Reise nach Irland und zurück nach dem USA

So this will be my last blog post from Germany.  Boy, what a great experience this has been!  When I came here 4 1/2 months ago, I thought I would be counting down the days until I headed home.  I was so wrong.  I met the most amazing people and had the most interesting experiences that I've ever had in my life.  I don't know what I'm going to do when my trip to class doesn't involve walking along the Rhein river, or when I don't get to hang out with all my cool international friends on a weekly basis.  Don't get me wrong, there are definitely things and people I have missed from home, but the transition was drastically easier with all kinds of amazing people and activities.  Words can't really define how much I have enjoyed this experience, and how much I will miss it.  I guess this means I will have to plan a return trip here in the near future.  The tears have already started.
On a happier note, I traveled to Ireland with Mary for my last weekend in Europe.  She is trying to trace her family ancestry, so we went on a little excursion that included Dublin, Portlaoise, and Cashel.    We did make some progress on this, but it was also a fun trip.  While sitting at a pub in Portlaoise, a 60-something Irish man who was already quite drunk came over and sat down with us.  At first he was okay, telling us about his life and showing us pictures of stuff.  But then, after he continued to drink, he got really creepy.  He kept squeezing our hands REALLY hard, and at one point he sneezed about 8 times in a row into his hands.  He then proceeded to grab our hands some more.  Finally, the bartender had to cut him off and escort him out.  We also got some help from a man sitting at the bar, and finally we were safe to finish our drinks alone.  Obviously, the story was much more detailed than that, but it was such an odd experience.
In Dublin, we toured Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison where one of Mary's very distant relatives was executed, and Glasnevin Cemetery.  Both were cool places.  However, it rained pretty much every day, which wasn't very fun.  Mary bought an Aran sweater while we were in Cashel, and, also in Dublin, we went to a pub where you could tap your own Guinness right at the table.  All in all, it was a very good trip, and a nice way to end my time in Europe.  After spending my last trip to Ireland basically completely on a tour bus, I actually got to enjoy the sights of the country.

In another week or two, there will probably be one more blog post about getting settled back in America, but that will probably be the last one.

Bis später!
Maddie

Köln Ablauf

So today marks the first day of my last week of classes here in Bonn.  All my tests were finished last week, so I'm really just doing everything to prepare to leave.  I'm having to deal with things pertaining to the new townhome in Columbia, as well as checking out and other paperwork to do with leaving Germany.  I also need to super-clean my room, but who knows when that will happen.  There may be traveling this weekend, or I may just stay around here and get everything sorted out.
Other than my two finals last week, the only other exciting thing I really have to talk about is my run to Cologne.  Yes, I ran 30-plus kilometers (well, not all of it).  Mary had talked about running to Cologne after one day when she ran to my place and then went for a run with me.  I played along with the suggestion because I thought she was joking.  She wasn't joking, and I didn't figure this out until Saturday afternoon.  We went for this run on Sunday morning.  I thought I was going to pass out or something.  We didn't run all the way into the center of Cologne, but we ran to a suburb-thing of Cologne called Köln-Godorf.  The total trip was about 4-ish hours, and I ran 2 and a half of those hours.  We took a train home, obviously.  And I did this whole run without any prior distance training.  Up until last Sunday, the longest I'd run was about 5 kilometers.  Needless to say, it was pretty much impossible for me to walk down any stairs the next day.
Oh, and if I haven't already mentioned this, Germany has American Football teams.  They're not super great.  They play at a talent level of about a high school team in America.  I've been to two games since I've been here, and they were kind of terrible to watch.  When Mary and I went on Saturday, we made a wrong turn leaving the train station and wandered around Bonn-Mehlem for maybe half an hour before actually finding where we were supposed to go.  But it ended up being okay because the opposing team's bus broke down and they didn't even start the game until about half an hour after they were supposed to start.  So we didn't actually miss anything.
I think the whole leaving thing is really starting to sink in now, because one of my friends left on Thursday.  Now that people are starting to actually fly home, I'm actually realizing that I won't be able to stay here forever with all these amazing friends I've made.  After being pretty resistant to the whole leaving-home-for-six-months-and-not-knowing-anyone thing, I really have enjoyed my time here.  I don't know what I'm going to do without being able to see all these great people every day.  I guess that will give me an excuse to come back to Europe in the near future.  And my German has improved so much!  I'm not fluent, but it definitely comes more naturally to me than it used to.  America is going to seem kind of boring, but I will have so much to do that I won't  have time to be bored.

Well, that's all for now, I guess.

Maddie