First day of German school

I was woken up by my host brother around 7. I got my things together and we made sandwhiches to bring to school. Then we ate cereal for breakfast and headed out the door. My host dad drove us but normally we take the bus. I was really nervous at first. The school is really big, slightly bigger than my school in America. My host brother showed me my classroom. My first class is Spanish. It's beginner's Spanish. I actually know more than the class which helps given the fact that I'm learning to foreign languages at the same time in the same class. Then I had Chemistry which is hard. I probably wouldn't understand the subject in English either. Luckily they're learning about valence electrons which I learned Freshman year in Physical Science. Then we had History class but it's a lot different than American history class. There's lots of discussion and not much lecturing. That was my first day. I got out around 1. All of the classes are 2 hours long. Every day you have different classes. My host brother's friend drove us to downtown Osnabrück and I bought a bus pass for the month that'll I'll use to get to school. We got home and just hung out for a while. Basically we just hung out at home the rest of the day.

Getting to Germany

We were woken up around 8 and we all ate breakfast. Around 1 we all boarded the buses to Dulles DC airport. As a group we checked in all our luggages at the United airlines desk, all 91 students going to Germany. As you can imagine, quite a lot of luggage. It took us about an hour to check all of our luggage in. Then we proceeded to security which took about another hour for all of us. We then had to take the airport tram to our gate. By the time we got to our gate it was 4:00 and the plane boarded at 4:38. I called my family and bought a frosty from Wendy's, my last purchase in America for a while.

I sat next to Claire on my left and Kati on my right across the aisle. We talked a lot and I spent most of the ride awake and only slept an hour. When we arrived in Frankfurt I was freaking out and totally excited. We arrived in Germany at 7:20am so basically we all had to stay awake for a day with no sleep. All the AFS students were brought into the same room where we waited as more AFS students from all over the world arrived. There were Bolivians, Danes, Brzilians, Italians, Ecuadorians, Vietnamese, Belgians and most excitingly, Japanese people! I was so happy to get to speak Japanese. I even got to interpet between the Americans and the Japanese. Most of the exchange students didn't know English or very much German. I look forward to the time at the end of the year when we meet again all can speak German and communicate with each other. Once all the exchange students arrived we were divided into groups and put on trains with the other students heading in our general area. We left around 3. I was on the train bound for Bremen and there were about 10 other AFS students. Once we arrived at Osnabrück 3 of us disembarked. An Italian girl, an American girl from Connecticut and myself. I didn't know how I was getting picked up. It was dark. I was in across the world in a city where I knew nobody. I'm surprised I wasn't scared but I suppose I was so jetlagged that I wasn't. My host family met me on the platform and it wasn't so awkward. We walked out to the car outside the train station and drove to my new home. My host family showed me around the house. I unpacked my things and passed out. I woke up the next day around 10. My host mom told me I slept 11 hours. I guess I needed it. I was still titred the next day.

Day of Orientation

We had non stop culture workshops today. Americans who have gone to Germany gave us lectures on what to expect.

This was my last day full day in America. It's insane. I've been waiting for this day for almost a year. It doesn't seem real. I can't believe this really is happening. Good night and goodbye America! I'll see you in a year. Next blog post will be from Germany.

A Day in DC

We all received a 6:30 wake up call, picked up bagged lunches at the front and boarded buses. We took a bus to the Department of State to meet with the Educational branch which funds our scholarship. We had the head of the Europe desk at the state department speak to us as well as a foreign service and a civil service officer.

We left the Department of State around 12:30 and boarded the bus again to Union Station where we hung out and ate lunch. We would have done a walking tour of the National Mall however, due to the rain we were forced to remain in Union Station.

At 5 we took the bus to the German American Heritage Museum. The curator, a real German spoke to us about German Americans and their influence on the US. Then we had a woman from the German embassy come and speak to us at the museum. She worked for the German embassy here in DC. She was an American and actually a n alumna of the same program we're doing now. She went to a town not to far from where I'm going either!

At 7 we loaded the buses and went to Café Mozart, an authentic German restaurant in DC. I got Chicken Schnitzl with potatoe salad which was really good! Maybe even better in Germany. We got home around 10 and I collapsed and fell asleep nearly on the spot.

Leaving Philadelphia (8/6)

My mom and I left Philadelphia around 10 and arrived at DC around 2. We ate lunch ate a very somber lunch at Bertuccis and finished up before 3 and checked in at the desk at the Crowne Plaza hotel where our orientation was being held. The ladies at registration told us that I couldn't register till I said goodbye to my mother. We stepped back from the desk and bid each other a teary goodbye. With puffy eyes I checked in, got my room key, moved my luggage to my room. I hung out for a half hour or so in my room and waited for the redness around my eyes to go away. I was full of regret, sadness, uncertainty. I wasn't sure I had ever wanted to go on this exchange. I left my room and started talking to other AFS students and felt better and better. We had a light night as other students arrived from different parts of the country and I got to make some friends.

The Blog is Back

I finally found out my host family! I'll be living the Konyas in Osnabrueck. My host dad works at a hospital and my host mom is a school teacher. I have to host brother's, Mete and Emre. Mete is a year older than me and in high school. He just got back from a year in America and speaks flawless English. Emre is in college and studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Hopefully we get to go visit him ;).

Osnabrueck is a small city (170,000 people). It looks really old, in a good way! I can't believe this is really happening. It seems so much more real now. I'm going to Germany for a year! A YEAR!

This month I've been doing an SAT prep class for the Oct 1st SAT I'll take in Germany. I've been preparing and taking it easy this month. I practically bought a new wardrobe to take with me, and got my documents together for my visa.

I've also gotten to see a lot of my friends and family. I only have 13 days left in Philadelphia and 17 days left in America. It still hasn't hit me. It probably still won't till I'm on the plane to Frankfurt.

I leave Philadelphia and go to DC on September 6th and I have orientation until the 9th. Then on September 9th all us CBYXer's fly to Germany and arrive there the 10th. Since my scholarship is gov't funded I get to visit the State Department and my local congressperson. I feel so important. haha

I'll write another post about DC and getting to Germany in 2 weeks!

Leaving Japan :'(

After the party Soya and Suguru stayed overnight so they could come to the airport to with me off. We ended up playing around and talking till 2am. I stayed up till 2:30 or so and cried and couldn't sleep. I felt bad. My stomach didnt feel well. Okāsan woke me up around 7:30 so I could shower. I made my bed, packed up my belongings. Luckily I was so tired that I didn't cry. Katsuumi and Katsurou helped me with my bags. Norihito's mom was out to take Soya and Suguru to the airport since we all couldnt fit in just one car and she was wishing me off. I didn't cry during the car ride. Once we got to Naha airport we met up with other YFU people and waited to everyone arrived so we could check in as a group. It took a while and I kept my mind of leaving talking to the other Okinawa YFU people and my host family. After we checked our bags and got our tickets to Tokyo we went downstairs to the security area at the entrance to our gate.

Suguru, Soya, and my family was there and then Shiori, Serika, Rino & Ayame came. I took some pictures with everyone and was fine. I started tearing up as we waited and hung out at the security gate. I gradually became more and more tearful. The speaker announced that the plane was boarding. Then a guy from YFU waved us and compelled us to go to security and get to the plane. The YFUer's started crying then. I started bursting into tears and hugged my host mom who was also crying. Then I went over to my the girls and gave them each a hug and I think a couple of them were crying a little bit. I shook Soya and Suguru’s hands and then I shook Katsuumi then Katsurou’s hands and walked to the conveyer belt security thing. We hurried to security and boarded the plane just in time. I stumbled unto the plane and received looks from people (I'd probably give a weird look to a crying kid on the plane. Brie sat next to me and tried to get me to stop but I couldn’t. I opened up the one piece tissue box ichi kumi, my classmates gave me and it end up being an amazing gift. In an almost fit for a movie event it came in handy right when I needed it. When I got it I wondered how I would ever use it and now it all makes sense now. What a crazy work of fate.

Once we arrived at Narita airport we went through immigration and proceeded to the United Check-in. We saw some other YFU students from JPDO. (e.g. Taylor, Zahrah, Kiven) and we got in line at the United counter to get our tickets. We received our tickets to San Fran, and I got my ticket to Philadelphia. We went through security, and proceeded to the international gates. We had a 4 hour layover and spent most of the time reunited with or friends and chatting it up. I was on the same flight to SFO as Taylor, Dimitri, Brie, Alana, Alex, Sim, Spencer, Kima, Sasha and Katherine. I sat next to Sim. I tried to sleep on the planen ride but only managed to sleep for about an hour. It's too uncomfortable! I listened to the airplane radio a lot and then Sim, Brie and I went to Taylor's seats and talked until the flight attendant made us move back to our seats because we were being to loud. Sim depressed me by pointing out that we will never see some of the YFU people ever again. The flight back was sad. It wasn't exciting like the flight to Japan. Life isn't fair to have us make such relationships, friendships and then separate us from those people we bonded with. Once we landed at in SF we went through customs and immigration and headed to baggage claim. (trills Back in America!) We had to claim our bags then recheck them for domestic flights. At baggage claim I bid goodbye to Sasha, and later Sim, who both live in the bay area. (no tears though, just feeling sad) I hugged them both. Then we proceeded through security (for the 3rd time that day) and checked in with the YFU volounteers. Everyone had different flights all over and all leaving at different times. Again it was sad to think that Ill never see some of these people ever again. I had one of the latest flights (3:10), or so it seemed.

I still really miss my host family and my friends from Japan. Luckily they have Skype! ;). I'm forever grateful to my host family who took me , taught me so much, and loved me. We'll meet again!