So, now the challenge is catching you all up on the past ten days of my life and then you will all be aware of my current situation. With less than two weeks to go.
The Sunday after our Hamburg trip, I attended a brunch hosted by my study abroad program for study abroad advisors and counselors for various colleges and universities. The program had asked for students and host families to attend and answer and questions that the visitors might have about the program and the city. I figured, it was free food and you never know who you might meet, so I volunteered. Overall, it was just being nicely interrogated about the program and my thoughts on how things were run and opinions on Berlin. I snagged brunch, and a free sandwich for later, as well some cake, so it was fairly chill.
I was in a good mood, as before I had left, I had been tickling my host brother while he was bouncing on the couch. When I arrived at home, the flat was empty and I churned out some homework (after reading Harry Potter, I'll admit). My host parents arrived home and dinner was very relaxed and the three of us chatted, as my younger host brother fell asleep at the table.
The next day, I yet again had class, but decided to take a mental health day and used my second skip day for German, as I had no desire to attend and wanted to sleep in. Therefore, my morning was quite relaxed and I headed to my history class in no rush. The course itself was fairly boring and the morning was uneventful.
However, that day my grandfather and his wife had arrived in the city. My father is English and my entire paternal side of the family is located there. Pappy and Barbara had decided to take advantage of the fact that I was in Europe and decided to visit me. I hadn't seen either of them in nearly two years so it was a lovely reunion. I gave them walking and bus tour of Unter Den Linden, as I am a professional at that now, and we had a light dinner together. It was really nice to catch up and see them, and we made plans for what they would do the next day while I was at school and when we would meet up in the evening.
Tuesday was yet again another day at the partner college. However, my Holocaust class met instead at the House of the Wannsee Conference, the location of the conference where the Nazi regime decided to implement the Final Solution. The house is an information center, and is extremely well researched.
However, the cons of the field trip were that it took forever to get there as it was quite out of the way, our tour guide was very verbose, and I was not feeling well as a result of too little sleep and a headache. As a result, I decided after a draining tour to skip my second class and return home for a nap. Said nap did little to refresh me and I was more drained following it, and still suffering from a headache. I grabbed dinner with my grandfather and Barbara at Alexanderplatz. That evening, the TV tower was especially gorgeous with the sky and the light cast by the setting sun.
Throughout the evening, the three of us discussed plans for the next day and decided to take a day trip to Dresden, which was only about two hours away by bus. After some technical difficulties, I secured us three seats on a bus for only fourteen euros each, round trip. I do love European transportation.
Next post: Dresden and more catching up. Apologies.
No comments:
Post a Comment