Köln Seminar!

Sorry that it's so long! There are pictures at the end. :D

We (the CBYX group) had a blast at our seminar. However, the weekend was not enough time for us. It was super awesome to see everyone, see German language improvements, and catch up on everything that's happened since language camp.

We all arrived at the Youth Hostel Thursday evening around 5pm. My host dad was super awesome (like always) and drove me there.

So here are snippets of the weekend...
Donnerstag/Thursday:
-got our room assignments. I had a room with Jedel, which was very cool!
-huge reunion and tons of talking
-ate dinner
-2 hour seminar (Seminar rules explained and funny experiences shared)
stayed up super late just talking and talking

Fritag/Friday:
-breakfast at 8am
-took Bahn (train) to Bonn. Jedel and I missed the train, because of a misunderstanding. We had thought our group was meeting in the Lobby at 8:45am, but no... we were supposed to meet at the Bahnstation outside, down the road. Oops! So Jedel and I finally figured it out, after looking around the whole hostel for our group. We ran to the Bahnstation, only to see the train pulling away. It was quite funny. Luckily Jedel lives in Köln and knew her way around. I live in Bonn, so once we got there, I knew the way. It was awesome teamwork. We actually ended up taking a different route to Bonn, and we got there about 10 minutes after our group did, instead of 30 minutes later if we had taken the same route they did.
-There in Bonn we split up into different groups and had the Aufgabe (task) to visit several museums. It was lots of fun.
-back at our Hostel in Köln at 5pm
-dinner
-Seminar: Reflection over our day in Bonn, Feedback about our host families and schools.

Samstag/Saturday:
-breakfast
-train to downtown Köln (Jedel and I were the first ones to the train station, we were not about to miss it again...)
-In Köln we broke up into smaller groups and were given free time with the suggestion to visit a museum. We also had to answer a few random trivia questions about the city. My group went to a really cool Köln history museum.
-at 1pm, back at the Hostel and ate lunch
-2pm, Seminar over our expectations versus realities. Then we had the dreaded Sprachtest (language test)...most of us bombed it. Seriously it was unfair! The whole first page was over all the different states and state capitals in Germany. Whatever, it wasn't that big of a deal.
-short break
-seminar again. Talked about our day/experience in Köln.
-dinner
-another Seminar... were talked to about what we can do better as exchange students.

Sonntag/Sunday
-breakfast at 8am
-Free time for church or whatever we wanted to do
-lunch at 12pm
-Seminar: Again we were lectured about what we need to do better as exchange students. Then we talked about our final seminar in Berlin in May. Given strict guidelines about our behavior and appearance while visiting the Bundestag.
-short break
-Seminar: Gave feedback about our weekend and the seminar.
-dinner
-Free Time!!! I went with one of the teachers and 2 other kids to the Köln Philharmonie. It was really really cool. I felt bad for the harpist. She only played for about 5 minutes in the 2 hours, and it was impossible to hear her.
-Curfew at 11:30pm

Montag/Monday:
-breakfast
-saying goodbyes... schon wieder (once again)
-journey back to our host families

Midyear Seminar in Koeln

It was fun! Our CBYX group of 42 people was gathered together the past weekend. It's been almost 5 months since our language camp. It was great to see everyone again, but I can't believe how much we've all changed.
We stayed in a youth hostel nearby the Rhine River for 4 days. Most of the seminar was participating in group discussions. We discussed and gave lots of feedback over our lives so far in Germany. We also spent time in several musuems in Bonn (my home town) and Koeln. I'll post pictures later.