Update

I haven't had much time on my hands to update. I am on a school computer, so I will upload pictures later.

Here is a brief overview of what has been going on the past week and a half:

Wednesday the 17th we had our second tour of Cologne which explained the history of the churches and Roman structures throughout the city.

Thursday we went to Aachen, Germany which is an important city because it was home to Charlemagne. Aachen was built around hot sulfur springs, which was a main draw for people with rheumatism (like Charlemagne). The city is full of history, and pride. It was beautiful. After our tour, my classmate Devon, and I went to one of the famous spas of Aachen and had a glorious time relaxing in the saunas.

Along with 8 other people I left Aachen to go to Amsterdam. We spent our weekend in Amsterdam, which was interesting. Amsterdam is a beautiful city that is also extreamly dirty. We went to the Anne Frank House, which was moving to say the least. Then we went on our own planned out walking tour of the city to save money. We ended up seeing almost everything from the train station to the outer rings of canals. That was really beautiful.

This Monday, the 22nd, our class had a tour of Brühl Germany which is located between here and Cologne. It was also the location for the kings hunting grounds. After lunch we came to Cologne and got a personal tour of the excavated area under the Cologne cathedral. This showed the site of the roman church and each church that procceded it until the gothich cathedral was finished.

I have really had to be going a mile a minute with all the projects and tours we have had. I apoligize if it takes me a while to respond to emails, but I do enjoy reading them.

Puetzchen's Markt & Sleep

This past Friday was the first day of Bonn's Puetzchen's Markt which is a large 5 day long fair. Our group went on the opening day to see all the rides, vendors, food, and music. It was alot of fun, but expensive and very exhausting. After two rides and some food I was ready to join the A.I.B. group in the big "beer tent". There they had bands playing, and people dressed in tradtional German lederhosen serving drink and food. We learned alot of German songs. It was an interesting night, but I went home early because I had a sore throat.

The next two days, I spent sick in bed with the Flu or something like it. I had a small fever. My host family checked on me and brought me tea every time I woke up. They are really nice. Today I am feeling much better, and I am just spending time working on homework and plans for weekend trips.

Trier, Germany

Today we visited Trier Germany. It is a very interesting city because it is thought to be the oldest city in Germany. It was founded by Celtics before the Romans built a more structured city. We went to a garden exhibit first to see the gardens that the different "sister" cities of Trier donated. The one that was close to home was donated by Carter and Burgess, a landscape architecture firm in Fort Worth Texas! It was very well done and had a statue of a longhorn in the middle. The British style garden had apple trees that we could all eat from so we had some apples as a snack before getting on the bus again.

The bus tour was difficult to follow because it was a foggy day, which was a disappointment to us all. Then we walked around town to make some sketches, but it started to rain very hard and we had to stop. The best part of the day was when we went to a vinyard and had a tour and wine tasting.

That pretty much summed up our day. I will lhave to scan in my sketches to show you what we have been working on here.

Getting to feel at "home"

I have been in Bonn for a bit over 2 weeks now and I am just now feeling at "home" here. It is nice to be staying in Bonn as a home base because the city is so full of culture and international awareness (since the Germany U.N. building is here). I really am getting to know my way around town and around the public transportation system, which is much more confusing than the one in College Station. This week has gone by SO fast.

Monday we had class and German lessons. Then in the evening we all went to one of the concerts for the Beethoven Festival. Beethoven was born in Bonn so every September Bonn has a month long festival to celebrate their most famous "son". For this festival famous musician's come from all over the world to play Beethoven's music. The program we are with got us all tickets to one of the concerts on Monday. It was the French National Orchestra, and it was moving. We all enjoyed the music. It is just inspiring to be able to walk down the same streets as such a genius. There first piece was Beethoven's 8th symphony, but I am not sure what the second piece was.

On Tuesday, we had class and then Marck Mueckenheim, an amazing German Architect, came to teach us about the history of German Architecture. We will have him come speak a few more times for the German Culture/History class I am taking. Then I just spent time walking about Bonn with friends.

Today, Wednesday, was like a dream. We visited Cologne as a class. I had already gone with friends to look around, but we had the first of 3 tours of the city. We toured the cathedral (St. Peter and Mary's Cathedral) which is the most Gothic Cathedral ever built. I have a bunch of pictures but I only put a few in this post. The first is of the burial place of the three wise men. They originally were located in Palestine, but moved a few times before being given to Cologne as a gift. The second picture is of the oldest stained glass in the Cathedral. All the glass and interior were kept safe during WWII by being removed and placed in bunkers. This glass shows the different bible stories which was important because the majority of people couldn't read or write, and the pictures helped explain the stories. The next picture is one of the 3 organs located in the cathedral. This organ is so powerful that it is only played during organ concerts. The last picture is of a part of the cathdral that was lazer cleaned. It took 2 years to clean this with a lazer because it could only clean one square millimeter at a time. We also looked at the anceient ruins left in Cologne, and traces of the changes from development of the city.

Tomorrow I get the pleasure of going to Trier for the entire day. Our class will be touring what is thought to be the oldest city in Germany. I am excited!

Pilgrims, and Germans

So to catch you up to date...

Wednesday we had classes, and then I went to an authentic German restaurant with some friends to have some yummy traditional food. It was delicious to say the least. I had a turkey steak with pineapple, a salad, and fries. Ok, my food wasn't "traditional" German, but it sounded to good to pass up.

Thursday we had class which included a "field study" assignment of walking around town and drawing things that caught our eye. It was so much fun. We all are excited about our field study class now. I am going to have some great sketches when this semester is over! Then we went on a guided English tour to the House of Germany History, which was amazing.

We don't have class on Fridays so some of my friends and I went to Cologne or (Koln in German) to see the Cathedral and the Chocolate Museum. The Cathedral is so aw inspiring that I can't even began to explain its beauty. Then the Chocolate Museum was a blast too. We ended the night with the University "pub crawl" to find all the college hang outs. It was alot of fun, but rainy so most of us went home early.

Saturday I spent time reading, working on homework, doing laundry, and just relaxing with my host family. They had some friends over so Martha made and fresh apple pie (using the apples from her garden... YUM). I got in a long conversation with them about America and our culture compaired to Germany. It was a fun discussion.

NOW finally, Today we went on a 10 mile hike/walk on part of the St. James pilgrimage. It started in Euskirchen and ended in Bad Munstereifel. The St. James pilgrimage is one of the 3 pilgrimages that is said to forgive sins by walking it. I am very sore now, but it was worth it. We stoped at a few churches along the way and learned about their importnace to the pilgrams who used to hike all the way to spain. People still do this. The entire trip is from Jerusalem to Northern Spain. It has become a craze again very recently to go on these pilgrimages. There are signs along the way for you to follow.

Now I am at home, about to crawl in bed and try to get enough sleep for tomorrow.

Sprechen sie English?

Today we had our second day of classes which included my "field study" class, an essential German session, and another historical tour about German post WWII Gardens. Classes here are very different than at home because they are less structured by times and assignments. In fact I am still unsure how the grading systems will work for my German classes.

Our tour was at the German History Museum, but we only toured the gardens so some of us may go back to visit the museum itself. I guess it was a slow day compared to the past few days which has been nice.

I am going to add a few pictures of my walk home to this post. I was riding a bike to school, but I found that I can walk to meet some friends at the subway station and get to school much faster. This is helpful because I am not very comfortable on a bike anyway.

1st day of "class" and more

I didn't post yesterday because I was so sleepy by the time I got home. We went on a Rhine Cruise yesterday, and it was a beautiful day for it. Sadly I forgot to take my camera and will have to get the pictures from one of my friends.

We road a bus to Bacharach, Germany and had a chance to look around a different type of German town. Then we got on a river boat and road that for 2+ hours until we got to Barubach. Barubach has the only fortified castle on the Rhine that has not been destroyed and rebuilt. We had a great tour of the castle, and learned alot about German history.

Today was also exciting! We had our first class this morning at 8:45am, it was a German culture/history/language class. Then we got to go meet one of the Deputy Majors of Bonn in the old capitol building. Bonn was the Capitol of Germany 13 years ago before it moved to Berlin, but since the move the economy has bounced back. Now Bonn is a Universtity town that also holds the United Nations, and it is a cultural hub in Germany. Also, Bonn is a leader in sustanable city desing and research which is one of the reasons our program is here. We got to discuss all of this with the Deputy Major which was astounding!

After lunch we had a tour at the Bonn Universtiy Botanical Gardens. I had already seen some of it, but the tour was very informative. It intrested all of my class because we have to learn so much horticulture, and we all enjoy the subject. Then we had our first Bonn history lesson, which was a walking classroom envirionment so that we could see things as we learned about them.

Over all it has been a great, action packed few days here, but I love it. I feel like I have been here much longer than 6 days!