Arrival:
The day before I left on the plane, I had to be dropped off at a hotel with all the other exchange students going from the US to Germany. I felt pretty freaked out at first, to be quite honest. I didn't know any of them at all, and most of them had already graduated from high school and were doing their exchanges as a gap year. There were 27 of us in total. We all stood in a room and socialized for a bit. What I wasn't aware of was that in the room directly to our right, there were 50 other students going to Germany, for a scholarship program called CBYX. CBYX focuses on German politics, but sadly was limited to students living on the East Coast (through AFS, at least). For the next few hours, we were oriented on German culture. What to do, what not to do, what it's like, and so on. I got to know a few of the other people there, and pretty much everyone was a cool person.
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| View of the sky while the sun was setting. |
We've since added each other on social media so that we can each follow what everyone else is doing. It felt good, knowing how many other kids were doing the same thing I was, and knowing as little German as I did. I mean, we were all going to be challenged. Not one person I talked to (probably other than my roommate, Nic) really felt confident about their German proficiency. Nonetheless, we boarded the plane the next day at 5:00 PM and *tried* to get some sleep. I know I didn't get more than 40 minutes of sleep, and most people didn't do much better. It was a pretty flight though, and the exchange student who sat next to me, Nick, (with a k) was a really cool guy. We actually had the isle and window seats with nobody in the middle, which was pretty lucky judging that the plane was basically full. Anyways, we landed in Frankfurt around 7:00 AM, (local time) which to us felt like 1:00 AM. Nobody cared though, we were all super hyped to finally be there. The sun was rising just as we entered the airport, and it was a hot, sunny day from then on. Then came the fun part. (Well, it was fun for a little while). We waited as the rest of the AFS Students going to Germany came, and they came from all over the world. Kids from Japan, China, almost all of South America, Russia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Hong Kong, etc. arrived, not long after we did. Some kids were lucky, and their host families were able to pick them up in the Frankfurt airport. (Yes Nick, I'm talking about you). I, however, was not so fortunate. I waited for about 7 hours for my train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart to arrive. At first, I thought it would pass by in an instant, but we all got quite bored of waiting around, and my train was among the last trains for the day (for the students). Let me tell you, these trains are silent. I was sitting on the train for a little over an hour, and the sound was almost imperceptible. I sat next to an exchange student from Slovakia named Andrej, and we just kind of talked about the whole experience. We talked about our own countries and what we hoped to get out of this experience. Once the train came to a stop, the 9 of us going to the Stuttgart station got off. This is when I met my host family. They're honestly really great, and I'm very happy to be here. It was Saturday though, and the first day of school was Monday.
School:
The first day of school felt very overwhelming. I had no idea what my teachers were saying, at all, (until I got to English class). The classes I started with (which I'm still in, for now) are made for foreigners, so that they can integrate into the German school system. Most of the classes I have are German as a Second Language, and I'm understanding more than I could at the beginning. Keep in mind though, I've only been in school for a week. I don't know, it's a bit strange. Sometimes I'll understand almost everything my teachers say, while sometimes (like today) I'll feel like I don't really know what's even going on, let alone understand the lesson. I can't say yet, but I don't understand enough German to be put into regular classes. Hopefully I will in the coming weeks. The other kids in my class are from Italy, Croatia, Hungary, and Syria, and I like all of them. I know it'll be really awesome once I get myself figured out, but for now, I'm still feeling rather confused.
More:
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| Sunny, our dog. |
So, my host family has a dog named Sunny, which is something I've never experienced before. I'll take her on walks sometimes, which is nice. Our house is right next to a really large mountainside vineyard with a path that you can walk on. While it was sunny (haha) for the first few days, it's been cloudy and rainy for the past two and it will probably be for the rest of the week. My host mom, Sabine, made a cake out of plums as a welcome token, which was very nice. I made stuffed figs last night as a sort of appetizer (thank you, GPs in New York). They were huge, but also really tasty. Below are some pictures I've taken here. No news other than that, but be assured I'm having a great time. Have a good one!
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| Grapes, from the vineyard. |
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| More grapes from the vineyard, right after it rained. |
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| Even more grapes. |
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| Figs: pre-baked. |
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| Figs: post-baked. |
