Cruisin' and the Weekend

Hey all,

Here's my update from my first weekend in Germany. The short version: it was great.

The long version:

Friday afternoon we went for a cruise on the Rhine. It was absolutely beautiful. Hopefully the pictures can give you some idea of the scale of the valley, but it really is something to which pictures--especially my pictures--can hardly do justice. The Rhine valley is basically filled with lush vineyards, quaint towns (including one named Assmannshausen, but that's beside the point), and crumbling castles . The cruise was beautiful.


Click on the picture for a bigger version and look at the cars for perspective.

After that I went to a town called Rüdesheim and had my first Döner kebab. For anyone who loves gyros or any kind of Mediterranean food, Döner will rock your world.

Later Friday night we went to Charly's Pub and Club with the whole group of exchange students. It was kind of funny to hear the kind of American music that has made it over, but eventually they started playing good enough music so that we could dance. I think many of the locals were a little surprised to see 50 Americans in their small local Disko. Eventually they got to dancing, too. It seems that our dancing styles and theirs are fairly different. Regardless, it was a lot of fun. Some of us went back the next night and mingled more with the locals (because we were a smaller group). It was great just dancing and singing with the Germans. A highlight was singing all of the words to Emanuela by Fettes Brot (great song, if you don't know it, get it) with a German guy. He was so happy I knew it.

Then on Sunday I went mountain biking through the vineyards and some trails through the woods here with other exchange students. It was very intense but fun. It's back to school for the week but everything is still awesome here. That's all for now! Take it easy.