least and I got to see an application of what an engineer could do first had within a corporate setting.

Bonn, Germany (Kessenich)

February 18th

A pretty successful weekend if I do say so myself.

I joined my eldest host sister at a small Karneval parade this weekend in the village know as Kessenich. It was nothing like I ever imagined. Everyone was in costume, adults and children alike. Even the teens participated as well. The costumes ranged from political puns, to clowns, to steam punk people, to animal onesies. You name it and it was there. I myself wore a red tutu and a red nose like a clown. At the beginning, I felt very out of place since my host sister was talking with her father and his family while I stood and watched all of the people go by. Eventually, some of the group started to introduce themselves and realized I was an American in Germany studying for school. They also told me that I wasn't allowed to speak English because German is the language of Karneval. They tried to talk German with me and let's just say that we go absolutely no where. This was the moment that it really dawned on me. I have an amazing opportunity to completely immerse myself in another culture and learn the language and yet I'm still barely able to speak and form small sentences. I can listen to conversations and make out some words, and I can read some things but my vocabulary is extremely limited. My host sister's uncle gave me some good advice and told me to soak it all up, find some German friends to hang out with, and try to learn the language. He asked if my host mother spoke German to me and when I said no, he told me I should ask her if she could so that I may be able to practice. Overall, the Karneval Parade was an eye opener in many ways. I learned life lessons and also got to partake in an incredible tradition. The idea that a whole city will come together as one to dress up and celebrate a wonderful time is astounding to me, especially since we don't have anything like this in the states. I do have to say, aside from the conversing, my favorite part was the parade and how when you scream Kamelle, people would throw candy at you. Let's just say I'm fully loaded with an assortment of haribo and other sweets and I can't wait for the actual Karneval event to start this Thursday and go on till next Monday! Just have to figure out what I'm going to dress up as....

Week 5- I love Munich

In this post I'm going to include 1 week and 2 weekends' worth of info. Buckle up! Actually, last weekend wasn't particularly busy because we didn't travel. We went to the Leverkusen vs Frankfurt soccer game on Saturday. It was an interesting experience, but the weather was very cold and wet. I was just getting over being sick, and being out there the entire day caused me to feel under the weather for a lot of the week. On Wednesday, we went back to Leverkusen and visited the Baykomm Communication Center. It wasn't what I expected at all, but it was interesting to learn more about such a huge drug company and to play with their high tech gadgets. One of the highlights of my week was making the journey to Alexa's house to visit her on Saturday night. It was kind of scary going alone, but it was definitely worth it because Alexa, Kyle, and I had a great time just hanging out and talking for hours.

Schoolwise, the week was a little tough. We had our first big physiology test on Friday in addition to two very time consuming physiology labs due on the same day. Our Enmodes project work is also picking up. It looks like it might be a stressful stretch between here and our Paris excursion, but I'm sure we'll all make it through.

This weekend, we took my favorite trip so far to a place that I wasn't even sure I wanted to visit. Munich was a gorgeous city and we had an action-packed two days there. We got in to town late Friday night. On Saturday, we woke up at 5:30 am to take a two hour train ride to Fussen to visit Hohenschwangau Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle. Even without the castles, the natural beauty of the area was enough to take your breath away. We walked on a nearby frozen lake, toured both castles, and then took a hike to Queen Mary's Bridge. The trail was technically off limits due to the snowy conditions, but we hopped the fence and went anyway. The view was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. We even took a hike up to a cliff above the bridge to have an even better vantage point. On the way down the mountain, we turned off the beaten path and ended up running all the way down the mountain through deep layers of snow. The few people who saw us seemed pretty confused- six college kids screaming and laughing as we let our momentum carry us down the mountain. We then returned to Munich and ate dinner in Augustiner-Keller, a beer hall that was founded in 1328! We had a blast eating there. We felt so German!

We spent Sunday morning exploring the city center of Munich. We watched the Glockenspiel play in Marienplatz. It was so unique and whimsical, and I'm very glad we were able to see it because it only plays twice a day. We accidentally entered no less than three beautiful Catholic Churches around there. We even climbed the tower of St. Peter's Church, which gave us a wonderful view of Munich. After that, we walked to the English Garden, which was massive and beautiful. Seeing all the families and couples in such a serene setting made me feel really at home there. Munich is the one city I've visited while abroad where I could actually see myself living one day. We walked along the Isar River for quite a while and eventually made it to the subway station. We then went to Dachau where we visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Visiting Dachau was a very moving and personal experience. It was crazy to think that I was standing in a place that was the site of unimaginable horrors to thousands of people just decades ago. It was a powerful reminder to me to stand up for the rights of others whenever possible. One moment that stands out to me most was while I was visiting the crematorium and gas chambers in the back of the compound. As I took in the horrible sights around me, I heard the gentle sound of birds singing. I felt as if God had put his hand over that part of the camp and filled it up with green trees and singing birds as a reminder to us that with God, nothing is too painful or too difficult to overcome.

We then returned to Munich and went out to eat at our favorite restaurant, Vapiano. We then began the longest train journey of our lives. We left at 8:54 pm, and arrived in Frankfurt at 12:09 am. Unfortunately, our next train didn't leave until 3:21 am. We ended up spending 3 hours in McDonalds buying snacks and playing cards. I was also able to FaceTime people because at that time it was evening in the U.S. It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and we succesfully made it back to Bonn at 5:44 am. This was such a memorable and fun trip. I'm so glad I ended up going!

Week 5

Test week is over, but I have a test again next week somehow lol. School has been picking up more and more, so I'm thankful for excursions and traveling.

Bayer
We toured Bayer on wednesday and I wasn't really able to pay attention to anything since I felt the sickest that day. I didn't know they were that big of a deal, but when I went to the Apotheke later that day they gave me medicine made by Bayer.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg was sooooo small, but it was also inexpensive. I'd been so stressed from having to study for two tests in one week while sick, so it was really nice to go to another country and just take it easy. It was also nice to not have to struggle to find our hotel since literally across the street from the train station. I only went with Michelle, so it was easy to agree on what we were going to do that day. Downtown was only a ten minute walk from where we were, so we ended up going there both days and we went to Sephora and bought face masks so my pores are feeling good. 

We found a forest in the center of the city

Tldr; I got into watching the Big Bang Theory recently

A Collection of Short Stories: Circa Week 4

I have decided to compile a trilogy of short stories about events that transpired recently, in the effort for this not to be just another synopsis of something you can read about in other blog posts.

1:  The Aggie on My Bus

    Not to give away the ending with the title, but I lost my phone on a bus one night coming back into town for church and a 211 review.  I'm still not sure how it managed to slip out of my pocket without my noticing, but that's irrelevant.  Let's just say it was a stressful evening; I missed Mass waiting for all of the buses my phone could have been on to filter back through, went to the 211 review, and then re-checked all of the buses as they went past my house at 30 minute intervals late that night.  I thought it was a goner; my only source of real help came from Kanci's host mum, Bibiana, who was a saint.  She called the lost and found first thing in the morning (because they spoke German) and somehow got in contact with someone who located the bus I was on.  He was able to find out that a phone had indeed been turned in, and I went a day later and picked it up!  Although I have not had a terribly negative experience with a German yet, I admit I didn't have the highest hopes for recovering my phone.  After all, this isn't Aggieland and people may not act according to our honor code.  However, given the events that transpired, I am convinced even if the person who turned my phone in was not an Aggie, he/she sure has the fine makings of one.

2: The Piano in the Airport

    Next to our gate in Prague's Václav Havel Airport stood a public piano, placed by the a non-government organization "focused on animation of public places in cities."  Since we had about forty minutes until boarding, Rachel and I walked over and took turns playing the simple melodies we knew.  Our arsenal of tunes was quickly depleted, and so we returned to our seats.  The gate attendant came over to us and asked us to keep playing; he said everyone sitting around enjoyed listening to us.  So, emboldened by his confidence in us, Maggie and I went back over to the piano and played a simple duet.  Maggie then played "A Thousand Years", and afterwards I started playing "The Entertainer".  I was only playing the right hand, and a man walked up (he turned out to be from Holland) and asked if he could play the left hand with me.  I said, "of course!" and so  an American and a Dutchman played a piano piece together in an airport in the Czech Republic.  I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.  What a wonderful world.

3: Adventures on a Bus, 84th Edition

    One night, after the evening Differential Equations class which ends at 9pm, Kanci, Rachel and I caught our bus home and learned more about the German transportation system in the process.  As with Aggie Spirit buses, there is more than one way to leave the bus; however, not every exit is always an entrance.  Sometimes only the doors at the very front of the bus will open, sometimes the front doors and the next set of doors in the middle of the bus will open, sometimes all three sets of doors will open.  Another important tidbit of information is that most German bus drivers speak little, if any, English.  Further, I have a personal hypothesis that these people move around a lot in their sleep, because many seem to consistently wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  Anyways, that night the second set of doors opened and we got on through them, assuming we wouldn't have to show our monthly passes because the driver hadn't forced us to go through the first door and, thus, past him.  This turned out to be an incorrect assumption to make; the driver turned around and started talking and looking at us and another man who had gotten on with us.  This man went over to the driver and then came back, but we still didn't understand what our friend the driver was saying and all the while he kept getting a little louder, more animated, and continued looking at us.  We asked if he spoke English, but he said "nein" and kept right on talking in a reprimanding tone.  The man who got on with us then told us in English that we did, in fact, have to show the driver our passes.  We immediately went forward and showed the bus driver our passes, and when we returned to our seats, the man asked us if we were studying here from abroad.  We said yes, we were from America and would be studying in Bonn until May.  He asked if we spoke any German, we said "ein bisschen" (a little) but that we were learning some more every week.  He had to get off soon after, but he wished us good luck and that he hoped we enjoyed our time in Germany.  It's hard to explain the feeling of being welcomed to a country by a native, much less a stranger, but the word heartwarming comes to mind.  It would have been easier for this man to ignore us and stare out the window, but instead he reached out to us and made more of an indelible impression than he knows.  Lesson: Never doubt you have the potential to influence someone's way of thinking with a small action.

(After my piano friend and I finished our piece, we begged him to play something.

We were not disappointed.)

Week Three- Dreams are Coming True

Me on a horse bred and trained by a
former Über Reiter

    The reason I switched from ballet to riding horses is because a well spent vacation in Germany. I was goofing off and riding the horses at the barn where my family was staying. There also on vacation was a man who had been trained at the Spanish Riding School. He offered to give me a lesson for free which is never heard of. Afterwards he told me that if I found a good trainer and worked hard I could become a good rider. I took his words to heart and found a Dressage Trainer in Texas. Both she and her husband had been trained by a former Über Reiter of the Spanish Riding School. My entire riding career and love for horses was shaped by the Spanish Riding School. To go and witness all the amazing work that is done there was a dream come true for me. I was awestruck the entire time watching how well and easily they were able to communicate with their stallions. For me it was also special to realize that I had been trained in a similar manner and could execute a number of movements the riders were practicing, and maybe with time be at the same level. There is a magic about being in a palace watching the dancing horses in such a wonderfully old city. I am so incredibly happy that I was able to live those few moments at the Spanish Riding School like I have dreamed of for so long.
       The City of Vienna is absolutely stunning and fascinating. The people are so friendly and there are so many different things to do and learn while in Vienna. Also the food was to die for. I loved visiting the Josephinum and the Narrenturm. I found the different wax models of diseases, ailments, and anatomy really cool. It was nice to see the things that I had read about modeled in such a lovely manner. At the Josephinum I finally understood some of what I had learned in anatomy class at TAMU. It was also interesting to learn both these structures were only possible because Emperor Josef II saw the importance of medical knowledge and practice. He was completely different from his sister Marie Antionette who did not care for her people. I also had a lot of fun in my first snowball fight outside the Fool's Tower.

In my free time I visited the Sisi Museum at the Hofburg Palace, her Imperial Apartments there, and the Schönbrun Palace and Zoo. My favorite part of the Hofburg Palace was seeing the Winterhalter portraits of  Elizabeth of Austria and her husband Emperor Franz Josef I in their original setting. I had previously seen the paintings at an exhibit in Houston with a friend. We had stared at them for so long in admiration. To see the paintings again but in their original location was unreal. It made them seem even more ornate. I really wish I had been allowed to take a picture just to be able to show my friend how great it was. This painting of Sisi was the inspiration for the character Christine in Phantom of the Opera, so naturally I had to buy a replica of one of her hairpins from the painting. The Shönbrun Palace was absolutely amazing. The grounds were so extensive and gorgeous they just added to the brillance that was the palace. I had seen images of the palace in documentaries or shows on PBS but could never believe that a place like it was real. I felt like I was in a fairytale the entire time. The fresh layer of snow on everything add to the magic of the place. The Zoo that is on the grounds was built because an empress decided she wanted a zoo. I have never seen such an amazing zoo before. All the

exhibits were well designed and made to make the animals happy. Every single animal that we saw was active and playing. My favorite was one of the Polar Bears, she was playing with a large yellow plastic disc. She was so silly and inventive I could not stop smiling while watching her. The Zoo was also designed to math the colors and architecture of the palace which was neat to see. The Schönbrun Zoo has to be one of my favorite zoos. To finish our day at the Palace we took a tour through some of the rooms. It is so foreign to me to see such ornate and decorative rooms. Every single one of them was beautiful. After the palace closed several of us stayed on the grounds to make a snowman. I have to say it is pretty cool that my first complete snowman was made in front of a Viennese Palace.

Visiting Vienna was like living in a dream. Everywhere you looked there was something of interest, and on every street corner was some historical site. I feel like it would take several life times to uncover all the secrets of Vienna to only find out she had hid some more. Just to glimpse a few of her secrets was enough to make me feel satisfied with life.

Week 5: The F is for Family

This week, has been an interesting week, its seeming to be all about family for me.

I find myself missing home and my family in Houston, a lot more than I generally do being away. I find that my family in Houston is growing as well as my family here. This past week my host mom has been having some difficulties, because her family is getting smaller should I say. I respect her and I am so grateful for her and my host brother, but I feel so lost and I don't know what to do. She has lost a parent, and I feel so so lost because I have been there and I know how much that hurts. I find myself struggling between whether I should leave it alone, and leave her alone, or if I should attempt to comfort her.

That alone makes me miss my family back home, and this past weekend in Munich I went to see the Disney castle, and well, if you know me then you know I appreciate my Disney. Haha, oddly enough I have a sister who appreciates Disney just as much as I do, She is the only person who gets it, we even share a movie collection, talk about soul sisters! And I promised her we would do our first big Disney adventure together, but I couldn't pass this up, I had to go. So instead I sent her pictures of these beautiful castles.

The Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as The "Sleeping Beauty" castle

The Hohenschwangau Castle

Aside from the beautiful castles, there was a more somber aspect of going to Munich, we also went to go visit the concentration camp at Dachau. I am not sure, of what to say about it. I am definitely glad I went, and I showed my respects. It was eye-opening and it was something I felt like I needed to do if nothing else, I will definitely bring my children, and more of my family when the chance arises. It was a great experience, it makes me feel blessed nonetheless, but it also made me miss my father. It made me miss my father because losing him broke me, so I can only imagine how those felt to have lost their whole families to these camps. May they all rest in peace,

 Lastly, I just want to finish by saying its been a weird week, weird in a good way I suppose. If it has taught me anything it's that family is anybody you want it to be and can mean anything you want it to mean. My family is getting bigger and bigger as I get to know these 30 people who were once strangers to me. I came practically without knowing anyone, and now I even have people I am going to dunk my ring with. Being on this trip and being this far from home has been fun, hard, interesting, saddening, yet exhilarating. I could NOT have made it this far on this trip without everyone here. So if you are reading this, I want to say thank you for a month and a half thus far that I will always remember.

Week 5

The middle part of this week was all homework and class and was super boring, but then the weekend rolled around and we left for Munich. Friday afternoon was hectic because I decided to go home between class and our train to pack and get rid of all of my school things. Apparently there was some conference in Bonn though and so my bus didn't come to get me. I was at the bus stop at 4:04 waiting and it didn't come until 4:30. I ended up making it on time but just barely and therefore didn't have time to get any dinner before the train. We made it to Munich late that night but at a fairly decent time.

Saturday consisted of our trip to Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau castles. They were so amazing and beautiful. We went to Hohenschwangau first which was the smaller one. The owner built it to be a "small hunting cottage" which is ridiculous because it was gigantic and all the decorations were so over the top. Afterwards, we had to hike up a hill for like 30-40 minutes to get to Neuschwanstein. It was beautiful and I would definitely go again although I would pay the 6 Euro to take the horse carriage to the top because the walk didn't have any great views and was very tiring. The castles were so much fun and there was so much to see that we ended up staying much longer than we intended to. It was a two hour train ride back so we didn't get back to Munich to eat dinner until around 9:30pm. We went to this amazing place that Claire's mom told us about that was like a tradition German hall with live music, lederhosen, and lots of meat. I got a pork dish that was very good but I wouldn't recommend the potato dumpling.

Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein

Memorial with flowers left by Mike Pence

On Sunday, we got up early and went to Dachau concentration camp. We happened to go on the same day and at the same as Mike Pence. We didn't see him but we did see a lot of secret service. Overall, this was a very heavy and eye opening experience. The camp was much bigger than I honestly expected it to be. It was really cool though because there were a lot of monuments relating to never letting it happen again and also a huge museum full of history and pictures and it also showed a short film about the Holocaust/Dachau. The film showed a lot of footage that was very graphic and things that I had never seen before. It really opened my eyes to exactly how bad what was happening was and it was really hard to watch. We walked around the museum and all of the grounds including the religious memorials and the crematorium. We went inside of it and also a gas chamber that was built at Dachau but was never used. It wasn't a fun experience but I'm very happy that I went.

Going back to Bonn was also an interesting experience. We didn't to get some food at the HBF to take with us on the train since we wouldn't have anywhere to get food once we started traveling. We decided to get some chinese food from the train station and all ordered together. There were four of us so we ordered four crispy chickens with noodles and then we wanted to get four egg rolls for us. We asked the lady and after some confusion we thought she finally understood what we wanted so we were happy. Turns out she didn't completely understand and we got 32 egg rolls. We couldn't stop laughing and thought it was ridiculous until we ended up eating them all.