Another Week in Cologne

This is the Home that I'm staying in. We live in a Flat on the Second floor.
(The window on the left is my room/their office)

So, I feel like it has been quite a while since my last post, but a lot has happened since then. Well I found out for sure where I'm going to be studying. I will be at the HBK Saar in Saarbrücken. It is a design school that focuses on Graphic and Product design. All that is right up my alley so I'm super excited and can't wait for all these language classes to be over, so that I can start doing things that I enjoy. I also found out about my potential living situation for the rest of the year. It may be with a host family, but I'm going to make a trip here in a couple weeks to meet with them and look at some other options. My German is getting better and I'm feeling more comfortable speaking to people. I wouldn't say that I'm confident in my German, but I'm not afraid to make mistakes as much anymore.

I've been really keeping up with my fitness since I've been here, and I would go out on a limb and say I'm fitter now than when I left. I go running in the park near my house practically every day. This has been great for me to clear my head and keep me from having a mental breakdown out here. I also joined a gym called McFit (I'm pretty sure it has no relation to McDonalds, even though there is a McDonalds in the same building). It's a nice gym, kinda reminds me of an LAC back home. It's tough though cuz everything is in Kilos, so I've had to just kinda guess what's an appropriate weight every time.

This is the Park that I run in, it's really pretty in the morning.

Last night, I went to a party at the Language school. It was kinda surreal, it felt like a high school dance except you could buy beer. I ended up chatting with my American friends and a couple others from different countries. Speaking of yesterday, I got home early from class. (On a side note, the family here only has two keys to the house, so sometimes I go out without a key because someone should be home to let me in) Well I had to wait at the doorstep for a few hours till someone got home to let me in. I decided about thirty minutes into it that I would stop by a kiosk near my house and buy a beer while I waited. When I bought the beer the clerk shorted me a euro, but when I tried to tell him he wasn't having it. If my German was better, I would have gotten angry with him, but I couldn't really articulate what I was trying to tell him so I just walked off. At least this whole ordeal has been really the only unpleasant moment since I've been here.

I went to the Chocolate Museum along the Rein. It was ok. It was neat to see once, probably never again. The chocolate samples they had were pretty good though. But, the building was hot and it was muggy outside and honestly, how much do you really want to hear about chocolate! It was nothing like Willy Wonka's factory for sure.

This is the Chocolate Museum

And this is the Chocolate fountain. The highlight of the tour.

Well that's about all I have this time. Thanks for reading!
Much Love!