Day 15 - Walk the Rhine

It seems like all may days so far are rather good days. I like it! Anyway, my day actually started last night due to the large amount of fun that all the other students and I had. Most of the fun came from people watching as many (all but me) were still exhausted from last night. I guess going to bed at 5:30 in the morning does that to you. Anyway, we all went out to a few bars and watched the people there do ridiculously funny things. By the time 3 came around, everyone just wanted to go to bed (the bars close at 5 am here) so we left and headed towards our various transportation vehicles to go home. Now, the thing about Bonn transport is that some of the buses don't run between midnight and five am, but some of the others do. I was unlucky enough that my bus DOESN'T run, so I was stuck trying to figure out the night bus schedule to get safely back home. Fortunately I had some foresight before tonight and decided to place the night bus map and schedule in my purse. Just in case, I had figured out which bus I needed to take to what stop to know where I was heading and not get lost. I made it to the night bus station alright and waited for my stop to show up on the little screen they have up front. After about 15 min I was a little nervous because my stop was at about the quarter way point, but as soon as I started to fidget, my stop came up. Turns out that where the bus drops me off is actually a closer walk to where I live than my normal tram stop (3 min vs. 15 min.) I'm thinking I might need to re-evaluate my preferred method of transport. Anyway, I got home at around 4 and was asleep by around 4:30 with an alarm set for 2 and a half hours later so I could go to the monthly flea market with some friends the next morning.

Next thing I knew, I was being woken up by my Handy (German phone) at 9:30 with a call asking where I was and why wasn't I at the market? After realizing how late it was, I knew I wasn't making it to the flea market as it's about a 45 minute commute if I hit everything right with some extra time to get ready...totaling up to 1-1 and 1/2 hours. Given the fact that I wanted to meet up at the Bonn HBF at 11:30 to go to church, I was gonna pass. On the bright side, due to the fact that I didn't leave super early I was able to meet some good family friends of the Helbig's, Ronny and Phillip. Unfortunately I had to leave at 11 to meet people on time, so I wasn't really able to get to know them or eat breakfast with them, but they seemed like really nice people when they came.

Church was absolutely amazing today. Not knowing the words forced me to focus on what was going on and made me realize just how much I've been going through the motions at mass. It shocked me that I had been going to mass for years and now that I didn't have the language ingrained in my head, I forgot the entire layout of what was happening and what I was supposed to be saying when. It actually made me a little bit ashamed, but at the same time determined that I really pay attention in the future so I can follow along and still understand the large "landmarks" of the mass. Something did happen today that was really cool though, well...actually two things. First was the fact that I understood more of what was being said than last week. I don't know if that's just me being more focused or me learning the language better, but I like it and hope it continues. The other was the fact that the Bishop came to mass today! It was totally unexpected and my catholic friend Melissa and I were super excited when we realized that he was there, even if we couldn't completely understand what he was saying. From what I gathered, the homily was good and about how Jesus is everywhere and all around us.

 Looking at the front

 

 Oh my gosh, the organ was awesome! Why don't we have organs anymore?

 

 About how far away I was at mass

 

 Looking at the top

 

 Memorial to Cassius and Florencius, two Romans beheaded for their religion. 

They've become a sort of mascot for the church and city

After Church, Melissa had to leave to hang out with her family, but two others who had gone to mass with us stayed with me to go get some food for lunch. We ended up getting a pretzel (very good) and something from the Turkish shush-kebob place for our meat. After that we went back to the Munster church to take pictures inside because we didn't want to disturb mass with our pictures. The inside of the church is absolutely beautiful as you can see above. During the photo session, I answered the questions of Robert and Nicole as neither of them were catholic and they were curious about what they had just gone through in the mass and what certain things meant. After that, we decided to walk around for a little bit and found ourselves walking along the Rhine river. Although the wind made everything colder, the weather wasn't too bad and we had a beautiful view of the Rhine and the scenery behind it. We walked for about 30 min before deciding to stop and travel up to the city via some stairs to try and make our way back. On the way, there was a red telephone booth that reminded me too much of my Nana and Poppop's booth up in New York to not stop and take a picture. Now we both have a booth :)

 Look at that skyline! Gorgeous!

 The two cool people that walked with me

 A nifty house we found coming up the stairs. I like it.

The perfect phone booth; it has books inside!

Finally, we made our way back to AIB to gather up the stuff that we left there the night before (we had a key so nothing was stolen). When we walked in, we saw this cute little dog that was initially afraid of us, but warmed right up when we fed him a little bit of bread. He was so cute and loveable! Turns out he was the pet of the custodian that had come in and was cleaning up the place, so we couldn't keep him, but he was fun while he was around. Most of the rest of my time at AIB consisted of helping others with homework, finally charging my phone (I had left the cord in my backpack at AIB) and playing ping pong.

Eventually I left at around 6:15 and made my way back home to hang out with my host family. I was super surprised to walk in and see Ronny and Phillip still there, but at least I was able to get to know them a lot better. They were super nice to me and quickly taught me the German version of cheers (Prost!) when they handed me a sparkling wine and apple wine mix and realized I didn't know it yet. They knew English really well, which made it easy for me to have a conversation with them. I found out a bit more about Karnival and some of the German history that never made it into our textbooks. Ronny even said that he would take me to the German history museum and tell me all about what happened in words I could understand whenever I wanted. Phillip pitched in that Ronny was a history major when he was in school, and the museum was free, so it was a great deal to make and I think I'll take him up on the offer at some point. It'd be interesting to see the past through the eyes of not only a native, but someone who's studied this for a living. Soon they had to go, but I get the feeling that I'll see them again at some point.

After such an exciting day, I'm looking forward to what's going to happen later this week. Especially on Tuesday as we are all going to the city of Cologne (Köln) for a historical tour and something else. I don't really remember. But I'll definitely have something to write about on Tuesday.

Till next time,
Erin Z