Centre King: Wiesbaden, Germany

On Sunday, June 18th, I arrived at the Frankfurt airport and was greeted by the family I would get to know over the next three weeks. That very first day my host brother, Leander, took me to get doener, a favorite food of the german people. It didn't take me long to figure out how much I liked the german food, but as I experienced more I liked other things about germany and my experience even more. The next day I went to school for the first time in a month, but I enjoyed it. I quickly made lots of friends some of whom I still keep in touch with now. Of course I talked with them almost all in German. That first week of school was marked with several field trips. We went into Wiesbaden on Monday and Tuesday. The next day we went to Heidelberg, a very beautiful city marked at the top with a large castle. After that we went to Mainz, the sister city of Wiesbaden. When we were in school, we would go to german class in the morning, and join the real German students in the rest of their classes for the day. The length of the school day varied from 1:30-4.This is the view from the vineyards looking over Wiesbaden. The city was were all the german kids went when they wanted to get together, we walked through it countless times.

This city is  Heidelberg. The image on the right is of the castle I referred to earlier. We hiked through the city and up a huge hill to get the the entrance. But as you can see on the left, it was definitely worth it. It was one of if not the most beautiful German city I was able to see.
 This is one of several very beautiful churches we visited in Mainz. This one in particular was built over a thousand years ago. While in Mainz we also visited a museum.
The Next Two Weeks: Much of what my German family, friends, and I did was limited during the week due to school, but on the weekends especially we were really able to experience what it was like being a German our age. All of his friends and the MBA exchange students did countless things together from playing soccer in the park, to going to the pool or out to eat.We even celebrated fourth of July together at the German American friendship festival. However, my favorite thing we all did was going to public viewings for soccer. We were extremely fortunate to be there during the Euro soccer tournament. I had heard about the love of soccer in Europe, but did not actually realize how intense it was until I experienced it myself. I'll never forget sitting with several hundred people holding their breath for the Germany vs. Italy game which went into a very close penalty shootout. When Germany finally won, the place erupted. Actually the whole city erupted. Cars were honking their horns and people were out on the streets for the rest of the night. During these two weeks, I also did many things with just my host family.

They took me all over the country side. We went to different castles and eventually ended up at the Rhein, one of the main rivers in Germany. My host family also took me to Frankfurt for a day. The father worked there. Leander and I wandered for hours before the father came and took us up into what is one of the tallest buildings in Europe.
Travel Week: All of us said goodbye at the train station as the MBA students left with Herr Dougherty for Munich. The first night we arrived we ate at the iconic Hofbrauhaus. We were then exposed to our first Hostel. It had no air conditioning and we were all in one room, but it was so much fun.

The next day we toured several places, one of which being the BMW museum on the right. We also went the the Olympic park where the Olympics were once held. It was made to resemble the Alps. While we were there, there was a bike race, and we followed the path up to the top of a hill, where we saw a spectacular view of the whole city. Later that day and the next day we went to the English Gardens even with thousands of people sunbathing there, was still beautiful. The other exchange students and I swam in the river that runs through it. We also visited Dachau, a nazi labor camp. It was a very moving tour which exposed to us the way some people treated during the WWII era. The next day we departed to Wien.

In my opinion Vienna was the most beautiful city we visited. It was once a main city in the world and still is. I have countless pictures of buildings just like these, but I simply cannot fit them all. The first day we walked around the inner circle that surrounded the city.
The next day we toured countless museums together including where Franz Joseph lived. We ended the day going to a restaurant that served traditional Wiener Schnitzel. It was very good, but then again, almost everything that I ate in Austria and Germany was. The next day I had to leave, because I was meeting my family in London.

I would like to thank the Wilson family so much for giving me this opportunity. I made so many relationships that will stay with me as long as I live. I talk to Leander every day. My German has also improved tremendously. None of it would be possible without you.