So this is my third full day in Aachen, and I'm really enjoying it. So far I've purchased a new bike (purple!), managed to remember a bit about not falling off of it, walked and biked for miles in loops through the forest, explored the downtown area, and even went to church.
My temporary host family, The Schneiders, are Catholic, so we went to a big Catholic church this morning. As they taught me in Catholic school, masses have the same organization everywhere in the world, so I knew almost everything that was going on just by the timing. I didn't understand most of the prayers, but my roommate Iva and I chimed in on the songs and on the Lord's Prayer. It was a nice experience, but I think I'll try again when I can actually understand a bit of the sermon. For all I know the priest could have been talking about kittens for half an hour.
The city of Aachen itself is beautiful. There's an extensive downtown area that's mostly cobblestone, with shops ranging from small and pricey to huge drug stores and Macy's look-a-likes. There are a couple of really old and beautiful churches, and I made sure to visit the ones we passed. The town hall looks like a Cathedral, but has infact always been a Government building. It dates back to the time of Charlemagne, but the original building has been replaced a couple times and rebuilt in the same style. In the center of town is the Dome, which is about 1200 years old. Over the years it's been added on to and updated, so it's now a sprawling church with numerous side chapels, each the size of a whole church. The inside of the original, center dome is coated with mosaic tiles that were recently cleaned, meaning that the walls and ceilings nearly glow. According to Mrs. Schneider, there are three holy cloths that hold huge significance for some pilgrims, who make their way through Aachen every seven years. Because of this tradition, the city of Aachen created its own type of bread which would last for a long time without rotting, so they could feed travelers for a long time. It's called Printen, and it comes in flat rectangles that taste an awful lot like gingerbread. The loaf we tried was dipped in chocolate and filed with... something sweet.
In any case, as you can tell, I've been exploring and learning more about my new home. I'm really enjoying myself, and I can't wait to see more, and to start language camp tomorrow! We'll be in language classes from 9 to 4 every day for three weeks, or that's what I've come to understand. I hope that training will let me survive in school!
My first trip to a 'German' restaurant. Everything is expensive, and they don't have frappes here :/
One of the churches connected to the Dome
A side chapel (with me out front!)
A bit of the mosaics. The lighting was quite bad, but I did as well as I could.
The container for one of the holy objects which is removed and shown to the public every seven years
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