AIB christmas outing 2009

This year's Christmas outing took the AIB staff to Mayschoss, a small village situated in the Ahr Valley south of Bonn, and its surrounding vineyards. While hiking up and down beautiful snowy hills, we learned about the region's wine growing history and practices and got to taste a few samples. Afterwards, we enjoyed a hearty dinner (and more wine...) in the cellars of the world's oldest wine growers' co-op. What are we to learn out of this? "Trinken lernt der Mensch zuerst, und später erste das Essen. Drum soll er auch als guter Christ, das trinken nicht vergessen." (one of our tour guide's wisdoms!).

Texas A&M University and Loyola Marymount University students visit Bonn's historic city hall

Deputy Mayor Angelica Maria Kappel welcomed the students to the reception room of Bonn's historical city hall, which has been a venue to receptions for many famous statesmen in the past, among them John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton.

Welcome New Europe Students!

The New Europe Programm Spring 2010 arrived! After a turbulent journey via icy London Heathrow, the New Europe Student finally made their way to Bonn. A great academic semester with trips to Berlin, Prag, and Spain lies ahead of them...and what could have been a better start than spending a day in the snowy Eifel region.

Amazed by so much (real) snow, the LA natives not only enjoyed a mass service in the abbey church of Maria Laach, a masterpiece of German Romanesque architecture, but also spent a whole lot of time in Monreal, a picturesque little town a good hour south of Bonn.

The only thing that was more exciting than the snow? The hot chocolate afterwards...