I'm in Germany!

Hello everyone! I have officially been in Germany for a little over 2 weeks and I love it here so much! I have been at Language Camp at Schloss Wittgenstein in Bad Laasphe for the 2 weeks I have been here and I still have one more week here before I go to my host family. Because I am constantly surrounded by other Americans and speak English all the time (except in German class) it still hasn't really hit me that I'm actually in Germany. It's kind of like I'm in a little American bubble. It especially hasn't hit me that I'm going to be here for another 10 months.

So a lot has happened since I last blogged. Our plane ride took about 8 hours. We left D.C at 5:20 pm on August 10th and arrived in Frankfurt at 7:20 am on August 11th. Then we drove about 2 hours to language camp in Bad Laasphe. We were all super exhausted and by that point had been awake for about 24+ hours. When we got to language camp we got all our stuff moved up into our rooms and then we had a brunch and then walked down into town. The rest of that day we just slept and did some simple welcome orientation things. The next day we were all still super tired but we took the language exam and were placed in our German classes based on our knowledge of German. Since I have never taken German before I decided to op-out of the exam and be placed in the lowest level class. I'm really glad I am in this class because my teacher, Tim, started from the very beginning and it has been really helpful, especially in terms of pronunciation and basic grammar. There are 7 other people in my class and they are all really nice and we have a lot of fun together. Language camp is pretty routine for the most part so instead of going through what we have been doing day by day I'll just give you a basic overview of our daily weekday schedule.

Monday, Wednesday & Friday

7:30- Wake up and get ready
8:15-8:45- breakfast
9-12- German class
12:30-1- lunch
afternoon- either we go to the Planum (room in the school) for culture seminars or we have free time, it is usually a mix of both
6:30-7- dinner
night- either free time or small group lessons, sometimes a mix of both
10:15- room check

Tuesday & Thursday
The same as Monday, Wednesday and Friday except we have afternoon class from 2-3:30 instead of Planum or free time. Except on these days afternoon class is usually watching a German movie.

On weekends, our schedules and activities vary. Also, our curfew is 12 instead of 10:15. Last Friday night, the 16th, we all went to the Beer Fest in Bad Laasphe. It was really fun and I had my first ever beer. The next day, Saturday, we went to Marburg for the day. It was my first time every taking a train and it was a really cool experience. Marburg was amazing. It is such a beautiful city and it has so much history. We had the day to do whatever we wanted so I explored the city with some of my friends. We walked all over and found a bunch of cool little shops. Then we went to a cafe for drinks and it was so cute. It was right on a river and we sat in the little garden behind it. However, as we left, we noticed there were Neo-Nazi and anti-socialist posters on the wall of the cafe. So we accidentally had drinks in a Neo-Nazi cafe... awkward. After that we walked up to the Marburg Schloss (castle). It was so beautiful and it was on a hill that overlooked the entire city. I have never experienced anything like it and it was absolutely breathtaking. After that, we walked back into the city and had dinner. Then we took the train back to Bad Laasphe. When we were back in Bad Laasphe my friends Katy, Ashley, Arron, and I went to a bar called Roots and had Apfelwein (apple wine) and talked and just had a blast. On Sunday, we got to sleep in and we had a brunch at the Schloss. In Germany, all of the shops are closed on Sundays so it is a very relaxed day. So instead of going into town we had some culture activities in the Planum.

This weekend, there was a festival in Bad Laasphe called the Altsadt Festival. It started on Friday, so Friday night we walked down into town and went and had dinner. I went to a restaurant with my friends Katy, Ashley, and Emily and we had schnitzel and pizza. Then we went to the festival and walked around and looked at all of the different stands and had some beers. There was one tent where there was a band called the The Henhouse Ramblers and they were having a "Hillbilly Hoedown". They had confederate flags and the Texas and Kentucky flags everywhere and they were wearing western shirts and cowboy hats and boots and playing American country music. It was absolutely hilarious. Yesterday, we got to sleep in and then we had some group activities in the morning. That afternoon we had free time and then around 7 we went back into town for the second day of the festival. Of course, the second we left to start walking down it started raining so we ran up to our rooms to grab our raincoats and umbrellas and went into tow anyway. It rained lightly all night but it was still so much fun! Today, we slept in late and had a late brunch. After brunch, we had a culture/information
session in the Planum about host families. After that we had free time for a few hours and I skyped with my family and my grandparents. Right now I am about to head to dinner and then tonight we have small groups.

Our internet here is really bad here but I hope to be able to post again before I leave for my host family on Saturday. I know this post has been a very basic overview of everything, and I am sorry for that, but we have done too much to post in detail about everything! I am having such an amazing time and I love the other 48 CBYXers so much! (The fact that there is now 48 others instead of 49 others is a whole other story in itself that I may or may not post about but long story short someone got sent home already.) I love Germany!

Tschüss,
Dani♡

Pre Departure Orientation

The past two days I have been in Washington D.C for Pre Departure Orientation. Yesterday, we arrived at the hotel around 2:30 and I said goodbye to my family. It was really sad and there were a lot of tears and I will miss them so much! I  got all of my luggage to my room but it ended up that I had been given the wrong room key and was actually in a boy's room. So I had to move all of my luggage up to the second floor to my room. After that, all of us CBYX kids hung out in the lobby until the German kids arrived. Then we had dinner with them and it was really awesome to meet them all! They are all so nice and I'm super excited for them to spend the year in America! After dinner we had an orientation where we told the Germans about America and they told us about Germany. We also did a bunch of icebreaker games and I somehow ended up winning a rock, paper, scissors tournament out of all 100+ people. I'm still not sure how that happened.... After the meeting we went back to our rooms and got to know our German roommates. Mine's name is Elisabeth and she is really nice!

Today, we woke up early and had breakfast. Then we had another meeting where we talked about stereotypes and then broke into small groups and talked about our hopes and fears and just got to know each other. After that we left the hotel and went to a mall and had lunch. Then we all went to the State Department and listened to some speakers from the Cultural Affairs department and some of the people who run CBYX. After the State Department the Americans and the Germans split up and we went to the Holocaust museum and the Germans went to the White House and the Smithsonian. The Holocaust museum was really interesting but also really sad and sobering. After the museum, we went to Old Town Alexandria where we had dinner and then had free time. It was so fun and I got to know a lot of people! I think I will make some really good friends and I can't wait to be with them at language camp!

Here are some pictures from D.C. so far!

I have the pictures from the State Department on my phone and I haven't put them on my computer yet but I'll post them when I upload them to my computer! 

Tschüss,

Dani♡

Last Day and Packing

Today is my last day in Hillsborough. Wow. Where has the time gone? It feels like just yesterday I was freaking out about finishing my application. Now, in a few short hours I will be leaving my home, family, and friends for a year of adventure and self-descovery in Germany. I absolutely can not wait to begin my year in Germany but it is also very sad to be leaving everything I have ever known behind. It still hasn't fully sunk in yet that I'm leaving, it feels very surreal even though most of my things are already packed up. Speaking of packing, it has not been as hard as I thought it would be. I'm not bringing very much, just enough to last me until I can buy some new things that fit better into the German style. Also, I have decided to check two 28 inch suitcases instead of one, along with my carryon and backpack. In my carryon I have everything that I need for Pre Departure Orientation in D.C. so that I do not need to open my big bags until I get to Germany. In the first of my checked bags, I have everything that I will need during language camp. It is all lighter weight clothes that will be comfortable during our three week language camp at Schloss Wittgenstein in Bad Laasphe when we first arrive in Germany. In my second checked bag I have all of my heavier clothes and shoes that I will not need until the weather starts to get cooler. I also have all of my extra toiletries and miscellaneous items. I decided to check two bags instead of one so that I can fill each one about halfway on my way to Germany so that I have a lot of room left so that I can bring things back with me after my exchange year. I think this is better than only bringing one bag and then having to ship things at the end of the year because checking a second bag is a lot cheaper than shipping and it also gives you a greater space and weight allowance than shipping does. Well, I'm going to go finish the last of my packing now and go drive around Hillsborough and Chapel Hill one last time and spend some time with my family. This may be my last post for a little while because Pre Departure Orientation in D.C. is going to be very busy and I don;t know if I will have time to write a post. Also, we are going to have very limited internet access at language camp. I will try my best to write a post in both D.C and at language camp to update everyone on the beginning of my adventure!

Tschüss,
Dani♡