After Week 1
Howdy! I have been in Germany for a whole week now! It is starting to feel less intimidating and foreign. Getting into the rhythm of the host families, public transportation, classes, and traveling has been helpful to calm the nerves.
My host mom in Bonn is so amazing! She is so sweet and loves to talk about her personal experiences traveling and meeting new people. She is an amazing cook and always has dinner ready for me. I have two host sisters who are staying with me as well. One is from Mississippi State who is here to learn German. It has been nice to have another American in the house that also understands how different this culture is. My other host sister is from Morocco. She is in Germany for four years and studying at the University in Bonn. It has been very interesting to here about her home and how she is liking Germany.
One of the most challenging things I have had to learn is the public transportation. My host home is a walk, bus, and train ride away from AiB. This trek has taken me some time to figure out, but I am slowly getting it. I am learning the train and bus systems well I think. Going into this trip, transportation was something I was nervous about, so knowing it now and being able to do it alone is an accomplishment. I am starting to appreciate that public transportation makes far distances more accessible. For example, one of the nights, a group of us decided to go to Luxembourg to dinner by train. In the States, this would have been a far drive, but here is was a train ride away. With that said, I am definitely missing my car!
I am excited for the rest of the trip and all the experiences we will get to have. We have a few lecture-heavy weeks that will take some extra focus and studying. But between these weeks, we will get to travel to various areas and see some amazing things! I have already grown and learned so much about Germany and myself, and I am ready to see what else there is to learn about!
Thanks & Gig'em,
Rebekah Bledsoe
Howdy Rebekah! I feel the same that getting into somewhat of a routine here has made me more comfortable. It must be such a fun experience to have other students living with you. Getting a hang of the transportation has been difficult, but having this experience could be so helpful for future trips too. I’m looking forward to the rest of this summer with you!
ReplyDeletePublic transportation, WOOF. I say this in agreement that it is difficult to manage at first and certainly brings you out of your comfort zone, sometimes with bumps in the road you simply can't anticipate. I love how you do take into consideration the upsides of it though and are looking more to the positive. :)
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