Before I Forget

I've been in this country a little less than four months and I've slept in ten different houses.

Two Months Down

This marks my third month in Germany and my second month in Happerschoß, Hennef.

I know this has been a recurring theme, me saying I'd post and then not posting but I promise it's not because I'm lazy. Or maybe it is. Or maybe too much has been happening but at the same time not enough is happening.

At this point, I've gotten used to life in Germany and the little things that used to make me surprised or annoyed are gone now. I'm pretty grateful that we had language camp at Hedersleben before coming to our host families because not only was it helpful because I knew no German whatsoever but because Hedersleben literally had nothing in it and it made me more appreciative of where I am now.

Speaking of where I am now, I live in a village of 1,500 people and we have a restaurant, a dentist, and I think a few farmers? I don't know but in order to get in and out of the village you have to go up or down long and winding roads through forest and that was really cool at first but now I'm kind of getting tired of it because the bus only comes once every hour on weekdays and then every other hour on weekends. But that's okay because it's manageable.

Because I take the bus to school every morning and go home with it, I have a SchülerTicket which allows me to take any public transport anywhere in my Bundesland south of Köln (Cologne). It's pretty cool that I live so close to a big city because I get to go there any time I want but also enjoy the village life. But to be honest I had a hard time accepting the village life at first because it's the complete opposite of the OC life. I have to travel an hour to get to the closest Starbucks. It's a little heartbreaking but I manage. ~

But that's okay because Starbucks here is overpriced. Everything in Germany is overpriced. I cry a little bit inside when I go into a store and see a nice T-shirt and see that it costs €25, which is relatively cheap for Germany, and then realize that in dollars that's $34 and think about how much cheaper it would be in the US. Hollister is also very overpriced! I mean it was already overpriced in the US but here it's inflated to the max. But still everyone seems to always be wearing Hollister. That can also be annoying/sad sometimes because every time I see a shirt or a jacket that says Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach or Newport Beach it makes it difficult not to think about home.

As I said before, I had a really hard time accepting the village life at first and during the first week I had homesickness. It was just a combination of all the culture shock and then starting school and realizing I couldn't just listen to the teachers and understand what they were saying. School was really difficult and is still pretty difficult because of my lack of German speaking abilities but it gets better little by little. Making friends is pretty difficult for me because I'm paralyzed every time I try to speak German so I always end up finding people nice enough to say hi to me and then just standing with their group. This isn't the case with everybody, I promise. I'm just slow (if not the slowest) on the Freundschaft business. That wasn't the case at home but I guess now I know that this is what happens when you take away American humor and ratchetness and sass and mutual understanding of language? It's all still a learning process.

I've gotten along pretty well with my host family, though! I love them and I appreciate that they always try to make me feel like part of the family and I do feel that way. I've gone to a political seminar with them about the Israel and Palestine conflict and while we were there we visited Bergen-Belsen which is the camp that Anne Frank passed away in. We've also visited the Deutsches Museum in Bonn together which was also very interesting. I'm so glad that we do activities like this together and I'm very excited to go skiing with them for the first time during Winterferien.

This is a lot of information to be just thrown at you all at one time but because I haven't been posting I thought I'd just talk about a few things. More posts about my Herbstferien will come soon and about the exchange student life. (:

Bis später ~

P.S. I forgot to write an actual post about the Hedersleben life so I think I might make one about that.

Two weeks down

I promise I'm not dead.

I'll make a new blog post soon!
(actually... probably multiple)

Trip to the Feurwehr

Last Friday (August 30) a small group of people got to go to the fire brigade in a nearby town called Gatersleben. It was a really great experience and I've actually never been to a fire station in America so this was a first for me. We got to use the really powerful hoses and the tools they use to break cars apart. It was pretty legit. I volunteered to wear the firefighter outfit but I was way too short and weak for it! Here are some pictures. (:

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but internet at the monastery is very limited. There's no more wi-fi and everyone has to share one ethernet cable so I think I'll hold off writing about the whole Hedersleben experience until I get to my host family...which is in three days! I'm really excited!!

Quedlinburg

Group 3
My class for language camp.

Bratwurst!!!

Some views from Quedlingburg.

Hallo, ich heiße Bianca.

I really don't know where to start. So I guess, first off, I am in Germany now in a little town called Hedersleben. There's really not that much going for this town except the Kloster (monastery) hosts CBYX kids with PI every year. There's a sports place with some soccer fields, two restaurants, and a little grocery store. It's different being in the monastery because everything is so old and they have basically artifacts out on display. It's very renovated but it still feels very old.

Classes started about a few days ago. I'm in the beginner class because I've never taken a day of German but I think I'm progressing a bit. We have class in the morning from 9-12 and then another class from 3-6. We have "study hour" at 1pm when we're supposed to look over our vocabulary and do homework and then free time at 2pm. That's usually the time when people go to "town" meaning they go get Döner or buy things from the supermarket.

I'm still very excited about being in Hedersleben but I have the feeling that after this first week, I'll be bored of going to the grocery store everyday and not having much to do. Today I went to the beekeeper and he taught us all about bees and honey and it was really fun. I got to hold a frame of honeycomb and honey. He let us try different kinds of honey and it was so good I bought two jars. One for my host family and one for my natural family.

Speaking of host family..I finally got my host family! The weird thing is I've actually had them since June and in some strange occurrence of fate I just never received their information. I'm so glad I finally have contact with them though because it's so exciting to be finding out about where I'm going to be living and how I'm going to be living for the next ten months. I got a year placement meaning I won't have to switch in the middle of the year so I'm very excited!

I'm going to to be in a little town called Happerschoß in Nordrhein-Westfalia much like Hedersleben but it's 45 minutes away from Köln and 30 minutes away from Bonn. It's like the best of both worlds because I get to be in a small place like I had hoped for but also close to some city life. It's also good that a lot of the kids in my group are placed very near me so if I ever am in need of someone to talk English with it won't be a struggle to get to anyone.

The wi-fi is not very good here, it doesn't work half the time and only works in two places. I'm going to upload pictures later.

Bis bald!!!

Before the Departure

It is 2:02 am and I am in bed in a hotel DC trying and completely failing to fall asleep. I leave for Germany tomorrow and cannot be more excited but also apprehensive. I've spent so many months dreaming about this day and I can't believe it's finally here. I leave the US tomorrow and won't come back for ten months. As cliche as it sounds, words cannot express the feelings that I have towards this moment. I feel incredibly thankful and blessed to have this opportunity. Thanks to everyone's support and well wishes!