Busy

Hey all,

I know that i created this blog in hopes to write more often and keep track of things to inform everybody of back home. But it is kind of tough because during the mornings and afternoons o have class and that is when all the shops are open so always have to get groceries early and trying to get homework and such and then by the time night rolls around everybody is being social and your still doing leftover readings for you classes and all you want to do is relax a little. That's normally what the weekends are for back home to sit at home and do nothing maybe go out one night with friends but mostly do nothing but watch football and play video games with a little homework on Sunday. Here is a totally different story because half the reason people come here to study is to travel so on the weekends is the best time to do that. So once you make it through the busy week which also includes planning all the trips and booking travel and accommodations then you get on a train and try and see as much as you can of this completely foreign city with which you have a free map from the hostel and a couple broken phrases in the native language which you attempted to learn the week before. I would have to say that even though it is a lot of work and some stress it is well worth it. I am thoroughly enjoying the education and travel while over here. This last weekend was definitely one of my favorite weekends for some reasons which aren't what i expected when coming here. OK so.... It all started in class on Friday when my real good German friend (Philip) asked where i was going this weekend and i told him a couple places we had considered but we weren't sure due to the large presentations we had to give on the following Monday(which was today and my presentation went great, thanks for asking) but one of the places we had considered was a day trip to Cologne (Koln for the Germans) Germany but we were not sure. When i mentioned cologne he stopped me and said that he was actually from Cologne and was going home this weekend on Saturday and would give us a ride and we could stay at his place. I was so happy, in less than 5 minutes i had booked travel and a place to stay all for free haha. So we set out Saturday morning in Phillip's car, the 5 of us me, Brad and Mike from Butler University, Phillip and Ines one of our female friends from Portugal. The drive alone saved us a ton of money and an hour each way. It actually made me feel at home some because this was the first time i had been in a car for much time at all and back home everybody drives everywhere. Anyway we got to cologne and set out after Phillip printed off a map with a couple things that we wanted to check out. I will post pictures on facebook here in the next couple days but we went to the largest cathedral in Germany first and ate a bratwurst and fries from a street vendor which was delicious then we set off to the river which cuts through the city, there really wasn't much else to see in the city besides a couple museums which we didn't feel like going to. So we went to this bridge which also had a cable car track going over it and the river. We all bought round trip tickets for like 4 euro and went across. It was really cool actually despite the fact it was cold and rainy i was having a great time. Next we got to the other side of the river in the middle of a big park with really no idea of what to do next until we spotted a playground. Now this was no normal playground, it was awesome, it's like every ten year old boys dream, there was a sweet ropes course which was still challenging to me haha and a couple really big slides, a tire swing, and a mini zip line. So long story short we had fun and it was a really chill relaxed kind of fun. after that we went back to Philip's house had some dinner and he took us too one of his German friend's birthday party in Bonn. That was also really cool because they were all German and then us, but they were all very welcoming and friendly so it was a nice and fun evening, something we really couldn't of planned on our own. That is how my weekend went though and it was nice haha. But as i mentioned before i am still keeping busy as i am now starting to work on my 45 min case presentation for my class on Friday since i just finished my 30 min one today. As busy as i am still do love to hear from you and sorry if i do not respond right away or anything because just a lot going on, tough to remember sometimes!

Thanks for all the interest and contact,

Much Love

Devon Latimer