It is now Friday, and I need to do a double take on how fast the first week has flown by! First, let me give you an idea of what the daily routine has been in this two-week language program. Every morning, I’ve been getting up around 6am (I’m an early starter) and heading down to the cafeteria for breakfast. As stated earlier, it is included with the hostel price and the coffee is great. Our language program is carried out by the Carl Duisberg Centren and begins promptly at 8:45am every morning.
At that time, our semi-crazy German teacher begins instruction. Picture an older gentleman with semi-long white/gray hair. He is clean shaven and wears a variety of colored ties, sports coats (mostly plaid), pants, and shirts. He enjoys red-wine (not an observation…he simply told us he’s not a beer-loving German), smokes cigarettes from an old leather cigarette case, and moves about the room in the same manner as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. He is terribly funny, but also a very good teacher. I have yet to hear him speak a full sentence of English. Our language classes typically end around 12:00pm every day. The classes consist of German language review (although, I confess some of it seems new!), daily homework, a report, and a project. None of this is too intensive, but I am looking forward to being done with academics for a short six month stint very soon! I enjoy German. I enjoy Engineering. I also enjoy free time. Going back to the “routine”, in the afternoons we typically have some form of organized cultural activity. These vary, but are very useful. Our evenings are always free. Now, let me catch you up on the past four days…
Tuesday, March 22nd
On Tuesday, after our language course, we had the afternoon free. A group of us took off to check out the acclaimed “best bakery” in Cologne. It was called Fassbender KG. I purchased a cheese, tomatoe, and spinach sandwich on fresh baked bread. Mmmm… I love the bakeries here. In fact, I have yet to see one loaf of “processed” bread… even at a general store! After lunch, we spent the better part of the afternoon exploring Neumarktplatz and the shopping in that area. The weather was beautiful and the market was very lively. After an afternoon of checking out the shops (sporting goods, books, clothing, and others), we visited the Malzmühlen Brauhaus for a couple beers. After relaxing for a bit, we walked down the street to the boardwalk along the Rhine River. Bicyclists, walkers, runners, street performers… they all filled the walkway. It is a rather wide one too. To our right was the
beautiful Rhine and to our left was the skyline of steeply pitched roof houses with a towering cathedral behind them. At around 4pm we decided it would be cool to climb the stairs to the top of the Cathedral’s (Koelner Dom) right tower. It stands at nearly 500 meters, so it was a hike, and anyone willing can make the journey for only 1.5 Euros!
We were all panting at the top, but it was well worth it. The view was incredible! We then spent some time checking out the inside after we had descended. Absolutely gorgeous. I cannot speak to the chills I received when I walked in. It was SO big. Columns towered around us; intricate statues of saints adorned every nook and cranny. A magnificent tabernacle rested in the distance as I entered the church. It is truly amazing what sort of architectural feats one can accomplish with time. It took centuries to complete this church, but its beauty is unmatched. I may be making a return trip soon! After exiting the church, we went to purchase dinner at Früh Brauhaus. After the meal, a single scoop of Gelato ice cream completed the day’s adventures. Gelato is an Italian ice cream. It has a lower fat content and higher sugar content. It is made through a more refined process than US ice-cream and bears a very creamy texture. It typically doesn't keep as long as our ice-cream, but with as good as it tastes, they probably don't have to store it for very long! After ice cream, I headed back to the youth hostel where I spend a decent about of time battling Blogger to get up that last post. Blogger hates formatting! Good thing the wi-fi was randomly free that night.
Wednesday, March 24th
I decided to take the 40 minute walk to the learning center on Wednesday. With weather like we’ve been having, I couldn’t bring myself to waste the time on a train. After our language course, we met our GIZ Program Coordinator, Genevieve, who brought in a guest speaker on German culture. We spent the afternoon (until 5pm) learning the dos and don’ts of German
business culture. There we reviewed how exactly we would interact with our employers on day one. The main take-aways for me were the importance of being extre
mely polite, giving background information, and practicing speaking situations one will likely run into beforehand. For instance, one encounters of situation where he is given a waterfall of German speak
(happens often!) and wants to communicate, “I cannot understand one lick of what you’re saying!” Obviously, we say this a little more elegantly, but you get the point. It is extremely awkward being the guy on the other end of a language. You feel about 10 cm tall and a little dumb, because you know what you want to say, but can’t!
From the class, a small group of us went back to the Malzmühlen Brauhaus for dinner. I had a dish with ham, fried eggs on wheat, and home-made potato salad. It was called, “Strammer Max.” Again, delicious! That evening was pretty laid back. I was mostly just wiped out from the day, so I crashed around 10pm.
Thursday, March 25th
I walked again today. For the fourth in a row… beautiful weather! After class, we had a tour of the “Altstadt” (old city). Our tour guide was German, so I didn’t catch everything, but was surprised at how well I did understand most of it. This city has amazing history! …and again it catches me off guard to hear just how far back it goes. We talked about structures from when the Romans were in the city! That’s a long time ago!!
At the end of the tour, we took another tour… this time of a few breweries. We visited three and learned about the history of the beer and why those in Cologne practice certain traditions. First, one should always toast by hitting the BOTTOM of the glasses together. This prevents spilling and glass breaking. Logical, right? Second, the glasses are small in size and the opening diameter is small because those in Cologne enjoy fresh and cold beer. Smaller glasses mean the beer sits out for less time and is exposed to less air. The concept was at first confusing, but with explanation, it makes sense. (*Note: I still enjoy our pints at home!) After our tours were complete, a few from our group headed off to Lidl (German supermarket) to get some bread and cold-cuts for dinner. I decided to walk along the river back to our youth hostel. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy the walk. It’s very relaxing and a great way to clear your mind and relax after a long day. When I got back to our hostel, I worked on some homework and writing before heading out with a few of the guys to check out the university district where we visited a few establishments and met some pretty cool Germans. The one waiter knew immediately that we were Americans, but asked if he should speak in English or German. After a united response of “auf Deutsch, bitte!” he continued to endure our speaking in German for the duration of our stay. He was very helpful in clearing up how to say “beer on tap” in German! One simply says, “Bier vom Fass.”
Friday, March 26th
Well this catches us up to today. Again… weather = brilliant. They ensure us this is HARDLY EVER the typical weather in Cologne. Typically it is rainy and cloudy. I am not sure how we lucked out this week (good prayers from home I think!), but I’m not complaining. Class today was shortened, because in Germany, schools end an hour earlier on Fridays. At 11:30am, we walked downtown with our instructor for a scavenger hunt of sorts. We were given a map with location points and questions. It was our job to answer the questions pertaining to each location point by asking Germans in the area. This was a little intimidating, but we were able to fudge our German enough to tap into the very friendly nature of the locals.
This wasn’t always the case though. We learned to stay away from waiters at bars. One of them flat out told us to leave and one ignored us after failing to understand what we wanted. It was pretty comical in hindsight, but at the time, it was slightly confusing and embarrassing! Do not interrupt the bar tender if you want anything but a beer! We wrapped up the hunt at around 2pm and I went with a small group to get a cheese pizza. Es schmeckt mir sehr gut! We ate on the boardwalk by the Rhine and proceeded to walk back to the hostel afterwards. There, I did some typing before taking a nice one hour nap.
Here I now sit finishing up this entry. I’m not really sure what this weekend will bring. I am still debating on what I would like to do. I could head to Düsseldorf or Bonn for a day, or I could stay in Cologne and do some more exploring. The options are many, but I’ll be sure to keep you all in the loop on what goes down!
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