Here are a few photos from when my parents were here to visit last week and from my first week at the university! Most of the pictures from when mom and dad were their are on their camera. I, unfortunately, forgot to download them before they left...

Here are Felicitas and my mother. This is on the Rhine River in a little town called Königswinter, which is across the river from Bad-Godesberg.

Dad and Leonard are looking out over the Rhine river valley from the Petersburg, which is a big palace that was used, and is still used, for a lot of state conferences and gatherings and such. Important people go there, and have for many years in the past as well. It is a windy and steep road up there, but the view is gorgeous. (Dad has a snazzy leather coat...)

I really like this picture of the the guys. This is while we were walking along the Rhine too. We stopped and got some ice cream on our walk, and then walked through the very picturesque city-center.

On Sunday when mom and dad were here we had tons of people over. I met Maria-Theresa, who is originally from Peru. She doesn't speak any English, just German and Spanish...so we talked primarily in Spanish, and sometimes in German...that really threw me for a loop, but she is a very kind and fun person. On the right is Yeon-gi, from Korea. She is studying German and Chinese at the University of Bonn. We had nice time talking. She's a beautiful person.

This here is Vincens. I don't know if I already have a picture of him. He's fourteen, and a nice kid. He also helped me get my internet running, which was awesome. Today he walked into the kitchen and asked if we needed any more help. I was totally impressed.

So, I've started classes. This was from the second day, when we had our orientation all together, before we split up into langauge groups. I sat next to Miki (left) and Ayako, who are with a group from Japan that is staying only for a month. They don't really speak any English, at all, and they know a few words in German. But we had a nice time together. Unfortunately I won't get to see them very much because we are in different classes and they are often travelling with their group.

Anyway, more over school briefly: I tested into the second highest German group (praise the Lord!), and am with 5 other American students that are all agreeable (praise the Lord again!). I'll have to take a picture of our classroom and our building. It's a tiny little room on the top floor...so tiny and so on the top that a large portion of the ceiling is slanted pretty low. Our teacher is cool, I like her a lot. It has been boring at times...I go every day from 9 to 12:15, with a 15 minute break, and we have been doing mostly grammar, but I'll survive. I'm learning learning learning.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, I get to have this really sweeeeet phonetik (phonetics, is that a word in English?) course. We are going over all the German sounds and the differences. I think it's totally cool and fascinating. And our teacher for that is totally into what she does, which is cool, because I love it when the teacher is thrilled about what he/she is teaching, it makes the class SO much more interesting. I just find phonetics totally interesting. That basic linguistics class that I took at WSU has been super helpful, because I know how phonetics work already, the different placements of the tongue, and so I know where the teacher is coming from with her explanations.

I'll try to regularly post now that my internet is more reliable...we'll see.