A Fun-Filled Week

This last week has been so busy, but SO much fun!!! To start off, from Monday to Wednesday, I was on a retreat with my lab group in Belgium, not far from the German border. The house we stayed in, called the Vennhouse, was equipped with a game room that included fußball, ping-pong, darts, and billiards; additionally, some people brought card games and board games, so we all had plenty of entertainment (outside of watching chemistry presentations!). I learned a few new games and got to sharpen (show off?) my fußball skills–it seems all those years of training with my brother paid off! Also, after hanging out with the other lab members during the retreat, I feel a lot more comfortable chatting with them and asking questions in lab. Yay!

As soon as I returned from the retreat, I met my parents, who had just flown in from the States to visit me. I am very lucky and grateful that they came all the way to visit, as I had a great time showing them around and got to see and do lots of things I wouldn’t have if they hadn’t come. Wednesday, I took them around Jülich a little; Thursday I went to work, and they visited me at the Forschungszentrum and tried the yummy cafeteria food; Friday I got the day off from work so we went to Düsseldorf; Saturday we went to Bonn and Köln (Cologne); and on Sunday they flew back to the States.

Though I’ve already been to Düsseldorf a couple of times, I definitely enjoyed showing my parents the places in the Altstadt that my friends and I frequent, and I also got to see the Heinrich-Heine museum as well as the Goethe museum. Both museums were riveting, as both German poets were very influential in classical music as well, and I also sharpened my German skills by trying to read and understand the texts in the museums. (Throughout the entire weekend, I practiced my German, and I think I have improved even more since Berlin! Also, since my dad brought me his and my brother’s German textbooks, I think I will be able to learn even more before the end of summer). In the evening, we were fortunately able to avoid a massive thunderstorm, as we stepped into a Korean restaurant (“Shilla”) just as the rain started coming down. The food there was delicious! And the interior was decorated beautifully. I must say, that was some of the best Korean food I’ve had!

Bonn is by far my favorite city, next to Berlin. As soon as we emerged from the parking garage, I knew this to be true. Bonn is a gorgeous city, though in a different way from Berlin. Bonn seems more like a town than a city, as all the buildings are picturesque and old-looking, although still nicely kept-up, and most streets are cobble-stoned. (It also helped that the weather on Saturday was much nicer than Friday!) Mainly, there is lots of musical history in Bonn, as Beethoven was born and grew up there before moving to Vienna–a fact that the residents of Bonn are rightfully proud of, as Beethoven’s face and image are ubiquitous in the city. We ate lunch at Em Höttche, the restaurant/pub where Beethoven frequented during his years in Bonn. The food was delicious! (Just as good German food as the Korean food we had had the night before, in my opinion) Afterwards, we headed to the Beethoven-Haus, the house in which Beethoven was born. Of course, I felt like I could have spent the whole day there, but we were only able to stay a couple of hours because the day’s agenda included Cologne in the afternoon. Since Bonn is such a wonderful city with so much musical background and shopping, I think I will return once more before I leave Germany.

Juxtaposing Köln with Bonn seems to accentuate the contrast between a city and a town, I think. Though Bonn isn’t super small like Jülich, it certainly has a different feel from Köln. Köln is more city-like, I think (after all, it is the fourth largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich); it reminds me the most of Berlin, although a bit dirtier and not quite as pretty or picturesque. Since we didn’t arrive in Köln until mid afternoon, we had a rather brief view of the city, only seeing the Dom, the city hall (Rathaus), the shopping street, and the Rhine. It is unfortunate that my parents did not get to visit the chocolate museum because I think they would have loved it. =( Maybe another time?? Gladly, we got to make use of the nice weather to have dinner outside, near the Rhine, before heading home.

It was such a lovely weekend and week that it seems wrong to describe it like this in a few brief paragraphs. But I am rather tired, so I’m afraid this is the best I can do. =P Hopefully the pictures will help bring the sights to life! (although most are of food–so yummy!)

About the pictures: “Kaffee, Kuchen, & Eis”–my three favorite words here, meaning “Coffee, Cake, and Ice Cream” (yeah, I have a sweet tooth!); a piece of my beloved Donauwelle cake that I described in an earlier post; my dish at the Korean restaurant–a cold noodle soup Neng Myun (probably not spelled right) served in (the best part) a golden bowl!!; a statue of Beethoven in front of a pretty yellow building in Bonn; my dish at Em Höttche–Spinatpfanne, Spinach Pan–that was absolutely delicious!!; the front of the Beethoven-Haus.