Finally in Köln

Hallo und Willkommen! I think I’m a bit more on top of things now, and my blog posts should become more regular now. School is calming down a bit, and I’ve really fallen into the rhythm of German life. This post picks up on September 3, the day I left Hedersleben and began the real exchange.

   After all the fun on Friday, we went to bed late and woke up very early. I packed the rest of my things, and headed out to go talk to everyone a bit, before everything got a bit crazy. We had breakfast, but it was a bit smaller and much earlier than usual. We took all our bags and luggage down to the fawyer, and prepared to leave. The cooks at the monastery had prepared us small sack lunches for our trips, so we all grabbed one before heading out the door. It was sad, leaving the monastery, after we had all made so many good memories there. We said some goodbyes right then and there, because people who were placed relatively close to Hedersleben were being picked up by their host families. For those of us headed to our host families on a train, we boarded the busses that would take us to the Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof (main train station). When we arrived, we quickly unloaded our luggage and made the long walk to the other end of the station. When we made it, we still had quite a while until most of our trains left, so we had as much fun as possible in that last hour. When it came time to get to our platforms, we began saying goodbyes to everyone that wasn’t on our train. It was sad saying so many goodbyes, but we were in too much of a hurry to let it sit on our minds.

            

   When we reached our platforms and our trains arrived, we helped each other load all our things on the train and got to our seats. As the train waited to leave the station, we watched all our friends board their trains and leave the station. Finally our train left the station, and we were on our way. One of the teachers hadn’t gotten off in time, and was still on the train; fortunately, the train was stopping at the next station in five minutes. Our train was delayed by about 30 minutes, but finally we speeding through Germany at nearly 200 kilometers an hour. Because my train was headed to North-Rhein Westphalia, where many of my friends were placed, I had plenty of people to talk to. As we stopped at every major city (the IC trains only stop at major cities), the number of students still on got smaller and smaller. The trip was going to be a long one, 5 hours until I was at my station, so I moved around and talked to everyone a bit.  Although it was long, the trip went by faster than I could imagine, and before I knew it I could see the Kölner Dom’s (Cologne cathedral) two spires in the distance. There were still 3 of my friends on the train, who were also placed in Köln. As we neared the city, all the huge and magnificent landmarks that we had seen so many times in pictures were right in front of us.

       

   Finally, the train crossed the famous Hohenzollern bridge and stopped at the Hauptbahnhof. As it slowed down, we all caught our first glimpses of our host families, waiting at the platform for us. I helped my friends unload their luggage, said goodbye, and walked over to meet my host family. At this point, I really hadn’t spoken very much German, despite or classes being taught in German. So the first thing I said was something along the lines of: “Hello, sehr schön zu euch endlich kennen zu lernen. How are you?”, which demonstrated my awful “Denglish.” As I left the station, I saw the Dom, towering over the Innenstadt, the symbol of Köln. As we drove through the city, they pointed out everything that we went past. Although it was quick, it gave me a good idea of what Köln looks like. When we got to the house, I unloaded my luggage, and met my 3 host siblings for the first time. As expected, the first day was a little bit awkward; we were all meeting for the first time, and all of a sudden I’m living with them. I was given a short tour of the house, I took my luggage to my room, and we had cupcakes and cookies that my host sisters had very nicely made. The cookies spelled out “willkommen,” and everything tasted even better than it looked.

   The rest of the day was spent talking about anything and everything, trying to to get to know each other. Very quickly the awkwardness was gone, and we all got along very well. I played with my host siblings on the trampoline, we ate delicious schnitzel for dinner (courtesy of my host mom), and we talked and talked. The first day went really well, but was over before I knew it.

   The next morning my host mom helped me find a church where I could go to mass, and showed me a bit of the neighbourhood in the process. Later on in the day we took our dog, Anton, for a walk in the nearby park.  It was really nice, and I was really happy that there was such a big park just a minute from my house. When we got back, we had lunch, and then went out once more for a short tour of our “borough” of Köln. We stopped at my school, went to the big shopping street nearby, visited some historical sites, and finally went back home. The next day was my first day of German school, so I got everything I needed together in preparation. I was pretty nervous about the first day, about what my classmates would think of me, about how hard my classes would be, about the confusing schedule, and even about getting there. There were a lot of unknowns, but I was still very excited to start.

   Early Monday morning I got ready for school, and then rode my bike to school with a classmate who had agreed to help me find the way. We made it to school on time, and went to my first class, Spanisch. It was a beginners course, so it actually wasn’t too difficult at first. As the teacher was doing roll call, and noticed that I wasn’t on the list, she asked who I was. As I told the class I was an exchange student from the US, everyone began to whisper and talk to each other. After class ended I was bombarded by questions in the hall. “What’s your name,” “Where are you from,” How long are you here,” “Do you like Germany,” “How long have you studied German?” These were all very common questions, which I found myself answering every class. After the 4th class, I went to the counselor and had a schedule made. The German school schedule is extremely confusing, especially coming from the American system, so I needed help finding every one of my classes. Monday just happened to be my longest day of the week as well, so I was in school for quite a while. Luckily, my Guide from the morning was there to help me for most of the day.

  Finally, after a long day full of questions, struggling to speak in German, getting lost, and trying to make friends; I went home. The next several days were very similar, because every day I was meeting more people and starting new classes. The whole week followed this sort of pattern, and I spent it trying to meet as many classmates as possible. Luckily the students were very friendly, very welcoming, and willing to work with my broken German. Many actually said I had very good German, which was very nice.

   After school, on Thursday, my family took me to the Innenstadt (Downtown), so I could see the Dom and some of Köln’s other landmarks. After getting off the metro, the first thing we saw was the Dom. This time, instead of passing it, we went inside to see the amazing murals, stained glass windows, artifacts, and history. Amazingly, the cathedral survived WW2 unscathed, and almost everything is original. This is amazing, especially considering construction started in 1248 and wasn’t finished for 632 years, until 1880. It was absolutely beautiful on the inside, and I don’t think pictures can do it very much justice.

   After exploring the inside, we went outside and walked around it, admiring the pure size and beauty of the building. After this, they showed me all the famous restaurants, small landmarks, shops, and more. After taking a walk through the shopping street, we walked to the Rhein, to see Köln’s huge river. After looking at it for a while, we had a delicious meal at a restaurant in the Altstadt, or “old-city.” Finally, we walked across the Hohenzollern bridge, another of Köln’s landmarks. The bridge is famous for being covered in love locks, which couples will write their names on, lock to the bridge, and throw the key into the Rhein; symbolically sealing their love. After our short walk on the bridge, our evening of fun was over.

   That’s all that happened on the first school week, I’ll pick up on Saturday in the next post. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that you don’t mind it’s a month late. I’m desperately trying to catch up with my posts, and I’m getting a bit closer every day. Hopefully I’ll be all caught up soon. Sorry this post doesn't have so many pictures, but I can't do much about it. Also I wright these in the evening, when I'm pretty tired; so please correct any typos in the comments section below. Anyways, I hope you liked it; please share and subscribe with your email, using the box to the right. Thanks for stopping by,

Bis Später!