Karaoke Spam and a Seminar

Soooo guten Morgen to everyone!

This week was probably one of the high points so far here in Germany! I had three awesome experiences; a karaoke night with friends, a trip to Monty Python's Spam-a-lot the Musical and I attended our halfway point seminar for our exchange program.

During the weekend I met up with a friend of mine from our exchange program, Martina; and we went with a bunch of our german friends to a karaoke party in the City. I'll just let the pictures do the "singing", because I definitely cant!

Next comes a little Spam...I'm sure most of you have heard of the Monty Python Musical on Broadway and in London (and if not, then figure it out!), it is now playing in Cologne; completely translated into German! I got the tickets for christmas, as did a friend of mine, so the two of us went together.



The bottom line is, the musical is amazing! It was really well done, and super entertaining. Comedy, good music, and dancing were all combined to produce a great show. Anyways, now that my little advert for Spamalot is over, lets get on to the seminar!



We all got in Thursday night, many of the kids had been on trains since early in the morning, but luckily I was just 20 minutes away. This was the same group of kids from language camp waaaay back in august, so it was great to see everyone again. We all just chilled the first night, sitting around sharing stories about our lives in Germany.

On Friday morning we all hopped on a southbound train towards the city of Bonn, where we would be spending the day in museums and around town. The first stop was of course in a cafe, to get some much needed caffeine (most of us were still waking up).



Once we all had our doses of caffeine, we headed out to our first stop of the day, the Bonn Museum of Modern Art.



Being a modern art museum, some of the exibits were a little weird....


But some were pretty interesting...





After the excitment of staring at pictures was over, it was time to head over to the German History museum...But on the way we spotted an old friend of ours in the subway, Helmut Kohl, former chancellor of Germany...talk about one happy fellow


The History museum was very interesting, it covered the time between the end of WWII and Today, with a huge emphasis on the East/West Germany conflicts. Unfortunately photos weren't allowed... but here's one of us in the lobby



The next day we walked from our Youth Hostel to the city center of Cologne, and had a nice time shopping and exploring





Afterwards, we went to the Zoo! The poor little praire dogs were cold. So they stuck them under a heat lamp, just like french fries at McDonalds!







Afterwards we went to a movie in town, and had a little party in the Hostel! It was a really nice day.

But of course, all good things must come to an end, so on the last day we packed up our stuff and travelled back to our families. Of course, a bunch of us did spend the morning in Cologne, relaxing right next to the Rhine.







And to top off the madness, I found out this weekend that I will be giving a speech in front of the German Parliament in May, representing our exchange program. We voted during the seminar, and my peers elected a student named Sal, as well as me. I feel really honored to have the opportunity to speak in front of a National Government as a representative of the USA!

Adios!