August 2nd, 2011

Today is officially our last day in Bonn. It is so weird to think we have been here four weeks. It seems like just yesterday we were hauling all of our stuff into our dorm rooms. The day started off with hopping on the U-Bahn to go to Cologne for the last time to visit the Olympia Museum. This I think was my favorite museum that we visited. The beginning started back with Greek Olympics all the way to present day. We got to see a huge sculpture of Hercules (picture below). Then we proceeded to the most interesting section for me which was the gymnastics history. I guess I have never really researched the history of gymnastics which made this super interesting. Obviously, just like all other sports gymnastics started out as an all male sport and the men did what is now the beam and the parallel bars too name a few. I also learned that the vault table is called a horse because the Calvary troops would practice mounting on the horse and off of the horse and so they made an artificial horse to practice. And from that the horse used for vault in gymnastics evolved. The museum was very interactive and we got to actually do some Greek Olympics long jumping which doesn't have running in front of it and then I got to participate in a sort of weight lifting exercise. It was so neat how agile our tour guide was as well. I even got my picture on the old wooden Greek balance beam! It so was so wobbly and hard!

After the museum I got Subway for lunch for the first time. It was pretty close to America’s subs but just a little different tastes. We all had to collaborate back at the AIB building to do our final evaluations of the trip and meet about our last week excursion. We will be heading out by train tomorrow to stay in Lausanne, Switzerland for two and then we have a bus that takes us to our starting place of our two day hike. We then spend one day hiking up, stay the night at the top of the mountain at a lodge, and then spend a day walking down. Sunday after we get done hiking we will take a bus to Munich, Germany. Monday we go to Austria to see the castle that the Disney Castle is famous after and Tuesday we spend back in Munich. And then Wednesday we head home!!! So bitter sweet!

Tonight, we all met up for our last dinner together and to have some drinks. It was a great way to end and we all ended up going to a close bar after and just enjoying our last night in Bonn. Tonight I also tried a new kind of beer called the Hefeweicen. It is a much stronger beer than I am used to with a lot of yeast but it definitely grew on me. The best is when you burp after drinking it, the taste is like pineapple!

I don’t know what the internet access will be for the next trip so I will keep updating as much as possible for the next week.

Fun thing about Bonn: this is a little library on the street and you just take a book and put one of yours in it. I think it is so cute and it is right outside the AIB building.

July 31st- August 1st, 2011

Okay so it is Monday night right now and I just had the best meal here so far. More about that later. Yesterday, Sunday, was amazing. We got to sleep in- I think I got close to ten our eleven hours of sleep, which is the most I have gotten in one night here. After I woke up to a cool breeze a group of us went for a run on the Rhine. It was the best running weather: a little over-cast with a cool breeze and probably 60 degrees. I think we ran for at least 30 minutes if not more. We came back and showered and by that time it was already Linner time (between lunch and dinner). We ate at a fantastic restaurant called Spitz and Caitlin put a “megashnitzel” to shame. Even the waitress made a comment on how impressed she was. After lunch a group of us set out for desert- ice cream, cake, brownies- got to love the fat ass Americans. I concocted the best desert I have had here yet. We went to Starbucks and they actually had brownies. In case you were wondering, people in Germany don’t like/eat brownies so of course Starbucks pulled through for us. Not only did Starbucks pull through but the guy working even heated up my brownie and then gave it to me for free. So I decided to head over to the Gelato place and ask for one scoop of vanilla in a big cup. I took out the ice cream, put the hot brownie on the bottom, and but the vanilla ice cream back on top. BEST IDEA EVER. It was absolutely delicious. We headed back to the dorms for the rest of the afternoon and I got some laundry done and began sort of packing all of my stuff up. I ran into some nausea and later in the night and I honestly think it is my stomach’s way of telling me it is over all of the heavy food. I am so ready to have American food.

Today, Monday, began with our last bit of presentations that we had left followed by one done by Dr. Batista. We got out of lunch early, thanks to Dr. Batista, because it was finally sunny here! I think this was the first day in 2 and a half weeks that we have seen sun in Bonn so he let us have a lunch break from 11:30-3:00 to enjoy it. A group of us sat outside an Italian restaurant and soaked up the sun. It was amazing. Following lunch, we all met back up to go to the Beethoven Museum. This museum is in the center of Bonn basically and it was the house where the composer Beethoven was born. I actually got to see the actual room- pretty crazy. I also got to see a lot of his instruments that he actually played on and learned his life story- especially the life before he began composing in Vienna, Italy. Our tour guide was quite entertaining and probably the most enthusiastic tour guide that we have had yet. Unfortunately, they did not allow us to take any pictures so I only snagged some of the outside. It was still pretty interesting though. Did you know that Beethoven was a servant here in Bonn for the church and Chancellor (I think that is the correct person) and he was used by his family to make money using his musical talents? That is why we moved and relocated to Vienna because he wanted to compose and play for himself- not someone else. He also went deaf at the age of 28 and completed a Symphony with singing while deaf at the age of 58. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Dinner for tonight was definitely the highlight of my day. We finally made it to this burger joint that has odd hours and it was open for once tonight! Let me tell you- these are American burgers with American fries and it was delicious. I felt like I was right back at home- except for maybe the ordering the food part. We lucked out though, and one of the student workers from the AIB just so happened to be getting food from there too and she helped us order and get our food and sat and had dinner with us. It’s always so fun for me to sit and talk to people and get their unique life story. Tonight I probably should have done more packing but that can always wait until tomorrow. We leave Wednesday morning for Switzerland which means tomorrow is our last day in Bonn. It is so sad how fast this trip flew by. After Switzerland we finish our trip in Munich. Hopefully I will have internet to keep everyone updated! Eight days left to live it up in Europe!

July 29th-30th, 2011

So I guess I am getting lazy or busy because I am catching up on the past two days. On Friday we had a workshop with Professor David McArdle. He is a colleague of Dr. Batista and he works in London at a Sport University teaching Sport Law and things relating to that matter. He was one of the chillest and relaxed professors I have yet to have. He lectured for maybe 30 minutes and he used the rest of the day to let us do research and present information to each other rather than taking notes. I think we all came to a consensus that we enjoy this way of learning so much more.  Class finally ended at 4:30 and we headed home to get ready for an awesome night! Viktoria wanted to take us into Cologne for the night to go out and see the more “students of Cologne night life” instead of Bonn’s.

So around 9:30 we hopped on the train and headed to Cologne with a nice cold beer in our hand. Once we got there our first destination was a cocktail bar. Of course, being American we were super loud and stood out like sore thumbs but the drinks were delicious! Viktoria bought our first round and we all had a sex on the beach. After having a little more fun we found a Karaoke Bar! Let me just say that this was so much fun and the best bar! We sang Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and Lion King just to name a few. Oh, and I think now I am obsessed with some German songs that other people karaoked.  I am going to have to do some research to find out what they were! After thoroughly enjoying that bar we headed to a disco club. I walked in and walked right back out. It was way too crowded for me and I was ready to get home. The others stayed and had a blast but I caught the train back since they only run every hour back to Bonn. The funny thing is, is that late at night the majority of people using the public transportation are drunken people. This calls for amusing rides. I got to see my Casey girl on Skype for the first time while I have been here when I got back and that was superb. Thanks Daddy!

Saturday morning, or should I say afternoon came too soon. We didn’t have to be to the train station until 1:40 but after staying up super late it was hard to get up. We all grabbed food and headed to the wine tasting to be followed by a wine festival! The wine tasting should maybe be called the wine walk. We started up the hill/mountain and tasted wine at our first winery. This was a sweet white wine. I loved it. Funny note: a testing here is a full glass of wine- you catch my drift. Anyways we then walked another mile probably and came to our second winery and I tried another white wine. The first one was my favorite but this one was still good. Then we hiked another mile or so and came to the third and last winery. It had a rose win so I tried it but it was very sweet so I handed mine off to let the others have it. Once we drank our wine we walked a little more and came to the wine festival. Here all three wineries sold bottles and glasses of wine and there was live music and lots of yummy German food. We found a place to sit and we listened to music drank so wine and ate some bratwursts. It was a great way to end the day. We eventually headed back into Bonn and grabbed some delicious Chinese food for dinner! For now it is time to catch up some much need sleep because there is no alarm clock set for tomorrow! WHOOP!

July 28th, 2011

So how does one fathom getting up at 7 when class doesn't even start until 9? Let’s start with the unnecessary sunlight that comes beaming in at 5:30. So I was up at 7 this morning to get ready for class at 9. The first two hours of class consisted of German language and culture class- the last time we have to have that class the rest of this trip!! Yay! It’s nice to learn the language and such but it’s a hard language and I my two year old attention span can’t handle two hours of German. After that class, we had another presentation day. Michelle and I kicked them off with our presentation on the IPC, or International Paralympics Committee. It went swell and we were followed by three more presentations by our peers.

The presentations ended early which allotted time to head home, change into business casual, and grab a quick bite to eat. What was on the menu today? A delicious wheat English muffin sandwich with frozen turkey meat because our refrigerator was set too cold and salami and shredded mozzarella. We sure are getting creative over here. If you throw in a few Pringles and some M&M’s my lunch was made! After lunch we wall saddled up and headed the International Paralympics Committee, which headquarters for the entire world are stationed here in Bonn! The presentation was amazing and the guy, Bart, allowed us to ask plenty of questions and pick his brain. I think a bunch of us were interested in the Paralympics after today’s visit. I think I am going to look into being a volunteer in the US. Their motives and incentives for a business were amazing and it is operated as crookedly as the IOC (International Olympic Committee). The IPC is a non-profit organization that allows athletes that have some physical or mental injury in which prevents them from being able to compete like a regular athlete. There are 20 summer sports and 5 winter sports offered for the athletes. I also found out the IPC has been a large movement in China’s perception of disabled development. China, as most of us know, looks strongly down upon disabled people. Well, after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing the Paralympics were held two weeks later, as they are always held two weeks after the Olympics. This massive event brought a lot of positive attention to disabled people and since the Paralympics, the idea and perception has really begun to change. This presentation of course was very intriguing to me and hopefully it is a spark to nice bonfire in my life.

Beijing Paralympics 2008 Video

After our nice visit, the best part of the day approached. WE GOT TO VISIT THE HARIBO FACTORY STORE! It was like being a five year-old kid on Christmas morning but almost better! The place was huge and smelled like a candy wonderland! I was in heaven. I think I may have gotten too much stuff but oh well, you only live once right? Especially in a Haribo store in Germany. For those of you that don’t know what Haribo is, the company is famous for its Gummy Bears. I got some presents and even some fun little socks for me that say Haribo. I just couldn’t resist. I also may or may not have gotten Morgan Taylor Crabtree’s 21^st birthday present there! I kind of had a hey day! We got some fabulous pictures outside the store and then headed down the street to the Germany version of Speck’s liquor store. I got some good German Rhine Wine and some good “American” chips- or so the bag says.

Overall today was fabulous- at least the ending was! I think the trick now is going to be getting all of the Haribo back before I eat it all! J Just kidding I would come back fatter than Jared from Subway if I did that! I can’t wait to bring it all back for everyone to try! (Especially you Morgan!)

July 26th-27th, 2011

So I decided to combine yesterday’s blog with today’s blog! Lazy much? I think so! But anyways, yesterday we took a two hour bus ride to Frankfort to go to the Deutscher Fussball-Bund. This place is basically the head quarters for all soccer in Germany whether it is young children or professional. In the building we got to see the world cup trophy for the Men’s German Soccer team and also other trophies both the Men’s and Women’s team have won. There was also a picture on the wall of the professional soccer player, who is now a coach, and we got a picture with at the last soccer training place we went to: pretty cool! I also snagged a paparazzi picture of the head coach for the National German Soccer Team. I was in the same building as him which was pretty cool as well. We were given a lecture by one of the employees there and had a question time.

After taking pictures in front of the big soccer ball outside the complex, we walked down the street to the Deutscher Olmpischer Sport Bund, or DOSB, which is the German Olympic Sports Center. Here we got to sit in the conference room where the actual big wigs of the German Olympic Committee sit discuss matters. In that room we got a lecture from one of the employees who focus on International relations in sports. All was pretty interesting and intriguing. We then got to eat lunch in their cafeteria, and to put it nicely that food was disgusting. It definitely upset my stomach and didn’t taste good at all. I AM SO READY FOR MOMMA COLE’S HOME COOKING!!!

Best part about Tuesday? After all of our festivities our bus driver gave us a little quick bus tour of Frankfort. As we are driving down what they call the “red light district” of Frankfort Viktoria proceeds to tell us how this is a pretty safe area for there to be so many bars and strip clubs. And just as she is saying that we are stopped at a red light, and we look out the window and low and behold this guy is shooting up heroin. He has his what we guessed was a girlfriend as a ‘watch dog’ for him and immediately she starts yelling at the guy that cops are coming and he rips the syringe out of his hand and blood goes everywhere. He starts sucking all of the blood up and the cops started questioning him and then we drove away. It was so crazy and of course we had to give Viktoria a hard time about it. We made it home and I had bagel bites for dinner thanks to Caitlin going to the store for me and getting them!

The drug addict guy with a bleeding hand- eek!

Today, Wednesday, started off with another bus ride! But this time we took it about an hour south of Bonn to a little town that is home to one of the biggest, oldest castle’s in Germany. This castle had long underground tunnels that were only 3 feet high and about 2 feet wide. They made us walk through them and it was definitely testing my claustrophobia but interesting to see how the soldiers that protected the castle. We also learned a funny fact about the Castle. The Duke of the castle has two red brick boulders that were outside underneath the window. You then rest the piece of board across the two red bricks and the wood had a circle in the middle. This is where the Duke went to the bathroom. The best part? He pooped outside and from 3 stories high and if it landed on one of the soldiers they were allowed to go up to the Duke and request double pay for that day! So you can double your pay by getting shit on! Incredible! The sky was foggy for most of the morning which called for crappy pictures by the time we left the fog was starting to lift!

Following the castle, we hiked down the hill to the Rhine River to take a boat cruise. But of course pit stop first: gelato. I think there may have been 1 or 2 days that I haven’t had gelato. It is so good everywhere here! The boat cruise was so wonderful and relaxing. I got some amazing pictures and had a great conversation with Molly, Caitlin, and Dr. Batista. In fact, this entire day was a very relaxing and calming day. The cruise ended in this adorable little town called Boppard. We had a chance to look around and I did some souvenir shopping! I walked through this really cute old man’s art shop and saw some amazing art. Mom- he had painted a picture of a clown and it reminded me of Grand Daddy Adams and I wanted to get it for you so bad but I didn’t know if I should or not! After we walked around town we headed towards the best part of today which was a chair lift up one of the mountains! (Even though it is more like a hill) This was scary but breathtaking. I have to say that after seeing what I saw today it is impossible to believe that there is not a God. The scenery, water, hills, and valleys could not have been made by anyone else but God. It was a breathtaking moment and definitely a reminder of how thankful I need to be during all of this. Which brings me to my next little point: I would like to make: thank you to anyone and everyone who made this trip possible for me. It has been a life changing experience in more ways than most people will ever know. I am so thankful to have an opportunity like this one at the age of 21 and I couldn’t be more thankful, so thank all of you!

I slept the whole bus ride back and after we got back we went and had wonderful pizza (yes salami again) at the Italian place we went to the other night! A lady who had a stroller, dog, and toddler sat across from us and was obviously frazzled when she walked in. Ends up the little girl ran off and the mom didn’t notice and then she basically starts panicking. All 12 of us that had gone to eat were literally searching the restaurant up and down and asking people and checking the bathroom, etc. Finally, Gentry had walked outside down the side walk and found her playing. Let’s just say even my adrenaline got going, so I couldn’t imagine how the mother felt. Needless to say today was a fabulous day and we are exactly two weeks away from coming home. The first couple weeks have FLOWN by!

PS: Reminder that all of my photos are on my Facebook page- I think I am up to six albums now!

July 25th, 2011

Today, I don’t think my mind woke up until about 2 hours after I got out of bed. This morning came way too soon and for some reason I had a foggy mind for a while this morning. Maybe it was the cold, rainy weather. Not too sure but once we made it to the AIB building this morning for guest lecturer I didn't really have a choice but to get going. This lady who owns her own business working with contracts and negotiations gave us a little activity. In a group of 4, we had a scenario where one person was a pro basketball player, another agent, and two people were a team negotiating a contract with the agent and player. Let me just say I realized I don’t know much about that aspect of sport and I definitely felt lost. The good news: Emily, my agent, ended up getting me the best contract out of the other groups! Whoop! If I am ever a celebrity I think I know who I will be hiring as an agent! After our activity the lady spent another hour talking to us about the impact and importance of culture when dealing with international business. A lot of us were intrigued by the different point of view that she explained.

After class we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom is the US T-mobile but monopolized in Germany like AT&T in America. The ‘field trip’ as I have started to call these escapades was quite interesting. We started off with a tour of their T-Gallery which is where they display their new technological inventions and future ideas for all components of life. From the office, to house, to kitchen, to TV, to medical advancements, to increasing the length that the elderly can live in their house without physical attention and just have the help of technology. It was so mind boggling and kind of scary and makes you wonder about the security of the future technology. I could go on and explain everything but honestly the amount of new technology kind of creeped me out so I’m just going to ignore it until it comes out commercially. The guy did say that about 30% of the ideas actually get used and the other 70% of ideas and concepts get thrown away.

The day was a 9-5 day so we all came back and just hung out and relaxed a bit then a few of us went and grabbed some yummy Italian food. They had every type of Italian food you could think of and it was reasonably priced! You just go up to whatever line you want (pasta, salad, pizza, etc.) and then they swipe your card that they give you when you walk in. Then they just keep everything tracked on the card and you had it to the cashier and pay when you leave. Super convenient with bigger groups. I will definitely be going back there before we leave. Well we are off on a two hour bus ride to Frankfort for a pretty awesome day tomorrow, or so we have been told! Can’t wait to tell you guys all about it!

July 21st-24th, 2011 CONTINUED...

Saturday morning was slow getting going as you all can imagine but once we finally all made it up and showered with some water in us we made our way across the most magnificent bridge with the most breath taking view (Picture below). The sky had cleared up and the weather was perfect! We found a place on the river for lunch and that was long and expensive but totally worth it. There were boats that would pass by every few minutes with little ducky’s in the water. It was definitely relaxing to say the least. We then made our way up the streets of Prague on the other side of the river to make it the castle that Prague is well-known for (Picture with guards is below). It took 1,000 years to build and was built around a cathedral- similar to the one in Cologne but just a little smaller. On the way down there was even more breath taking views that I couldn’t help but capture!

After the castle and cathedral, we broke into smaller groups. Callie, Allie, Kyle and I wanted to go to the Zoo which is apparently pretty cool but it cost more to get there than to get in so we decided to do some souvenir shopping and just walk around town it was such a nice and enjoyable day! Later we all decided to go back and take a nap- I know it seems like we slept our weekend away but it was also so nice to not be having to go, go, go like we do during the week and our nice apartment was so relaxing so it was hard to resist. Our nap time ended up turn into a gas fest because most of our stomachs I think were struggling with the rich food or something. Too much information? Haha. Anyways, I can’t forget to tell you about this super yummy traditional Czech pastry that was delicious. It was almost like a hollow cinnamon roll with sugar and brown sugar on the outside that they roast over these open fires. SUPER YUMMY! I think had about 3 or 4 while I was there all weekend.

Later that evening, 3 of the girls headed back to Prague on the bus and the rest of us went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We had some delicious Pizza and grabbed some yummy snack and goodies to go back to the room and just have a fun bonding night. We stayed up laughing and giggling and carrying on and that made the trip all worthwhile. I think a lot of us just needed a chill relaxed weekend after all the chaos from Paris.

This morning, or Sunday morning, we all got up around 8 to start packing and cleaning up. We got the rooms back into order how we found them and grabbed a yummy Starbucks breakfast. I had a nice Carmel Frappacino Lite and a pastry. I had been missing my Starbucks and this was the first time I have had it since I have been abroad. It was a very homey feeling. We hopped on the subway to catch the bus to the airport and checked in with no problems! Then we went through security again with no problems until Kyle realized that his wallet was gone. He knew it was in his pocket on the subway but doesn’t know if it fell out of his pocket on the bus or in the airport or if someone pick-pocketed him. Either way he cancelled all of his cards and only lost about 15 dollars cash. And thank goodness they didn’t get his Passport! The plane ride went well except for the fact that I had these crazy guys sitting next to me who were determined to chat my ear off. Yes, I said chat MY ear off. I tried to give the hint by having my iPod in my ears but that did not work. The guys were nice and one was older. I couldn’t really figure out the relationship with all of them because they were all different ages but they were at least entertaining. We chatted about language and culture. They had a lot of good suggestions of restaurants and bars to go to in Cologne since one was from there and another was from Holland and told me on my one Sunday I get to go to a city that is between the Holland and Germany border. He was so persistent that I had to give him my email so he could send me all of the information. It was entertaining at first but by the end of the plane I was ready to get off. What made it even worse was that our entire group was scattered across the entire plane but everyone heard all of us talking the entire time. That’s how bad it was!

This is for you Uncle Richard- Angry Birds in the Subway in Prague!

In all, we made it home safely, grabbed some dinner in Bonn and now we are all relaxing and preparing for this week ahead. I think it will be lack of sleep and leaving a lot of us with hurting feet. We have jammed packed days everyday all day this week but it is our last full week in Bonn: such a scary thought! But for now I am going to get a good night rest to start this week off ahead! So ready to be back in the states but still loving this life changing experience!