First Week

Today was a beautiful day in Bonn. Everyone keeps making fun of the fact that the weather is changing every hour. Yesterday it was storming, today it was beautiful and hot, then in the evening it looked as if it was going to storm again and got colder. I had class this morning, which I am continuing to enjoy. Afterwords, a bunch of people from my class and I went to the Mensa to eat. It is very cheap there, and very delicious. I ate a schnitzel and tofu salad with potatoes. The schnitzel was very good, one of the best I have ever had. I was with some other students from other speaking groups and I thought it was funny because people didnt know I was from America. Someone said that I look very polish, and they assumed that is where I was from. I found this to be very funny and interesting (and maybe even a bit flattering). After that I went to the International Office to drop off a paper and it was directly in front of Poppelsdorfer Schloss (as seen above). It was too pretty to not take pictures.

Maybe you can see in the picture below that all of the trees that line the sides are Buckeye trees (by the way, this is not the University, it is a different palace in the city)

Then I walked around in the city to find shampoo, and also I did a little exploring. I have been seeing a lot of signs to protest nuclear energy. The picture below I found on the side of the house, but people wear buttons and also stickers and shirts with this symbol on it.  I believe right now the plan is to be completely nuclear free in Germany by 2030, and this plan came about after the Japanese tsunami 

Afterwords I walked around. At the request of my mom I took a picture of a Schultuete, which is pictured below. It is tradition in Germany that on a child's first day of school every year they are given a Schultuete filled with candy and little toys at the end of the day. Here are some that I photographed in a department store 

Also for mom, I photographed this in Claires, in which I think you will find an interesting aspect of cultural Globalization

(If you can't see what these are, they are nose rings, which are not found in American Claires that I know of). Here is a fruit, that looked very interesting, but I was too afraid to buy it because I have never seen a fruit like this before

Perhaps they are like Lingonberries, I will have to ask someone. I also remembered that you guys havent really seen my house or anything. Today I took a picture from outside my window. The building across the street really intrigues me. It looks very eastern German, but also if you look to the right, there is no roof in part of the building and trees and bushes are growing in it. Maybe something to explore? (just kidding mom.... maybe....)

After that I went to the store with my roommate, who is from Portugal (Bruna) and I helped her make rice for her first time. Then we went together back downtown to go on a Bar crawl, which was supposed to be only for ERAUSMUS students (students from Europe) but a couple of us Americans tagged along. It was very fun to be able to talk with people in German for an expended period of time in a light setting. The Americans and the British students thought I have a very southern accent (when I speak in English) which I thought was very different since I don't think I do at all. Then I was trying to explain to the European students what a southern accent was (wie George Bush), so that was comical for me. I am always amazed at how nice everyone is here. Its really different than I had expected, but in a very good way.