Ich bin da!

Hallo Welt, ich bin da, in Deutschland!

Hello world, I am there, in Germany!

After such a long wait to come, and after such a long flight, I am FINALLY here!  

It's really awesome here.  My host family is very kind, warm, and accomodating!  I am so blessed to have been chosen by them to stay for three weeks!

To describe everything I've experienced so far...where to begin!?

Surprisingly, I only slept around 15 minutes in 24+ hours of travel...but none of it was on the plane!  The quick snoozes were on the trains.  I dozed on the planes, perhaps, but I pretty much just sat and watched movies and listened to music.  Even crazier...I wasn't that tired throughout the trip!  Seems like I would be tired after not slee ping for an entire day, wouldn't it?  I think it was the adrenaline.  By the way, all of us exchange students with YFU were on the same plane from Chicago to Frankfurt.  After we arrived in Frankfurt, we parted ways, depending on where our language courses were throughout Germany.  Oh, and I was so excited to speak German that in the Frankfurt airport, I spoke with a lady and then another man in German!  They were simple and short conversations, but in German, nevertheless.

My family picked me up from the train station after two long, HOT train rides.  I traveled with seven other YFU exchange students and our orientation teacher and her husband.  There was no air conditioning on the train, and sitting in the heat for around two hours was grueling...but we all made it!  By the time my family picked me up, I felt absolutely disgusting (and looked eklig, gross, too!  However, we were all in the same condition, and our host families were very understanding.  I learned that the temperature was 36 degrees Celcius that day...in other words, VERY HOT!  My host mom said it was the hottest day of the year so far.

So, I arrived by Auto, car, to my neu Haus, new House, for the next three weeks.  It's a beautiful place where I am!  Everything was pretty relaxed in the first evening, and the shower I took after traveling was great!  The next morning, Saturday, until about an 3pm today, I was camping with my family and some other families, about 25-30 people in total.  Everybody slept in tents, mostly, but my host sister, Linn, and I slept in my host dad's trailer.  Throughout the time, I hung out mainly with Linn, Linn's friend Karolin, and her cousin Lisa.  All three are extremely nice and funny, and even though my German is horrible right now, they were patient with me, and we were all able to have a great time together. 

One fun activity that all us kids, ages 3-17, did, was write a scary play (they wrote it, but I came up with a few character ideas).  At night we acted it out in a path in the woods for all the parents who were escorted by candelight.   My role was to, when my turn came, to sing the 'Oompa Loompa' song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and then after say, 'Luke, ich bin dein Vater' (Luke, I am your father) from Star Wars.  It's pretty crazy, I know, but it's kind of hard to describe.  I got some laughs: even though I speak little German I was able to show my personality, which is cool.

By the way, I'm noticing that this blog already is really long.  Tschuldigung.  Sorry.  But I can't help it! :-P

Oh, and a quick little tidbit: German doors are way cooler than American doors...just saying!!!  :-P

I took a lot of pictures.  Unfortunately, the quality of them is really high, and thus they take really long to upload....so I'm only going to pick a few.  Tschuldigung.  Sorry.

As for now, tschüss, bye!  

I had a lot of luggage.  Besides what you see here, I also had two more suitcases.

Last family picture for the year!

This is on a little TV in front of me on the plane.  Half-way there!  Over the Atlantic Ocean!

Almost there! 

First German advertisement, Anzeige, in the Frankfurt airport.  It says something about using keys to pay in Germany and Europe.

Frankfurt to Düsseldorf

Shout-out to my friend Becca!  Did you know you are in Germany?

First train station in Germany

German Wasser, water....but without bubbles!  Despite what every American says, however, water with fizz is actually quite good.                    

Deutsch Wurst, German meat in a vending machine.

My host parents, Stefan and Renate

When camping, I hung out with these girls.  They are awesome!  Left to right: Karolin, Lisa, Me, Linn.

Haha, playing on a kid tractor thing with an orange popsicle.  Yum!  Got some laughs!

I couldn't figure out how to turn this...sorry...but this is meine Übersetzer, my translator.  To me, this is like pure gold...I use it all the time!

Playing a game of hid-and-go-seek with all the kids.  Nice tight spot...and probably countless bugs...between a row of bushes and the mini pool.

German Bop-it!  Quite confusing with the different language!!!!

Ok, German food is amazing.  Just looking at this makes me hungry!! Oh, and a shout-out to my Mom in America!  If you tried potato salad here you would change your mind about German potato salad!!

My host siblings, Linn, 12, and Noah, 5