We all knew about the task ahead of us, but we didn't know about the task ahead of us. It was kind of like a culture shock.
~ Corey Mays
The last three days have been interesting to say the least.
After I said goodbye at the airport I headed through security.
I was told by other exchange students that TSA was one of the many hassles of exchange. Instead of finding cold, unforgiving people, the Identification Clerk gave me a few Kleenex, and the security screensers were singing 'Barbie Girl' while joking about my blazer being hazardous material. The lady who helped me with my bags told me about her daughter going to Australia through Rotary.
My flight to Phoenix was extremely late, so they express deported all the people with tight connections. My plane had started boarding about 20 minutes before we landed, and on my way out the door I asked the flight attendant whether I should try to make my plane. She told me that I probably wouldn't, and that I should try to rebook.
Instead of listening, I sprinted from the end of the B concourses to the and of the A Concourses, and arrived just as they were about to close the door. They let me in, AND upgraded me to an exit row seat for free!
We got to Phili early.
Whoever designed that airport was nuts. Having 9 concourses that don't connect to each-other at all? Except on the very ends?
It wasn't fun. I finally tracked down a girl that was wearing a blue Rotary blazer. We scoured the airport for others headed to Frankfurt, and and after about an hour, we met up with about 10 others.
Our flight was VERY long. Mostly we talked, and nobody slept. The flight was an hour late getting into Frankfurt, so I had much trouble getting to my gate on time. I missed the flight in the end, but a lovely exchange student named Eli helped me out we both got our flights re-booked.
Since my flight was changed, I got to fly to Hamburg with Alvaro! He is the other exchange student in our town. When we arrived at the airport, I had to file a lost luggage paper. It turned out that my bags did come out of the carousel, and they were on the wrong one.
We left the secure section of the airport, and were greeted by our Gastfamilie!
We had to drive through Hamburg to get to Lüneburg. In between, there is no speed limit, so my Gasteltern were driving the equivilent of 95-100mph. Fast.
I got a tour of the house, moved into my room, and had dinner with my AWESOME Gastfamile. They would laugh at me every time I nodded off during the 'Fußball Spielen' on the TV.
I eventually went to bed around 22 Uhr.
I awakened at around 4 Uhr, and I studdied some German for a few hours. Later, after my Gastvater got home from an appointment, we went to go get all my legal paperwork done.
Did I mention we rode bikes?
We went and rode through all the streets, and he showed me a few things in the beautiful town. We also went to lunch with Till, and Gastmama at a restaurant in down town Lüneburg. We then went and looked at the more historical churches and buildings in my town.
Later in the day, I showed my Gastmama and Till pictures of Alaska, Decorated my room a little, and made American cookies with Cibelle. It was quite interesting considering we had trouble with a few of the ingredients.Can you tell that my English is getting really poor? We have been speaking a mixture of English and German, and as my English grows worse, my German gets better. There will probably be a point when I will start blogging entirely in German. Don't worry, there is a Google translator button on my blog, so you can read it in English if you want.
I will post later about the differences of transportation in Germany... it IS quite different!
Auf Weidersehen!Liebe von Deutschland!
Sarah
Sehr gut! I had heard that about speed limits in Germany, as my brother just moved to somewhere near Münich about 4 months ago.
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