History lesson remark: The Cologne Cathedral started its first phase of construction in the year 1248 and ended construction in 1880. This makes the cathedral older than many current monuments, historical markers, and well obviously, America! My German teacher tried to put it into perspective by saying "Chris Columbus didn't even sail to the New World until 1492, meaning that this cathedral had already been started for nearly 250 years!" It was crazy and exciting to be in the presence of this piece of history. Definitely check out more information online about the cathedral if you're interested, but I'm going to get back to the stories.
It was just Herr Klaus and I in the car on the way back to the house. It was about a 30 minute car ride, but we talked nearly the entire time about university studies, family background, America culture, and German culture. We arrived at the house and I was shown my room, which is actually the 4th floor of the house! All of the houses that I've seen so far in Germany have a really interesting floor plan; generally what I've seen is a very tall house (3 or 4 stories) where every story only has 2 or 3 rooms. For instance in my house the entry floor has the kitchen and living room, and the next floor has only two bedrooms. I like my position in the house because I also get a private bathroom and roof windows for pretty sunrises. Here is a picture of the view out of my window.
I've been blown away by the sky and weather here in Cologne. The weather that I've had for my entire time here has been absolutely perfect: frequent breezes, relatively low humidity, shining sun (but not too hot), and really pretty skies. Where I'm from, we get days like these maybe 4 times a year in Spring before it gets hot again. The weather also facilitates reading outside, leaving windows open, eating dinner out on the patio, and more.
Aside from Herr Klaus I also live with Frau Birgit and their son Jannik. Jannik is my age and we actually have a lot in common. I venture to say that Jannik is a carbon copy of one of my roommates from last year. We listen to the same music, played the same video games growing up, and have similar sport interests. Everything has been great so far and I still have so much more time here in Cologne!
Before I continue, I suppose I need to clarify one thing about my stay here in Cologne. I haven't yet explained through my blog the breakdown of my time here in Germany. I am here to study for two semesters in the university system, but that doesn't start until October, and I won't be studying at a university in Cologne. So what exactly am I doing here for a month and half before my university starts? I was offered the opportunity to participate in a 2 month long language immersion program in Cologne and the offer came through one of the scholarships that I received to study here in Germany, this organization being DAAD (translates into the 'German Academic Exchange Service'). I am very grateful for this opportunity to live in Cologne with a host family preceding my university studies.
My immersion program is offered through the Carl Duisberg Center, a nonprofit whose goal is to assimilate students into German culture with language training. The Center also does an excellent job of cultivating friendships within the individual language courses; I take a language course daily (for about 5 hours) with people from all over the world. In fact, I am the only American (but not the only English speaker!). In my group of 12 I've become friends with students from Serbia, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan, Brasil, Indonesia, Georgia, Iraq, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Once class is over around noon, many of us stick together to grab lunch or participate in the daily Freizeitprogram (free-time activity: each day the Center hosts an event for the students). So far we've had a ping-pong tournament, trip to a local lake, and soccer game, to name a few. When we are all together we almost always speak in German. It's been really interesting, funny at times, to hear German spoken with impressions from other languages. German with a Spanish accent is really cool, as well as German with a Russian accent!
Everything has been a lot of fun and each new day is an adventure here in Cologne! There is so much to explore in this city that sometimes I feel lazy when I'm just content with reading a book on the weekend. I've got a lot of time though! I think coming up next is a trip to Holland! I'll keep y'all posted!
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