Arrival

Düsseldorf has a beautiful ultra-modern airport, though I was too drowsy to fully appreciate it. I did visit the McDonald’s there though, noting that Pulp Ficition was accurate as a quarter pounder is actually called a Royale with cheese in Europe.  We met Stephanie, one the employees of AIB, and climbed into one of the Mercedes-Benz and BMV taxis that waited at the curb. Driving in to city I was amzed by all the lush greenery and how every few seconds we seemed to be passing some kind of park. AIB’s office are in what in a brick warehouse that had been converted into flats, located in Düsseldorf’s Media Harbor next to the Rhine river which contains a collection of Frank Gehry buildings and other eclectic architecture. All of the students arrived at AIB and were introduced to the staff. We then took a short walk around along the Rhine and admired the beautiful bridge that spans it, just north of us. Then the host parents started to arrive to pick up their students. Finally in the late afternoon I was the only one left that hadn’t been picked up feeling like the last dog at the pound not to be chosen. Finally my host mum, Yvonne picked me up explaining the she had just gotten off work. We drove to her and her boyfriend’s Peter’s apartment which was on the third and fourth floor of above a Chinese restaurant and across the street from a welcoming looking Bierhaus. Their apartment was amazing; it looked like a picture from an IKEA catalogue. My room had a few overlooking the busy Kölner Landstrasse below. Yvonne works at an orphanage in Düsseldorf and sometimes spends the night working there and Peter works the night shift as a nurse at the local hospital meaning that I will have the whole place to myself for a few days a week. Peter doesn’t really speak English, so we mostly talked through Yvonne’s translating. But I think that the situation just serves as greater motivation to learn German and learn fast. We ate dinner and watched a little German TV. Until I was finally ready to go to sleep early and hop on the tram system back to AIB.