Friday, September 16, 2011

Sorry!!

Sorry I haven't been updating! I've just been soooooo busy! I will try to upload photos/text asap though! :) Today was my birthday and my family had a party for me, tomorrow we're going to an amusement park! I just wanted to check in and let you guys know I'm alive and loving Germany! (Except for this cold weather, yuck!)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Photos!

My going away cake!

Grace and I! 

I taught her well :)

Hannah, Grace, me, and Savannah!






The family




Germany!




My new room!











Day 1 and Day 2

I woke up at 7am, to get ready and finish up packing. We left a little after 9 and took a detour to see my Gigi (great grandma) before I took off. My first flight to Philadelphia left at 4:30. There was where all the outbounds to Germany met up to all fly out together to Frankfurt. That flight went so much better then expected. We had all been told that we would all be sitting together, but it turns out we were wrong. No one sat next to each other. This plane was huge. It had 3 rows and the 2 outside rows at 2 seats, the middle row had 4 until where I sat where it turned to 3 seats. I got the middle row, middle seat of course. Surrounded by people I didn't know. (That's how this whole year is going to be for me, so whatever). After an hour of sitting on the plane, on the ground still let I remind you. They told us they couldn't find out exactly what was wrong with the plane while doing maintiance but they thought they had an idea, so they told us to wait out another hour on this crowded, hot airplane with this Italian baby screaming. After that it was around 11pm when we got served a dinner and had a choice between chicken or pasta. I picked the safer route, pasta. It was ehhhh, okay. Better then expected. It came with a gross, crunchy salad with gross ranch dressing, a roll, butter, and some sort of "blondie" cookie. I took a few bites of everything and tried to go to sleep. They made everyone shut the window blinds because the sun was coming up. I got the worse seat, it wouldn't recline, but somehow I managed to fall asleep for an hour. Blah..... so we landed in Frankfurt and managed to get through Customs and Security again to make our next to Dusseldorf. The flight to Dusseldorf was only 35 minutes (I think). I feel asleep on the flight. So after we land, we go to get our luggage. All arrived safetly. As we turn around and there are 2 sliding doors that lead to the waiting area and I see my host mom first. I was so relieved!! They were waiting for me with a huge banner saying "Rotary International" and another saying "Willkommen Madison!" My host mom and brother, Rotary counsilor, Saic (he's an inbound from Thialand), Jasper and his dad and my next set of host parents were there waiting for me. They all ran up and gave me hugs which set my nerves aside. My host mom, Irene, had a sun flower for me. Then we went home. The roads are crazy and FAST! Everyone drives fast. Germany is seriously the best country ever. The landscape is just beautiful. There was some traffic and everyone in the car started laughing. Finally someone explained to me what was so funny. "This is called a traffic jam in English. Jam is what you eat and put on bread! hahahah" I was like omg -_- Anyways, we get home and unload my luggage and take it upstairs to my new room. Irene shows me around the house and fixes something to eat for a late lunch. It was chicken with pineapple and cheese. Then the neighbors came over and asked if I wanted to go on a walk with them and their dogs, so I did. And by walk they mean a looooong walk. I was so tired, even more than I was before when we got back. So I said "gute nicht" and went to take a shower where I realized they only have a bath. Ugh. So I took a bath and washed my hair to my best ability and went to bed. I was so tired. Irene woke me up at 7am the next day. I woke up and got ready and went down and had breakfast. I finally realized why Rotary warned us about gaining weight. Germans eat so much! After breakfast we went to go get my Alien Residence Card in Schleiden. The lady got so confused because I was born here. She told me that my passport photo wouldn't do because I was smiling. So we left and went to get a new photo taken that cost 10 Euro. It turned out horrible. Oh well. Then we went grocery shopping and made lunch. Irene and I made 2 pizzas because the neighbors were coming over to lunch with us. They were really good. After lunch, we went a walk again with the dogs. Even longer than the first one. I was sooo worn out. Once we got back home, I went with Irene to go pick up my host father from work and we went grocery shopping again for dinner. My host parents' parents were coming over for dinner to meet me. Jasper came for dinner too. I also got my first German beer (that I drank with my host family.... Rotary!) Once everyone left, Jasper and I watched some soccer and then hung out in my room and watched funny youtube videos and he helped me with my German. And this leads me to right now, I'm super tired, it's almost midnight here. So I will inset some photos and then I'm going to bed!