First Entry Day 6 1/25/2010

I'm going to warn you before you start reading that these are long. There is little emotional issues in them and they are un-edited. I have yet to re-read them to fix ANY grammar problems. I know they're there. This is just me getting my memories written down.

-Hali @-> <3

Day 1 1/20/2010

Well this will be the start of my journal about my time here in Germany. I've been here since last Wednesday. I left from Houston on Tuesday at around 11:30 and arrived by plane in Frankfurt, Germany at 7 in the morning Wednesday morning. The plane ride was nice both times the whole group practically had an entire row to ourselves. The first flight I sat next to Trisha. We flew Air Canada. This has to be the best idea so far. The seats were comfortable and we each had our own screens to ourselves. One the first plane to Toronto I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was cute but not the best movie I've ever seen. We arrived in Toronto and we only had time to grab some food and exchange our money then shop a little for some souvenirs. I was in the middle of paying for mine when Trisha ran up yelling that they were boarding first class. So I grabbed what I had just payed for and ran back to the gate. This next flight was even nicer than the first. I had the whole row to myself, so when I went to sleep I was able to stretch all the way out. We had a really nasty dinner that I didn't care for much and a snack on the flight. After we landed in Germany we had to wait for a few of our group to join us at the airport then we all piled onto a bus and headed for Bonn. We arrived at AIB at around 10:30 or so. We had to wait around, after grabbing some breakfast, for our host families.

I am staying with a single mom named Trudy, and her eleven year old daughter, Vanessa. I'll be sure to get some pictures later.

Anyway, Trudy picked me up at noon and we headed to her house in Bonn. Along the way she showed me how to get to the Hauptbahnhof, (Central Station) for the train that I would be riding to school and back. Then she showed me where to catch the train near her home. When we got back here she started cooking some late lunch/early dinner. She chopped up a bell pepper and mixed it with some corn for a salad. Then she cooked some chicken wings in the oven and made some potatoes and ham. That was all one meal. I had that for two days because she made so much. I spent most of that afternoon setting up my room and talking to her. I fell asleep at 7:30 that night.

Day 2 1/21/2010


I woke up at 5 in the morning today. I ended up talking to Sean most of the morning till it was time to get ready. We had to meet up with Lars and Ariane today at the hauptbahnhof in the main entrance area. I met up with Trisha and Catie that morning to go over on the train. This was my first train ride ever. It was rather exciting. Anyway we spent most of the day walking around to the AIB building then after we got there we met up with some of the student workers and they took us to different places that we might need while we are here. That wore me out. I don't usually like to walk that much. After that they took us over to the other AIB building and showed us where the other students were staying, these students are from LA. Anyway. After that we headed back the the AIB building and that was pretty much the end of our first day. I headed back to my host home and had the same dinner as the night before.

Day 3 1/22/2010

Well today I woke up today on time but lost track of time and got ready too slowly. I ended up leaving here too late making me late for class and on top of that I forgot my camera. Well I ended up getting slightly turned around on the way to the building but ultimately I wasn't that late once I finally found my way. Cool side note is that I get to walk past a 13th century castle gate everyday, so that is really neat. Anyway, we spent the morning in our first Duetch class and that was really cool because I can actually retain this language unlike spanish. After lunch we went on a historical city tour. She told us about the cathedral that we walk past and we got to see the former palace which is now the university and the old town hall. She also told us a story/legend on the cathedral that is in the main part of town. I can't recall the two Roman soldiers names, however they were Christian and they were beheaded for their beliefs. This Cathedral was built to honor them, also they are the patron saints of Bonn. She also told us that this is third cathedral to be built on this site. and when it was built they found Roman ruins of a cemetery all around it because in a different part of Bonn the Romans had a camp. Well thats the really short jist of that story. I don't really remember most of it. She told us about the university and how that used to be the palace. and about the Maria Pacis statue that is on the building and how three times it should have been destroyed and wasn't. The first time it was suppose to melt in a fire and the second time the French tried to pull it down because the area was made secular and the third time was during WWII when the Allies basically used Bonn as practice for a new weapon. We also went on to part of the old city wall that they couldn't pull down because it was too strong. What else did we learn on that trip...??? She told us a lot but that is all that I can remember. After the historical tour we were done for the day at least with classes. We went back to the AIB building to wait for 6:30, because at that time we were going to have the welcoming party where all the students and their host families for both AIB programs. There was food and we just sat and talked to whoever. I made some friends with the students from LA and we decided to go to a bar afterward. We went to a place called Painless and just talked and had a couple of shots. After that I rode the bus back with one of the girls named Meghan and went to bed.


Day 4 1/23/2010

Today is Saturday, I went to Cologne with the group and Ariane. We were going for a couple of art installations and an interior design exhibition. This was an over all fun day with a few 'cloudy' spots during it. Well to start off it was fine we got to Cologne by train and it was great. When we got there and walked out of the train station we saw the Cathedral of Cologne..... Oh my God.... That is the largest building I have ever seen. It was magnificent. There were the buttresses and the portals and the sculptures... I can't even describe how beautiful this building was. Despite the pollution it was amazing. I wish there was a way to take a hundred pictures at once it was huge and covered in decoration there is no way you could see it all. We went inside and I took some video of it because there was no way I could see anything with my other camera. This thing was huge and I'm told it's the largest in Germany. So holy crap... I was most amazed by the Cathedral. One really exciting thing is that we get to take a roof top tour of the cathedral in February so I'm even more excited about that. So I wasn't too disappointed that we couldn't stay longer. Well after that we walked over to the first art installation. I got several pictures along the way. As soon as we walk into the building I go to pull off my glove and my camera drops off my wrist and hits the floor. It is now broken... So that was one of the bad moments of the day. I don't know how to fix it or if it even can be fixed. Well I won't be able to find out till next week because tomorrow I won't have time and the day after that we leave for Amsterdam. Anyway back to Cologne. Its was a good thing that I had my other camera otherwise I think I would have been more upset. The director of that exhibit told me a little about the church that it was placed in. Apparently the Nazi's really liked this church so it has a lot of different Nazi symbols that the people are trying to get covered up and the Governor of the city won't allow them to because it is apart of the heritage or something like that. This exhibit was a digital rotating square wall. There are thousands of different combination and it is continuously rotating. There were other exhibits. one with deep sea fish and another with large square blocks with some optical illusions on them. After that we walked over to the interior design exhibition. That was really interesting. We got to see a lot of different modern designs and I talked to one guy a little while on how they made some of the designs that he had on display. Most of the ones that I was interested in were made of glass. After we were done with that we walked over to a bar where they serve and brew the local beer called Kolsch. There are different kinds but this place served Fruh Kolsch. AIB gave us two beers a peice and we didn't have to pay for them. I talked to David Hascovec for most of the evening. Found out that his and my background are very similar with the country living and our families raising cattle.
After the been we road the train one stop to Koln Sud which means Cologne South. We went over there for dinner. We ate at a really good Italian food place. I got a good tortellini dish. I ended up really liking it. After that Me and most of the group decided to head back to Bonn. We got on the train and rode back. They checked our tickets on the way but we were fine we had ours. After we got back, Trisha, Catie, David, Jason, and I went to catch our Underground train to get back home. Here is where the second half of the bad part of the day starts.

So we get on the train that we think is the right one it has the right number to our train line. Well, apparently it wasn't the right one and it had a problem so we got kicked off at the second stop which wasn't the stop it was suppose to be. The boys decided to follow the track. That sounded like a good idea so us girls followed. We got to the second stop, but this wasn't the stop it should have been if we were on the right train. So, Trisha and I are kinda panicking and she and I aren't really getting along. She was irritating me about her lack of enthusiasm for wanting to go places and I don't really understand that. In my opinion if your in a new place you should go out and see things, not sit at home and do nothing all day. She seems to think that the only thing you can do when you go out is party and thats it. Which is completely wrong there is a crap more things to do. I just wanted to ask her why did she come is she had no desire to do things. Anyway back to the story. So were at this stop. The boys decide to go one way over a bridge back into what seems to be the town. At this point I don't think they had any idea where they were going because they just kept walking and at split seconds they would turn or change course down some way or another. At one point we ended up walking through a VERY dark park. We girls weren't too happy about that one. Finally, we get to a bus stop, but the boys want to keep walking. Us three go "hell no, we're staying here at the bus stop." So, we let them continue while we sit there trying to figure out where we are. A German girl comes and and we try to figure out where we are and if there is a bus coming and Catie calls their host dad. He tells us to get a bus back to the station and that there is another train leaving a little later. So we wait for the bus go back to Hauptbahnhof and then catch our train to get home. I get here and get on the internet to talk to Sean and tell him about my first adventure in German with getting lost. haha.


Day 5 1/24/2010

Well this day is Sunday. I slept most of the day till about 4 in the afternoon. I was pooped from the day before. After I got up and cleaned my hair I went down stairs and met Trudy's mom and her aunt. We sat there for several hours, talked, and drank coffee and ate some pie or as trudy calls it 'cake.' I didn't do much else other than talk to Sean and my mom for several hours as well.

Day 6 1/25/2010

Well today is Monday. I didn't have to go to class till about noon so I got up late and grabbed a pear. After I got to AIB we had our German class after that we grabbed lunch then we had our first official day of studio. We spent it brain storming and coming up with a story involving toys. Our story is about a sock monkey and a wind-up clapper monkey. The clapper monkey has lost his cymbals and he asks the sock monkey for help. The sock monkey keeps giving him different things till finally he finds his cymbals and is happy. The end. haha right after that Brian and I walked back to the train station I caught my train and got back here. I ate some dinner and have been up here typing this ever since. I'm finished now. I'm going to do my small amount of homework then talk to Sean. Then go to bed.