Deutschland!!!

     !Finally in Germany!

It’s hard to believe that summer had flown by so quickly and it’s actually July 26, the day I leave for Germany. It’s so crazy that the week before I was still in Louisville, but now I’m actually boarding the plane to Frankfurt, Germany. I arrived at the airport with the rest of the group at around one o’clock in the afternoon even though our plane doesn’t board till 4:30p.m., checking in and going through security took a while, but we still had 2 hours to explore the airport once we found our gate. I was assigned seat 25B, which sucked a little cause it’s the middle seat, which means that every time I have to pee the person on the outside had to get up and unfortunately the person that end up getting the aisle seat wasn’t someone I actually know, so I was kinda awkward to get up so I just tried to not drink that much liquid.

My flight left at 5:15 p.m. and it’s a 7½ hour plane-ride, so we arrived at Frankfurt at 7 in the morning since German is 6 hours ahead of us. I was planning to watch movies the whole eight hours, but for some reason I felt really sleepy before the plane even took off, so I actually slept five/six hours on the plane, which really helped with the jet lag. The bus ride from Frankfurt to Bad Laasphe was not very interesting, there were a lot of trees and it actually kinda felt like I was still in Louisville. The villages we saw on the way quickly changed that impression (all the towns/villages are super cute!)

After we finally arrived at Bad Laasphe, we settled into our rooms, and had brunch. It was an interesting meal, I’ve probably not had any of the food before, they all tasted pretty decent, but I especially like the potatoes they served (did I mention that I got to eat at the castle?). Then we were allowed a power-nap from 12-3p.m. (most people showered then napped so it was really more like a 2 hour nap). Then we got to explore the town, our leaders took us down to the local village (we weren’t able to shop because most shops were closed on Sundays, which was a really cool difference from the U.S.) the only thing was that I wasn’t expecting the hill to be that treacherous, so I wore flip-flops and had no water with me, by the time we got back to the school, I was ready to collapse. I felt a lot better once I had water, and a ton better once I had dinner, but both my feet got blisters on them, and it really hurts to walk.

Schloss Wittgenstein (Castle I'm staying at)

A little Garden in Town

Far View of Town

We’ve been told that classes go from 9-12:15 every weekday and curfew is 10 on school nights and midnight on weekends. And tomorrow(Monday/first day) we have breakfast at 8:30 and evaluations at 9 a.m. (I’m going to be in the beginner, beginner class because I don’t know any German… I’m really looking forward to camp, and will probably only post once a week or once every two weeks from now since internet’s not very reliable and I’m really trying to learn German so typing long posts in English is a little counterproductive. I also don’t want to spoil anything for the people that might want to apply to this program next year (language camp is really fun and the classes are very useful and definitely not boring and that’s basically all you have to know) 

Host Family!!

            It’s really funny how good news always comes as a surprise even if I’ve been expecting them. And the day I didn’t check my email for possible updates about my host family is the day I receive them. I was actually slowly eating my breakfast and reading at the same time when my mom stood at the top of the stairs and asked me if I got an email about my host family. And since she had gotten a previous email confused as my host family placement, I kinda just looked at her and said, “If you’re talking about the email from a couple days ago, then no.” She then impatiently said, “no, I mean the one that I just received…” and she went on stating facts about my permanent host family. By that time, I was sprinting up the stairs, heading straight to my laptop, frantically trying to pull up my email (which ironically is pulled up already every other day) to see if I really have gotten my host family info. And guess what? I did. And luckily I actually have two host families, one is my welcoming family since my permanent host family is going to be on vocation when I get there, and the other is the one that I will be living with for the duration of my stay in Germany.

            I’m staying at a place call Oberhausen-Rheinhausen, which consists of two little villages. Oberhausen is where my permanent host family lives, and Rheinhausen, is where my welcoming family lives. Rheinhausen is directly at the Rhein-River (Rhine), and they are both near Speyer , Heidelberg and Mannheim. The funny thing is that my welcoming host mom is actually my local coordinator too, so it’s awesome that I’ll get to know her better during those 10 days that I’ll be staying with her. And there’s also the fact that my permanent host family has 2 daughters age 11 and 3, and my welcoming family has children that are slightly older than me, so it’s a good mix. I was kinda hoping that I would have a host sister around my age so I can just follow her around in school and hang around her friends, but I can see how that would have let me become very complacent and basically lazy, so I’m a little glad that I have to venture out a little (not too much because I think my host sister goes to the same secondary school as me so we’ll go to school together, we just won’t have the same classes.)

            I didn’t find out where I’ll be studying initially when I received my host family placement, however, when I skyped Julitta(local coordinator&host mom) she told me that I’ll most likely be going to the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Gymnasium in Mannheim, where my host sister attends. And I sincerely hope that’s where I’ll go, cause Bach is my favorite composer, and the opportunity to study at a school that’s named after him is awesome! I’m super excited to be able to find out where I’ll be staying before I leave for DC on the 24^th of this month, since I was able to buy some gifts for both my host families (I originally only have one set of gifts) and I’m super grateful for this opportunity and definitely grateful for both my host families for choosing my as their host daughter!

            Now I just have to learn German…