day 4 // mon jan 15th
This was one Monday I had no problem getting out bed. I was excited to get the first full week started. We had some meetings this morning at school for our visas as well as Wade's first German class. We did a little exploring during lunch to find something new to eat. Bonn is a very interesting city, it was the capital of West Germany while it was still divided, so there are a lot of large historic buildings and landmarks. Also, Haribo (the gummy bear company) is a German founded company with specific ties to Bonn—the "bo" in Haribo actually represents the word 'Bonn'. Needless to say there are a plethora of gummies here. Wade ended up getting a chicken döner wrap for lunch and I had a spinach feta pastry thing that was yummy! Our evening was quiet, we both worked on some homework/school work and hit they hay for our early morning adventure.
day 5 // tue jan 16th
On Tuesday we left for a bonding trip with the students. Our program directors at AIB have several excursions planned throughout the semester which is a really great experience for students to see interesting museums and get to know each other outside of the classroom. We woke up very early and met at a bus stop. From there we rode about an hour and half to Bad Kreuznach, Germany. A nice little town nestled on the river. Here we went to a puppet museum, sounds sort of creepy, but not entirely–ha. Puppetry as a form of theatre was very popular in Europe, so the history behind it was pretty interesting. After our tour we walked down the river about 4 miles to our lunch spot. I had traditional German Schnitzel with fries and a delicious apple dessert. Then we advenutred a little higher the mountainside to our castle in Ebernburg. Here the students did an photography and light workshop with a local Germany artist. That evening we had dinner in an 800 year old medieval building. A husband and wife bought this structure and turned it into a working restaurant named Kurpfälzer Amtshof. It was lit with mostly candles, had uneven rock floors and served very delicious food. The owner even let us stay for awhile and enjoy the evening. Then we treked back up to the castle we were staying in and all my princess dreams came true. :)
