Bonn

Hello, all! Yesterday was so busy that I ran out of time to post anything! We spent the day in Bonn. At 8am we departed the high school for a two hour bus ride to Bonn. Most people slept for an hour or so, myself included, on the way there. Once we arrived, everyone walked to the market together. I swear, the markets here are like nothing else in America. From what I've seen, every day, about twenty to fifty vendors set up their stands (mostly fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and meats) in the city's main square. It's really impressive. Our chaperones, then, let us loose for two hours to get lunch and walk around a bit, the only condition being that each group had to have at least two Germans and two Americans. This new rule was put in place because usually the groups end up being divided based on cliques within the same country (it's way easier to communicate with people native to the same language as you rather than deal with the problems and limitations of translation between people who have only been learning their respective foreign language for five years or so). My group ended up having four Americans and three Germans. At first, people were less than thrilled to have to intermix with each other. Soon enough, though, we found out it's a different kind of communication than the uptight, formal, family atmosphere everyone wants a break from. When it's just us kids, you are one hundred percent sure that everyone is just as uncomfortable as you are with speaking "across the border" and that awkwardness makes it easier to make mistakes. There's less of an expectation to speak perfectly and more confidence to just go for it. It also gave us an opportunity to talk about things other than plans, the weather, and differences between America and Germany (common topics of conversation at the dinner table) and instead simply be our weird selves. A lot of the time we couldn't quite get across what we were trying to say so we had to play some kind of mini charades, but it worked out pretty well and I think we all had a really good time. After lunch, we went to the Haus Geschicte (House of History) where we went to an exhibit that showed the political and cultural relationship between America and Germany after WWII. We will be using the gathered information on a big project we have to put together on German-American historical friendship. After that tour (have I mentioned that I never want to go on another guided tour in my life?) and then all collapsed on the floor, we traveled back to Trier, arriving at 6pm. Then I showered and we went straight out to meet up with a bunch of Linda's friends at this little neighborhood restaurant. We had a blast.

^after the exhausting tour

^Om forgot a rain jacket so they doubled up on Anna's huge one. They're so funny.