It’s PULLOUT
DAY (the one day of the school year that sophomores get to whoop. It’s an Aggie
thing ;) )!! WHOOOOOOP! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! There were 13 Aggies on the study
abroad program that were sophomores who could whoop today. Kyle and I left the
apartment at 7:30, and the entire way to the Hofgarten, everyone just gave us
confused looks because of our redass whooping! We got to the Hofgarten at 8:19
(A-A-A WHOOP)!! ß
okay. I’m done w/ that or else I’ll never finish this blog post! We had a group
excursion to Bingen & Andernach today. In Bingen, we visited the Museum am
Strom, which focused a lot on the life of the St. Hildegard of Bingen but also some
Roman surgical instruments! Afterwards, we had a fun little scavenger hunt for
different sorts of plants in the garden outside of the museum. We relaxed in front
of the museum and took some pullout day photos while we waited for 1:00 to come
around to have lunch. Lunch was actually quite disappointing :\ without a
doubt, it was a high-class restaurant. They brought out several plates of
different appetizers for us to try; at the end of it all though, we learned
that these appetizers were actually the entrees! The best thing about the restaurant
was the tulip that they had for decoration! It tasted amazing! (JK! About it
being the best thing at the restaurant, that is). I lost a game of “What are
the odds” with my friend, Kenneth. In short, this is a game where you dare
another person to do something. That person will select a number, and on the
count of three, both people will say a number from zero to that selected
number. If both persons say the same number, then the person who is dared will
have to do the deed. PUES. Kenneth asked me “What are the odds you eat that
tulip?” I said 20, so…....1, 2, 3…SEVENTEEN! We both yelled the same number. WELP. I
lost and couldn’t back out at that point. I grabbed the tulip and checked to
see that Dr. Wasser wasn’t looking……and GULP! I started chewing…it was quite
odd, but lemme tell ya, it was the best tulip I’ve ever eaten haha jkjk! I
swallowed it and acted like nothing happened! Onward with the day! We traveled
to Andernach, another German city, where we got gelato (paid for by the AIB)
and visited the Johann-Winter Museum of Medical History. The museum was
actually inside of someone’s house! The whole thing was very neat; it was a
brief overview of the history of medicine. We saw Dr. Schnabel’s costume from
the era of the Bubonic Plague, a miniature replica of the Hotel Dieu, and
another “Iron Man” machine (2/5 in the world that we’ve seen so far!) among
many other medical devices and contraptions. Back to Bonn & back to
classes! Whoop!! After classes on Wednesday, our circuits & signals
professor (and amiga), Madeleine, took us on a class excursion to the
Arithmeum! What is this you may ask? It’s a museum of history of arithmetic!!
Pretty neat place and pretty neat name! If I’m being honest, I had no idea what
this museum was about…..I actually thought it had to do with arrhythmias of the
heart…cus arithmeum….ya feel?? Anyway! This museum displayed the first
calculators ever built that did simple math and subtraction to the modern day
TI-84s, etc. The older calculators were very intricate and nicely designed! I
wouldn’t mind having one of those in my living room (mainly for decoration but
I guess I could also use it if I got bored). Later that night, we had a
BONNfire with the other students, continued our night at the club N8schicht ,
and ended it at the good ole AIB! Study study study! & it’s Friday! Amsterdam,
here we go! Raju, Amran, Kyle, and I were the four going to Amsterdam this
weekend. We had heard great things about this city, both the nightlife and
daytime scenery! We were excited. The train that we took there had several
connections, so we couldn’t just sleep for 4 hours nonstop. Soon enough though,
we made it! My oh my! Amsterdam was beautiful! The lakes and canals were a
sight to see. All of the buildings leaned against once another! We dropped our
stuff off at our hostel before heading out to get dinner and explore the city. We
walked past the infamous Red Light District. For those who don’t know what the
Red Light District is, it’s an area of a city for legalized prostitution! We
walked through a few alleyways that were about 6 feet wide; the entire alley
was illuminated in red. On either side of you, you would see several 8 foot
windows, some of which had a curtain covering the interior. For the windows
that weren’t covered by a curtain, you wouldn’t see much until you were
literally right next to it. Then, you would see a woman just standing there in
lingerie, seductively looking out at everyone, trying to sell herself. Honestly,
it was quite an odd experience. In this day and age, there’s so much debate and
controversy over gender equality and how “women are not objects” (ß which I completely
agree with) that when I walked through the Red Light District, I couldn’t help
but think to myself “these women are all literally objects that men pay for.” Again,
I don’t agree with the concept of objectifying women at all, but as I walked
through this, every prostitute was just selling their bodies to whoever would
pay. As odd as this was, this was definitely a must-visit if you’re in the city
of Amsterdam; it’s just a central part of the culture that really helps to
define the city and nightlife! The next day, a guide took us around the city
for a tour! Amsterdam at night is an extremely unique place, but in the day, it
is completely different! And so beautiful! We passed by the Red Light District
again, and even in the day, the women are still working! We learned that there
is a big church in the center of the Red Light District, and on the other side
of the street are the windows full of women. The guide told us that a couple of
centuries ago, sailors would purchase the services of these women. Prior to
setting out for the seas, they would go to the church and pay the church to
help repent their sins because of the fact that they might die out at sea and
be unable to have their sins forgiven. As time passed, the church started
condoning the use of the Red Light District strictly so that they would make
profit! How odd huh? We ended the tour on the western side of the city, near
the Anne Frank House. We had reserved our tickets for Sunday, but one of our
friends told us to try the pancakes in that area, so we did. They were so
tasty! Maybe we need to go back again tomorrow.. After this, we booked it back
to the central train station so that we could catch a canal tour around the
city! It lasted about an hour and we were able to see a lot of the city from a
canal point of view! The weather was great, and the city of Amsterdam is just
beautiful! Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to change before going out
for the night. We made it to the Heineken Experience Museum and learned a lot
about the history of Heineken and how it’s made. Looking back on it, I realized
that we forgot to eat dinner before going out to the pubcrawl. OOPS. I can’t
say that this was the best pubcrawl I’ve been to, but getting back was
definitely a struggle. On the way back at 1:30 in the morning, we stopped by
this sweets store. While we were waiting for them to finish our orders, my
friend, Amran, decided to use his fingers to get a sample of the sample food
decorations for the public to see. Kyle and I just stared at him….the manager
also stared at him. Quite embarrassing, but whatevaaa. We got our desserts and
got out off there ASAP! After finishing that, we each bought pizza from Domino’s
before finally calling it a night. We went to visit the Van Gogh Museum the
next morning, which was a neat must-visit place that showed us a lot about Van
Gogh’s life and his artwork. Sadly, the infamous painting “The Starry Night”
was nowhere to be found (it’s sitting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
City). Next: The Anne Frank House!! We showed them our tickets, and they said “this
ticket was for yesterday..” WELP. We dun goofed! I guess that we had planned to
go to the museums on Saturday so that we could party Saturday night and sleep
in that morning…..in either case, we decided to wait until it was open entry
for everyone since the Anne Frank House is undoubtedly one of the biggest
places to visits in Amsterdam. I knew a lot about Anne Frank prior to this
museum visit. The secret Annex was really small, and I could see why it was
difficult for the Frank family to silently stay there all day. Afterwards, we
found the popular “Fault in Our Stars” bench. We actually kicked a couple off
of the bench (OKAY. They were just chilling there, and we asked if we could get
a photo on the bench real quick, but they got pissed and left.). Anything for
the ‘gram right? Our last stop before leaving Amsterdam was the iAmsterdam
letters. It was PACKED with people, but we got a quick photo and then made our
way for the train station. Sadly, we didn’t make it back in time to catch our
train……luckily, there was one other route to get home that the train conductors
helped us with. Around 1AM, we arrived in Bonn. I decided to catch the 1:35 bus
so that I could get back home as early as possible; Kyle and Amran decided to
get some Mickey D’s and catch the 2:35 bus. On the way back, SURPRISE! I fell
asleep again haha….this time I woke up 3 stops after I got off, so I waited for
a whole other loop and went home with Kyle and Amran on the 2:35 bus haha! So
much for getting home earlier…all in all though! This weekend was great. I
really loved Amsterdam and would definitely go again!
WHOOP!!
Bingen, Germany
Best Dressed goes to Brother Jeremy!
Wouldn't wanna pull out with anybody else!
Pulling out all the way from Germany! WHOOP!!
A Gourmet Tulip!
Arithmeum!
Andernach, Germany
How to Get Rid of Change 101
A {Bonn}fire
Keep it on speed dial.
!!!
Was ist das??
Amsterdam is so pretty
The Red Light District
The only place where the red lights don't turn green
Amsterdam - Nacht Version
wow.
I love Amsterdam
City Tour via Canal
The Heineken Experience
drank.
Late night snacks :D
Van Gogh
Let's do it for the gram, okay? Okay.
He's photobombing me photobombing her photobombing them
Surreal.
