I haven't slept for nearly two days

I'm in Germany!

So, send off was kind of stressful because it was at the same time that May Term classes started. I was glad to see that my friends still came. The bus ride to Chicago was quick and we were the first group to get off the bus and go to our terminal. One member of our group is not going to be here until Saturday because her passport didn't come in on time. The group of us immediately started to bond and we even ran in to the May Term in London people before we boarded our plane for the 8 hour flight that lay ahead of us.

The plane was sweet. We flew Air India so we got served curry chicken and had a bunch of Bollywood movies we could watch. The Indian food didn't sit well with me so when we landed in Frankfurt, I was feeling nauseous. I ignored it the best I could and forgot about it for a while once we started doing SST things like taking group pictures and exchanging our currency.

After our 8 hour flight, we had a 4 hour bus ride to Jena. It was foggy outside and it was sprinkling but it didn't mask the massive mountains and hills and large fields of yellow canola. We passed many famous castles on our way to Jena and entertained ourselves by reading from this German phrases books that a member of our group has. After spending hours going over pick up lines in German, we finally arrived in Jena. It's even more beautiful in real life. It is mainly populated by college students so there are a lot of young people around. One thing we were initally warned about was the bikers. People are biking EVERYWHERE. It's a Mennonite heaven. There are windmills and solar panels and bikers. Anyway, we were warned to look out more so by getting hit by a biker instead of a car. We learned how to use the transit system and the group of us, along with our leaders and teachers, went out to eat at a fancy German restaurant where I finally got to try German brot (bread) for the first time.

Ridiculously delicious.

After our dinner, we went on a tour through the city and saw the kino (movie theater), Jena Kolleg, a mall with stores I have never heard of, and a bunch of market vendors and blumen (flowers) stores and many places to buy brot. Our tour was done entirely in Deutsch but I was able to understand enough to know what was going on. Die straße (the streets) are almost all made out of brick and the architecture is absolutely beautiful. Jena is surrounded by mountains and hills and the weather is nice and cool. My host father took me on a bike ride through Jena and up a mountain to show me the route I would be taking to get to the school where my classes will be taking place. Tomorrow is our first time to travel through Jena alone and I'm a little bit worried.

So, my family. I have a little host sister and brother ages 5 and 8. Both of them are a lot of fun and they don't care that my German is not as good as it should be. We played with wooden instruments earlier and played games with me speaking in my broken German, and them completely fluent in German. They're learning English so we help each other out. My host father is really cool and pushes me to try new things including food and drink which I love. My host mother has a good sense of humor and I love it when we share a laugh. They were amused at my pathetic attempt to cut asparagus and eventually taught me the right way after I had sufficiently failed. The house is beautiful. It's massive, and I have my own room. Their wohntzimmer (living room) looks out at the moutains behind them and their house is very clean and neat. I'm very comfortable and look forward to getting to know them better for the next six weeks.

Ok, that's enough. Until next time. We're supposed to be checking out some sweet castle soon and have a trip to Berlin planned. Classes don't start until Monday because tomorrow is a German holiday. heh heh heh

Ich liebe dich!

Leah

Excited, nervous, sweating profusely...

I leave in 8 days. This is ridiculous. I have so much packing to do and I still have two exams to study for and a final portfolio to put together.

I'll be updating this blog a lot more once I'm in Germany. If you care about what's going on, then feel free to keep track of this. It'll save me having to answer individual messages on Facebook and through email.

AAAHHH!!!