Day 25 - Orchestra concert

Yay, I have something to say about today. I woke up and got ready like normal before heading towards school for my first class of Physiology. We finished up the cardiovascular system with various cardiovascular diseases and started in on the respiratory system. After that class was more German where we split into two groups according to our gender and played a small game using the various words that we've learned so far. Unfortunately the girls lost, but it's OK because we had a lot of fun...and there's the promise of a rematch soon. The rest of class was dedicated towards learning more verbs so we can explain what it is we like to do.


After German was lunch, and a few of us went to the student's cafeteria by Bonn University and got a really good lunch of potato soup, sausages, and bread for about 2 euro. On the way back, we stopped by the gelato place on the way back and bought ice cream. Yes, the best thing to do on a relatively cold day is to get ice cream and I stand by my decision. It was delicious. Anyway, when we got back from lunch, we started in on our physiology project with some basic brainstorming ideas among our group of what we could improve or the questions we would need to ask our Otto Bock representative when we meet. That actually finished relatively early and I went home to work on my homework and study for my test tomorrow (AHHH!!)

Typical "after lunch funk" in our classroom

At about 5:30, I heard the door close downstairs, so I popped out to spend some time with my host family before I had to leave at 6:30 to meet up for the concert. It was Sophie and her friend, and they were going out to get some ice cream at their local parlor. They asked if I wanted to join them, and of course I said yes. Before we left, they saw me putting on my cowboy boots, and were really excited. They'd never seen them before because my other boots are more suited for walking around town or hiking, and they won't get ruined if they get wet. We walked to the Eisparlor and I have to say that between the one in Bonn and the one right by my house, I will take the one by my house any day. We came back home and saw Marie, but she was really upset because she wanted ice cream too, so we all walked back to the shop and bought Marie her treat. When we came back, Sophie and Vicky wanted me to play just dance with them. We played for about a half hour before I had to leave and we all had a lot of fun laughing at the crazy dances that we were doing. When I left, I said goodbye to everyone, including 1 1/2 year old Timmy who was visiting with his mother (he was so cute!!)

I met up with everyone at new AIB and we all walked to the university where the concert was going to be. Everyone was so dressed up that I had to take a few pictures to preserve the memories. The concert was really good. It was both a choir and an orchestral event, with 4 soloists in each of the major voice parts. As far as I can tell, they basically did the songs of the mass in the original Latin. It was beautiful and I was very impressed with the quality of the singers. Unfortunately the lighting was just right to lull me to sleep, and the songs went on forever! I'm serious when I say that one song lasted for 45 minutes. Granted, most of it was soloists singing, but I'm amazed at how many times the same 30 words can be sung in a different way. I was very impressed with the choir for the simple fact that they had kept their pitch after keeping quiet and letting the soloists sing for 20 minutes straight. The soloists were also very good and I enjoyed listening to them. Unfortunately they helped to put me to sleep. I don't know what it was, but when the entire choir sang, I was awake, but I had to fight my eyes when the soloists sang alone. Anyway, I left with my friend as soon as the concert was over. It was a good thing we did because the audience clapped for so long, the soloists and director came back out. When we saw that, so many of the students left because we didn't want to get caught up in an encore if there was one, especially since we still needed to study for our test!

 Melissa looks monochromatic, but it's cute

 Shannon, Nicole, and Robert are all dressed up too

 My friend Kelsey prepared for the cold/rain

 My teacher Sarah even came with us

 Chase got really dressed up too

 Kristin's friend and Kristin (Left to Right)

 Ready for the concert

ORGAN!! Oh, and all the people performing are there too

I came back home and continued my studying. I think I'm finally ready for tomorrow, and I can only cross my fingers that the test isn't too murderous on us. Now to just work on all the stuff due monday so I don't have to worry about it over Amsterdam. Tomorrow we get a talk about ethics in the medical field, so that'll be fun. Oh, and the test of course.

Wish me luck!
Erin Z