Take Me Back

I haven't even been back home for a week and I'm already looking forward to going back. As soon as we got off the plane in Dallas, last week, we all were saying how much we missed Germany already.

Also, as soon as we got off the plane we could immediately sense the change in culture. 

It was strange being able to understand people talking around us. Those of us who had connecting flights got a little bit more time to talk together. We had no idea when all the others disappeared, but it was understandable they left quickly because Dallas was their final destination. Those remaining, we talked about how it wasn't rude to eavesdrop in Germany because we couldn't understand what they were saying. 

I kind of miss that. Listening in on other people's conversations, trying to recognize any German words that I could. I miss taking public transportation to school in the morning. I miss my host family's pugs. I miss getting to travel to a new place each weekend and being able to plan a trip without my parents' help. Although, I am glad that I get to be home and just take naps with my doggies and binge watch Grey's Anatomy with my mom. 

If you are ever considering studying abroad, just do it. If money is an issue, consider that schools commonly give scholarships to their students who want to study abroad. Everyone in this program received a scholarship to help get them to Germany. 

Before this trip people said that it would change your life. I thought, ehh, I don't know if that's true.  I am still the same person after this experience, but now I look at things differently. I never thought that I was the type of American that thought the US did things best, but I realized I was. Just after a few days in Germany I could see that they were much more environmentally friendly: they separated trash, reused grocery bags, and along with the rest of Europe, they had accessible public transportation. I knew we, the US, didn't do everything the best before, but now I can see just how much further we have to grow and change as a nation. 

I did not expect my post to go in that direction. But, long story short, I miss Germany and Europe and I love what this experience did to mold me as a world citizen.

I can't believe I got to live here. 

Also, we went to a Lumineers concert in Cologne. That was cool.

The Rheinland

enmodes Presentation: Yes, the 'e' is Lowercase on Purpose

After coming back from Dublin we had a lot of work ahead of us. The end of the week was our presentation day at enmodes. This meant that we had to wrap up our SolidWorks drawings, make a slide presentation and practice. 

This week went by very slowly because each day was filled with hours of studying and preparing. That Wednesday we also had a 211 exam that nobody was prepared for. This prompted my second and last all-nighter of the semester. I didn’t plan to stay up that late, but I just kept finding more things that I didn’t understand. 

As soon as this exam was over we all had to spend the rest of our precious hours preparing for our presentation. Once our slides were complete, we rehearsed our presentation individually in front of Dr. Wasser and Haley. On the last night we stayed at our school building until 10pm to finish practicing.

The next morning we loaded up the bus again, in our business casual attire, nervous and excited for how we would perform. We met the CEO of enmodes at the Hemhotlz Institute in Aachen and he gave us a tour of their bioengineering labs. They've developed lots of devices mainly for the heart and lungs. After the tour came the moment of truth... time to present our device designs that we had been working on the whole semester. 

The presentations went well and they liked all of our designs. They said that their final design would probably be a combination of all three, which was to be expected. After our presentation we ate lunch at the university and walked around the city for enough time to get some of the famous Aachener Printen(a type of chocolatey gingerbread) and throw the frisbee around. 

This experience felt very rewarding and taught me a lot about the design process. After getting back to Bonn, I’m pretty sure I passed out on my bed until the next morning.

Obviously we are very professional 

Reagan and Elaine having a mini photo shoot after lunch 

France: Elegant Agression

For our second multi-day excursion as a program we traveled to Colmar, Beaune and Paris, France. I was looking forward to adding another country to my list and I never thought that I would ever actually be going to Paris in my life. 

So we loaded up the bus early Monday morning and set out for Colmar, which is located in west France, very close to the German border. When we arrived we first went to the Unterlinden Museum where we saw medieval and early renaissance art, including the Isenheim altar. Most commonly, plague or ergotism victims would come to pray at this alter. The alter depicts images from different moments of Christ’s life, as well as the patron saint for ergotism, St. Anthony. Hence, this is why ergotism is commonly called St. Anthony’s fire. From the museum we made our way through the streets lined with medieval buildings and bakeries filled with the smell of macaroons, where we definitely stopped to take free samples. 

That afternoon, we hopped back on the bus to drive to east toward Beaune. That night we ate some traditional French dishes which included beef bourguignon and Burgundy wine. We spent the night at a small little hotel and woke up to the smell of warm croissants and fresh orange juice. We then had a tour of the famous Hotel Dieu, well, famous for wine auction goers. This hotel used to be a hospital that was built in the middle ages and used until the 1970’s. 

From Beaune, we made our way to the most touristy city in the world, Paris! I honestly did not have any expectations for the city, except that the Eiffel tower would be there. I didn’t think I would like Paris, I thought that everything I heard about it would be overrated. But I was wrong! I really liked Paris, I liked the art, the wide streets, the river, the beautiful buildings. It was great, and we were fortunate enough to have un-european-like whether, aka sunny. 

While here we got to see a lot and our tour guide Julien was great. One of the first things he instructed us on was crossing the street. He said that the French tend to be aggressive, but also elegant; hence the term, elegant aggression.  We continued to repeat this phrase for the rest of the trip. 

We went on a bike tour where we stopped by the Eiffel tower and Notre Dame to take pictures. We had crepes and crepes, and more crepes. We toured the Pasteur Museum, you know, the guy who discovered the rabies vaccine, which wasn’t all too exciting. Even Dr. Fajt was telling us to hang in there till the end.  We also toured Versailles and Marie  Antoinette’s village, aka the Queen’s Hamlet. At Versailles we had a picnic with all sorts of French cheeses and quiche that Julien’s fiance made. 

One night we also went up the Eiffel tower and got to see the skyline of Paris at night. Another day, Kelly and I went to visit the Muse de Orsay before it closed. Although, we only got a chance to look at the impressionist art before they closed. Speaking of museums, we of course made a visit to the Louvre. It was fairly crowded but still an enjoyable experience that I never thought I would have. 

After the program ended on Friday, a small group of us prepared for our flight to Dublin that night. 

Hotel Dieu in Beaune, France

Degas in the Muse de Orsay

Me with the Mona Lisa and other people

The Queen's Hamlet

Dublin the Fun, Half the Sleep

Dublin was definitely an interesting trip for a few reasons, but I’ll expand on that later. So, on Friday, while still in Paris we had to take a bus out to the airport, which is about an hour away, not even inside Paris. That night we flew in to Dublin and took a taxi to our hostel. Some of us went out, but others stayed in for the night. I was one that stayed in to sleep. The next morning we had a tour bus prepared to take us around Ireland for the whole day. 

That morning we secured all of our things in one bin, because we only had one lock for all of our things. This was really my first true hostel experience because at the hostel we stayed at in Amsterdam it was only people in our travel group in the room. But in Dublin, there were two random people in the other beds. Hence, this is why we locked up some of our things. We made it onto the paddywagon tour bus and headed through the Irish country side to the Cliffs of Moher. 

Along the way we made a couple of stops at convenience stores. Our bus driver, Sean, was an okay tour guide. We were thinking that he might have showed us more things or talked more, but he didn’t, so we ended up sleeping most of the way. Once we arrived at the Cliffs, we were all eager to get out, take pictures, and observe the views. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was an incredible view and like something I had never seen before. I was also able to get some great pictures, which I was happy about. My Instagram account appreciates the subject matter. 

To no one’s surprise I rolled my ankle again, and on a completely smooth surface. This was when I was going to look at the souvenirs near the Cliff, but after that I decided to just head back to the bus. 

The next day we spent most of our time in a McDonalds where we hogged the wifi and power outlets so that we could study and do homework. When I got back home to tell my host mom, she said that this was an expensive way to do homework. I reassured her, though, that we were able to walk around the city and get some souvenirs. That night we went to eat some traditional Irish cuisine, which consisted mostly of lamb, beef, potatoes and Guinness. 

In order to conserve money, we decided in advance to spend that night at the airport until we had our flight early Monday morning. This is where half of the sleep came into play. We stayed in this cafe area that had a bunch of booths that we could camp out at for the night. I went to sleep maybe at 1:30 and woke up to one of the employees at 4:30am saying, “Please get up,” but in the most polite way possible. 

We caught our flight to Dusseldorf, got a train to Bonn, and arrived to a review session for 2II maybe 30 minutes late. Another weekend in another city, and now we were back to school in time for exams and finishing our project work. 

Me in my natural state

Back to Berlin

After spring break we only had four days of class and then Easter break. Our break here included Friday and the following Monday, which is longer than the break we get back in College Station. For this weekend I got to go to a campus ministry retreat in Berlin. I was very excited to meet and spend time with my brothers and sisters in another part of the world. 

This was the first trip that I traveled alone for and thankfully it went smoothly. I was able to get on the train and meet Alisa at the Berlin station. If you've ever been to the Berlin Central Station then you know that it's similar to the maze in the tri-wizard tournament, minus the witchcraft. From there we took another train to meet everyone at the retreat, which was in the southern part of Berlin. 

While there, it was a time to relax, get to know each other and play lots of ping pong. There was actually a few students from the US there. Nick was an exchange student from Connecticut, Amanda had moved to Berlin from Seattle, Collin had also moved to Berlin from the US, and Rebecca has lived in both the US and Germany. Saturday morning we all went hiking in this forested area that was near a lake of sorts. We had lots of fun just talking, playing music, and eating our homemade cuscus for lunch. 

Saturday and Sunday night we had a campfire, made s'mores, and sang songs with the acoustics of guitar strings. It was really cool getting to sing songs I knew but with the German lyrics. Sunday, we all made our way to church where I got to meet more of my brothers and sisters and also practice my German by trying to understand the sermon; however, I had English translation to help me understand most of it. Our tram ride back was filled with a series of what are the odds, which ended in Nick and Dan playing the harmonica and dancing for money on the tram and Dan and I having to jump in the lake when we got back to our retreat site. Which was incredibly unfortunate because my odds were one in 50 and Amanda and I both said 12. When Dan I went, we both dragged Simone in with us, so it made jumping into what felt like subzero water much more enjoyable. 

After our lake-jumping extravaganza, we came back to take part in Easter festivities. Johanna prepared carrot and rabbit shaped cookies and frosting for us to decorate. Then Dan and Hannah prepared an easter scavenger race of sorts where each team had to find all of their hidden chocolates the fastest. That night Rebecca, Hannah, Alisa and I stayed up late talking about our life stories and how we came to know God. 

It was a very refreshing weekend, which I already mentioned in an earlier Facebook post, but it still rings true. I had a great time just fellowshipping with my Berlin family and it's something I'll hold on to for years to come. 

  

                                               

International Big Event

After Easter weekend we had a full week of class, where on Friday we made a visit to the Museum of Anesthesia. There, I was able to take a picture of the old anesthesia equipment and send them to my dad, who is an anesthesiologist. His response, “those are my peeps!” 

The next day, Saturday, was a big day, especially for Aggies. It was the Big Event: a day filled of serving the local community. Here, at the AIB in Bonn is actually the biggest international Big Event in the world where we had students from LMU and Penn State accompanying us Aggies. 

That morning, we all met at the old AIB building to organize into our groups and get our t-shirts. My group went to help paint at a high school. Which included grades 6th or so until 12th. The school system here in Germany works a little bit differently than in the states, and other students as well as I have tried to understand all the different pathways but we’re still a little lost. 

Once we arrived at the school one of the teachers met us there and explained that we would be painting the hallways as well as their school ‘logo’ in the entry way. Haley, her mom, and I ended up painting this. It was great way to serve the community that has welcomed all of us, students, as well as therapeutic. Our painting turned out pretty well, although it was difficult to trace the smaller letters correctly because the projector couldn’t focus very well and it was in German, but thankfully we had students of the school to help us. 

Talking with these students was the first time that I really got to interact with German students that were younger than me. The teacher who first met us also made us two cakes and brought apple juice. After a few hours at the school we wrapped everything up, cleaned the floors, and took the tape from painting down. We made our way back to the city center tired and ready for naps.  

photo credit: Stephanie Kelly                                      

photo credit: Stephanie Kelly                                      

   

photo credit: Stephanie Kelly                                      

Seven Cities, One Week

After returning home from Zurich, we had one week of school before spring break. It's funny, home for me has now been Germany. During this week of school we had our final exam for our German course, which I actually have no idea how I did on that. We still haven't gotten our grades back for that, and I'm not thinking we will at this point in the semester.

The Thursday of this week Ralf and one of his colleagues came to listen to our initial design ideas for our device. After this presentation we then split up into groups of more similarly concentrated ideas. 

Then on Friday, my mom arrived in Bonn. I was very excited to see her. For the rest of my break we had a trip planned around Germany. To make things simpler, I'll just list out the places we went and what we did. 

Saturday: My mom and I took a 5-6 hour train to Berlin. I can't exactly remember what we did each day we were there. We took a walk around the city using an app with a guided tour. We were able to see almost all the highlights: the Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, and Museum Island. One morning we went to go eat breakfast at the Reichstag and it was great just getting to roam around on the roof afterwards. We also made a visit to the Victory Column and the Tiergarten, which is kind of like Central Park in New York.  While in Berlin, I got to meet up with an old friend from Kansas, along with her roommate. It was a great coincidence that we were both in the same city at the same time and I only found this out via Facebook. Thank you social media. 

Tuesday: After 3 days or so in Berlin, my mom and I made our way to Munich on another train ride. We arrived at the Hauptbahnhof(Central Station) in the evening and recognized right away that it was the sketchy side of Munich. After this sight I was worried that Munich wasn't going to be a worthwhile city to visit. However, I got to see more of the city another day, and thankfully it was a great city worth visiting. That night I was able to visit with a friend from high school who was an exchange student from Germany. I also met his girlfriend and friend who were also studying abroad in Germany for the semester. Later that night my mom and I made a visit to the famous, Hoftbrauhaus, which was filled with beer and lots of people filled with beer. 

Wednesday: The day after we arrived we made a day trip out to Salzburg, Austria. I was already very excited to see this city with beautiful mountain views. I was not disappointed. Salzburg is beautiful. It easily became one of my favorite cities. It's not too big, although there is a lot of tourism, which I could do without. It's also the hometown of the child prodigy, Mozart. Now I've been to the hometowns of two famous composers.

Thursday: This was the day my mom and I got to actually explore more of the city. We visited the open market, complete with a may pole and tents selling various foods and crafts. We made the trip out to the olympic stadium where we saw numerous people out running, riding their bikes and walking their dogs. We also saw the deserted stadium filled with bright green chairs, where the track and field events took place. We were also able to climb up the stairs of St. Peter's church in Marienplatz, where we were able to look over the expansive city.

Friday: Before leaving the Munich area, we made the trip out to the Dachau Concentration Camp. My mom had been there once, about 25 years ago, and she only recognized parts of it. We walked around a bit on our own before we met for a group tour of the camp. It was very surreal to be there and hard to imagine or grasp the events that took place in the longest running concentration camp. From here we began our journey to the medieval town of Rothenburg. We arrived at our bed and breakfast and shortly after we went on the famous Night Watchman tour. The Watchman took us around the inner city and explained the duties of the Night Watchman as well as the history of the town.

Saturday: In the morning, my mom and I explored the tourist-filled town on our own. We browsed through the shops of homemade goods and made our way back to the train station to continue our trip of mother-daughter bonding. From Rothenburg we arrived at our 6th city, Bacharach. While here we only spent the night and got an overlooking view of the town in the morning. Walking to our Inn, we could tell that the town was less of a tourist attraction now than in its former glory. That night we ate dinner at the inn's restaurant, where we had the choice of ordering wine from the local wine country. I had a sweet and fruity wine, which seems to be the only wine my tastebuds can handle.

Sunday: We took the train from Bacharach to the town of Mozelkern. Our only purpose for visiting this town was to hike one hour out to the Burg Eltz castle. Once arriving at the castle, we took a tour, where we could see furniture and tapestries and cookware that was up to 500 years old. At one point in the tour, my mom leaned over to me and said, "I can't tell who's more bored, you or that teenage boy over there with the unamused look on his face." I wasn't too entertained by the tour, but I'm glad we were able to do something my mom wanted. After the tour we had to hike back fast enough to catch our train. We managed to cut an estimated one hour hike to 35 minutes by frantically running and fast-walking. We headed to Cologne that night so my mom could see the Dom. By doing this, we definitely saved the best for last and my mom was not disappointed. We spent the night there and my mom left early in the morning to catch her flight in Frankfurt, while I slept in and took the train to class.

Monday: Spring break is over, my mom is gone, and back to the somewhat reality of classes returning. I say somewhat reality because it's still hard to believe that I'm studying abroad here.