The First Week

I've been in Germany for about a week now. Last Friday, myself and 76 other American exchange students took of from DC and we landed in Frankfurt early Saturday morning. That was such a crazy "day" for me, as it started at 7:30am Friday morning and I didn't go to bed again until 1am Sunday morning. Our Flight lasted eight hours. I met my host mom and sister (Nina) at the airport and we drove to my new home in Wetzlar.

Needless to say, I don't look so good after being on a plane for eight hours,
but this is the first photo of me and my host family.

I remember being so tired that I felt like a zombie. Despite that, Nina and I seemed to have hit it off. At the time, I wanted nothing more than to sleep forever, but then Nina told me about a party that she and I had been invited to that evening. Not wanting to miss my first German party, I decide to suck it up and go. I was already teetering from lack of sleep, might as well add alcohol to the situation, right?
That night, I was introduced to a ton of people, but I can't remember any of their names and I didn't understand any of the conversations because everything was in German. Luckily, the people were nice to me and I had a good time. Also, I learned a few new words in German by playing drinking games.

On Monday I started my German lessons. The classes are Monday-Friday 9am-1pm. There are four Americans in the class (me and three boys) and also a girl from Hong Kong, a girl from Turkey, a girl from Venezuela, and a girl from Argentina. Everyday I ride the bus from Wetzlar to Geißen with Taisy (from Hong Kong) and Hazal (from Turkey). It was a shock on the first day to find out the classes are mostly taught in German. I'm really struggling; learning a language from immersion is extremely difficult. I have two more weeks of these lessons. I hope that something magical happens and I'm suddenly able to speak German because right now things are going very slowly. A couple times people who are unaware that I don't speak German have said something to me and I'll just stare at them wide-eyed and be like "Uhhh... umm... keine Deutsch."

On Wednesday my host family took me to see a hand ball game in Mannheim. It was wicked awesome.  Before we went to the arena we spent sometime shopping in the city of Mannheim. We had VIP tickets which basically meant that we had pretty good seats and before the game we got to hang out in this room with free food and such. Prior to the game I had one of the other exchange students explain the rules of handball to me so I pretty much understood what was happening the whole time. I encourage everyone to checkout handball because it's a fun sport. The team we were rooting for were "die Löwen" or the Lions, and they won! Whoo hoo! It was a really fun evening and a great way to spend time with my host family.

All in all, things have been pretty great. My host family is fantastic. They are so nice and friendly and eager to teach me German. I love the flat that Nina and I share, it's above their butchery and connected to the family's home. I like living in a city; I was nervous riding the bus alone for the first time but now I really enjoy it. I think that this is going to be a great year. Now, if I could only speak German...