So I meant to save the first post as a draft, but I think it posted anyway, so sorry for the oddly timed ending. But to continue, Vallendar is a very small town and there really isn’t all that much to do. The nearest city is Koblenz, and that is where the mall and other shops are all located.
One of the biggest surprises of my life came when it was time to register for classes. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, constantly refreshing the page to type in CRN’s like my life depends on it, registering here was a piece of cake. I literally just clicked the check mark next to the course, and Wa-Bam, I was signed up! I guess it’s just one of the perks of going to a school of about 1300 people. Let me briefly explain the way that German classes go. First of all, the semester is broken up into quarters. So each course consists of about 6 lectures (lasting 3 hours each) and one final exam. The system is definitely different, but so far I have nothing to complain about. My schedule allows for many 3 and 4 day weekends, so travelling shouldn’t be too difficult.
And that leads to the next topic, my first travel experience!! The destination was Belgium, and it was a solid group of 9 Tauschies. Belgium is right next to Germany, so we could easily go by train and it was an easy first destination for inexperienced travelers. Anyway, the trip started off with a bang when we missed our first train. I said that pretty casually, but it was actually a huge pain to deal with. We basically had to get on a whole new set of trains (including trains that we didn’t exactly have tickets for…) and the conductors were not very pleased. Just missing the train by 3 minutes set us back 3 hours. It could have been worse, but luckily we made it to Brussels early in the afternoon.
The first thing anyone should do when arriving in Belgium is to get a waffle. I’m serious, Belgian waffles are a household name for a reason. After devouring my strawberry covered explosion of everything that is good, we walked through the city.
The Grand Plaza made the trip worth it in itself, as I was able to lay my eyes on some of the magnificent European architecture.
And the hostel we stayed at was the complete opposite of what I expected. We had 3 private rooms and actually had very nice rooms, and it was less than $20 bucks for the night! The popular spot in town was a bar called Delirium, and there we were able to meet a bunch of fellow exchange students studying in Belgium. In fact, I met a guy who lives like 10 minutes from my house in Dallas! Small world, huh? Also, here’s the picture of the famous little boy in Belgium
After doing Brussels live, we made our way to the beautiful city of Bruges. It is a city that is near the coast, but definitely a hot spot here tourists.
Here we found what was a way more common hostel to live in. But it was still a nice place to stay for a bargain, so I had nothing to complain about. Here, we definitely went on full on American tourist mode. We climbed the bell tower that had about 4oo steps to see a view that was pretty breathtaking. Okay, well maybe I was still out of breath from the stairs, but nonetheless it was incredible.?Also, they had more chocolate shops than I could have ever kept count of and had a very nice selection of post cards. By far this was the more attractive city, and we got to see a lot more of the town due to its very small size. Maybe the highlight of the trip was watching what appeared to be two geese racing in the water. I guess the Belgian geese are competitive? Who knows!?
If you couldn’t guess, there were a ton of waffles in Bruges too, including this amazing waffle stand
All in all, the trip was a great first one to have! We learned to navigate the train system to perfection, well except for the two guys who couldn’t get off at our last stop and had to ride the train an extra two hours. Other than that, it was pretty minor (but also really funny). So there is the status report, and the next one will come after we spend 4 days in Amsterdam! To conclude, here’s probably the most artsy photo I will ever take. And it was in Belgium. Thanks (and sorry) for reading, but all is well here in Germany!
